Comic Book Bouquets and Dracula Paper Flowers

Bethany and Daniel. What. A. Couple. We met them at last year's Eclectic Wedding Extravaganza (more on that below) and as soon as they emailed us, we just knew we had to be a part of their day. They sign off their emails with Keep on Rockin', who wouldn't want to work with them!

Polaroid Frame by Strange Case Collective - available to buy here.

Photography by All Elements Photography

It's no secret that we love our couples. They are so much fun, come to us with the best ideas and ask us to bring them to life. We have the best job ever. We really do. That's why we were over the moon to hear from Bethany and Daniel. They wanted us to create three paper bouquets for their bridesmaids made entirely from their favourite comic books and two paper flower buttonholes made from Dracula. Yep, they are awesome.

We instantly said yes and couldn't wait for the day our comics arrived to get cracking. They sent us damaged copies of Batman, Iron Man and (Sophie's childhood favourite) The Beano. We absolutely love that each bridesmaid not only chose the comic, but would be walking down the aisle with something completely personal to them. It also meant they could keep them forever and have something unique to remind them of the day.


We were over the moon when Bethany and Daniel's photographers All Elements Photography sent us over this photo of the bridesmaids opening them. I don't think we'll ever get over the feeling of seeing someone so happy at receiving our work. It really is the best.

Beano comic book bouquet by Strange Case Collective

Dark Knight comic book bouquet by Strange Case Collective

Iron Man comic book bouquet by Strange Case Collective

Photography by All Elements Photography

Paper flower buttonhole's made from a recycled Dracula book.

Paper flower buttonhole made from Dracula. Photography by All Elements Photography

Paper flower buttonhole made from Dracula. Photography by All Elements Photography

We love that we met Bethany and Daniel via the fantastic Eclectic Wedding Extravaganza. It is one of our favourite wedding fairs and full to the brim of creative, unusual and quirky wedding suppliers. For £3 a ticket you are guaranteed to come away with a brain full of awesome inspiration and meet some of the best suppliers in the UK. This year they are having two shows! One in Birmingham on the 1st February (that's where you will find us!) and a brand new show in London on 1st March. To find out more information head over to their website!

If you would like to order a paper flower bouquet our prices start from £85.00. To arrange a free consultation, via Skype or in person, simply get in touch and we can take it from there! 

To see more examples of our paper flowers head over to our website or Facebook page to see a full album.

E: info@strangecasecollective.com

www.strangecasecollective.com/weddings

www.facebook.com/strangecasecollective

www.twitter.com/strangecasec

www.instagram.com/strangecasec

Kiki and Ben - Travel Themed Wedding Stationery

This month we created a range of wedding stationery and favours for Kiki and Ben. Kiki and Ben met whilst travelling the world and planned to get married in October in Liverpool, Ben's home town.

With a love for travel and with guests coming from allover, (Kiki's family were flying over from China especially!) they really wanted their love of travel to reflect in the stationery. 

We set to work creating a range of order of service, favours, table plan and letter box for them. All with a theme that tied together.

Order Of Service

Brown twine, airmail inspired design, personalised travel stamps and pretty ribbons.

Favour Badges

With a lot of the guests travelling from allover the world, we thought it would be a great idea to make each favour a personalised name badge. This helped to break the ice and acted as a perfect introduction opportunity for all the guests. On a custom designed luggage tag and phrase picked by the couple, we couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

Letter Box

Covered in decoupage map paper, the same design throughout the whole range and matching order of service design.

Table Plan

Last, but not least, one of our favourite wedding table plans to date. A world map with all the guests seated at different tables. We adored putting this whole range together. The look on Ben's Mum Lorraine's face when we dropped it all off, is something we'll never forget. She was over the moon.

This whole travel range is available to buy and can be fully customised to fit in with your big day. If you love it as as much as we do, please let us know. You can get in touch with us in many ways, all at the bottom of this blog post.

At Strange Case Collective all of our wedding stationery is personally designed for you. Whether you would like something hand illustrated, or graphics based, within our team we can create the perfect design for your big day. From invites, to order of service, right through to thank you cards, there is nothing we can't create.

If you would like to arrange a free consultation, via Skype or in person, simply get in touch and we can take it from there!

E: info@strangecasecollective.com 

www.strangecasecollective.com/weddings

www.facebook.com/strangecasecollective

www.twitter.com/strangecasec

www.instagram.com/strangecasec

Hand drawn typography and fancy florals.

Faye and David. Part One. 

