Ashley and Michael's Mackinac Island Pocket Fold Wedding Invitations

This invitation holds a special place in my heart. Probably because I love Michigan, and couples who incorporate anything Michigan related into their wedding invitations.

Here are Ashley and Michael's Mackinac Island Pocket Folds.

Ashley and Michael wanted to add a Mackinac Island touch to their wedding invitations, since they're getting married on Mackinac this summer. We decided to add a picture of Round Island Light on the invitation, which was created in Illustrator.

They chose a beautiful kraft card stock for their pocketfold, and balanced it out with metallic papers.

Pretty Please RSVP. :)

A beautiful invitation for such an incredibly sweet couple. :)

I couldn't be more excited with the invitations I've worked on so far this year. The couples I work with have the most amazing, unique tastes and I love seeing their personalities come to life in their invitations.

More to come next week!

Psst - the Novi Bridal Expo is this weekend, February 15 and 16. We'll be there from 12-5 each day. Come on out and say hi!

Jessica and Jeffrey's Pocket Fold Invitations

Sometimes I get ridiculously excited over the smallest things. Like this past week when I got out of work early (on a 70 degree day) and came straight home, removed every door knob in our house, and started oil rubbed bronzing them.

(You may not know what oil rubbed bronzing - or ORBing - is. Basically I spray painted things using this spray paint.)

So our amazingly beautiful gold door knobs (sense the sarcasm) are now oil rubbed bronzed. Every last one in our house. And I was so excited about it that I whipped up this before and after picture, just to give you a taste of how it updated things around our house. 

Even my husband said later that night, "these look really good, babe." (This was a surprise, as I was definitely not expecting him to have an opinion on door knobs.)

So there's one thing that was on the "summer to-do list" that's already crossed off pre-summer. Isn't that the best feeling ever?

I hope that you are enjoying your spring and are loving your time outside, doing whatever it is that makes you happy. :) 

Other than ORBing everything in sight, I've also been taking care of business, Vivian Elle style (what does that even mean?). 

I met with Jessica not so long ago now. She came to me feeling like she had done so much for her wedding, but had waited too long to take care of invitations. Luckily, we had just enough time to complete everything with a little bit of time left over.

The thing that I love most about Jessica's invitations is the floral artwork we added to it (courtesy of Envelopments).

The block font is Baskerville and the script font is Hiatus.

We used a textured matte card stock for the pocket and a metallic ecru paper for everything else.

In addition to purple, Jessica is having light green as one of her wedding colors, too. We brought that in with a couple of metallic envelopes.

We didn't want to overuse the flower, but we did bring it into the wedding suite one more time on the RSVP.

And we were done. A lot of brides ask how long it takes to design invitations. Ideally, brides will come to me six months before their wedding. However, brides have come to me three months before their weddings and we have been able to get everything done in time for them to be sent out. Jessica's invites are proof of that.

Besides ORBing and putting together invitations, there's something else I've been spending my time doing this spring. I'll be back on Thursday to tell you all about it. :)

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

Rachel and Dylan's Pocket Fold Wedding Invitation

I'm here on the blog today to write a quick and dirty (I seriously had a Prob and Stats professor in college that used this phrase - I may or may not have mentioned that before) post about a beautiful, classic wedding invitation I finished up this past month.

I'll just be posting once this week, but I'll be back next week with another lovely invitation to show plus one more FAQ post on why the heck custom wedding invites are so expensive (there's good reason, I promise).

But right now, let's look at Rachel's wedding invitations.

Rachel and I met a looooong time ago now. It was sometime last fall and if there's one thing I remember about that meeting, it's that Rachel just had a very classic style to her. Simple, sophisticated, beautiful.

Once we started talking about Rachel's wedding, I realized that my initial impressions were confirmed - she did, in fact, have a great, classic style about her that she wanted to bring into her wedding invitations.

So here are her invitations, months later, all ready to send out (a special thanks to Rachel for snapping these photos after I completely forgot to take pictures before giving her all of them :)). 

