Joe's Mad Men Graduation Party

Graduation is such a fun day. My own graduations are behind me (at least for now...I think about going back to school pretty much every other day), but 2012 was a big year in our family for graduations. 

First, my brother Jeff (who I affectionately refer to as Jeffé) graduated from the police academy in August. I travelled down to Virginia with my parents so we could be there with him and it was fun being the loud northerners in the audience of quiet southern folk (at one point we were like, "wait...are we not supposed to cheer?").  Here's my younger - but quiet a bit larger - brother officially becoming a police man. 

No big deal, but he did win two out of the six awards that they gave out that night. We were so proud. Here we are, later in the evening, back at their (super cute/adorable/I love it so much) house to celebrate. 

I'm still not scared of you, Jeffé.

In December, we had another family graduation. My other younger brother Scott graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Criminology. I went with my parents, and my sister-in-law and her family to his graduation ceremony (he didn't have enough tickets for everyone, so my husband was the obvious one to get the shaft). 

We all enjoyed the ceremony, especially the honorary alumni speaker who happened to enjoy stringing different quotes together to make up his speech. Luckily, Scott had his phone and was able to discretely send me some texts during said speech. 

My mom loves sharing some quotes on Facebook... 

Please tell me you know the Mean Girls reference. If not, you might just think my brother is insanely mean to me. 

Seriously though, we are so proud of Scott, too. He graduated with honors and plans to attend law school next fall. 

As always, folks...Derek Zoolander.

To sum up, my brothers are the best, and graduations are another great time to celebrate with family and friends.  

Which is exactly what Joe will be doing this month with his family and friends (my transitions are just phenomenal, aren't they?!).

Joe found me online when he was looking for some Mad Men inspired invitations for his own graduation party from law school. The invitation he found is by far the one that has been requested the most from clients who have happened to come across it on the internet. Here's the original from this blog post. 

(Fun fact - this is now available in Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop! You can purchase them for your own party here.)

I put this Mad Men invitation together for one of my BFF's husband's birthday party. And just with it being out there on the internet via my little blog, I've had several people email asking if I could design something similar for a Mad Men themed party that they were throwing. 

Joe was one of these people. He emailed me a few months ago about designing a Mad Men themed invite for his graduation party. We emailed back and forth about what he wanted and then I started putting something together for him. Here's what we came up with. 

Anyone who watches Mad Men or has seen the ads for the show should recognize the familiar format of the invitation. I really wanted to keep the front simple, since we had greater plans for the back. 

I love the wording he chose - Gents, look dapper. Ladies, get your heels on.

The glass of whiskey was the actual inspiration for the invitation. Very Mad Men like. (I've honestly seen four episodes...what do I know?) Instead of putting it on the front, I decided to use it on the back, along with this quote from Henry David Thoreau that Joe liked.

I'm always nervous when I work with guys that the invitations will not be "man" enough for them. Luckily, I think that we managed to make a masculine graduation party invitation thanks to Mad Men.  At least Joe was extremely happy with the result.

I honestly love working on these fun side projects, and during the wedding off-season I'll be sharing a lot of other projects I've been working on. Next week I'll be showing some super cute moving announcements that I did for a dear old friend from college. :)

Until then, congratulations to all of the graduates out there!

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

Class of 2011

I graduated in 1999. 1999. In other words, last century.

Working on a project for Kate, a sweet girl who is just graduating from high school, reminded me over and over that I am...well...not as young as I think I am.

I was reminded of this 75 times as I printed off each graduation announcement for her.

You are old. You are old. You are old. You are old.

But how can I be old? It feels like just yesterday that I was the one graduating from high school. It feels like I was just posing in pictures with friends in my cap and gown. It feels like I was just going to visit colleges, taking my final exams, and taking those final trips with friends over the summer.

It was a great time and when I reflected back on my own high school experience as I put together her announcements, I smiled as I realized that this was just the beginning for her. I remember thinking my life was over as I cried in my driveway, hugging my four closest high school friends. And then it just kept getting better and better. As I worked on these graduation announcements, I said a prayer that life would be the same for Kate.

So here is Kate's graduation announcement. Her family has been very special to Luke and I over the years and I was more than happy to make her graduation announcements when her mom asked me to.

The front...

(I have to stop and say that I took these photos, which means they are not in any way professional. These invitations will be sent to the one and only Amy Sayre, who will take photos of them that are way better than what you're seeing here.)

The back...

Is the black and white flowered card stock not the cutest thing ever? 

This little graduation party invite was tucked into the Portable Pocket, along with one of Kate's senior pictures. 

A huge thanks to Kate's mom, Donna, for letting me play a small part in her daughter's graduation. :)

Congratulations to Kate and all of the 2011 graduates!