FAQ: Tricky Wedding Wording

I get asked a lot of questions about wedding invitations, naturally. One of the things I've wanted to do for a while now is come up with a series of blog posts that I can point my brides to when they ask these questions. So today is the day, my friends.

The numero uno question I get from my brides goes something like this:

My mom and dad are divorced and my mom is remarried, but my dad isn't HOW THE HECK DO I WORD MY WEDDING INVITATION?!

(In actuality, no brides have freaked out this bad. But you get the point.)

So I'm going to answer these (and other commonly asked) questions in a series of blog posts that I'm brilliantly calling 'FAQs.' I even made a graphic for the occasion.

You'll see that baby again, let me tell you.

So, let's go over some general wording, and then we'll get into those tricky situations.

First, some traditional wording examples.

(Side note: A lot of brides come to me and say, "my mom wants us to have her and my dad's names on the invitation." This is said with an exasperated tone - you know, that one you use when your own mother wants you to do something but you just don't get it.

Here's what I usually say to those brides:

1. It's completely normal for parents to want to be listed on a wedding invitation, especially because they are usually contributing financially.

2. Your wedding invitation can still be designed in a fun and unique way even if there are one or two more lines factored in. In other words: don't fight that battle.)

OK, so now let's look at some examples.

Traditional Wording (if bride's parents are hosting):

Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Wallace

request the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of their daughter

Jaime Noelle
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Traditional Wording (if groom's parents are hosting):

Mr. and Mrs. James Rice

request the pleasure of your company
as they witness the marriage of

Jaime Noelle Wallace

to their son

Tristen Robert

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand thirteen
at five o'clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Traditional Wording (if both sets of parents are hosting):

Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Wallace &
Mr. and Mrs. James Rice

request the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of their children

Jaime Noelle
and
Tristen Robert

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Traditional Wording (if you and your significant other are hosting):

The pleasure of your company
is requested at the marriage of

Jaime Noelle Wallace
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Divorced Parent Hosts Alone


Ms. Jane Wallace

requests the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of her daughter

Jaime Noelle
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Divorced Remarried Parent Hosts


Mr. and Mrs. Richard Veltri

request the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of her daughter

Jaime Noelle Wallace
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Divorced Remarried Parent Hosts, both parents included


Richard and Jane Veltri

requests the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of

Jaime Noelle
daughter of Philip Wallace
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Divorced Remarried Parents Host Together

Mr. and Mrs. Philip Wallace
and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Veltri

requests the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of their daughter

Jaime Noelle Wallace
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Widowed Parent Hosts


Mrs. Jane Wallace

requests the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of her daughter

Jaime Noelle
daughter of the late Philip Wallace
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Widowed Remarried Parent Hosts

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Veltri
requests the pleasure of your company
at the marriage of the daughter of
Mrs. Veltri and the late Philip Wallace

Jaime Noelle
to
Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of August
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

*If the groom is the one with a deceased parent, you would just list "Son of Mrs. Jane Doe and the late John Doe" right under the groom's.

Now that we've figured out a lot of different ways to traditionally word your wedding invitation, let's look at some modern examples.


Modern Wording Examples:

Together with their families

Jaime Noelle Wallace &
Tristen Robert Rice

Request the pleasure of your company
at their wedding ceremony

August 3, 2013
5:00 in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
We are in love &
are getting married

Please join us to celebrate

Jaime Noelle Wallace
& Tristen Robert Rice

August 3, 2013
Five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Because you have shared in our lives
with your friendship and love, we

Jaime Noelle Wallace
& Tristen Robert Rice

together with our families
invite you to share in our
wedding day

Saturday, the third of august
two thousand and thirteen
at five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall
480 South Adams Road
Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Please join us to celebrate

the wedding of

Jaime Noelle Wallace

and

Tristen Robert Rice

Saturday, the third of august

Two thousand and thirteen

At five o’clock in the evening

Meadow Brook Hall

480 South Adams Road

Rochester, Michigan

Reception to follow

Hopefully this post is helpful. Remember that wording is small part of the process so don't spend too much time worrying about it. If there's a chance you might offend someone, my advice is always to just go ahead and list them. Don't create a rift in a relationship over the wording on your wedding invitation. Your invitation can still be spectacular, even if the wording isn't 100% exactly how you had envisioned it in the first place. :)

FAQs:

To look at some popular wedding fonts, go here.
To figure out how to address your envelopes, go here. 

Emily and Joseph's Mackinac Island Save the Dates

Well, hello, faithful blog readers! I just want to take a quick second today to show you some Save the Dates that I am pretty smitten with.

I met with Emily a month or so ago and we talked all about her gorgeous Mackinac Island wedding (for those of you who aren't Michiganders, it's pronounced Mac-eh-naw). After picking out the card stock she would use for her invitations, Emily took a few of the same pieces and decided to use them for her Save the Dates.

