This map of San Miguel de Allende was a true labor of love. So many beautiful illustrations with such detail to capture. This couple, Gaby + Mitch, had a lively, cultural, detailed and gorgeous vision when they came to me for their stationery and I was immediately inspired.

The questionnaire form I sent to Gaby + Mitch provided so much insight and personality into my ideas. One clip from the questionnaire responses was: “We have two venues in San Miguel de Allende-- a beautiful house called Casa Cariño with amazing views of the city, where we'll do the ceremony, and Sierra Nevada Casa del Parque, which is a small hotel with a large green space, where we'll host a tented reception. We want a more formal, upscale feel for the wedding itself-- black tie optional, but without feeling overly stuffy. We want great food, lots of lights, lots of flowers (whites, greens, pops of orange or blue), and for it to feel like a romantic, intimate dinner, especially since all of our favorite people are traveling to be with us for a long weekend! I also want it to feel really personal with little nods to our relationship, and focused on our love. For other events (welcome party and rehearsal dinner), we want a more Mexican flair-- bright colors, Mexican textiles, colorful dishware, tacos, tequila, etc! We are also going to do a parade through the city the day of the rehearsal dinner with mariachi, large puppets that look like us, a donkey, etc. We'd love to have some of these elements, and the beautiful church in San Miguel, in our invites.” This paragraph painted such an image in my mind, and San Miguel certainly helps with that. It’s such a picturesque city, I would LOVE to go one day. Maybe I’ll crash this wedding… ;)

Along with that gorgeous visual and organized plan [I was super impressed!] there was more! This part really made a mark on me and I wanted to be sure to keep it at the forefront of my designs. Gaby told me when she was in high school her mother and sister passed away. In her engagement ring, “Mitch added some really special touches to the ring-- my mom's diamond and a small orange stone on the inside of the ring, because orange was my sister's favorite color.” I was clear how important orange was to them and for their wedding, so I made sure to include it in every way I could.

As always, every aspect of this map was painted by hand, including all the lettering. The original paintings I create for each couple I work with are how I make sure to truly customize each couples stationery so they have a creative, artistic and therefore exciting, one of a kind experience with me.

Below are some photos of the individual paintings before they were combined digitally to create this gorgeous map!

Interested in working together on your own wedding map? Inquire here!