Rachel picked out a white textured pocket fold invitation and decided to accent with a beautiful deep purple card stock (Majestic by Envelopments). As for her neutral color, she wanted to bring in silver instead of the standard white/ecru card stock. I love how it all came together.

Fonts are Allura and Estilo. I love the classic simplicity of the Allura font combined with the modern elegance of the Estilo font. 

And those are the inserts. Simple. To the point. Classic. Rachel is fabulous and super great to work with. By the way, so are all of my brides. Have I mentioned how thankful I am to work with them?

Until next week!

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

Samantha and Antonio's Wedding Suite

Right now I'm on the way down to Virginia for this wedding. We're actually stopping off tonight to see my brother and his lady friend/wife, then having lunch with my grandparents tomorrow, then beginning the wedding festivities tomorrow night (we like to cram as much fun as possible into a three day period if you can't tell).

It's insane to me that it's already September; that we're already starting to attend fall weddings. Vivian Elle's weddings for the year are coming to an end and I can't be happier with how the year is winding down. It's been an amazing whirlwind of a first year for this little business and I feel so fortunate to all of the brides who have chosen to use me for such an important part of their wedding day.

Samantha emailed me earlier this year to see if I could help her with her wedding invitations. I met with her and her mom at a Starbucks and we talked all about her beautiful wedding. After picking out papers and doing some designing, this is what we came up with.

Samantha wanted a formal, but modern feel to her wedding invitation. Pocketfold invitation = formal. Square invitation = modern. It really can be as simple as that.

Let me gush about how much I love the font we used for Samantha and Antonio's names. It's Lavanderia and you can download it for free here. 

You can see the patterned paper ever so slightly at the edge of the invitation. You may notice the vintage accent from this invitation suite. I love how the same piece of artwork can be completely different on another invitation.

Le inserts (I used to use 'le' and 'la' in college all the time instead of 'the'...this is slightly embarrassing now and yet I kind of want to start it up again).

Directions card.

Reception card.

(yes, this is a big Italian wedding)

The RSVP card.

We also put a band around the outside of the pocketfold. You might think I kept a band so I could show off this invitation in its completed glory. Not so, my friends. Not so.

I did at least keep the little frame that we attached to the band to pull everything together...so there's that. :)

Samantha was referred to me by a teacher at the school I work at. We were chatting about my invitation business and she casually mentioned that she'd have to give a friend of hers my information. That friend was Samantha and I am so incredibly thankful that she was sent my way.

So if you've used me or referred someone to me - thank you! You all are the best. :)

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

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. 

James and Danika's Modern Pocketfolds

Danika is doing what a lot of girls are doing: planning a wedding while they're in grad school. Having never done this myself, I can't even imagine what it would be like. When would you plan? At 2 AM after you finally finished going to class, studying, and (maybe) eating something? And then when you finally find the time, aren't you completely out of energy to make any of the decisions that you need to make when you wedding plan?

Just thinking about it makes me tired. 

Luckily, after Danika initially picked out the product for her invitations, her mom, Terri, stepped in to help her out during this hectic time. I've been communicating with Terri ever since and it's been great. 

(We must pause here and give props to moms everywhere that swoop in and help us daughters when we really need it.)

After working with Danika on her save the dates back in December, I knew that design and a love for paper products was in her blood. When I met her mom, I saw that I was correct - this family has a great eye for design. 

Let's look back at Danika's save the dates, just for fun. 

We wanted to keep the same modern layout that we did for her save the dates. We added in some color and vintage floral artwork and we had ourselves an invitation suite. 

I have to stop here and declare my love for these invitations. I love how beautifully the vintage artwork and modern font fit together.

We colored the font (Estilo) and the artwork blue and marigold, which are Danika's wedding colors.

Accommodations, Reception, and RSVP cards.

I love the simplicity of the inserts.

We added one more piece of vintage floral artwork to the directions card. So pretty.

It's a shame that you can't see more of the floral patterned card stock that's behind this RSVP. It is honestly my favorite patterned paper that Envelopments carries. But Danika's guests will get to see it because we're using it for their place cards at their wedding. So consider this a little sneak peak.

