Amy and Mike's Wedding Suite

There's not much I can say about Amy that I haven't said before. She's probably been the person that's shown up the most on this blog - you may remember her from here, here, or here.

In addition to the things I've written about her on this blog, there are those stories about her that I've mentioned over and over in everyday conversation, like the time we truly became best friends after completely wiping out on rollerblades at the bottom of what didn't look like such a big hill while visiting my grandparents in Virginia. Or like how we make goals together every year. Or how she totally inspired me when I first started my business because of the business that she had already started.  Or how we rode on camels in Morocco together that one time (no big deal).

Basically, this bride might mean more to me than any other bride I've worked with so far. That's not to insult anyone else, she's just that fantastic.

The thing is, there's not a lot left unsaid between the two of us. Except for a little bit that I'm storing up for a very important day just over a month away. And as much as I'd like to declare to the world what an amazing friend/bride/basically my sister this girl is, I think it's more important that I save these things up for her wedding day when I'll talk about how much Amy (and that dude, Mike, that she's marrying) means to me.

But for now I can say one thing. From a business standpoint, she's a super easy bride (though she seemed to think she was high maintenance) and helped me design one of my favorite invites yet. The bonus has been seeing a style that I've known well for years now come out in her wedding invitation.

Amy and Mike are getting married at an inn on the west side of Michigan.  It's going to be a small affair where friends and family gather together for the weekend and basically a wedding happens in the middle of it. I truly cannot wait.

Amy and Mike went to visit said inn several months back now and Amy said that the thing you notice right away upon driving up is the rocking chairs on the large front porch. She wanted to incorporate this look into her wedding invitations, but not in a retirement home kind of way.

Here's hoping that worked...

(Kidding, Amy, it totally worked. These are so not "come to my retirement party" invites. Though if they were, I'd definitely want to go to that party.)

I feel like I love so many things about this invitation. I love the colors Amy picked - a deep purple and a color that Envelopments calls 'Green Tea'. I love the fonts she picked out - Gelato and Chapparal Pro.

I love the rocking chairs that we added a little heart to and I love that Amy wanted to add in the tiny tree at the bottom right hand side of the invitation.

But most of all I love that this invitation truly was created by both of us. There was a lot of back and forth emailing going on until we got it just right.

The invitation is a pocketfold. When you flip it over, the pocket holds up to three inserts.

Amy's inserts are a little different from what you usually see, which is another thing I love about these invites.

First we have the wedding timeline. Because this is a weekend full of events, Amy wanted her guests to know that there were several activities they could join in on.

Amy also decided to put all of her important information on their wedding website, so we just had a card that directed guests there.

We finished things off with the little RSVP card and featured the rocking chairs one more time on the envelope.

I feel like Amy could not have captured her wedding day more perfectly, and I haven't even attended the wedding yet. Knowing her low-maintenance self, we really will sit back, relax, and enjoy the weekend.

The icing on the cake? After Amy got her invitation, she snapped these pictures of it for me to use.

Best bride ever? I think so.

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post. 

Winnie's Baby Announcements

Way more years ago than I want to admit, I began my junior year of college with a super cool R.A. She was a senior and just like her good friend Jenny (whose wedding invites were talked about here), she had the best design sense. In fact, to this day, I remember the little name plates she made for the girls on our hall because they were so cute. 

(Did people that went to big universities have their names on their doors or was that just because I went to a small private school? I've always wondered about this.)

Anyways, this super cool R.A. was named Winnie and she contacted me after her third baby boy was born this past April to see if I could do a baby announcement for her. 

And of course, I said yes. Because who would say no to helping someone declare to the world that this face was now here?

Is this picture not the cutest thing?

I just felt like a simple design would do since Samuel's picture says enough in and of itself.

Font is Big Caslon Medium. Free, of course.

I also love the wording that Winnie chose - "loved by brothers Jack and Henry, gracious gift from God for his parents Jake and Winnie."

I loved doing a little baby announcement for this adorable little guy's mom. He is one lucky baby and I'm sure he will always have the most well crafted name displays in his room. :)

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post. 

Brandon and Mary's Rehearsal Dinner Invites

Every year around this time, I start getting excited for fall. It's not that I don't want to live it up in August, because I do (fun fact - August is probably my favorite month of the year). It's just that fall is so spectacular that I must take time just to anticipate its coming. 

The great thing about this particular fall is that Luke and I have two very special weddings to attend, both of which will include us traveling to different destinations. You'll hear plenty about this gal's west Michigan wedding in weeks to come, but today I want to show off the first of a few projects that I'm doing for a wedding of one of our close friends, Brandon, and his fiancée, Mary. 

In September, Luke and I will be driving down to Washington, D.C. to celebrate Brandon and Mary's wedding and Luke will be standing up as his best man. Luke is so honored to be such a special part of the day and we are thrilled to celebrate with them next month. 

Brandon and Mary asked me if I could help them out with some of the extras in their wedding. You'll see a few things that we're doing for the actual wedding day in the next month or so, but I wanted to share their rehearsal dinner invitations right this second. 

