Jaime and Dan's Wedding Invitations

Seriously. I love these invitations. 

What I'm about to show you are by far the most simple invitations I've done this year. And they are great. So great that I do declare that if Luke and I have another wedding that these are the invites I would make for us (is it reasonable to renew our vows yearly just so I can make invitations for us?).

I worked with Jaime on her Save the Dates, which you can see here. Then I worked with her mom on her shower invites, which I blogged about here.  Then we started on her wedding invitations.

There have been a few times that I've worked on a design that I loved so much that I knew I'd be heartbroken if the bride responded with something like this:

"That's horrible."
"You're the worst."
"I literally want to punch you in the face right now."

(I should note that these are not quotes from actual emails.)

This was one of those times. I designed the invite and I loved it. And I really really really hoped she did, too.

Thankfully, that was the case. In fact - and I hope she doesn't mind me saying - she may have texted me and said that she cried when she saw them.  And I'm hoping that she meant cried in a good way (I never asked...maybe I should have).

Here they are.

Jaime wanted a very simple invitation in gray and a peachy color (just like her Save the Dates). I used Context Reprise Light, Allegro, and Currency Regular as our fonts. I made the flowers in Illustrator.

I love that Ampersand.

Short story - when a bride first referenced an ampersand, about a year ago, I had to look up what it meant. Apparently I need a glossary of terms to help me out with my designing...

So I bet you're thinking that that's it, right? But what you don't know is that hidden under this invitation...

...is a perforated RSVP card!!!!!!!

(Did anyone else get as excited as me?)

So here's the deal...Jaime just wanted an RSVP postcard that her guests could tear off and mail in. We put her address on the back and it saved a ton of money to not even have RSVP envelopes.

Jaime, I'm giving you a standing ovation right now.  In my kitchen.  By myself.

I just loved her idea and was so thrilled that she contacted me to bring it to life. And she's been an amazing bride to work with that I'll get to work with for a little while longer since I'll be doing some fun wedding extras for her. :)

Next week I'll be showing some moving announcements (ours!) and possibly having a few before and after pictures of the house. Yay!

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

Errrr...

Remember how I said I was going to post twice this week? Um...easier said than done.

It's 1:39 AM. Luke and I just got in bed after enjoying an evening with friends who are in town and staying with us for the night. And I just remembered that I was going to try to post another blog this week...and it didn't happen.

But between my post on Tuesday and now, the following things did happened:

-I finished assembling invitations for a huge wedding.
-I started/finished/sent three designs to clients for approval.
-I finished up two shower invites.
-I sent off two designs to be printed.
-I did my final tweaks on one of my wedding's extras in preparation to print this weekend.
-I continued to try and get our house together because I'm neurotic and can't stand to have boxes around and want them all to be gone and everything to be done/organized/in place right now! (I may be in need of some help.)

All that to say, it's been a crazy week. I've had to remind myself that everything does not have to be done right away. That every email doesn't have to be responded to right away. That every invitation project does not have to be done immediately after the bride sends her deposit in. That every room in our house doesn't have to be painted right now. That sometimes I can sit and just be. Just relax. Just chill out and not worry about the to-do list. Oh, boy...I'm saying all of this now and I'm not even adding kids into the mix yet. Yikes.

So...consider this the week's second post. It's just easier right now than uploading photos and making comments about them, which I fully intended to do because I have some projects that I've just done that I totally love. Because if I haven't said it before, I love what I do.

Yes, this will have to do for now. This is enough.

Kendra's Wedding Extras

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fathers Day weekend. I wasn't able to get a post up last week, so I thought I'd post twice this week. I mean, I received hundreds of emails/comments asking where my post was from last week, so I'm just trying to give the people what they want.

**Awkward silence.**

(In actuality, I received no emails/comments asking where last weeks' post was.)

In honor of Father's Day, before I get into Kendra's wedding extras, I'd like to share a conversation I had with my dad just this past weekend. 

