Save the Date

I wanted to sneak one last blog post in here for 2011 and I decided to go out with a bang (or at least, I think so). 

It's a Save the Date that I absolutely love. I have a few specific reasons for loving it so, but I think it's pretty self explanatory just by looking at it. 

Didn't I tell you? It's great, isn't it?

First, I love the picture. This is a bride-to-be and her fiancé from Chicago who will be getting married here in Michigan. They had their pictures done in Chicago and she selected this one to be on the Save the Date. I love her red dress and how adds a pop to the Save the Date. And the city and the water and how cute they are together...I love it all. 

Second, I love the font. Before I did this Save the Date, I didn't even know this font existed and now I ask myself how I ever lived without it. It's Estilo and though it is not free (who doesn't love a free font?), it was pretty darn inexpensive. 

So there are still some other projects to share from 2011, but those are going to have to wait until after the New Year. For now, I leave you with this Save the Date and with a promise that I will show you all of the other fun things we're designing for this wedding later in 2012. 

Until then, Happy New Year!

From Our House To Yours

Continuing with the Christmas posting hoopla!

(Note: the "hoopla" is actually just two blog posts that started on Monday and conclude today. The term may or may not have been used incorrectly.)

I wanted to share our very own Christmas card today. If there's one thing I've learned this year as far as invites go, it's that sometimes less is more. Some of my favorite invites of 2011 have simply been printed on one piece of card stock.

For instance, I loved my BFF Heidi's wedding invitations and wedding programs. 

So simple. So fun. 

And these wedding invitations.

Seriously, we took a beautiful piece of textured card stock, added a simple design, and we were pretty much done. No assembly required. 

So when it came to making our Christmas card this year, I thought I'd stick with the whole minimalist idea.

Don't get me wrong...I did love our Christmas card from last year. It was just more work than I wanted to put in this year. Here's a little refresher of what they looked like.

I mounted two pieces of card stock, had the pictures printed, and designed the actual greeting on the back. Again, not a ton of work, but more than I was wanting to do this year.

My goal was to do something this year that required two steps:

1. designing
2. printing

Of course, there was the stamping and mailing, but those were givens.

So here's what I came up with.

I must give credit where credit is due. The photo was taken by none other than Amy Sayre, as per usual. Luke and I visited her and her fiancé in Chicago last month (see November in the card above :)) and on the way to brunch, we stopped to snap a few photos in a park. My favorite is when this little girl got all up in our photo.

Look at how paternal Luke looks! He's smiling on this child with complete adoration. I, on the other hand, look like I'm saying "who is this kid?".

I decided that a 4x5 piece of white card stock was enough to hold a tiny little Christmas greeting from us. I picked out some of my favorite Envelopments artwork and started putting our year at a glance together.

But I must say that for me, the envelopes were my favorite. I know, I know...they'll be thrown away. But I loved dressing them up so that hopefully people started enjoying the Christmas greeting before they even opened it.

So that's our tiny little Christmas card. Here's hoping it brought a little bit of joy to each household it was delivered to.

Merry Christmas!

Christmastime is here...

It's Christmastime, which means it's time for a Christmas related blog post. Please, hold your applause.

But first, I need to just openly admit that I've really been slacking in the blogging lately. I hopped on here the other day and realized that the last time I posted was for the Week of Thankfulness. In other words, last month. Fail.

Of course, there is a reason. I've realized that this is definitely when things pick up for wedding season. There are lots of engagements around the holidays and so I've been meeting with brides and starting to design a lot more (Am I complaining? Heck no).  So even though this little blog has been neglected, I'm not feeling too guilty about it because the business itself has definitely not been neglected. I can honestly say that I'm so excited for Wedding Season 2012!

But back to the Christmas related blog post.

My mother-in-law asked if I would do her Christmas card again this year, only this time she had a very clear vision. She really wanted to do her traditional Christmas letter (you know, the one where you tell everyone what the family is up to) in the shape of a Christmas tree. So that's what we did.

I think it turned out pretty well (though the perfectionist in me still sees some spots where the tree is not perfectly shaped...all of you other perfectionists already noticed, didn't you?? :) ). All in all, a nice little letter to catch everyone up on what our family did this year.

So now comes the blog catch-up. Later this week, I'll most likely be back with my own Christmas card, and then I'll share some individual Christmas cards I made for some special peeps, a Housewarming Party invite, and a Save the Date!

Merry Christmas!