I am often a creature of habit. I enjoy doing designs that suit my taste and my style. However, everybody is unique and I think that is the part I love the most about the design industry – the diversity of clients. For this wedding, the couple were Indian. The wedding was a two day event, that started off with a Moroccan inspired evening event. I loved designing the stationery for this event, all around a Moroccan theme. I was overwhelmed with all the beauty and detail that I found in the reference pictures of Moroccan design elements, for my stationery. The next event was the Black Tie Wedding, which was the next day. For this event, the style was slightly more contemporary and floral as opposed to the traditional Moroccan stationery on the evening before. I used a really beautiful and delicate script typeface to bring across the detail of a traditional Indian wedding, but also the elegance in its thin letterforms. The bride’s palette for this wedding was a soft ballet pink, gold and white which really tied in as a whole with the flowers and other decor at the wedding. I really enjoyed designing in a different style in contrast to my own and learning about weddings in different cultures.

Impress your guests with your ability to make stunning design decisions by letterpressing or foiling on a matte paper. With this option, drama and elegance is created with the texture of the pressed paper and the contrast between the colour you choose and the card. It is slightly pricier than the other options, but we guarantee it is worth every penny!

Lasercutting your wording out of black card is a stunning and unique way to go as well! This style creates the illusion of your invitation being three dimensional by using the depth of field your guest will see between the card and its background. This is also a excellent way to give your design an edgy feeling without it being scruffy and chaotic!

If you’re looking for the letterpressed look but your wallet is looking to pack its coins and immigrate to a remote island where it can’t be bothered by your relentless spending habits, full ink coverage is the way to go! With this we fill the card with digitally printed black ink, leaving your wording to be the natural colour of whichever paper you choose, and there are LOADS to choose from! This way you are left with a budget that may allow you to add a laser cut design such as the one featured above!

If you’re not brave enough to jump into the deep end and incorporate as much of such a dark shade into your order, detailed laser cut embellishments can be used to compliment an invitation designed on a much lighter paper!

This just goes to show that there is ALWAYS something for everyone. We urge you to now go out into the world unafraid and excited to add this deep and luxurious colour to your big day!

Know What You Want

The more reference images, the better! Nothing makes a designer happier than getting an email filled with ALL the ideas you have. This helps us learn what style you lean towards, making it easier to get it right the first time! There’s no such thing as too many reference pictures.

Have Your Wording Ready

We are more than willing to help you out with your wording as we certainly have enough experience with it, but if you’d like more of a personal touch, whip up a rough draft of what you’d like to say and send it over the day you place your order! This means we can get started on your design immediately, cutting your waiting time tremendously shorter!

Use Edit-Friendly Software

We believe we can do anything we set our minds to here at Secret Diary, but we are unfortunately human beings and with that comes the chance for human error. Be a darling and send your wording in a format such as Microsoft Word or Exel so that we can simply copy and paste it all in order to avoid spelling mistakes. This means that we will save time on the back and forth of correcting silly faults!
And there you have it! With these swift steps taken we can have your order ready for your big day in no time at all! And always remember, through all the stress, your wedding day and the time leading up to it should be a pleasant experience. So let your hair down and have some fun!

POSITION 1: Admin assistant / Front of house

We are ideally wanting a very well groomed, meticulous detail driven young lady who fits our brand identity to represent us front of house as well as fulfil some very integral admin roles within our studio.

Min requirements for this position:

• Very organised and meticulous
• Neat and presentable
• Strong admin skills
• Great telephone manner
• Bubbly and friendly
• Works well under pressure
• Ability to multi task
• Able to work overtime from time to time (bearing in mind that we are in peak season at the moment)
• Between the ages of 21 and 30
• Non smoker
• Valid drivers license and own transport

*This position is not suited for designers or any candidates hoping to become a designer within Secret Diary. Its a strong admin intensive role which requires a candidate thats passionate about admin and that loves being surrounded by beautiful products and designs.

POSITION 2: Junior designer / Laser cutting machine operator

We are ideally wanting a junior designer to run our laser cutting department. This will entail the running and upkeep of our 2 machines on a daily basis, as well as some creative laser cutting product development and design from time to time. Intensive training will be provided for this position.

Min requirements for this position:

• A good working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator (training is not provided for this, this is a must have)
• Previous knowledge of how a laser cutter is run will be to your advantage but isn’t a must.
• Works well under pressure
• Deadline driven
• Able to work overtime from time to time (bearing in mind that we are in peak season at the moment)
• Between the ages of 21 and 30
• Non smoker
• Valid drivers license and own transport

Please URGENTLY email us your CV and portfolio to carla@secretdiary.co.za (portfolio only needed for the design position).

As a studio we are able to laser cut through most materials from paper, perspex, vinyl, heavy cardstocks to wood and soft metals. So in other words – the sky is the limit!

Have your guests names or words of love and inspiration cut out of perspex or wood or bring a stark venue to life through laser cut vinyls of an image of choice stuck up on the walls.

We also have a lovely range of perspex table numbers to hire in clear, mirror or black perspex. Alternatively have your own made up in the font style and colour of your choice!

We will be launching a whole new range of laser cut patterns to choose from soon, so watch this space! In the mean time please contact our studio to bring your laser cut dreams to life on (021) 981 9682  or info@secretdiary.

Love

The Secret Diary team

x

For more info please contact out studio as we would love to hear from you and have a chat about your wedding or event stationery!

Please note our studio is open Monday to Friday 9:00 to 18:30 & Saturday 9:30 to 15:00 by appointment

We still need to complete the Galleries. We have added many of the pictures from the photo shoot, but are still busy photo-shopping the remaining pictures.

Social Media has been a big focus point. You can click the relevant social media links on the navigation bar at the top of the page and a message will automatically be posted to your twitter page or facebook wall. This functionality is very exciting, and does allow us to interact with our clients in a a whole new way.

A massive task is migrating our pdf catalogues to the website. We are still busy with this and should be finished by the end of the month. In the interim we are still supplying our clients with our pdf catalogues but by the end of the month these catalogues will be easily accessed via an online page.

Please let us know what you think of the site and if you have any recommendations on how we can improve.