My dad and I try to go out to lunch once each month, just the two of us. Our conversation is usually about one of the following things: family history, any interesting cases he is working on (he's an attorney), or who we would give our possessions to in the event that we die an untimely death. 

We ate at a local Japanese steakhouse that is literally less than a fourth of a mile from my new house.  After lunch, we get in the car, and in the two minute car ride back to the house, the conversation that started out with my dad suggesting I read both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 transitioned into this:

Dad: "Sometime in your generation, the government is going to completely take over. My advice to you? I have property up on a mountain in Tennessee. Go there, where they can't find you."

(Dad and Jennifer pull into Jennifer's driveway.)

Dad: "Alright, thanks for lunch! Love you!"

I'm still so confused.

But seriously, I simultaneously think my dad is the coolest and craziest guy I know. He is kind of like if you mixed Ron Swanson with Atticus Finch. He is a great dad and I'm fortunate to have him.

But I'm here to talk about a wedding. 

You may have read about Kendra and Bob's ombré wedding invitations here. Kendra and Bob live in NYC, but had their wedding a few weeks ago here in Michigan. They really wanted to bring a lake feel to their paper products, but do it ever so subtly. Kendra thought that bringing ombré into the paper products would be a great way to do it.  We did this with their wedding invitations and then it was time to focus on their wedding extras. 

(To clarify - wedding extras are things like programs, menus, place cards, seating charts, table numbers, favor tags...any paper products that you would use on your wedding day.)

We had three extras to think about - menus, programs, and place cards. Kendra, Bob, Kendra's mom, and I all met together one morning to talk about everything. Kendra knew exactly what she wanted and it was my job to bring her vision to life. 

First, the wedding menus.

Instead of having the ombré design on each individual menu (like we did with the invitations), Kendra wanted to actually have each menu printed on a different shade of blue card stock. When the menus were placed around the table, they would create an ombré effect.

How great is it that she wanted to use the outline of Michigan on the menus? And how fantastic does this food look?

Next up, her programs.

We only used three colors for the programs. Kendra was going to have these placed on the back of each chair so when you walked into the room, it would be a sea of blue.

Each program was a tri-fold so we had plenty of room to put everything that Kendra wanted to include in it.

We put the basic information on the front of the program.

When you opened it up, there was a quote that one of Kendra and Bob's close friends had written for their wedding day.

When the program was opened, you had the wedding party on the far left, the ceremony in the middle, and a thank you from Kendra and Bob on the final page.

Lastly, we made place cards in the same colors as we did the menus.

On the front was the guest's name and their table (the table names were Motown singers/groups...loved that). The back told which meal their guest had chosen.

Notice my foot in that one?

Kendra was one of the most creative brides to work with and I enjoyed working on her wedding so much. Congratulations, Kendra and Bob!

Harrison and YaJing's Baby Shower Invitations

There are some people that you don't see much anymore, but when you reconnect with them - even if it's just for a minute or two over the phone - it is encouraging and leaves you wishing you saw them more often.

I was thrilled to be able to work with one of those people on these shower invitations. I used to attend the same church as Janet, but haven't for the past 5 years or so. However, she and my mother-in-law are good friends and they've gone back and forth throwing showers for each other's children. This time the shower was for Janet's son, Harrison, and his wife, YaJing, who are expecting a baby. My mother-in-law was in charge of the invitations and she hired me (again!) and then had me work out the details with Janet.

Harrison and YaJing don't know the sex of their baby, so Janet wanted to keep the colors neutral. Other than that and the fact that YaJing really likes animals, Janet basically let me go to work. Here's the final product.

I used a font that I've been loving lately - Cafe Rojo - for the heading. For the invitation itself, I used Goudy Bookletter 1911.

I feel the need to stop and praise Envelopments and their amazing artwork that I have access to. Everything you see on this invitation is straight from their collection.

Another shout out: Amy Sayre Photography! My husband and I were in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend and got to stop and see Amy and her fiancé. I brought a few invitations and had her snap some pictures of them. All of the pictures in this post are from her.

Can I confess this instant that I love that little toucan?

