One Six Photo

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Last year at this time, I had collected responses from my closest friends and family to do a Week of Thankfulness on this blog. This year, it didn't even come close to happening. In fact, about three days ago, I realized that the week before Thanksgiving was here and I had made zero effort to get a Week of Thankfulness together.

But then I realized that what I'm truly thankful for this year is that I didn't even have time until three days ago to even think about a Week of Thankfulness. Because that means that this little business has done pretty well and is still going strong here in November.

I could go on for way too long here, but I just have to take the time to say that I'm so insanely thankful for each bride that chose to use me for their custom wedding invitations this year. I truly feel like I get to develop a relationship with each of you (and sometimes your moms, too) and am constantly amazed at what a unique, thoughtful, graceful group of women you are. You are what keeps this business going and I couldn't be more grateful.

I'm also so thankful for each person that came to me for baby shower invites, wedding shower invites, birthday party invites, bachelorette party invites, halloween party invites, wall prints, thank you cards, and now thanks to my Etsy shop, Christmas cards. I LOVE these side projects and have so much fun creating them with your help.

I can't even begin to fully express what this business means to me without getting so ridiculously gushy, but I will say that making the decision over two years ago to step way the heck out of my comfort zone and do something so completely unfamiliar was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I hope that everyone, at some point in their life, feels the same sense of accomplishment and complete and total joy in the work they do as I have this year.

But on to the reason for this blog post...

One of the most fulfilling parts of this business has been meeting other vendors who share the same passion for their work that you do for yours.  Kelli from One Six Photo is one such vendor. :)

I was introduced to Kelli a few months ago when she contacted me about making a logo for her photography business. My husband has known her since they were four and he referred her to me (this should come as a surprise to no one at this point) because he knew that she wanted help designing a logo.

I feel like there are people that you meet in life that just radiate positivity and warmth and are the kind of people that you know would be such an encouraging addition to your life. Kelli is exactly that kind of person and I knew it after spending about two minutes with her. Since she already knew Luke, and therefore (hopefully) knew we weren't super creepy, I had her over to our house to discuss her logo. When she left, I looked at Luke and was like, "um...that girl is awesome."

So we began working together to design a logo for her photography business. At the beginning, Kelly told me she wanted her logo to be "country bumpkin with a slight modern, clean twist." As we started working on it, the logo evolved into what we eventually came up with.

I knew I could just show you the logo as I made it, but I really wanted to show it off with Kelli's beautiful photography. I asked her to send me a sampling of her work so you can all ohhhh and ahhhh over it like I do when I see it come up on my News Feed.

Kelli lives right here in the metro Detroit area and pretty much does everything but weddings (she's just not interested in that right now...leave her alone, people!).

She does engagement sessions...

Maternity shoots...

Baby shoots...

Family shoots...

And friend shoots...

(This photo is so special. I feel like I want to say a thousand words about it, but I'll just let it speak for itself. Such a beautiful moment.)

To be honest, I was completely terrified when Kelli first came to me about a logo...I hadn't done one before and wasn't sure if I'd be able to fully capture what she wanted. But as we worked together and redesigned and redesigned some more, we came up with something that she seemed totally happy with, and so I was totally happy with it, too.

So if you're in the metro-Detroit area and looking for a reasonably priced photographer to capture the everyday moments in your life, "like" One Six Photo on Facebook and message Kelli. I promise you will enjoy every bit of time spent with her.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

Vivian Elle's Birthday Invites

Let's just get right to it. 

I love my niece and nephews so much I could literally just eat them up. 

I mean, I fear I am the crazy aunt that comes through the door and kisses them to death. The one they will like until they are about 12, when I suddenly become super uncool to them and they dread when I come over. 

The last time I was with my niece and nephews, I literally scooped my four year old nephew (who is super tall for his age) up into my arms just so I could hug ALL OF HIM. I couldn't get enough. I think I heard him say "put me down." I can't remember. I was too busy kissing him. 

I've heard people say that when it's your own siblings' kids (my niece and nephews are from my husband's sister), it's even better. In that case, I fear for the lives of my brothers' unborn children. 

All this to say that when my sister-in-law asked me to do my sweet little niece's invitations for her third birthday party, naturally I was more than happy to help. 

The party was a purple party (Viv's favorite color). Ginny (the sis-in-law) wanted pictures of Viv at every age leading up to three years old. Here's what we came up with. 

Viv is the sweetest little thing.

I do have to confess that I did something I've never done before. These invitations were printed at Kinko's on regular old card stock that they have available there (gasp!). We were working with a shorter time frame, so I couldn't order from Envelopments like I normally would. I also grabbed envelopes at Hobby Lobby and printed the 3 on them for Viv's 3rd Birthday. Confession over.

I know I'm her aunt, but I would think it would be fun for anyone to get this invite and see how little Viv has grown throughout the years. It was such a fun idea on Ginny's part.

So we celebrated Vivian a few weeks ago and all wore purple and showered her with gifts. She is so precious and gets more and more fun as the years go on.

OK, so you might not remember, but last week I said that this week I would be showing a logo that I did. Well, I promise I'll do that next week now, since it clearly didn't happen this week. :)

Happy Weekend!

Kara's Baby Shower Invites

I feel like I'm having major writer's block this week. I'm looking at the pictures that I've already uploaded for this post and several thoughts are coming to mind, but I have no good starting point for this blog. So here are the things that I am thinking, but am not sure how to organize into any kind of logical order. 

1. I really enjoy designing baby shower invitations. 

2. I'm extremely thankful to my mother-in-law, who has me to do shower invitations for her friend's children. 

3. I am over-the-moon in love with the color scheme we settled on for this invitation. 

4. I hope that when I'm pregnant, I look half as good as this mom-to-be, who appears not to be pregnant if you see her from behind (I already know I won't be as fortunate - I'm short and when I gain weight, it goes to my face first...this leaves me displeased with the thought of pregnancy and half thinking that maybe I should just adopt). 

Now that I have those thoughts out of the way, let's move on to the goods (AKA - the invitations). 

Kara is the daughter of one of my mother-in-law's good friends. She also happens to have grown up with my husband, and we've been fortunate to spend some time with Kara and her husband, Chris, over the past few years. Her mom decided to throw her a baby shower after Kara and Chris found out they were having a girl and my mother-in-law, Cathy, took care of the invitations (in other words, took that job over so she could have me do them :)).  

Kara and Chris had a gender reveal party a few months ago now. A friend of theirs wrapped up a little girl onesie that they opened to see if they were having a boy or a girl. Kara and Chris's friend, Christy, of Christy Lee Designs snapped this photo of them when they had just found out they were having a little girl. 

In addition to pink, Kara really wanted to incorporate Tiffany Blue into the invitation (you know, the color that Tiffany's uses for their little boxes). I love the pink and the blue together so so much.

We finished everything off by having guests' names printed in fun little squiggly frames on the envelopes.

I had the pleasure of going to this shower and can honestly say that the invitation perfectly indicated what was to come at the shower. It was a beautiful pink and (Tiffany's) blue shower with all of the details perfectly in place. The favors were even in little Tiffany's boxes - they were these chocolates that looked like pearls. SO beautiful. And yummy.

OK, so next week I'm going to be posting a blog on something I've never done before - a logo. Eeek!

Happy weekend, everyone!