We thought it would be great to feature our cat, Zulay, on our wedding invitations, because she can't be present at the wedding. This way we can make her part of it somehow, because, well, she is our baby.
I asked Ork, a friend of ours, who will also be photographing our wedding, to do the cat photo shoot. He was very onboard for a kitteh photo shoot! However, a photo shoot with a cat is NOT an easy thing to do… Even though our Zulay is quite a docile cat, of course she hardly did anything we wanted her to do!
I had sewn a heart-shaped pillow and let her get used to it in the weeks before the shoot. She slept on it regularly, but during the shoot she refused to lie on it. She only stood on it to munch the snack we had put there to lure her into getting on it. Oh well.
We wanted to shoot a photo of Zulay under a tiny DIY “wedding arch” but it made her too nervous. So Plan B was to first take a picture of the basket with the arch, then a picture of the cat in the basket without the arch, and to photoshop the two together later. But Zulay turned out to be a star at looking cranky and annoyed.
She also showed a great “WTF” attitude when I added other props.
Finally, we ended up just holding the arch still, with a hand that was to be photoshopped out of the picture later.
My vintage DIY invitations
"We designed our invitations to look like a packet of items you might find in your grandmother's attic. Here's what we did..."
We also tried taking some pictures of us and the cat together.
But turned necks don't look very pretty.
And our dear kitteh does have some very sharp nails. 🙂
The only set-up that worked out exactly as planned was the cake eating shot. Zulay is fond of whipped cream, so I went to the confectioner to get a look-a-like wedding cake piece. He had only one that resembled wedding cake, but it had a hard cream on top of it.
So I explained to the confectioner that I wanted to photograph my cat eating from this cake, and asked whether he could add some whipped cream. He first looked at me with great surprise and I was afraid I had offended him by suggesting to waste his creation on an animal… but then he (and the other customers present) had a good laugh about it and he changed the whole decoration on top for free, provided that I would e-mail him the pictures we made!
And indeed — Zulay did not hesitate a moment when we put the cake in front of her:
Eventually we just let Zulay be for some time, and she settled on her favorite spot on the couch. Then we placed a white bouquet (that I had picked up at the florist for a couple of euros) next to her. Amazingly, she let that all happen and we got several really pretty photographs out of it! This is the one we eventually picked for the invitation:
This is how they finally turned out:
Too cute! I especially like the shot with the tiny bride & groom. I envision that as a monster movie poster entitled “The Kitteh That Ate Mah Wedding!!!”
The back of the invite with the kitty eating cake really makes it. The front is nice and classy, the inside graphically appealing, but then the back brings back a note of humor.
a-freaking-dorable!
love that you put the cake photo on back of your invitations.
well done!
sooo cute….I die! That is all.
Zulay looks just like our cat, Ned… from the markings right down to the WTF expression in every photo. 🙂 Fun idea!!!!
*omgomgomg* I am seriously resisting squealing out loud at work..this is so cute!
Is it weird that I actually love the one of the cat looking up at the arch? Even without seeing her face it’s such a perfect “WTF are you doing and why are you doing it?” pose.
Also cats always look disaproving in photos. You’re doing something so they need to disaprove of it.
Treats honey. That’s all you need. xD.
The invits are beautiful!
That is one million times adorbs. I don’t think my kitty would participate at all. XD
Gorgeous! Love it, love it, looooooooove it!!
I have to chuckle to myself everytime I think about last years effort – we included out chickens in the cat and people christmas photo. I kind of want to get a llama just so he can be in our christmas photo next year. perhaps I could borrow one…but then it wouldn’t be a family photo would it?
That is sooooo fantastic. I love that it has the little cake picture on the back. We take photos with our cats every year for Christmas cards and it is SO DIFFICULT to get them to cooperate.
These are AMAZING.
what an awesome unique idea! your cat is freaken ADORABLE!!
Loooooooooooooove this!
This is really funny, especially the part about the cat looking pissed no matter what!
As someone who attempted (and mega-FAILed) at taking a Holiday photo with my cat last year, I really appreciate this post. The invitations turned out brilliantly and the post had me cracking up.
“I can has wedding cake?”
Kitteh squee! Your invites are FTW!
Awwwwww!!! It’s too late in the wedding planning process for me to steal this idea, but oh, how I wish I could! LOVE IT! Not sure if my cat would have been as funny about it. Thanks for the robust laughs! Happy wedding to you!
This is just too adorable!!
Love love love this! Especially the photo with the cake on the back. It totally looks like he’s sneaking a bit of cake while no ones watching -I love it!
My FH and I adore our fur baby, Mo. This totally gives me some awesome ideas for our save the dates and programs… SOOOOO CUTE!!!!! Kitty cake for the win!!!! 😀
I absolutely loved reading this post – brilliant! Thanks for sharing!
Can I just say that this made me laugh and get choked up not just a little? 😉 I know it is likely our paths will never cross, but if they did, I’d want to be fast friends…my furry kids hold a place in my heart just like your Zulay. Congrats on your nuptuals and on having a wonderful little furry companion in your lives. 😉
::KITTEHSQUEEEEEEE::
The wonderful! It BURNS!
i die!
as much as i wish it, my kitteh would have none of these shenanigans. she know’s what a camera is and knows it’s time to hide. bad kitteh.
Love it!!
haha, love this.
i have a doggy day care andvwe upload photos onto facebook for the owners everyday.
we take about 400 pics a day and posst about 30 that are decent.
what do the say about working with kids and animals?!
I LOVE IT! The face your man is making in the kitty claws picture is priceless. And kitty eating cake it just too cute.
HAHAHAHA! Cats are so great. <3
I literally laughed out loud at all of these. Particularly the ‘wtf’ face at the tiny bride and groom, and the arch. I love cats!
OMG *dies of cute*
I had been seriously thinking about using my cat somehow for my wedding (because she’s my BABY. You get that.) This made me laugh out loud the whole way through and realize what challenges lie ahead.
Love how these turned out! I would have overdone it because I would have had to have the picture with Zulay looking confused at the cake topper, too. Priceless!