Vivian Elle Invitations Wins The Best of the Knot 2013!

Before I show off some wedding extras, I just have a little announcement. 

Every year at the end of January, The Knot puts out their Best of List.

(Do you see where this is going?)

Vivian Elle made the 2013 list! 

And it's all thanks to my brides. They are the ones that took the time to review me. They are the ones that said wonderfully kind and humbling words about this business. They are the ones that make me so grateful to do what I do.  How did I happen to get so fortunate to work with them??

So I've been really excited about this honor for the last few months and just wanted to officially share it on here. I promise to not make every single blog post from here on out about it (maybe).

Moving on though. 

I've been wanting to show off some wedding extras for quite a while now. However, I really wanted to do it with the actual photos from the weddings, which I thought might be a little more exciting than when I try to take photos myself. 

The reason that I want to show these extras at the actual wedding is that a professional photographer definitely takes better photos than I do (inserting something like "duh" would be appropriate here). But I also want to do it because sometimes when I give a bride simple programs like this...

they end up looking like this...

Photography by Amanda Williams

And even if my brides don't add a little something something to their extras, the extras still look better when they're set up exactly where they're supposed to go. 

So the next few weeks I'll be rolling out some wedding extras - Real Wedding style. Starting NOW. (I envision that being said with jazz hands.)

Brandon and Mary got married back in October in D.C. They were married in a beautiful old church just a few blocks from the mall area and had their reception at Elizabeth's on L, a renovated Federalist townhouse in downtown D.C. 

The venue was gorgeous and I felt so honored to have been asked to contribute a few pieces to such an elegant evening. 

First up, Mary had me do their menus. 

I love the Albemarle Swash font they wanted to use. :)

I also did these little place cards. Mary picked the most beautiful colors for them, each one corresponding with the guest's dinner choice. They were blush pink, ecru, and gold.

For their guest book, Brandon and Mary ditched tradition and had their guests sign cards and give well wishes and advice to them to read at a later date. Here's the little instruction card.

(I am in LOVE with that bowl.)

And here are the little cards.

All of the photography was done by the talented Zareth Acosta. And if you just love weddings and would like to see her blog about Brandon and Mary's wedding, you can go here.

More wedding extras to come later in the week!

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