Natalie and Nate's Lace Wedding Invitations

One of the joys of this business is getting re-connected with people from my past. Like Natalie. 

A long time ago, when I came home from my year off after college (read - my year to prolong any real decisions) and decided to go back for more college,  I worked with the youth group at my church. Natalie was in the youth group at the time and so when she came to me to make an appointment about wedding invitations I was like WHAT THE HECK HOW ARE YOU OLD ENOUGH TO GET MARRIED.

But she is old enough and she fell in love with a guy from the church who also happened to live right down the street from her and now they are planning an August wedding. When I met with Natalie, I smiled as I listened to the story of how her and Nate were brought together. It was not only good to connect with her as a bride, but great to re-connect with her in general. 

Natalie had a beautiful vision for her wedding invitations. She wanted them to be dark gray and pink, with lace. Here's what we came up with. 

When we first started working on the invitation, we had a very simple design with no frames on the edges. This is what we originally thought might work well with the lace and ribbon, but it just looked a little too simple. 

So we added these frames and I absolutely love the invitation now.

We used Albemarle Swash and Trajan Pro as fonts.

As beautiful as the invitation was without anything else, we tied everything together with ecru lace and pink ribbon.

It completed the set perfectly.

So congratulations to Natalie and Nate! Based on her selections for the invitation alone, I know that the wedding will be gorgeous. :)

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

Dan and Jaime's Moving Announcements

Who doesn't love summer? Seriously, is there anyone out there who is not 100% completely and utterly thrilled when the weather gets warmer, the days get longer, and the smell of summer is in the air?

Last summer I was making myself crazy trying to get our house put together. We officially moved into our home on June 1 and I'm not kidding - I went nuts for 3 weeks trying to make it livable.

This summer, I'm able to enjoy myself more. I've gardened, we've headed out for some day trips, and I've played my share of recreational sports (my husband and I are on a volleyball and softball league. no, I am not athletic). I've been able to step back and breathe and enjoy myself.

But as wonderful as this stage is, I wouldn't appreciate it as much had we not gone through the super hectic/crazy stage of moving. And because it is one of those stages in life that bring about a lot of change and a good share of adjustments, it should be marked by a moving announcement. I did our own moving announcements and proudly displayed them here last year. But had we moved a year later than we did, I guarantee you I would have stolen this girl's moving announcement to use for myself.

Jaime and her husband, Dan, are moving to Indianapolis this summer. I've become pretty familiar with Jaime by this point. Not only have I done her wedding invites, I also did a shower invite, wedding extras, and thank you cards for her. And now she's asked me to do her moving announcements. That makes five events. I think there is some sort of award she should get for this.

Jaime was pretty low maintenance when it came to these announcements. She basically said she wanted something that was simple and bright. Seeing as I love all things that are bright, I was on board. Here's what we came up with.

I think one of my favorite things to do lately (besides anything summer related) is use this U.S. graphic that I have. I used it with this invitation suite in my Etsy shop and I thought it would be fun to use it for these announcements, too.

You can't see it super well in these pictures (how bad is it that I was too lazy to shoot some more so you could see it?), but under the We're Moving sign, it says, "Come Visit!" and the little postage stamp thing at the top says their last name and Indianapolis, Minnesota.

Jaime had the cute idea of making a list of cool facts about Indianapolis. In case you can't see them, they are:

It's home of the largest children's museum in the world.
It's the only major city in the U.S. NOT located on a river.
It's the 12th largest city in the U.S.
It's home of the big twn.
It's the top popcorn producing state.


...and the Taylor's are moving there.

So, Jaime will be getting an award for my most loyal client. She is wonderful and I wish her and her husband all the best in Indianapolis. She has already said that she will be coming to me when they need baby announcements and I will HOLD HER TO THAT. :)

Next week I'll be posting about another wedding invitation. Until then, enjoy your summer!

Father's and Mother's Day Cards

I love my parents. I'm fortunate - like so many of you are - to have parents who have always loved and supported me in everything I've done (except when I did idiotic things. then they pretty much were like, "what is wrong with you? stop being an idiot). 

Lately I've really started to realize that I do a lot of things that I do in my life because my parents did them first. I listen to certain music because my dad listened to it first. I shop at certain stores because my mom shopped at them first. I have flaws that they've passed down to me and I have strengths that they've passed down to me. 

In short, I'm grateful for them. The good parts and the not-so-good parts. And I'll cherish them as long as I have them. 

So for Father's Day I decided to write out just a few of the things that my dad has passed down to me on a card. But then I wanted to make one for my mom, too. So I did. 

