James and Danika's Wedding Extras

I'm in the middle of a three week period of the summer when my husband and I work at a community college to teach a "kids on campus" program. I teach a class on starting your own business (I know...I still laugh that I'm somehow qualified to teach this class). I have the same kids from 9-3 each day, Monday through Friday. It's not a summer camp. We don't run around outside or sing songs. These kids are straight up learning each day and for some reason, they really seem to like it.

Throughout the week, the kids get into groups and actually start their own businesses. They make a product, market the product, and sell the product at the end of the week to other classes and their parents.

(FYI - duct tape products are really in with 5th and 6th graders this year)

We also spend some time looking at real life young entrepreneurs. Each year, I'm absolutely amazed at just how much I learn from these young entrepreneurs and I honestly feel like I encourage myself even more than I teach my students. One thing this year that really stuck out to me as my students and I looked over different interviews from these young entrepreneurs was a quote from Arjun Rai. At the time of the interview, he was a junior in high school and was already the COO of an online advertising company and starting another one. (Pretty much the same as my high school accomplishments...)

Rai says, "For me, being ambitious means taking a risk and following a passion of mine. In most cases, that means building a company that caters to a need and is an extension of myself (source)."

I love that. I am going to find Arjun Rai, hug him, and let him know that his 17 year-old self inspires me to no end. "Building a company that caters to a need and is an extension of myself." Yes, please.

You see, I kind of feel like I tapped into something special with this little business. When I read extension of myself, I thought, yes...that's exactly what I feel like this is. I will be working on invitations and I will start to think, "am I really getting paid for this?" It may not be that special to anyone else, but it certainly has been to me.

 All that to say, I am fortunate to be teaching something for these three weeks that reminds me of how much I love what I am doing, and I'm hoping that it shows in my work and in my correspondence with my brides.  

But today I want to look at a particular bride's wedding extras. I've had a decently long relationship with Danika. She came to me in the fall of last year for me to help her with her Save the Dates, wedding invitations, and extras. The first two were finished by this past May. Then we got started on the extras for her wedding.

First up, the menu.

I'm telling you - I so wanted to eat this food. But I refrained from beginning the tempting, yet ultimately disastrous habit of crashing my brides' weddings. 

We stuck with the Estilo font for everything. Same as the invitations. It's so modern, but the paper product Danika chose added such a softness to it.

Place cards.

Love the yellow patterned paper. These place cards were held up by moss place holders at the wedding. I can't wait to see pictures of how they looked all set up.

The programs. As I've said before, I worked with Danika's mom, Terri, on most of her stuff. Terri's brother has a design business and good design definitely runs in the family. Terri's taste is just so classy and modern (just like her daughter's) and I adored how everything turned out.

There was a lot to fit on the programs and we did it with 4x11 folded program.

So lovely. I am constantly inspired by my brides' tastes. Each one of them is so unique and I can just imagine that each wedding is so beautiful, inspiring, and tasteful.

Next week I'm sharing the most intricate wedding invitation I have done to date, and I'm thrilled with how they turned out!

Heidi's Wedding Programs

As previously mentioned, I flew down to Chattanooga a few weeks ago, where my chauffeur/BFF Kauri picked me up and took me to ATL for the wedding reception of another one of our BFFs, Heidi. 

I feel led to mention our other BFF, Rach, who now comes with a beautiful little addition, Elizabeth (who I may have hogged shamelessly all weekend). Here we all are, shortly after we all met up at Heidi's house. Also, shortly after Ms. Elizabeth spit up all over me. Ironically, this did not stop the hogging.

Heidi asked if I could do programs for the reception, as well as the original invites. Even though it was going to be a more casual event, she still wanted people to come and know what kind of evening they could expect. 

Here's the program, photographed by its twin (AKA - the invitation).

Photographs courtesy of Amy Sayre Photography. Of course.

Heidi and Mike threw one heck of a party, if I do say so myself. That surprise dessert mentioned on the program was an ice cream truck that just rolled into their driveway halfway through the night. This, in addition to two different kinds of cupcakes and two cakes. Definitely my kind of party.

You can even check out more about it (if you are a wedding lover like myself) on her blog, Parties for Pennies. The amount of little detail that she put into this reception was incredible.

Several sets of programs and a wedding to follow in the next few weeks!

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

Month End Review

I've decided that making a monthly to-do list and posting it on my blog is a must. Even if absolutely no one but myself and my mother see it, it is seriously the best way to hold myself accountable to getting things done. It certainly worked this month. No, I did not accomplish everything on my August Fun List...in fact, one thing I threw out completely. But I sure did a heck of a lot better than I would have if I hadn't made it at all. Check out all of these crossed off tasks:

A few things:

-The Big X over 'attempt to enjoy gardening' is because I threw that one out the window a few weeks ago. I had become so frustrated with my attempts at gardening that one day I just started yanking plants out of my garden. I've honestly felt 100% better about gardening ever since (so maybe I should have considered that an accomplished task?).

-I did not buy any perennials but my mother offered me some irises from her garden (which are now planted in my front garden, albeit dead).

-The plan was to hang up curtains that I already owned in our guest bedroom, basement, and kitchen, but it turns out that curtains that were appropriate for an apartment do not always seem appropriate for a grown up condo. So, new curtains are on my to-buy list for the fall. 

-Make a picture I love into a canvas will also be on my to-buy list for the fall. I ran out of money this month because of my pinterest inspired projects... 

But here are some photos from things that I did do this month.

1. Complete a Pinterest inspired project. Done, and done.

I had been eyeing this idea for a while. 

http://belladia.typepad.com/bella_dia/2006/08/fabric_panels.html

So here's my own version.