Emily really liked the idea of a ferry ticket Save the Date (not to be confused with a fairy Save the Date - I was telling my sister-in-law about Emily's wedding last week and she thought they were having a Tinkerbell wedding :)). In order to get to Mackinaw Island, you have to take a ferry, so the ferry ticket style seemed to fit. 

Here's what we came up with.

The patterned paper you can see is actually the back of the Save the Date - like, when you turn it over, that's what you see. I got to play around with so many different fonts for this one - Allura, Rosewood Std, Clarendon Bold Condensed, Currency Regular, and League Gothic.

I also just really had the urge to put a bike on the Save the Date. A common thing to do on the island is to bike around it, so it seemed like the right thing to add on. I was so thankful that when Emily saw the design for the first time, she commented on how bike riding was one of her and Joseph's favorite things to do on Mackinac Island. 

Envelopments' patterned papers are absolutely gorgeous. Check out this close-up.

I'm loving this color combo - perfect for a summer wedding on an island.

So consider this your sneak peak of Emily's wedding invitations. I think she picked out beautiful colors and I can't wait to see how it all comes together once everything is completed.

On Thursday I'm going to start a series of frequently asked questions - first up is how to figure out tricky wording on your wedding invitations.

See you then!

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

James and Stacey's Wedding Invitations

It's time to post some wedding invitations, y'all!

This is going to be a quick post, mostly because I was away this weekend (more on that later...) and I've been playing catch up all morning. So while I was going to post about my weekend today (and show off a baby announcement at the same time), I'm going to do a little swicheroo and post about my trip later in the week when I have some pictures to show. 

Side note - I am horrible at taking pictures. If I had just decided to post about my trip this weekend with the pictures I took, it would be three pictures of a historic library (which I took for my dad), one picture of a friend standing in front of an inappropriate statue (you're never too old, yo), and one picture of the sweetest little girl that I had the pleasure of hanging out with for a good part of the trip.  Oh, heck. I'll post that one now. Let it be a little sneak peek of what I did this weekend. There were children involved. 

Two things: how cute are those boots and can you see that strawberry hat? ADORABLE. 

But back to wedding invitations. Coral and navy are one of the hot color combos right now, and it just so happens that the first invitation suite I made this year went right along with this trend. 

Here is James and Stacey's wedding suite. 

We decided to bring in the coral with some flower artwork and the envelopes. I loved that they used a navy pocketfold.

Yes, this is actually a pocketfold invitation, though it may not look like it at first. When James and Stacey's guests turn the invitation over, this is what they'll see. 

We kept it simple with one insert and an RSVP. We combined directions and accommodations onto one piece of cardstock.

Then we added in a cute little RSVP card. I love that they wanted to go with "Will you be our Guest?" instead of the normal "RSVP" or "Kindly Reply."

On the left side of the directions card, we created a little map so guests could easily find their way from the church to the reception. It was such an easy route that it's probably just better to look at the map instead of put it in your GPS. And a map is always fun, right?

So wedding invitation season is officially kicked off and I'm so very excited about it! I have such unique invitations this year and can't wait to share them. :)

Next week I'm going to show off a Save the Date and start a new series on FAQs about wedding invitations. On Thursday I'll be right back here to show off the baby announcement for a little guy that I finally got to meet this past weekend. See you then!

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

Brayden and Conor's Birthday Party Invites

Birthdays as a kid were the best.

I remember waking up on my birthday as a child and the "birthday ferry" had come. My room was completely decked out with streamers and balloons and it started off my entire day as a celebration. It probably cost my parents - errrr...I mean the "birthday ferry" - very little money, but it made me feel like I was the most special thing in the world.

Melissa reminds me of my own parents. I used to work with her and she is one of those moms who you know just loves her kids to death and wants to do anything to make sure that on their birthdays, they feel like the luckiest kids alive.

So Melissa came to me to create the perfect birthday invitation for a joint party she was doing for her two little boys at a gym. Here's what we came up with.

I've worked with Melissa enough to know that she loves to have invitations that match the theme of the day, without being too "little kid-ish." I knew if I sent her an invitation with a big teddy bear on it she would most likely fire me immediately. So instead we went for modern rainbow chevrons (man, I hope those never go out of style). 

I love how fun and happy these invites are, while also being distinctly for a boy's party. 

Melissa wanted to announce the ages of her two boys somewhere, but it just didn't seem to fit on the actual invite. Instead, we added their ages to a bunch of balloons on the envelope.

Melissa's boys are so fortunate. I wholeheartedly believe that every child should have someone in their lives that loves to celebrate them, and she certainly does that for her little boys.

Next week I'll share about a fun little trip I'm about to take this weekend and show off a little baby announcement I did for one my BFFs. And then...weddings!

