Austin and Erin's Wedding Invites

Oh, this weekend was fun. My husband and I attended a wedding here, which I happen to think is a truly memorable and beautiful place to have a wedding. It's located right by Traverse City and is just the perfect up-north wedding experience.

We came back home on Sunday afternoon and I ended the weekend laughing with one of my favorite groups of women in the world over cheese and chocolate fondue. Seriously, does it get any better?

For you, my friends, it does.

Today we're looking at some wedding invitations. (I can hear you celebrating...I'm so glad you're excited.)

Erin contacted me a few months ago to ask about wedding invitations. She is the future sister-in-law of a friend from our church. I met with her and her fiance one Saturday morning and I just liked them right away. They were laid back and had great style. They are getting married in September at a house on a lake. Ahhhh. Beautiful.

They played with the color wheel for a little bit and then decided on the perfect patterned paper for their wedding invitation. Here's the final product:

I hope you enjoy how I strategically placed the pieces of the invite around the addresses...this is because I do not own (nor will I be purchasing any time soon, unless I win a large amount of money) Adobe Photoshop so I wasn't sure how to blur them out. Beware: this will happen with all of my photographs.

Do you see the addition to the picture? I had a little visitor as I was taking this photo.

We decided to pull in a green color (called green tea, actually) with the RSVP card and I added the green to the RSVP envelope to pull the whole invitation suite together.

I really loved the tree that Erin picked out for the invitation. It just fits so well with their fall wedding. I think she has great taste and I am excited to see how she brings that taste into her wedding (which means that I'm planning on floating by on a tube at just the right time when they're getting married :)). 

Congratulations, Erin and Austin!

Business and Harry Potter

I am so extremely glad that it is Friday. I feel like it has been one of those weeks where I'm not really living my life; instead, I've somehow lifted out of my body and am watching my life happen from 10 feet above me. Let's just say I've felt overwhelmed.

Here are the highs and lows.

High:

Seeing HP7 at midnight.

At the age of 28 I decided that I should develop a deep love for Harry Potter. My Star Wars loving husband has always complained that I have nothing "nerdy" about me (clearly he didn't know me in junior high). Well, now he has a 30 year old wife that goes to the midnight showings of Harry Potter. I hope he's satisfied.

Low:

Feeling completely and utterly inadequate as I tried to navigate through this week, teaching middle schoolers how to start their own business.

You see, I'm working at a local community college at a Kids on Campus program. Kids ranging from elementary school to high school can come and take all sorts of classes - from a Mythbusters class to a Basic Study Skills class to a Chess class (which happens to be taught by my husband) to a Web Design class. The class I'm teaching is called 'Be the Boss' and it's about starting your own business.

I have to laugh that I'm even in this position. I mean, I did start my own business and that does give me a sense of satisfaction. It really does. But to actually be put in a position where I am teaching kids the ways of business is just scary. Like meeting Voldemort in a dark alley scary (Harry Potter reference? You're welcome.).

But here's the great part. After a week of feeling like I didn't quite know what was going on and I didn't really know if I was making any kind of difference, I had parents come in and tell me that their kids loved the camp. That they came home excited about it every night. That they showed them the website that they had made that day in class and they were really proud of it.

So...that's something, right?

And on top of it all, I finished 150 beautiful wedding invitations, designed some more, and met with a beautiful bride-to-be and her fiance about their upcoming wedding.

And now, I think it's time to take a nap.

Jeff and Ashley's Wedding Extras

Oh, Jeff and Ashley. These two make me happy. They make me laugh hysterically and I love them dearly. They have fabulous style that they incorporated perfectly into their wedding day. I've said it all before. And now...

They are married!!!

That's right...this handsome young man below is one of my younger brothers (I used to say "little brothers", but that doesn't quite fit anymore). His beautiful bride is my newest sister. They were married last month and are now enjoying married life in their adorable home in Virginia.  That's the greatest part about a wedding - as wonderful and unique and memorable as that day is, you get to enjoy the whole marriage thing afterwards. How great is that?!

