Creative couple Monica and Nick* knew exactly what their wedding invitation should look like. Their e-mail to me was precise, including images to use as well as how to lay it out.
They specifically requested these black silhouetted birds, patterned damask, and grungy typewriter font:

They also requested a color scheme—red, black, and white—and a vertical, fold-over flap in front.
Initially, this made me nervous. How was I going to take these almost-Halloweeny elements and make them elegant? Furthermore, how was I going to make them relevant?
I started out with these six drafts. Some excluded damask from the front cover, while others excluded the birds. In some drafts I changed the flock of birds to a couple of birds, hoping to convince them that the “lovebird” theme made a lot more sense. That’s when it hit me: Monica and Nick could be the couple who found each other among the flock of birds. The flock of birds could, in fact, be relevant! And not just relevant, but unexpected too! The bottom left draft came out of that epiphany:

They really liked the direction I was going and asked me to continue on. The only new request they had was to scrap the red, black, and white color scheme and try Tiffany blue instead. I came up with this draft, using a tone-on-tone blue which softened the pointy edges of the damask and, really, softened the whole design. This shows the front cover with the flap closed, and then opened:

After getting a thumbs-up, I continued work on the inside:

They loved it but wanted to see a couple more color ideas. And since I was still feeling apprehensive about the grungy typewriter font, I replaced that, too:

We were almost done, since at this point we were able to take elements from old drafts and put them together to complete the design. They loved the Tiffany blue and still wanted the grungy typewriter font, but now they were interested in having two red birds on the inside.
I was also able to convince them to change the inside quote to say something about birds, which made the whole concept even more relevant.
Here’s the final design (drumroll, please!):

*Names will always be changed.