The Key to Our Invitation Design

We're now about six months away from the wedding; I really want to (and need to) get serious about our invitation design soon, but I have just been so stuck. Perhaps I put too much pressure on myself, but I want to come up with something that is more than just a pretty design. I want it to tell a story.

The response to our save the dates has been wonderful, and I know that people are expecting something equally spectacular for our invitations, given my line of work. Actually, it's not the other people I'm trying to please, so much as I don't want to disappoint myself. I love what I do for a living and now I have the perfect opportunity to put my expertise to use to create something that truly represents Mr. Cupcake and me.

I love Miss Lovebug's "Sweetest Type of Love" theme and Miss Penguins adorable birds that grace her invitations. I have been keeping my "vintage charm meets modern whimsy" vision in the back of my mind throughout the wedding planning process, and I think this will be evident in our cut glass candle holders, my dress, and the bridesmaid's dresses. But I haven't been able to come up with an image or motif that will really tie everything together, one that could be used on our invitations, menus, favors, and all the other paper madness I plan to bury myself under. I toyed with the idea of using vintage buttons, which I might still incorporate somewhere, but there are only so many places I can use buttons, and I am not sure that the image of buttons translates well to an invitation design. And I don't think I can afford hundreds and hundreds of real vintage buttons to place on everything imaginable.

But today, I think I found what I've been looking for.

Thanks to fellow Philadelphian Joy of the Oh Joy! blog, I came across this today:

Image from Oh Joy!

Vintage keys. Yes! They're vintage (duh), they're pretty, they have that whole "key to my heart" undertone. They are comprised of some interesting shapes that could lend themselves to some really beautiful design that wouldn't get stale from piece to piece. And I think I can make them work without being cheesy or too "key to my heart."


Thoughts? Opinions? (Kind) words of disdain? ;-) Let me hear it!