Wednesday. One of our favourite days of the week, as alongside the rest of the wedding industry we celebrate all things wedding and get involved in #weddingwednesday. It has to be one of our favourite hashtags... yes we have favourites. 

We thought that this WW, we would formally introduce you to our fabulous illustrator Jen. Jen is our go to for all things hand drawn, pretty and a little bit different. She has created some fantastic invitations for us in the year she has worked with us and the design she came up with for #SCCbride Faye and her now husband David, is our one of our absolute favourites to date. 

Faye and David are such a fantastic couple and close to our hearts. They were the first people who ever got in touch with us over eighteen months ago about wedding stationery. They happened to be walking past Studio 2 in Liverpool, just as the wedding party of our first couple Karen and Lee was taking place. After recognising her from the pages of Rock My Wedding, Faye got in touch the next day and we've been in contact ever since. We are so lucky to be able to not only be a part of the big day of our couples, but become friends with them too. So now we will hand over the blog to Jen, who better to talk you through the design!

I’ve been part of team Strange Case now for a just over a year now and every project I’ve worked on so far has been super exciting. I have to say though that to date this was probably the best yet! The style of Faye and David’s invitation set were right up my street with playful florals and the opportunity to include a hand drawn map. Something I had been dying to do for a while. After Sophie and Laura met with Faye and heard all of her fantastic ideas I couldnt wait to get started. We always ask our clients to create a pinterest board of inspiration and as soon as I saw Faye's ideas, I knew this was going to be a fantastic project.

I created a main invitation that opened up to reveal a little hand drawn map, which was great fun to create. This project really excited me as I had the opportunity to hand draw all of the text. I always prefer to hand draw my text because it seems much more personal; any excuse to get my ink and brushes out! Coming up with a logo specifically for the couple was a real highlight. I really wanted to ensure their initials all linked together and the wildflowers around the outside took inspiration from Faye's bouquet. 

The RSVP was a double sided postcard style which allowed guests to quickly stick on a stamp and post their replies back to the couple. Adding the option to leave a message for Faye and David was a lovely touch and meant the couple had something nice to read with every reply they got. Up next was designing the order of service. Now that we had the initial design in place, it just needed some tweaking with the addition of two larger ribbons with church detail and date, plus the sweetest quote on the back. I think Sophie may have got a little teary when she read it, as it is so lovely. She does cry at most things though...

Photography by Navyblur

One of the best parts about designing order of service, is getting to see them in use on the big day. It is something that never gets old and fills us with pride. Huge thank you to Navyblur Photography for sending us the beautiful photos of Faye and David using them in the church. Don't they look fantastic!

Photography by Navyblur

Photography by Navyblur

Up next was a set of thank you cards. We received an email from Faye just after the wedding and it simply stated;

"Help, I'm addicted to my wedding stationery and I need more."

Of course, we absolutely jumped at the chance to 1. Be back in touch with Faye and 2. Get their wedding stationery back on our computer screens. So I set to work adding another little ribbon to the invitation with the words thank you.

Knowing that Faye and David adored our design so much they wanted it to play such a part throughout their wedding really means the world to us. We even got to create something rather special for them that also featured in their wedding reception too. However,  you'll have to wait for part two to read all about that. Be sure to head back to our blog on Friday to read about what we made.

If you loved Faye and David's wedding stationery as much as we did, do let us know. At Strange Case Collective all of our wedding stationery is personally designed for you. No other couple will ever have the same and it will be completely unique. Whether you would like something hand illustrated, or graphics based, within our team we can create the perfect design for your big day. From invites, to order of service, right through to thank you cards, there is nothing we can't create.

If you would like to arrange a free consultation, via Skype or in person, simply get in touch and we can take it from there!

E: info@strangecasecollective.com 

www.strangecasecollective.com/weddings

www.facebook.com/strangecasecollective

www.twitter.com/strangecasec

www.instagram.com/strangecasec

Altru Young Actors - Missing?

For the past three years that Strange Case has been running, we have worked alongside Altru Drama. A fantastic creative education organisation, specialising in using drama to build confidence and deliver skills. We love nothing more than working with them and especially coming up with designs for the many shows they create.

They run a range of youth theatres throughout Knowsley and their latest project involves the Altru Young Actors Company. A group of actors aged 16-21 who create new and innovative theatre. When an email arrived in our inbox last month from Katrina, young actor and producer, asking if we'd like to be involved in their latest project 'Missing?', we jumped at the chance.

