I love a good love story, and I also love weddings, so I was quite pleased and excited to work on a couple of very special projects recently that helped one couple from two continents celebrate their happy day.

It all started several months ago when I was contacted by groom-to-be James, asking if I could work on some illustrations for his wedding stationery. He was from the UK, while his bride Meg hails from Australia, so they were planning to first have a wedding on the beach in Sydney, and then celebrate again in winter with a reception in the UK. The groom’s vision was to use illustrations of animals from both countries to bring their invitations to life and help convey their unique story.

While I don’t often work on commissions for individuals, I couldn’t pass up such a fun and romantic idea! I worked with James to create colorful illustrations of a kookaburra and a kangaroo to represent Australia, and a robin and a squirrel to represent the UK. I also drew little portraits of the bride and groom, surrounded by greenery from their respective countries. Then James took all of the illustrations and applied them to their save-the-dates and wedding invitations. It was so fun to work on, and James was a dream to work with! Here’s a look at how those illustrations turned out:

Imagine my surprise then when I was contacted several months later by James’s twin brother, Tom! He had a project that was just as irresistible: his whole family wanted to commission a map as a wedding gift for the couple, one that told the story of how James and Meg fell in love, traveled the world together, and finally settled down in Australia! Tom supplied me with the entire story of their journey and lots of great reference photos to go with it. I used all of that to create a unique map that showed all the places the couple had been, with numbers showing the order in which everything happened, and even a few Indiana-Jones-inspired vintage airplanes buzzing back and forth from location to location. When it was all done, I had it printed on archival canvas and Tom took it with him to the wedding in Sydney. Here’s the final product! (You can click on the image to see it larger)

These were both such fun projects, and it was a great new challenge to create such a detailed map including likenesses of the actual folks involved. I’m so grateful to James, Meg, Tom and their whole family for giving me the opportunity to get to know their wonderful love story, and to be a part of the wedding celebrations via my illustrations! I wish them all a very happy happily ever after.