Aren't they cute? I just love them. So much, in fact, that I sobbed my way right through a speech at their rehearsal dinner. Horrifying? Yes. Something the newlyweds will look back on fondly? Let's hope so.

I was honored to take part in their wedding in a couple of different ways. First, I was asked to be a bridesmaid. My husband and I stood up with three other couples who were all close to Jeff and Ashley. We had a blast with the wedding party - you know, felt like we'd known them for years when we'd only just met half of them. Here are all the girls.

I have to take a moment to stop and say that Ashley's dress was stunning. That's all there is to it.

The second way I was able to play a role in this wedding was by making Jeff and Ashley's wedding programs and table numbers. Ashley sent me this awesome design and I set out to duplicate it. Here's the finished product.

I really really love these programs. Ashley chose the perfect pink color and I thought the layout with the long program looked SO cool. However, we honestly could have tied anything to these chairs and they'd still look amazing. I'm not kidding. I loved the chairs. I may have smuggled one into our car at the end of the night and I might be sitting on it right now. You'll never know. 

We took the same pink from the programs, paired it with a silver card stock, and used it as a backing for the table numbers. 

So there you go. Jeff and Ashley's wedding. I was so excited to play a part and thought that the day was perfect (thunderstorm and all).  Their wedding was so them, which happens to be exactly the way I think it should be. 

Sigh. Our family's wedding season is over. But I cannot even tell you how much I appreciate that other brides are letting me play a small part in their own weddings - and I love the individual tastes each of them have that they are showing off in their invitations. More on those weddings coming up soon. :) 

I'll leave you with the first official picture of our new family. I just love them. 

(Oh, wait...one more thing. Credit needs to be given to the spectacular photographer of the day - Mike Topham Photography. He took all of the pictures in this post, except for the one of the table number and my family. Those were taken by my Aunt Pam. :))

Inspiring

An actual post about a project is just not going to happen this week. Though I'm off for a few weeks until I teach at a local community college summer program, I've still managed to pack as many things into my time off as I can, including designing for upcoming weddings. That's what has been taking up my time and I've loved it.

So while I meant to write a heartfelt blog about my brother's wedding and the extras that I did for it, instead I will write about something that has become near and dear to my heart: Pinterest.

If you don't know what this is, maybe it's time you checked out Pinterest. First, let me explain how to pronounce it. Think 'interest' with a 'p' - pinterest. I say this because I am pretty sure I pronounced it wrong the first hundred times I said it ("so have you heard of that new pin-TER-est site?").

Pinterest is a great place to find inspiration for anything - your house, clothes, books, parties, artwork, weddings. Anything. You can scroll through hundreds of pictures and save ones you like under your "pins".  So I'm able to find some great inspiration for invitations, among other things, and catalog all of them so I can easily access them in the future.

So I thought that this week I'd share some really cool wedding ideas I've found recently. I love each of them very very much. I'm so inspired by others' creativity.

First, a super cute Save the Date.

So so so simple. But so incredibly adorable. And look at that couple! I'll bet they live happily ever after.

Next up (yes, we're moving along quickly today), a wonderfully fabulous wedding invitation.

If only I had found this two years ago, it would have been the invitation for our wedding. It may have involved some more bright colors, but other than that, it's just perfect.

And while we're turning back the clock two years, here is what I would have done for a guest book. This idea makes my heart happy.

How cute is this?! I'm actually asking...did you just answer outloud? That's what I thought...it's SO cute. Instead of just having your guests sign a guest book, have them sign their names on their birthday. Now you have a record of your guests AND you know their birthday. I'm insanely jealous that I never thought of this.

So that's all I've got this week. Three simple ideas that I'm extremely inspired by. I think I will ask Luke if we can renew our vows on our two year anniversary (which is 1 month from tomorrow!) so I can use all of them. This sounds like a reasonable request to me. :)

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. 

