Leah and Steven's Cooking Challenge Library Card Shower Invitations

How do you like that blog post title?

Alright, a little insight into designing an invitation:

Some invitations come together rather smoothly. I chat with my client, they tell me what they want, and somehow I give them something that they like. 

Other invitations take a little more work. Like this one. 

When a past bride, Erin, came to me to make these shower invitations for a cooking challenge shower (how fun is that?) for her sister-in-law, she also threw in the fact that she knew the wedding would have books and doilies. For some reason, this just wasn't all connecting in my head, and the perfect invitation wasn't coming together at all.  I would design a little and then take a break and then design a little more and then take an even longer break.

But then I thought that maybe - just maybe - books and cooking could go together by designing an old library cook book card and then things started moving. We covered books, cooking, and the vintage touch that doilies bring in one fell swoop.

And that's how this invitation came together. When I sent the draft off, it was one of those instances where I knew that my dear recurring client would be happy. :) And she was.

This was my week of catching up on the blog and I feel good about the result. There are many more projects to come in the next few weeks, but for now my husband and I are off to Denver to hang out with some friends and hopefully spend a good amount of time relaxing. Happy Easter!

Laura and Scott's Wedding Shower Invitations and Matching Recipe Cards

For the past few weeks, my life has involved a lot of assembling and handing projects off to brides, which means that I haven't had the chance to get on here and post. This week, I'm making up for lost time by posting several different projects. I'll wrap up tomorrow with a shower invitation and then my husband and I will be heading out for a little vacation. :) :) 

So, today I have an elegant wedding shower invitation accompanied by a matching recipe card. Laura and her fiancé, Scott, met with me on one of those snow apocalypse days back in January, and we chatted about their elegant black and white wedding invitations. But before the wedding invites, we needed to take care of the wedding shower invitations. 

Fonts are Adobe Garamond Pro and Coventry Script.

The recipe cards were mailed with the invitations for the guests to bring with them to the shower.

I thought that this was such a special way to build a collection of favorite recipes from close friends and family (as someone who could always use some help in the kitchen, I know I would appreciate this).

Tomorrow I'll be back with one last project for the week. Stay you then. :)

Katie and Tim's Modern Michigan Wedding Invitations

Oh, this invitation. It's one of my favorites. Of all time. Let's get right to it.

So, Katie...the bride? I've never met her. Never even talked with her. Her step-mom has been filling in as planner extraordinaire while Katie's been off at grad school and so all of my communication has been with her. We basically chatted on the phone, she told me what she wanted, and this is what the end result was. 

As usual, I adore couples who want to use Michigan somehow in their wedding. We made a little custom monogram using the bride and groom's initials and the silhouette of Michigan.

See the 'Will You Celebrate With Us?' card? That's the front of the RSVP postcard.

We used Bebas and Novecento Wide fonts.

More invites to come this week! Stay tuned. :)

Melissa and Tommy's Vow Renewal Invitations

Melissa has done my hair for years now and a few months ago as we were rambling on (as is customary with your hairdresser), she mentioned that her and her husband were going to renew their vows. 

Melissa and her husband, Tommy, will have been married 10 years this coming May, and they want to celebrate. They got married when they were young and they felt like at the time they had a lot of people that weren't exactly rooting for them.  But 10 years and 5 kids later, they're still going strong, so they're inviting their friends and family to come and celebrate with them on their 10 year anniversary. She asked me to do the invitations and here's what we came up with.

Like I said, I've known Melissa for years, so she basically said to me, "my colors are pink and champagne and you know my style" and then let me get to work. I love these types of clients. :)

Fonts are Bombshell Pro and Champagne and Limousines.

I absolutely love this. There are times I think that the vows my husband and I said at our wedding almost 5 years ago would mean so much more if we said them to each other today. I can imagine it would be even more significant in 5 more years and with 5 more kids (no, mom). Congratulations (again) to the happy couple. :)

Amy Sayre Photography's Gift Cards

There are so many moments in life that are worth capturing.  Having access to a good photographer that can capture these moments is essential.  But what if you don't know of a photographer? Or what if you do know one, but just don't have the funds at the moment to pay for one? That's where today's project comes in. 

Last year, Amy from Amy Sayre Photography came to me because she wanted to make sure that she had gift certificates available for purchase. She gave me some wording and here's the finished product. 

So...I have to stop this display of photos (taken by Amy Sayre Photography) to draw your attention to the texture of these gate cards in Pecan Barque. Does paper get any better than this?

Amy wrapped each card with ribbon.

And put them in these box mailers from Rice Studio Supply.

All set and ready to be sent out to make some people very happy.

All images from Amy Sayre Photography.

Rachelle's Baby Shower Invitations

This Saturday, we'll host a special event at my parent's house. One of my cousins is expecting a baby - the same cousin that I did these Christmas card/"We're Pregnant!" announcements for - and we're throwing her a shower.

My mom and I get excited about planning showers, so we pretty much immediately offered to team up with my cousin's mom and sister (my aunt and cousin, obvi) to help plan the shower. We got together and talked about the theme and what we would do, and then we divided all of the tasks up. Naturally, I was in charge of most of the paper products (I may have said something like, "uhhh...I'll do paper. Please don't make me cook."). 

So the first paper product were the invitations. Here they are. 

Will I pair gray with everything until the day it goes out of style (and then maybe even some more)? Yes.

Fonts are Chunk Five, Champagne and Limousines, and Allura.

It's always fun to have something to celebrate, and have a good excuse to get together with family.  Many more fun baby shower paper products to come. :)

Fiscal Fitness Pheonix Infographic - How to Make a Budget

Let's break away from all wedding related things for a second. I have to show off something that I just recently finished working on with Kelsa from Fiscal Fitness Phoenix. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I helped Kelsa rebrand Fiscal Fitness Phoenix last year. I've loved all of the projects we've worked on, but this particular one has impacted me personally.

This infographic is the method that Kelsa teaches to all of the people that come to her in need of financial counseling. It is Fiscal Fitness Phoenix's way of budgeting and it's the reason why so many people described Kelsa's business as enlightening, top-notch, and empowering. 

This budget is life-changing. I know because shortly after I skyped with Kelsa to get the information for this infographic, I convinced my husband to completely re-budget our finances using the Fiscal Fitness Phoenix way. Even if you think you have everything together with finances, I would encourage you to take a look and see how this method of budgeting could radically transform your finances.