The entire suite, completed with bright blue (Envelopments calls it 'Peacock') textured envelopes.

There's still more to come...menus, programs, and place cards to be exact. Excited to work more with this bride (and her mom)!

Carrie and Ryan's Pocketfolds

Today is an exciting day for a few reasons:

1. It has officially been a year since I started this little custom invitation business. A year ago, I became a vendor listed on The Knot and people that I didn't know started using me for their wedding invitations. I had my first 5 weddings last fall and have just completed my first 6 weddings of 2012 this past month. I am so thankful that I completely stepped out of my comfort zone and took that first step to start Vivian Elle Invitations.

2. Many of these wedding invitations that I've been working on have officially been sent out, meaning that I am finally able to unveil them to the internet world. There is the slight possibility that only I have been looking forward to this moment.

Either way, I have lots of fun projects to show over the next several weeks and I love that you stopped by to see what I've been up to.

So let's get right to it.

Carrie and Ryan met with me last year to discuss their June 2012 wedding. Carrie picked out fantastically bright colors (anyone who knows me knows that I am right on board with that), but wanted a very simple design. Here's what we came up with.

She selected a white linen pocketfold with silver paper backed with vibrant blue and green colors. She picked a patterned card stock to back the RSVP for a little pop of something fun. I loved how it all came together.

It's hard to get a picture of the full pocketfold, since it's won't really stay open without something holding it, but that was my best shot. :)

We tried the invitation with some artwork but in the end, Carrie decided that her and Ryan's style was just more simple.

I just love the texture of Envelopments linen stocks. So pretty.

The accommodations and directions cards.

As always, I love the little RSVP card.

And it all folds up so nicely and fits perfectly into the green ('Wicked' by Envelopments) envelope.

Carrie has been such a great bride to work with and was incredibly encouraging and thoughtful throughout the whole process. I'm so excited to get started on the extras that we'll be doing for her summer wedding. :)

Stay tuned for more invitations next week!

Seth and Abby's Pocket Folds

Oh, brides. I love working with them. 

I'm not even kidding. They're great. I genuinely enjoy my time with them and by the time the process is over, it makes me all that much more honored that they asked me to play a small part in their wedding day.

Abby is definitely no different. She has been amazingly great to work with and if I had to give Abby an award (what if I actually had an awards ceremony for my brides? how weird would that be?), it would be the Sweetest Bride award. Hands down.

You were introduced to Abby a few weeks ago when I showed off her simple but elegant wedding shower invites here. It didn't seem like much time had passed and suddenly it was time to send out the wedding invitations. Without further ado (my husband will totally make fun of me for saying that), here they are:

These 5x7 White Linen Pocket Folds perfectly hold together the invitation, the insert, and the RSVP card.  Even though the majority of the invitations I do are Pocket Folds, each one is so different and perfectly fits the individual couples' style.  I can't wait to show you more throughout the year.

Also, I'm completely in love with Seth and Abby's signature frame at the top of their invitation. How bad do I wish I had a signature frame? 

I love the subtle pops of purple in the invitation. The sliver of it showing behind the invitation adds an extra dimension and the sliver behind the RSVP (courtesy of the RSVP envelope) balances the entire suite out.

And we're not even done yet. We still have table numbers, menu cards, programs, and a super cool seating chart to make. Stay tuned for those in the coming months. :)

In other news, I am super happy today. Tonight, my three BFFs are gathering together in Chattanooga to make their trek to Michigan tomorrow.  You see, they live in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. I'm the loner up here in Michigan. So every year or so, they make their way up here to see me. This is their 6th or 7th Michigan Trip and each one is just as good as the last. In the midst of a crazy month (did I mention we should be closing on a house in a WEEK?!) I can honestly say that just relaxing with some of my closest friends is exactly what I need this weekend. 

So in honor of this upcoming trip, here's a picture of the last Michigan Trip, when Rachael (front and center) walked in and handed us each a card to announce her pregnancy (after being in the car with Heidi and Kauri for 9 hours and not mentioning it). My first reaction was to push her down onto the couch out of excitement. Naturally.