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

2013 Goals

If you recall, last year I did a little post on my goals for 2012. Specifically goals for this little business of mine. Well, I found out something by doing that - sharing goals publicly is really helpful. 

You see, I only shared two of my goals from last year, even though I always make five. And you know how many I actually accomplished? 

That's right, people. Two. The two that I shared right here on this blog. 

I did so poorly with the other three goals that I gave myself a flat out 0% on two of them. One of them was to do yoga weekly. I literally did not do more than one minute of yoga the entire year. 

So this year I'm publicly declaring all five of my goals for 2013, in hopes that doing so helps me achieve them. Because it's a few months into the year now and I came up with these goals at the end of last year, I was able to look at them again and revise them as needed (which just meant I added another goal and merged two existing goals together). 

So here goes. 2013 goals, declared right here, right now. 

I joined Etsy in October. I was pleasantly surprised by my first few months and I want to continue doing better in 2013.

I'm really still just trying to figure everything out though. There are some things that have surprised me - in both good and bad ways - that I'm still adjusting to. But overall, I think it's worth continuing on for now. 

As far as new designs you can expect to see by the end of the year, here are some specifics:

1. Have 10 pre-designed wedding suites (I have 4 so far)
2. Have 10 pre-designed wall prints
3. Have 10 pre-designed Save the Dates that match the wedding suites

This is primarily a goal for my business, but a little positivity in anyone's life is always good, right? To be honest, it was pretty easy to stay positive last year. I don't know how it happened, but I was constantly receiving the answer "yes!" and I felt like I was being encouraged like crazy in my first year of business. It's not that this year hasn't gone well or I haven't been as encouraged, but 2013 has brought new and different challenges. And the newness of last year is wearing off and now I'm dealing with the actual ups and downs of having your own business. 

In addition, for the last several months I've been dealing with a lot of restlessness. I'm not sure what it is, but even if I have several things I should be doing, there's been this restless feeling in my heart. 

(Side note - my first thought when this happened was naturally MAYBE IT'S TIME TO PROCREATE! After much contemplation and a talk or two with my boo, we realized that it's just not the time for us. For right now, I have to deal with this restlessness without trying to fill it with a huge life-altering change.)

But because of feeling this way, early in the year I found myself dwelling on all of the wrong things. So my thoughts were like this:

Why didn't that bride email back/why did that bride cancel and never reschedule/why does it seem like things are starting off slow? 

instead of 

I have way more projects this year/I started off the year with zero debt/I'm more efficient/brides are saying yes/I still love what I do. 

It's much easier to focus on the negatives than the positives, so here's my action plan when I'm doing that:

When I'm starting to dwell on something negative, I immediately do one of two things:

1. think of something positive that's going on in the business
2. think of something I can do for someone else

This takes a bit of mental training, but it's what I've been doing this year, and it's been working so far. Positivity 2013!

In case you haven't been reading this blog for long, I was so honored this year to be selected by brides as one of the Best of the Knot 2013. I even have the plaque to prove it!

My goal is to be awarded this honor again next year, which means I need to keep focusing on my brides and making sure that their experience with me is the best it can be. 

Specifically, EXERCISE.

I got off track this winter. I need to bring it back around.

This goal is going really well so far. In fact, after nagging my husband for all of January and the better part of February, he joined the gym with me. Nagging works, my friends. Huzzah!

Having my husband go with me to the gym has made a world of difference. My membership started back up at the beginning of February (I put it on hold because I like to be outside as much as possible) and before Luke joined, I went once in a two week period. Since Luke has joined (about 15 days ago), we've gone nine times. It's hard to work it in during the week, but we're trying to be proactive and do the best we can.

I also signed up to run the Detroit Free Press Marathon this October. At this point, I'm just trying to get back into shape by running on the treadmill and lifting some (10 pound...please, hold your applause) weights, but when it gets nice I will start doing an actual training schedule outdoors. I've done two half marathons before, but never a full. I'm scared.

It struck me at the end of last year that I work really hard to make sure that my house is put together nicely, but I don't necessarily do the same for my own appearance. Now, I promise you that I don't go out looking like a frumpy hag all the time, but I could just do a little better when it comes to my fashion sense. This doesn't mean I'm going to go out and spend a ton of money on clothes this year, it just means that I'm going to put a little more thought into what I wear in public (because you know I'm still rocking the sweatpants and oversized t-shirt when I'm at home) and try to buy pieces that go really well together.

So that's it. Hopefully some over-sharing of my goals this year will help me achieve them and it was kind of therapeutic, to tell you the truth. Thanks for listening!

Later this week I have a super cute birthday invitation to share. And weddings are right around the corner...I'll be sharing some awesome invites and save the dates in the near future! :)

Kitty Haw Vintage's Calling Cards

My friend, Trish, opened her very own Etsy Shop a few months ago. I was naturally giddy, and just so glad to have a fellow Etsy shop owner that I already knew and loved.