Mary had the idea to have a picnic themed rehearsal dinner invite. They're holding the dinner on the rooftop of her apartment and she wanted people to know that it was going to be a more casual event - something they didn't have to dress up for. She thought the picnic theme would do the trick. 

Here's what we came up with.

Coming up with a picnic themed invitation was actually a lot harder for me that I thought it would be. I didn't want anything kid-ish, and there are just a lot of ideas that come to mind right away that are a little kid-ish. 

So instead we went for the picture of a place setting on a picnic table cloth look. I thought this said, "cool and casual rehearsal dinner on a rooftop" rather than "pack a lunch and bring your kids down to the park."

Isn't the font delightful? It's Albemarle Swatches and it's free. I absolutely love those swirls. 

I love how the silverware just completes the whole look. And I must point out that in the picture you can see the texture of the beautiful white linen card stock that we used. It's one of my favorite Envelopments card stocks by far.

So that's it. Just about a month left and we'll be down in D.C. celebrating with Brandon and Mary. I'm so thankful to contribute a little bit to their wedding in my role as the best man's wife. That is an actual role, yes? :)

Want to hear more about the value of custom invitations? Check out this post. 

Jenny and Derek's Wedding Invitations

Jenny and I went to college together. She was a year older than me and way cooler, but whatever.

After college, she roomed with one of my BFFs in Chattanooga and if there's one thing I that stuck out about her, it's that she has an amazing sense of style. Like, so amazing that I remember just walking around their apartment, taking pictures of all of the awesome ways that they decorated. 

So I considered it a huge compliment when Jenny called and asked me to do her wedding invitations. The fact that she looked at my stuff and thought it was cool made me a little bit giddy. 

Jenny wanted something very simple - she stressed this many times on the phone. No pocketfold, no inserts, not even an RSVP. She just wanted something that said, "hey, we're getting married. come celebrate." 

Besides the colors, Jenny also mentioned that she wanted some type of pattern on the side. She didn't specifically say what she wanted, but she mentioned that a West Elm-ish type pattern would be good. 

(Side note: gaining inspiration from West Elm is not even a job at all.)

So here's what we came up with. If I remember correctly, the pattern inspiration came from a pillow from West Elm (that I cannot for the life of me find on their site anymore). 

As I've mentioned before, I'm head over heals for the font that we used for the main wording of the invitation - Context Reprise Light. I also used Antipasto for Jenny and Derek's names and the modern little ampersand.

You may not have noticed the wording at the top - "We are in love & are getting married". I love the simplicity of that statement.

So that's it. This invitation wins the award for my most concise invitation of the year and I love it. Well done, Jenny.

Jenny might possibly be the lowest maintenance bride ever and I loved working with her. (I must interject here that I love all my brides and that none of them are high maintenance, but I honestly think Jenny and I exchanged a total of 8 emails during this whole process!)

Congratulations, Jenny and Derek! :) 

Ashley's Hostess Brunch Invitations

This is a blog post about Ashley, who happens to be my sister-in-law. More specifically, it's about postcards that Ashley had me design for a brunch that she's hosting.

You see, Ashley works full time AND sells Premier Designs Jewelry. She works Premier like it's nobody's business. She's very determined and does several shows a month. Here she is advertising her business, in a photo that has made me laugh no less than 16 times.

The clip art beret kills me. 

At this time next week I will be in Virginia with Ashley and my brother, Jeff, and we will be so delighted to see each other (since I get to see them about twice a year now) that maybe we will do this:

(Is it just me or was TGIF the best thing ever in the early 90s?)

Ashley's drive is only one of the things that is so great about her. If she says she's going to do something, she does it, and she does it well. She is well spoken and professional, but can also be ridiculously goofy with me, which is something I consider to be of utmost importance in any relationship. Above everything else, she is a great complement to my brother, and I'm thankful that she is a part of our family.

All this to say, I love Ashley and was more than happy to help her out with these postcards. Since she has her own Premier Designs jewelry business, she has a bunch of hostesses that have done jewelry shows for her. She wanted to have a brunch to show her appreciation to them and wanted to make it Parisian themed (is anyone else thinking about the Parisian shower in Bridesmaids?), so we came up with these postcards.

We thought the pink stripes were very Parisian and I loved the addition of the Eiffel Tower as the 'A'.

Placard Condensed and Lavanderia were the fonts we used for the front of the postcard.

On the back, we have all of the information needed, and we used the same fonts and added Bodoni SvtyTwo ITC for the basic wording of the invitation.

I love the way that the gold looked with the pink, and I love the little chandelier behind 'Parisian Getaway'!

Postcards are a great way to invite people to a party, announce your new baby, or announce that you moved. I love the simplicity of just stamping them and sticking them in the mail. I loved Ashley's vision and I am so glad she contacted me to carry it out!

Next week I have some really cool, modern (inspired by West Elm) wedding invitations that I can't wait to show!

**BONUS VIDEO**

While looking for a YouTube video to accurately describe how excited I am to see Ashley and Jeff, I also came across this gem of a video. Please enjoy.