The play has been completely written and devised by the actors and after reading the script we can confirm it is fantastic. Whenever we work with Altru one of the main elements the actors like to include, is getting involved in the design process. We absolutely love it. Our first experience with this was for Narnia three years ago and seeing how far the actors have come is fantastic.

As the play hasn't happened yet, we don't want to give too much away but we couldn't resist sharing a little behind the scenes of our set design workshop that took place on Saturday... but first, a little more information about 'Missing?'.
“What happens when someone goes missing? Is it fair? Is it ever someone’s fault? What happens in that moment when a person finally decides to leave – and you never get a chance to say goodbye?”

Altru Young Actors Company present a newly devised performance, which explores what it means to be missing and how it can affect us all. In a moving, funny and intimate piece of theatre, characters and stories are interwoven as the play asks ‘Aren’t we all a little bit missing?’
Details on how to buy tickets and when it is showing are at the bottom of our post.































To see what all the creating was in aid of... come along to one of the shows. You won't be disappointed, they are a fantastic group of young actors!

Missing?
Wednesday 8th, Thursday 9th, Friday 10th October 2014
7:30pm
Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
Tickets - £5 / £4

Call or email for tickets: 0151 702 5324 | info@thebluecoat.org.uk
Or buy online: https://uk.patronbase.com/_BC/Productions/26G/Performances

Thursday’s performance is followed by a Question & Answer session.

If you would like to enquire about booking us for a set design workshop, simply drop us an email. We love nothing more than passing our skills on to young people.

The Merseyside Recovery Awards

Earlier this year, we received an email from The Brink. A dry bar in Liverpool who we have worked with on many occasions. The Brink do amazing things for recovery in Liverpool and we adore working with them. We have dressed the venue a number of times before and love the quirky features and industrial theme throughout. Two particular highlights were dressing it for the visit of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge and for The Recovery Awards in 2012.

We were over the moon when an email arrived from Jen, asking if we could come in and style the 2014 Recovery Awards too.

The Recovery Awards are organised by The Brink and Action on Addiction. Merseyside has previously been known for its drinking and drug culture, poor health, and unemployment. Over recent years there has been a massive change in the way in which drug and alcohol problems are addressed, and this has led to a recovery revolution in the area. The Merseyside Recovery Awards are a way to recognise and to honour the people of Liverpool, Wirral, Knowsley and Sefton who have made this happen.

We absolutely jumped at the chance to get involved again and set to work creating a mood board. Brink wanted to incorporate colours from The Recovery Awards logo and wanted something that would tie in with the industrial surroundings. We knew straight away that geometrics (our latest obsession) would be perfect for the event and set to work creating a mood board for the team at The Brink to look over.

They loved the ideas we came up with so off we set creating a LOT of geometric shapes. We had every shape being hand cut, folded, constructed and wired you can imagine just how long it took creating hundreds of them. Luckily we had some help in the form of Hayley. Hayley is super creative and always on hand to come in and assist us if we need the extra hands. You may remember her from her 21st Birthday. We styled it last year and the blog all about it is our most popular on the blog!

Once we had created the hundreds of shapes, in lovely shades of purple, grey, blue and added glitter we head over to The Brink and set up in time for the event. However... when we arrived we were presented with a familiar problem. Only being 5ft4... even up a ladder we still couldn't reach some of the high areas of the venue. One phone call later and help arrived in the form of over 6ft Jared of Design Juices, Hayley's brother.

Jared was over the moon to become a Strange Case assistant for the day ;) 

We created 10 segments of smaller hanging geometric shapes and hung them around the outside of the venue.  They were all suspended at different heights with fishing wire to give an illusion of floating.

With the event also including a meal, we wanted to include some form of table centrepiece. We thought a great way to do this would be to suspend giant clusters of geometrics above each main table. The upside down hanging flowers were perfect to hang from. When the glitter caught the light and flashed light across the room, it looked fantastic

We absolutely adored working on this project. Anything that involves glitter is always a winner for us and if we get to embrace our love of geometric shapes then we are doubly happy. Huge thank you to Robin Clewley Photography for sending us over some photos of the event. We adore Robin's work, so were over the moon to find out he was photographing the event.

If you would like to hire us to style an event you have coming up, drop us an email! Especially if it involves geometric shapes. We love them!

Photography by Robin Clewley Photography

Photography by Robin Clewley Photography

Photography by Robin Clewley Photography

Photography by Robin Clewley Photography

Photography by Robin Clewley Photography

Photography by Robin Clewley Photography