This one Pinterest inspired project turned into a complete office makeover. As I was doing it, I was suddenly inspired to move all of my invitation related things into our guest room and I now have an official area to do my work. Other projects suddenly came up, like painting the desk in the picture. The desk was the bottom part of an old hutch my parents gave me that I painted with 4 year old paint from my old apartment. It is now my new desk and I love it.

2. Hang out more at my parent's pool/spend time with my niece and nephews.

I combined these two goals and brought the nephews and niece right to my parent's pool...in fact, there was another gathering there this afternoon. I've also just taken a few afternoons to go over and read by the pool, which also has helped me accomplish the ever so important goal of relaxing.

Oh, just look at how happy he is. 

We also enjoyed some of this, poolside:

which came from here:

http://stephaniecooks.blogspot.com/2010/12/cake-batter-bark.html

I'm telling you, if you're not on Pinterest, get on there. Right now.

3. Dance the night away with some of my favorite ladies in Atlanta.

This was definitely accomplished, along with visiting Chattanooga, all in one trip. I loved every single minute!

I consider this goal more than accomplished because we not only danced at my friend Heidi's reception, we also danced around the greek restaurant that we went to for dinner the night before, and then came home and had a little dance party in Heidi's living room (pictures intentionally not shown...). 

All in all, there was a good bit of dancing. :) 

So there are a few of the things I accomplished. I also did learn a word a day (www.wordsmith.org), continued reading (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), hit up a few thrift stores (though I came home empty handed), and managed to get all of my photos into Kodak Gallery photo albums. It was a good month. 

Now off to make my September to-do list...more on that later. :) 

Reception Weekends

This past weekend, my brother Jeff and his new wife Ashley traveled to Michigan so we could celebrate their wedding here. You might remember that they got married in Virginia in May. Well, we wanted to have a small celebration for them up here in Michigan, too. And naturally, my mother hired me to do the invitations. :)

Here they are. Simple, printed on a piece of white card stock, and made ever so beautiful with the lovely picture Jeff and Ashley let me borrow (credit goes to Mike Topham Photography).

Please note that I (kind of - there has to be an easier way than what I did) figured out how to blur out the address. A big thanks to my cousin Rachelle for introducing me to Picasa when I was wallowing in self pity about not having Photoshop.  

To top off the reception festivities, I used this idea from Pinterest:

Only I made it my very own by combining the two cards into one:

I had a blast with my family this weekend and I'm super excited that the wedding reception fun continues this next weekend when I fly down to ATL for this lady's wedding reception. I'll be back next week to show off the programs I made for that spectacular event. Try to contain your excitement until then... :)

But I can't end this blog post without taking a look at how things are progressing on my August Fun List. Here it is with many more items crossed off:

Yay! As the August continues on (way too fast...), I think I'll show off some of the things I've been doing from the list (specifically the pinterest inspired idea that turned into several pinterest inspired ideas). 

I have some classy (and I do mean classy) projects coming up in the next few weeks that I'm really excited about. Here's a little sneak peak:

I hope everyone is enjoying the rest of their summer and that it's not going by too fast for you!

Rew's Wedding Reception

I have a friend named Heidi, but 9 out of 10 times I'll call her Rew. It's because her full name is Heidi Rew. Are you following me?

Rew and I have been friends since our freshman year of college. Ten years later, I asked her to be one of my bridesmaids and here we are at my Bachelorette party in July 2009. 

I love this girl. You know how people say "she's the kind of friend that you can go forever without seeing and then just pick back up right where you left off"? Well, Rew and I aren't like that. We're the kind of friends that care so much about each other that we actually keep in touch, even though she lives in Atlanta and I'm in Michigan. She's the type of friend that I can talk to about anything from The Bachelorette to what we're learning in our lives (both with the equal amounts of passion). She's a rare type of friend and I am beyond grateful for her.

It's hard to mention Rew without also mentioning that we're a part of a very elite group. (We may be the only ones who consider ourselves elite, but just go with it.)

Here is our circle of friends, if you will (so corny...).

Rew, Rachael, Kauri, and Jenny

Kauri, Rew, Rachael, and I have all known each other since college. Most people at college seem to find their friends based on who they lived with. Not us. We found each other one fall night during our freshman year when we all happened to be on the same hayride. We're pretty sure we were destined to be friends.

I usually manage to see the girls twice a year, which is great considering I live 9 hours from any of them. Our first trip this year was to Birmingham to see Rach right after she had her daughter, Elizabeth (the first baby to come into our circle!). Our second will be when we all see each other at Rew's wedding reception in August.

You see, Rew is getting married to Mike in July. Check this fine looking couple out. 

(If you live in Atlanta, you may know these two...they're kindof a big deal.)

Mike and Heidi will be married in Hawaii in July - just the two of them. They'll honeymoon there and then come back to Atlanta for a reception with their friends and family in August in their backyard. 

Rew wanted a casual, backyard-ish, vintage type wedding invitation. She shared a couple of the plans she had for decorating the reception to help me gain her vision. A few weeks later, I was printing off her wedding invitations and sending them off to her. Here they are, in a picture I straight up stole from Rew's blog (which you can visit here).

I'm loving this type of invitation. Fun, casual...looking like a flyer or poster. I really think it gives off the you-can-kick-back-and-relax-at-this-wedding feeling. Which is pretty much what Rew is wanting for her backyard reception. 

I also love that Rew had people RSVP to an email (and the name of the email they created is presh). What a great way to save a little money. And please...who doesn't know how to email? 

I honestly can't wait for her reception and to officially welcome Mike into our little (elite) group. I may be planning a little ceremony. And there may be a certificate and welcome badge. Mike, get ready. 

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