GIVEAWAY: 50 Holiday Cards from Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop

This giveaway has ended. Please check the Rafflecopter widget to see who the winner is. 

Friends! It's a giveaway and I'm excited. I'll be giving away 50 5x7 Christmas cards from Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop. Winner gets to choose the design.

Here's all you have to do:

1. Use the Rafflecopter widget at the bottom of this post to enter the giveaway.

That's it. The only condition is that Rafflecopter will ask you if you have liked Vivian Elle's Facebook page, and you have to have done it.

Here's a sneak peak of some of the designs you could win:

Just for kicks, here are some guidelines for the giveaway:

1. This giveaway will be open from September 23, 2013 at 8:00 AM to September 26, 2013 at midnight.

2. The giveaway is available to residents of the continental United States only.
3. The winner will receive 50 FREE 5x7 holiday cards (a $95.00 value, envelopes included) of their choice from Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop. Shipping is included in the giveaway.
4. The winner must actually have liked Vivian Elle's Facebook page in order to win the contest. :) :)
5. If the winner doesn't find a design that they absolutely love, they have the choice to upgrade to a custom design for only $35.00. Custom designed Christmas cards for only $35.00 total? That's a steal, people!

Enter this giveaway here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lexi's Moving Announcements

All personal information (address and phone numbers) has been changed in this moving announcement, if you cannot tell. :) 

I've had the pleasure of working with Lexi from Clean, Smart, Simple Style before, once when she had me make a wall print for her brother and a second time when she so graciously asked if she could virtually crash my house and show it off on her blog.

Well, Lexi and her family of four just moved and she came to me with another paper need: moving announcements. So we got right to work on those.

Lexi has a clean, classic style (true to the name of her blog) and so she just wanted something very simple with a monogram at the top for her family's name.

Font for the D is Chopin Script. The rest of the font is Hiatus.

I love how the monogram turned out - simple and stylish like Lexi wanted. 

I met Lexi well over a year ago now when we were bridesmaids together in my best friend's wedding. Almost a year later we've had a lot of fun working together and I hope that our working relationship continues. :)

I'll be back next week to show you some more fun shower invites I've been working on...until then, enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

Pssst - Make sure to like Vivian Elle's Facebook page...next week there will be a Christmas card giveaway for fans only! Visit Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop to check out the designs you could win.

Here's a fancy jpg I whipped up for the occasion. :) 

End of Summer Fun

During a run last week, I officially saw leaves that had fallen off the trees. Summer is over. And I have to admit, I'm kind of sad.

Let me say this: I do absolutely LOVE fall. I love going to the apple orchard. I love the cooler weather. I love getting fall soaps and candles. I love that Luke gets all excited about football season and I get excited about making chili for him while he watches football, but then I only end up making it once.

But I just really enjoyed the summer, and so to preserve it for just a few minutes longer, I'm just rolling out some of the fun things that went on in August, which is by far my favorite month of the year. Here they are, in number order, just because I'm feeling chatty and because I like photo collages.

1. We took our annual anniversary photo on the docks in Saugatuck, Michigan.

Each year, this involves us asking some poor person just enjoying a walk on the docks to take a  picture of us, which I will promptly decide I don't like as much as the selfie we took two minutes before (except for year 2012, and that's only because my phone was stolen that had the selfie on it :)).

2. We stayed at our favorite B&B yet in Saugatuck - the Bellvedre Inn (it was Luke's pick this year and he totally wins). 

This place was so cool. It had a restaurant inside so we got a free 4-course meal with our stay. I had lobster tail and I'm not sorry.

3. We went to our first White Sox game.

At a Tigers game I at least know some of the players. I knew none at this game, but I enjoyed the conversation and the stadium's famous corn. 

4. We got to see the best friend and her man, and eat some of the best ice cream in Chicago.

This is my home when I come to Chicago. The last time I visited we watched a late night (who am I kidding? it was probably 10 PM) PBS special on ice cream shops. This time we went to a pretty darn good one. 

5. We went to the St. Louis Zoo.

This zoo is beautiful, y'all. And free. And my husband had a butterfly land on him in the butterfly house and he became a bit of an attraction in and of himself (seriously, people stopped to take pictures). 

6. We visited the Arch. 

The only bad thing about visiting the Arch was that there was a snake in the grass that my husband jokingly threatened to throw at me. I (not so jokingly) threatened to leave him if he did. (WE ARE STILL MARRIED, HUZZAH!)