Trish's shop is called Kitty Haw Vintage (named after her great-grandmother) and it is the perfect fit for her. For as long as I can remember, she has always been in love with all things vintage, so to see her take that love and make an Etsy Shop out of it was so cool.

When you visit her shop (which you can do here), you'll see all kinds of different vintage pieces. Dresses, coats, shoes...she even has a 1970's R2 Sweet Tooth Cookie Jar for crying out loud. Her shop is cool, people.

Here are a few of the things you'll see when you visit. Click on any of the links to go straight to the listing.

1970's Rainbow Sundress // A Day in May Dress

Vintage 60's floral and starburst cups

80's Pop Star Black and White Checkered Pumps

Trish seriously has such great style - make sure to visit Kitty Haw to see for yourself (but then come back here so I can show you what she had me do for her shop. :)).

About a month ago, Trish contacted me to help her with her business cards. Only she didn't want business cards at all. She wanted something to match the vintage-ness (not a word, I'm pretty sure) of her shop, so she wanted more of a calling card. Like the cards that people would give each other back in the day that pretty much just said their name. I loved the idea and was super excited Trish came to me to make it happen.

Here are the calling cards that we came up with.

We made the front nice and simple, with just Trish's name.

How much do I love the 'Remember Me' up in the corner? See it there, just nice and subtle?

Since we don't live back in the day when you can just leave your name with someone and they can most likely find you easily, we thought we'd add a back to the cards with Kitty Haw's website address.

The map is something that Trish's boo found for her. It's an old school map of Detroit.

This was truly a unique project and I loved that Trish contacted me to carry out her plan. :)

So seriously, go now to the following and check out Kitty Haw Vintage for yourself:

Kitty Haw Vintage on Etsy
Kitty Haw Vintage's website
Kitty Haw Vintage on Facebook

If you see something you like on Etsy, make sure to 'like' Kitty Haw on Facebook to get 10% off your order. :)

Wall Prints

This past week, a friend and fellow blogger featured our house on her blog.  Lexi, from Clean, Smart, Simple Style is starting a series of home tours and she asked if I'd participate. Since I love any excuse to 1. talk about my house and 2. clean my house, I gladly obliged and sent her some photos. You can see how she put the pictures together here. 

As I prepared everything for the home tour, I noticed that there were several wall prints that I just hadn't taken the time to show on this blog yet. And then I realized that I've done a few more wall prints for other people that I haven't shown on this blog yet. So I thought it was high time to get these wall prints out there for the people to see.

It just so happens that the first one I did was for Lexi, from Clean, Smart, Simple Style. Lexi came to me before Christmas wanting to know if I could help her make a gift for her brother. He lives in Austin, Texas, where their motto is "Keepin' it Weird."

The frame is mine; I just threw the print in there for picture taking reasons. I absolutely love how Lexi's print came out, maybe because I was born in Texas so it means something to me, too. :)

Back in the fall of 2012, my sister-in-law, Heather, also asked me to do a print for her. She was preparing to teach special education that year and she wanted a quote to hang up in her classroom.

The quote is so powerful and really shows the heart my sister-in-law has for her students. :)

I also did a print for the best friend's wedding last October. All of us bridesmaid's chipped in to share our favorite memories of Amy. I put it all together for her and then I gave it to her sans frame when I saw her a few months after the wedding because I completely forgot to give it to her on her wedding weekend. #MOHfail #toomuchonmymind #aremultiplehashtagsstillcool?

Photo by Amy Sayre Photography

The next three are prints I did for our own house. The first hangs in our "wall of frames" hallway, and is so meaningful to me because I LOVE the quote.

Here it is right in the middle of a bunch of photos. I love how it breaks the photos up and adds a little interest to the frame gallery.

The second one is hanging in my office, but for some reason I took a picture of it on the floor.

A huge thing I've learned from this business is the benefit of being proactive. This quote speaks to me on what proactivity really is and my office seemed like the perfect place to put it.

The last print is an idea I got from Young House Love. I've long admired the magazine monogram print they hung up in their hallway.

Image from Young House Love

When I read about how they did it, I knew it would just be easier to do it myself using Adobe Illustrator. I took a look at one of our Harry Potter books and basically just designed what I saw.

For all you Harry Potter fans out there, the chapter I used was the one when Harry first meets Dobby (though Luke initially thought it was from a love story because of "May I take you..." It's actually "May I take your coat" :)).

This print now sits on top of a book shelf in our living room.

So those are the wall prints I've done. I actually get asked about doing prints quite often, so if you're interested in me designing something for you to hang on your walls, just shoot me an email and we can chat.

I'll be back on Thursday with some unique business cards that I did for a really cool Etsy shop. :)