Venue Line Illustrations: The Perfect Touch for Your Wedding Invitations
One of my favourite invitation styles—and consistently one of the most popular at wedding fairs—is the design featuring detailed line illustrations of the couple’s beautiful wedding venues.
Take, for example, this design for a couple celebrating their day across two stunning locations: Nymans Gardens and Gildings Barn. This style of illustration is a truly exceptional choice, and here's why it's so popular:
Adaptable Style, Your Personal Touch
The beauty of a classic line illustration is its incredible versatility.
Colour Pairing: You can effortlessly pair it with any colour that ties into your wedding scheme. This can be achieved through a matching envelope, applying a colour overlay to the illustration itself, or adding pops of your accent colour in other design elements.
Classic Appeal: This classic, monochrome style truly goes with everything, ensuring your invitations feel timeless and elegant.
Multiple Venues: If your day spans two or more locations, this style ensures they can all be drawn in a cohesive, matching aesthetic, keeping your stationery suite unified.
Showcasing Your Special Place
There's always a reason why a couple chooses their venue—a specific magic, a breathtaking view, or a special detail.
Venue illustrations are a wonderful way to showcase your beautiful wedding location right from the start. It gives your guests a lovely preview of where they will be celebrating with you, building excitement for the day to come.
A Perfect Starting Point for Design
I often work with couples who are initially unsure what to feature on their invitations. Venue illustration offers a brilliant foundation.
This style provides a clear visual anchor, giving couples endless options for what they can add or include in their on-the-day stationery (menus, order of service, place cards). It creates a cohesive theme without the need for a huge design departure later on, keeping your wedding stationery looking perfectly unified.
My Process for Venue Illustrations
Creating the illustration is a meticulous, step-by-step process to ensure a perfect likeness that truly captures the spirit of the venue:
Scale and Sketching: I start by carefully studying the size, scale, and key architectural details of the building to ensure I capture a strong likeness. I want the final view to showcase your favourite features. I then sketch out the details in pencil.
Couple Approval: At this stage, I always share the pencil progress with the couple. This ensures they are happy with the composition and allows for any initial changes or tweaks they may want.
Inking the Details: I begin inking, generally starting with a harder, thicker outline for core structures like the roof and the sides of the building to get them "locked in." I then work my way down to the finer details, often decreasing the size of the pen nib as I work smaller and smaller to add texture and depth.
Scanning and Finalising: Once I’m happy with the drawing, I scan the illustration, clean up the digital file, and prepare it for use. It's then ready to be incorporated into the invitation design, either in the simple black and white I drew it in or with a colour overlay added to perfectly match your wedding palette and design information.
A line illustration of your venue is more than just a drawing; it's a piece of art that makes your invitation truly unique and personal. To find out more about my designs or enquire about commissioning your own, visit my Contact page to submit an enquiry.