Message in a Bottle, Intimate Wedding at City Hall

Up next: Samantha and Mark!! In case you're not completely throwing up from hearing me say it over and over, I love the folks that call WNY their home. And I am thankful we live in an age where you can "meet" and get to know strangers in the crazy living room of Twitter in a way that was never possible before. That was how Samantha and I first met, probably volleying clever/stupid/snarky tweets back and forth, but when she asked me to do her invitations for her, I could not have been more thrilled. I had been wanting to do a boxed invitation for some time, and her intimate, extremely small, extremely personalized wedding lent itself perfectly. How to get over the shipping cost dilemma? She hand delivered each one! A manageable feat when you only have 25 invitations. Lets look, shall we?

 We wanted to tie a sort of "audience participation" element to the invites, so each package was tied neatly with a jute metallic twine, with a small, empty glass bottle on the outside. 

Once opened, there was a small slip of paper that requested that guests write on the back a message, a bit of advice, or a wish for the couple. They were then asked to roll up the piece of paper and slide it into the bottle, and keep it to bring with them to the wedding. Once at the reception, they hung it on the branches of a tree, which served as a lovely, very personal guest book.

Inside was also a feather, and a twig, tied together with the same metallic twine. The feather was a nod to Samantha's native heritage (the eagle feather is a symbol of her tribe) and the twig represented a story of her parents, who had both passed some years ago. It was a way for them to be a part of the wedding in a very real and emotional way. 

The invitation itself featured a drawing of City Hall, outlined in a metallic copper that matched the copper in the twine. Their information was short, sweet, and to the point.

Thank you, Sam and Mark, for asking me to create such a personal, emotional invitation for your wedding. I look forward to seeing your happy faces around town! 

Navy Downtown Chic

Back to blogging! We've made it all the way to last July, hooray! Here is Britney and Brendon's navy downtown chic suite. 

Britney and Brendon got married at the Hotel at the Lafayette, and they wanted their whole wedding to feel very "Buffalo." The main invitation featured a skyline of the city, the RSVP postcard had our drawing of the Hotel, and we drew Christ the King Chapel at Canisius {where they were having their ceremony} and a map for their additional insert. 

 We also designed and created fans for them. Apparently the Chapel gets VERY hot in July, and they didn't want any guests passing out! The back of the fans had a note of thanks, and info for parking at the Lafayette. 

Photo credit City Lights Photography

Photo credit City Lights Photography

Photo credit City Lights Photography

We also did placecards and table numbers for each of the tables! We love these table numbers so much, each table had a trio of frames, lit from the inside by a votive. In one frame was the table number, for example, table three, another frame had a photo of Britney at age three, and the last was a photo of Brendon at age three. And so on and so forth, all the way up through their wedding day! They were fab!

Britney and Brendon, I hope you enjoyed your first year of marriage as much as I enjoyed helping design your wedding! 

Table Names with a Super Twist

Okay, so normally I try to blog weddings in the order they happened, but for selfish and boring reasons not worth explaining, we're gonna jump in the TARDIS and skip ahead to October for JUST a tick. {Sorry, this post has me totally nerding out...}

Cassie and Roy came to me with my favoritest kind of problem: we have this amazing idea but we're not sure how to pull it off and still make it feel "wedding-y." They are both huge comic book fans, and make sure you get that right, NOT comic book MOVIE fans... since most of my knowledge is based on bad Hollywood interpretations of the comic books, there was quite a bit of schooling to be had on my part. 

Cassie and Roy wanted their table names to be super heroes, without feeling like a kid's birthday party. So their idea? Use the heroes' alias last names, coupled with a graphic/picture/illustration of something that would HINT at their superhero identity. And... okay, enough talking, just look at these amazing photos by Dawn M. Gibson Photography:

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Each superhero alias got a hand drawn illustration to hint at who they were, all supplied by Cassie and Roy {this is where the schooling came in.} The name and drawing were then used on the table cards, for each table, and on each place card with the guests' names.

