Austin and Erin's Wedding Invites

Oh, this weekend was fun. My husband and I attended a wedding here, which I happen to think is a truly memorable and beautiful place to have a wedding. It's located right by Traverse City and is just the perfect up-north wedding experience.

We came back home on Sunday afternoon and I ended the weekend laughing with one of my favorite groups of women in the world over cheese and chocolate fondue. Seriously, does it get any better?

For you, my friends, it does.

Today we're looking at some wedding invitations. (I can hear you celebrating...I'm so glad you're excited.)

Erin contacted me a few months ago to ask about wedding invitations. She is the future sister-in-law of a friend from our church. I met with her and her fiance one Saturday morning and I just liked them right away. They were laid back and had great style. They are getting married in September at a house on a lake. Ahhhh. Beautiful.

They played with the color wheel for a little bit and then decided on the perfect patterned paper for their wedding invitation. Here's the final product:

I hope you enjoy how I strategically placed the pieces of the invite around the addresses...this is because I do not own (nor will I be purchasing any time soon, unless I win a large amount of money) Adobe Photoshop so I wasn't sure how to blur them out. Beware: this will happen with all of my photographs.

Do you see the addition to the picture? I had a little visitor as I was taking this photo.

We decided to pull in a green color (called green tea, actually) with the RSVP card and I added the green to the RSVP envelope to pull the whole invitation suite together.

I really loved the tree that Erin picked out for the invitation. It just fits so well with their fall wedding. I think she has great taste and I am excited to see how she brings that taste into her wedding (which means that I'm planning on floating by on a tube at just the right time when they're getting married :)). 

Congratulations, Erin and Austin!

Business and Harry Potter

I am so extremely glad that it is Friday. I feel like it has been one of those weeks where I'm not really living my life; instead, I've somehow lifted out of my body and am watching my life happen from 10 feet above me. Let's just say I've felt overwhelmed.

Here are the highs and lows.

High:

Seeing HP7 at midnight.

At the age of 28 I decided that I should develop a deep love for Harry Potter. My Star Wars loving husband has always complained that I have nothing "nerdy" about me (clearly he didn't know me in junior high). Well, now he has a 30 year old wife that goes to the midnight showings of Harry Potter. I hope he's satisfied.

Low:

Feeling completely and utterly inadequate as I tried to navigate through this week, teaching middle schoolers how to start their own business.

You see, I'm working at a local community college at a Kids on Campus program. Kids ranging from elementary school to high school can come and take all sorts of classes - from a Mythbusters class to a Basic Study Skills class to a Chess class (which happens to be taught by my husband) to a Web Design class. The class I'm teaching is called 'Be the Boss' and it's about starting your own business.

I have to laugh that I'm even in this position. I mean, I did start my own business and that does give me a sense of satisfaction. It really does. But to actually be put in a position where I am teaching kids the ways of business is just scary. Like meeting Voldemort in a dark alley scary (Harry Potter reference? You're welcome.).

But here's the great part. After a week of feeling like I didn't quite know what was going on and I didn't really know if I was making any kind of difference, I had parents come in and tell me that their kids loved the camp. That they came home excited about it every night. That they showed them the website that they had made that day in class and they were really proud of it.

So...that's something, right?

And on top of it all, I finished 150 beautiful wedding invitations, designed some more, and met with a beautiful bride-to-be and her fiance about their upcoming wedding.

And now, I think it's time to take a nap.

Jeff and Ashley's Wedding Extras

Oh, Jeff and Ashley. These two make me happy. They make me laugh hysterically and I love them dearly. They have fabulous style that they incorporated perfectly into their wedding day. I've said it all before. And now...

They are married!!!

That's right...this handsome young man below is one of my younger brothers (I used to say "little brothers", but that doesn't quite fit anymore). His beautiful bride is my newest sister. They were married last month and are now enjoying married life in their adorable home in Virginia.  That's the greatest part about a wedding - as wonderful and unique and memorable as that day is, you get to enjoy the whole marriage thing afterwards. How great is that?!

Aren't they cute? I just love them. So much, in fact, that I sobbed my way right through a speech at their rehearsal dinner. Horrifying? Yes. Something the newlyweds will look back on fondly? Let's hope so.

I was honored to take part in their wedding in a couple of different ways. First, I was asked to be a bridesmaid. My husband and I stood up with three other couples who were all close to Jeff and Ashley. We had a blast with the wedding party - you know, felt like we'd known them for years when we'd only just met half of them. Here are all the girls.

I have to take a moment to stop and say that Ashley's dress was stunning. That's all there is to it.

The second way I was able to play a role in this wedding was by making Jeff and Ashley's wedding programs and table numbers. Ashley sent me this awesome design and I set out to duplicate it. Here's the finished product.

I really really love these programs. Ashley chose the perfect pink color and I thought the layout with the long program looked SO cool. However, we honestly could have tied anything to these chairs and they'd still look amazing. I'm not kidding. I loved the chairs. I may have smuggled one into our car at the end of the night and I might be sitting on it right now. You'll never know. 

We took the same pink from the programs, paired it with a silver card stock, and used it as a backing for the table numbers. 

So there you go. Jeff and Ashley's wedding. I was so excited to play a part and thought that the day was perfect (thunderstorm and all).  Their wedding was so them, which happens to be exactly the way I think it should be. 

Sigh. Our family's wedding season is over. But I cannot even tell you how much I appreciate that other brides are letting me play a small part in their own weddings - and I love the individual tastes each of them have that they are showing off in their invitations. More on those weddings coming up soon. :) 

I'll leave you with the first official picture of our new family. I just love them. 

(Oh, wait...one more thing. Credit needs to be given to the spectacular photographer of the day - Mike Topham Photography. He took all of the pictures in this post, except for the one of the table number and my family. Those were taken by my Aunt Pam. :))