Jackson's Birthday Party

If you have followed my blog at all, you know that I have a niece named Vivian Elle. She is precious. I love her and will now share a picture of her, just for fun:

Oh, sweet little thing.

But Vivian has other members in her family too. Let me introduce you to her older brother, Jackson:

Jackson will be 3 this month. He is an adorable little boy. He likes making up games. He loves to read. He calls me Uncle Jenny and then laughs at himself. And he is seriously the most well spoken almost-3-year-old I know.

Together, Jackson and Vivian have bumped me from the "Not sure if I'll ever not be awkward around children" stage to the "Kids are the greatest (in moderation)!" stage. (Whether or not I ever make it to the "I need me a baby!" stage is still TBD.)

But on to the invitations...

My sister-in-law came to me last month and asked if I'd make invitations for Jackson's 3rd birthday party. He was going to have a rocket themed party and she gave me this blog post as inspiration.

My mind started racing. I went over a million different ways that I could do the invitation in my head. I was genuinely so excited to make them. I mean, it's my nephew's 3rd birthday party. They had to be good.

At this point, I really wanted to go into the entire process of making this invitation, but I opted instead to  give you the highlights:

-Ordered green and blue (Envelopments!) card stock to start the invitations.
-Decided to try to find a patterned piece of paper to add another dimension to the invite.
-Couldn't find patterned paper at Hobby Lobby...or Michael's...or Joann's.
-Couldn't find a rocket ship cutout to use.
-Became frustrated.
-Borrowed a Cricut from my mom.
-Made 15 star cutouts and 15 '3' cutouts in about 5 minutes.
-Found patterned card stock in old pile from about five years ago.
-Did celebratory jig around kitchen.
-Assembled invitations.

I can honestly say that this project was one of my harder ones (most likely because of the expectations I put on myself - envisioning my nephew harboring bitter feelings well into his old age because his auntie didn't put together an invitation that he loved). But it was also one of the projects I was most satisfied with in the end.

Here is Jackson to display the final product for you:

He never told me if he liked them or not, but I think he seems pretty pleased in the pictures. :)

Here are some close-ups, taken courtesy of my brother-in-law:

The font is so fun (it's called Stereofidelic) and I adore the wording. RSVP to Star Command? Please. Too cute.

The next picture is my favorite. I thought my brother-in-law was just going to take a couple of quick shots of the invitation, but no. His creativity kicked in and he came up with this little gem of a picture:

Jackson has been talking about his rocket party for a while now - may it be just as much fun as he's hoped it would be!

To end this blog post, I want to introduce you to the newest member of Jack and Viv's family. Here is little Charleston. He's just two and a half months old and as cute as can be.

Oh, and little Charlie's already told me that he wants me to do all of his birthday party invitations. It was amazing...truly a miracle. A two and a half month old that chose to talk only to make this one request...what an advanced child! :)

Conor's Baptism

You may remember Melissa from this blog post. She used me for her baby shower invitations and was my first official customer. She is now my first official return customer as well. She contacted me a couple of months ago and asked if I would do the invitations for the baptism of her son, Conor. Um....yes, please.

What else can I say about this girl that I haven't already said? She is great and I love her. She is one of those people you want around when you have a bad day and you just need to stop, turn to someone, and say, "please say nice things to me now." She would do it and you would immediately feel better.

Mel gave me a price range and a color scheme and let me go to work (have I mentioned that she's super easy to work with?). Here's the final product:

(Confession: I have a really hard time thinking of things to say about each picture. Not just with this blog post, but every single one. I feel like I should have some witty comment or grand statement about the picture. I don't. Forgive me. I will try to get better.)

The best part of the whole process was that after I had dropped off the invitations to her and we were saying goodbye, she says, "Well...I'll be calling you again...maybe for Christmas cards!"

Oh, Mel. You are the best. :)