I decided to add another little animal on the back of the invitations, with my website, of course.

I got the envelopes from Paper Source. If you haven't been to their website, go immediately. There is one Paper Source in Michigan (unfortunately, about 45 minutes from me) and I could spend hours looking through that store.

Janet was happy with how these turned out, which means I was happy, too. :)

In other news, we've officially moved! Things are coming together slowly but surely, y'all. And now that we are in the house, I'm more in love with it than I was before. I'm not super close to having good before and after photos, but when I do, I'll have to sneak them into a future post. :)

Mike's Mad Men Invitations

This is a blog post about a birthday party invitation, with some WE'REMOVINGIN2DAYS mixed in. If you are here to see a birthday party invitation and only a birthday party invitation, you've been warned.

To review, this happened...

Luke and I are the proud new owners of a little bungalow and we couldn't be more excited. So I have to admit that it's hard to think about anything right now aside from her (the house is clearly a she).

(Yes, there is a porch swing hanging on that porch, and yes, it will be left for us. When the previous owner texted to ask me if we wanted it, I replied with an enthusiastic "Oh, yes yes YES!" She may think I'm weird.)

We've actually been the owners since March 9. That's right...80-some days ago. Which means that I've had 80-some days to obsess over what colors to paint, how to decorate, what things to buy, what things to wait to buy, what to use each room for, and so much more.

But wait...this is a post about some Mad Men invitations. Right.

So one of my BFFs, Heidi, has a husband named Mike. You might remember Heidi and Mike from this post or this post. One thing about Heidi: she knows how to throw a party. So much so that she's started a blog called Parties for Pennies. She loves to host parties and save money at the same time. She's thrifty like that.

So when Heidi's husband was turning 40, she wanted to do something extra special for him. Since he likes the show Mad Men, she thought she'd use that as her theme. And she decided that she wanted to let everyone know about her party with an invite that set the tone. And...she came to me to do it. What a pal!

After much staring at Mad Men images that I found online (how you doin', Jon Hamm?), I gained the inspiration I needed to create what I hoped to be the perfect invitation.

{Psssst - this Mad Men invite is now available at Vivian Elle's Etsy Shop. Click here to visit and order it for your own party!}

Confession: Once again, I have stolen images from my beloved friend, Heidi. This was due to an unfortunate event that occurred a few days ago when I accidentally deleted every photo that I had uploaded to this blog post only to realize that I had also deleted them off of my camera. It just doesn't get better than that, folks.

While Heidi wanted me to make the invitations, she had a really cool idea for the envelopes, so she did those herself. They turned out perfectly and I will now steal another photo from her blog and show you them here.

My crafty friend inspires me all the time.

I am so grateful to Heidi that she would trust me with such an important event, and a successful one at that. You can check out how her party went here and here.

In conclusion, it now just needs to be stated that when I write my next blog post, we will be living in our new house. Most likely with just a bed, half painted walls, and a leftover pizza as our only food, but our new house nevertheless. I promise to not take over every blog post with some kind of Young House Love-ish post about all of the plans we have for our bungalow, but I cannot help it if one or two photos sneak in there...

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

Leanne's Baby Shower Invitations

Babies. 

I'm 31. Do you think that having babies has crossed my mind a time or two?

Unfortunately, I overanalyze anything and everything (to the point where my own father, who officiated our wedding, pointed this out to all of our guests during the ceremony...awesome). When Luke and I entered our second year of marriage, I remember I started thinking about babies a little bit more. Not ohmygoshgivemeababynow or anything, but I guess I started noticing that I liked them a lot more than I ever had. So I started thinking...am I ready to have one of my own?

Then I'd think that I don't want to wake up several times a night and be sleep deprived for the rest of my life. 

Then I'd think that having a little human running around that is a part of me and a part of my husband would be so cool.

Then I'd think that my husband and I won't get to spend as much time together, just me and him. 

Then I'd think of all the joy that a baby would bring to our lives.

And so on and so on. 