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Photo by Dawn M. Gibson Photography

Um, so not only was it awesome, but it also turned into a guessing game for the guests. So cool. I love these so much, Cassie and Roy, thank you again for letting me create something so unique to you and your day. From what I saw of the rest of the photos it was a perfect, happy, gorgeous day for two amazing people. 

Windmills and Pinwheels

Our next wedding from 2013 is Lindsay and Bill's Lake Erie wedding on the beach. Woodlawn Beach is a gorgeous venue for a WNY beach wedding, and we were so excited Lindsay and Bill asked us to not only design their printed materials, but also coordinate their big day, so we got to see {and design} first hand how beautiful a beach wedding in Buffalo can be!

One of the coolest things about Woodlawn (in my opinion) is the view of the windmills down the "coast." Lindsay and Bill thought so too, so much so that they incorporated pinwheels as the major focus of their invitation and reception design, as a nod to, and reflection of, the giants themselves.

Photo by Shaw Photography

The color scheme for the wedding was based on the sunflowers they had decided to use as their main floral. So we used a bright, pearlized green layer for the invitations and programs, and the envelopes were a bright, beautiful gold. To reflect some of the rustic feeling of their event, we decided to print on a light kraft paper, and wrap everything in a jute twine, with a hint of metallic copper running through it. 

 We used a hand drawn illustration of a pinwheel throughout the design, with the watercolor-painted gold color in some places, and just the green line art in others. The oval return label on the back of their envelopes was also kraft, with green printing. 

Photo by Shaw Photography

We also had the great honor and privilege of being asked to coordinate their day. {Sidenote: to anyone getting married at Woodlawn, I definitely recommend a day-of coordinator, even if its not us! This locale has a lot of back and forth and moving parts, and it will just make your life much easier to let someone else worry about them!!}

One of our favorite parts of coordinating, besides getting to share in a sweet party on one of the happiest days in two people's lives, is hanging out with other wedding pros. Shout out to the amazing Christina and Brian Shaw of Shaw Photography. They are awesome; at what they do, and to hang out with - an important one-two-punch for choosing your wedding day photogs! If you are not familiar with their work yet, you should definitely check them out. 

Photo by Shaw Photography

Lindsay and Bill's wedding was on the beach; a GORGEOUS, intimate ceremony with a knot tying and their own vows. At the entrance to the beach, we set up a vintage picnic basket, where their fan programs sat on a bed of baby's breath, for guests to grab on their way down. It was a super hot day, so set up next to the programs was a cooler of bottled water on ice - SUCH a thoughtful touch by the bride's father!

Photo by Shaw Photography

We also made the favor tags for these adorable Coca Cola bottle and straw favors Lindsay and Bill put together themselves. So perfect, in the late June heat?? These did not last long...

Photo by Shaw Photography

Photo by Shaw Photography

Lindsay and Bill, thank you so much for inviting us to design so many parts of your beautiful day, and for asking us to be there with you to pull it all off. You guys are an amazing, fun couple, and we wish you 100 years of happiness together!! 

OH WAIT, did I mention they had a zombie cake???

Photo by Shaw Photography

 So awesome. The End.

Shades of Neutral

Well, at long last, here I am BACK AT BLOGGING!! I am thrilled to say 2013 was such a whirlwind for us that I just could not find the time {make the time} for blogging, but one of my New Year's Resolutions for 2014 is to BLOG REGULARLY!! For realsies. So, without further ado, we'll start with the beginning of last year's wedding season with Chris and Tori. 

Now I have said, more than once, that one of my favorite things in the whole world is when a client says, "This might be a crazy idea but..." Because whatever follows ALMOST ALWAYS ends up being the coolest part of their invitation! {For example, the Whitehouse wax seal.} So whenever someone says that to me, it makes me giddy, because I know something awesome is going to happen.

Chris and Tori love baseball. Not one team, just BASEBALL in general. They have been to almost every MLB park in the country... so they thought it would be cool to incorporate something about that into their invitation. Admittedly, sports is THE HARDEST thing for me to incorporate into weddings without it coming off like a kid's birthday party. But this, I love. Check out our letterpressed laces petal card. 