You can take a guess at which card is for which parent. :) 

So here's to dad. Someone who honestly would have been happy if we just left him alone in a corner with a book on Father's Day, but didn't mind that instead we forced gifts on him. 

And here's to my mom and dad both. They've passed on so much to me that I'm eternally grateful for.

So, this was a little bonus post for the week. On Thursday I'll be back with some super cute moving announcements. See you then. :) 

Emily and Joseph's Mackinac Island Wedding Invitations

I love Michigan. 

When I was 18, I went to Tennessee for college. When I graduated, I decided to postpone any real decisions about life by moving to North Carolina for a bit and then to Colorado. During those six years, I came to appreciate my home state in a way that I never had before. I love that I have childhood memories of heading up north to Frankfort where we would spend summers on the lake and winters snowmobiling. I love that I have memories of my brothers' hockey tournaments in the U.P. And most of all, I love that my husband and I have begun making our own memories in west Michigan, where we go for the weekend each year for our anniversary. 

So when brides come to me and have some kind of Michigan theme in their wedding, it's more meaningful than it would have been before I left Michigan for a while. What I'm finding is that whether you've moved to Chicago or NYC or Colorado or North Carolina, there's something about Michigan that you come to really appreciate.

This happened most recently with Emily, a bride who is getting married to her groom on Mackinac Island, with only their closest family and friends. We started out with these Save the Dates a few months ago and suddenly it was time to start designing the invitations. 

Here is what we came up with. 

I am not sure what I love the most about what Emily picked out. I knew immediately when she selected the papers she wanted that she was going to have a beautiful invitation. But then she picked out this vintage font and mentioned throwing a tandem bike in there and I was pretty much over the moon excited to see how things would look when everything was finished.

Sverige Script is the vintage font. Josefin Slab is the block font.

Another favorite thing about the invite is that Emily wanted one of the inserts to be "Top Ten Activities on Mackinac Island."

She also had an accommodations card since all of her guests are staying at the same resort.

And a sweet little RSVP.

Emily is such a kind, thoughtful bride and was ever so gracious to work with. I love that she and Joseph have decided to have the small, intimate wedding that they've always wanted. And I can only imagine that Mackinac Island will be the perfect place to have it. :)

Janine's Wedding Gift

Earlier this year, Luke and I boarded a plane from Detroit and about 3-4 hours later, this was the view we were looking at. 

Hiiiiii, Caribbean (I love you).

We went to Cancun for the weekend to celebrate the wedding of Janine, one of Luke's friends from high school, and the bride that I did these Save the Dates for. It was one of those trips that we weren't quite sure we would be able to make work at first, but we finally made the call to go and were so incredibly glad we did.

One of our favorite parts of the trip happened right after we got to the resort and were checking in. We were told at the front desk that our room had been given away, but that we could be upgraded at no charge to a nicer room as long as we were cool with twin beds.

Um...yes.

Nothing says bowchickawowow like twin beds.

So instead of overlooking the resort like we would have been, this was the view from our room.

We loved it.

We enjoyed as many breakfasts out on our deck as we could, we played a little volleyball, we laid out by the pool, we saw a weird fire show, we swam with dolphins, we laid out by the ocean, we ate good food, and we drank good drinks...all in all, it was a great time and I will now show you a series of somewhat awkward photos of us from the weekend.

I have an abnormally large head...please note that the hat does not fit.

Windswept hair and my pregnancy (I'm not pregnant) dress...but the background is gorgeous.

It was hard to get a photo of my hair not being blown in my face. Also, Luke's hand on my shoulder looks weird, doesn't it?

But here's one that I do love, probably because of my sassy stance.

Basically, Luke and I dreamed the whole time we were there about just traveling more and more and working less and less. We'll let you know how to do that once we figure it out.

But before any of this wedding stuff happened, Janine contacted me about doing a special wedding gift for her then fiancé, Cory. 

Cory loves playing poker and had actually played in the World Series of Poker before. As a gift, Janine wanted to give him a buy-in so he could do it again. But instead of just handing him the money, she thought she'd present it to him in an invitation. 

Like this.

White pocket fold + black accents = manly, right?

The invitation had three parts - the invite, the schedule of events, and a little envelope that Janine could put the money in.

My favorite part of the invite was the Schedule of Events. I liked the 3-D poker chip. :)

Fonts were simple - BD Hanover and Myriad Pro.

Next week I have a beautiful pocket fold invitation to show for a Mackinac Island wedding (there is a tandem bike...I am in love). See you then!

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