Personal Paperie: A Griffin family crest
Hope you all had a fabulous Labor Day weekend! We took the little guy with us to Cashiers, NC for the day on Saturday and enjoyed some lake time and played with friends the rest of our long weekend. I’ve slowly gotten back into the swing of things after our long weekend, and am now heading to Hilton Head to visit my sister Abbye!
If you all weren’t able to see this year’s showhouse in Cashiers, you really missed something special! James‘ room was extraordinary!
Back to the reason for this post: I wanted to share the details behind the paper suite that was part of the rehearsal dinner I recently helped design.
The groom is my husband’s first cousin, and we all share our last name – Griffin. In Greek mythology, a griffin was part lion and part eagle. This creature is the centerpiece of our family crest. Years ago, my husband’s and the groom’s grandmother created the family crest in needlepoint. From this depiction, I hand-painted the crest in watercolor, along with a few other small paintings of the shield and the flowers.
My friend Lauren Cook of Parkway Press translated the watercolors into our fabulous paper suite for the event. Here’s the invitation:
The crest is centered on the Griffin in the middle of the shield, surrounded by a knight’s head, flourishes, and flowers.
The watercolor daisies were printed onto the place cards for each person attending the dinner.
The menu was amazing! The shield topped the description of the night’s courses.
A close up of the shield also was printed with the table numbers, directing the attendees where to sit.
In keeping with the black and white color scheme, black and white paper straws and cocktail napkins were used for the night’s signature cocktail.
In designing and constructing the seating charts, I kept the colors of the night in mind. Black boards were decorated in marigold and white striped papers with hand written names in gold metallic.
It was a lovely night, and the personalized paper goods made it so very special!