7. We rode around the streets of St. Louis in a Cinderella Carriage (don't be jealous). 

At first we were like, "hmmm....I wonder how much for a normal carriage ride?" And then we saw the Cinderella Carriage. I commend the men for dealing with this whole situation pretty well. 

8. I traveled down to Tennessee to see the BFFs. 

We got to visit our old college and play with Rachael's little girl and run together and cry and laugh and it was the best time. It was a last minute trip that I am so so glad I made. 

Oh, man. My heart is full after this August. Luke and I have said several times that this was just a really good summer, and we are thankful. 

Thanks for reading. Sometimes it's just nice to document some memories here and I'm grateful that you stopped by. :) 

Shannon and Taylor's Starry Night Wedding Invitations

Alright, let's role out more wedding invitations, shall we?

Shannon contacted me because she had seen my wonderful and lovely best friend post things about my business. Shannon and her fiancé, Taylor, live in Chicago, but we set up a skype meeting and got things rolling right then and there. 

Shannon and Taylor are getting married in November and wanted a romantic, starry night theme for their invitations. But it had to be subtle. And non-promy, which was a term that we used a lot in our exchanges. 

Here's what we came up with. 

Shannon and Taylor just wanted a simple, one panel invitation that included an RSVP card.  They picked out Allura and Estilo as their font combo. 

I love how my porch swing has become the standard photo backdrop for all of my invitations. I also just love my porch swing.

As for the envelopes, Shannon actually ordered those on her own. She went with a white envelope with a navy flap for the invite and an ever-so-cute orange envelope for the RSVP card. I love that the orange in the RSVP brings out the little bit of orange we used in the invite and RSVP.

Speaking of the RSVP, I just love this little guy.

So there's another invitation in the books (I have no books). I love how these turned out and Shannon was wonderfully easy to work with. I'd be glad to skype with any bride from the Chicago area, anytime. :)

Vivian Elle on Etsy

Pssst - to cut to the chase and go straight to Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop, go here. :) 

Vivian Elle has an Etsy Shop. A shop that has almost been open for almost a full year now! Opening this shop was one of my goals for 2012. I accomplished it, and I'm so glad I did.

There are a few different categories that you'll find on Etsy, and I just want to bring them to your attention here if that's OK. They are:

Pre-designed wedding suites:

You can purchase these here.

You can purchase these here.

You can purchase these here.

You can purchase these here.

Baby Announcements:

You can purchase these here.

You can purchase these here.

You can purchase these here. 

You can purchase these here.

You can purchase these here. 

You can purchase these here.

For more baby announcements, go here.

Christmas Cards:

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

To purchase these, go here.

And the best seller of the Etsy Shop by a landslide, our one and only Mad Men Birthday Invitation:

To purchase these, go here.

The Etsy Shop has done pretty well and apparently, many customers are happy, at least judging by their reviews. :) Make sure you go here to check it out!

John and Andrea's Wedding Invitations

A long time ago, we started playing volleyball with John, who I will from here on out call Palmer because that is his last name and that's what we call him. Palmer had this girlfriend that came to all of our games, but sat about 50 feet (I'm a horrible estimator, so my husband will probably correct me on that) away from us on a picnic table. We never talked, but she looked really athletic so I imagined that she just sat there and thought about what fools we looked like trying to play volleyball (spoiler alert: my game hasn't improved much since then). 

Since that time, Palmer's girlfriend, Andrea, began playing on our volleyball team, and come to find out, was an absolute delight to play with (which for me basically means she doesn't make fun of me too bad when I foot fault to lose the game, which by the way is a true story). Luke and I started to get to know Palmer and Andrea better and years later, they are our good friends. 

So many years later, when they got engaged and then came to me/were forced by my husband to use me for wedding invitations, I was completely glad to help them out. 

Here's what we came up with.

Andrea and Palmer wanted something nice and formal and simple. They thought a custom monogram would be an elegant touch, so we through a simple P together in an ornate frame.

Fonts are Trajan Pro and Hiatus.

The ecru invitation was backed with a nice subtle patterned paper. 

Everything that Palmer and Andrea's guests need to know is right on the back of their invitation. I love the simplicity of having guests RSVP to a website - I've noticed that several of my brides lately have chosen this option. It saves on postage and keeps the bulkiness of your invitation to a minimum.

We'll be gearing up for another volleyball season in November with these two, but first we're so happy to celebrate with them as they get married off!

Next week I'll be back with a starry night wedding invitation that I'm really excited about. :) Until then!