It's been several months since I entered into that second year of marriage, and I'm still not sure when I (or my husband) will be ready for our own little tyke, but I am always extremely happy for my friends that have made the transition to motherhood, and I love learning everything I can from them. And...I love making invitations for their baby showers (10 points for an amazing transition!).

(-25 points when you realize that this shower invite is for a girl I've never even met, making the introduction to this invitation baby-related word vomit.)

I helped Erin with her wedding invitations last summer. I had a great time working with her - she really was an extremely calm bride-to-be. She was very cool, collected, and I really liked how she did her hair.  A month or so ago, she came to me again to ask about doing baby shower invitations for a friend of hers. I, of course, took this as a great compliment (love me a return customer) and was more than happy to help out. 

Erin first sent me some pictures of her ideas for decorating. She was using blues, yellows, and reds. She had a million adorable ideas, but one stuck out to me in particular - these cute paper flower fans. 

(Not sure what I'm talking about? You can view them here, here, or here.)

I decided I just really liked them and that they couldn't be that hard to make on my own. I started creating the same paper flower fans in Illustrator and our shower invitation was born. 

I absolutely love the color scheme that Erin decided to use. Leanne and her husband are having a boy, but the color scheme isn't overly boy-ish at all. I give a solid thumbs up to that. I definitely believe that a girl shower does not equal all things pink, just like a boy shower doesn't have to be completely done in blue (or green, if you're really getting crazy).

The fonts? Arial Black and Context Reprise Light (this one's my current favorite). We used a dark blue envelope and white linen card stock.

All in all, I love my return customers and am forever grateful that they would actually use me again. And since I truly enjoy working with my brides, working with them a second time is pretty much a complete joy.

I've been doing more and more shower invitations, which I absolutely love. Stay tuned for some more in the coming weeks. :)

Abby and Seth's Wedding Extras

I met Abby several months ago now and we've been through a lot together in a little bit of time. First we worked on her wedding shower invitations. Then the wedding invitations. 

Last, but certainly not least, we have Abby and Seth's wedding extras. The programs, the menus, the table numbers, the seating chart...those extra things that help your guests figure out who those people are at the front of the church, where to sit at the reception,  and what they'll be eating. 

The best part about Abby and Seth's wedding extras? I actually attended this wedding, so I got to see them in action (in other words, looking nice in their respective places). 

You see, Abby married my father's cousin's son. So we are kind of related now. She might be my second cousin twice removed...I'm still not sure.

The wedding was beautiful. The food was fabulous. The bride was stunning. And it was so cool/weird to look everywhere and see work that I actually did. Seth and Abby used the custom frame that we come up with for their wedding invitations in so many aspects of the wedding. When we walked into the reception, they actually had it projected onto one of the walls. You might think I took a picture of that.  Not so. 

But I did take a picture of the extras that I had worked on. So let's roll these out, one by one. 

First, we have the programs. We kept everything consistent with the papers and fonts we already had used. We used a simple piece of 4x9 First Snow card stock to print the programs on. We had a lot to fit on there (16 members of the wedding party + the ceremony),  but we managed without having to use super tiny font. 

We also used the same size card stock for the menus. They set two of these at each table. Let me state again...the food was GOOD.

Here are the table numbers. We used the White Snow card stock and Majestic (purple) backing.

My mom even stole their table number and it sits on her dining room table to this very day. A thief, that one.

And finally, here's the seating chart. This was set outside of the reception, so guests could use it to find their tables. It's great to have everything in one place, and easy to reference because the names are in alphabetical order...especially helpful for larger weddings.

Their wedding favor to their guests was a photo booth. They even put the frame at the bottom, with their wedding date in it. My family loves a photo booth. I particularly love that half of my mom's face is covered by the horn on my husband's hat, and that my dad is just grinning from ear to ear in the background.

My family and I had a wonderful time at the wedding, and it made it even better that I had the chance to  get to know the bride beforehand. She's a wonderful girl and will be a great wife to my cousin.

Congratulations, Seth and Abby!