an international affair: from portland, oregon to tokyo, japan to northern ireland for justin & naoko

it was such a privilege to make these programs for justin & naoko’s wedding in JAPAN! these friends of mine live in japan but got married in northern, ireland. and i made these special pieces for them from portland, oregon. it was truly an international affair. wow! it was such an honor to make these colorful pieces for you two, justin & naoko - thank you for letting me be a part of your special day.

like with all my custom wedding projects, i wrote justin & naoko’s name out in my custom modern calligraphy for these day-of programs. it is always fun to see how a couple’s name works together. i loved how justin & naoko’s worked, with the J overlapping the N, i think their names look great together.

the piece featured a timeline of their days, so their special guests knew what was ahead for them. a truly magical day!

justin wanted that splash of color behind, and just from the bottom photo you can see how well the piece worked with the florals that they chose. i usually don’t work with bright or bold colors, so it was fun to step out of my comfort zone & see how well it came out together. i made each of those watercolor splotches on paper, scanned them in (that’s where you that lovely texture) and then photoshopped them together to look more cohesive.

for my process, i try to work as much as possible in digital in a way that’s still time efficient, haha. for me, it’s easier to work physically and paint something out on paper & then scan it in to work together. the only downside is that i don’t have a lot of finished physical pieces since i put them together on the computer. seeing a project on completely on paper, from start to finish, is something that i want to try to start to get into this year & maybe dip my toes in to fine art! stay tuned.

but, for me i am just more comfortable in handmade mediums. i just got an ipad this past year & am still taking a liking to it. it is nice to work on things on the go, but i always try to use my analog tools if possible. part of my process that i love!

i loved making this custom day-of wedding piece with my unique, modern calligraphy for my special friends! cheers to them.

xo, rachel