It was subtle, and not everyone caught it, but the ones who did LOVED it. And of course it was a special detail that meant a lot to the couple, and part of what made their truly custom invitation all about them!

Topping the folded petal card was a circular monogram featuring their initials.

When the whole thing was opened, you saw their enclosure cards tied with a delicate pale green bow. Tori has an amazing garden...  the most amazing garden you could imagine outside of the Botanical Gardens. She wanted inspiration from the garden incorporated into the design, so the only bit of color outside of their shades of nude was this green.

Since their reception was being held at the Hotel Lafayette, they wanted their design to have a cool art deco feel to it, while incorporating some floral aspects, inspired by the flowers in Tori's garden. We ended up with a design that was graphic and floral without being too feminine, and art deco without looking like it came out of The Great Gatsby. We also played around with a range of fonts, which always creates a really interesting look all on its own.

The invitation itself was double mounted, with a cream pearlized layer and a cocoa pearlized layer, to contrast with the heavy texture in the petal fold and the watercolor textured paper we printed on.

And last, but not least, the envelopes. Tori and Chris opted for our pearlized, patterned lined envelopes, and they just make me SWOON. Even after the glue and the paper cuts of lining 175 outer envelopes and 175 rsvp envelopes by hand, I still love them to death. They just add the most elegant touch.

Oh yes! We also did these super clever place cards - Tori and Chris gave each couple a mini potted succulent to take home, and in each was this little post with their name and table number on it! Such a sweet little detail, and carrying the theme through to the reception, which we ALWAYS love!

Chris and Tori, your wedding looked spectacular, thank you so much for asking us to be a small part of it. Your impeccable taste and attention to detail is what made this piece shine, and you were both truly a pleasure to work with!

{This post is SO overdue, C + T just welcomed their beautiful baby girl to the world, so DOUBLE CONGRATULATIONS to you both!!!!}

Sinatra Style

When I first met with Mark and Mary, they described the feel they wanted their wedding to have with words like "Old vineyard class" and "Sinatra Style." They were possibly our most organized couple of 2012! They knew exactly what they wanted, and we were thrilled to be able to put what they had in their brains onto paper. These were the invitations that we all agreed expressed those words best!

 

The invitation was decorated with a simple grape and vine line drawing at the top and border. The pocketfold was closed with a hand drawn B monogram.

 

 We also designed place cards and menus for their reception at Salvatore's Italian Gardens.
They also had the vineyard graphic and wine color paper and fonts.

Carrying the winery theme, Mary made wine charms as favors for all of the guests. She and her guests enjoyed it so much, she opened up an Etsy shop of her own! Check it out!!

 Congratulations, Mark and Mary, and thank you for letting us be a part of your beautiful, Sinatra-esque day.

Sparkle Sparkle!

So, my sister Kacie is seriously hilarious. She loves things that sparkle, shine, blink; she's our little magpie. So of course her wedding had to be covered in diamonds... literally.

Kacie's invitations were silver letterpressed onto super soft suede-like black paper. We started out with an idea of doing paper lanterns, but in the end opted for a more graphic theme.

The black card was mounted on a silver layer, then onto a red panel pocket. In the back pocket was the response envelope (letterpressed by the groom himself!!), the response card (letterpressed by the bride!) and the reception card. I loved how Mike and Kacie wanted to get in on the action!! Each pocket was finished off with a small jewel (a detail that would be carried throughout all the printed pieces!)

The programs were simple double sided black and white prints, mounted on red layers, with that small jewel embellishment again!

 For the reception, we did table number menu combinations, a piece we've done a few times this year, and I simply love it! The reception was at Banchetti's by Rizzo's, and their Family Style dinner was absolutely WONDERFUL! And so much fun to share, it really gave dinner such a relaxed, family feeling, while still being delicious and elegant!

More bling:

We also did the centerpieces, the candy bar, and all the flowers! Luckily, Ben, at Banchetti's, was so awesome to work with, he basically gave us the three days before the wedding to set up, all at our own pace. Which definitely helps when the designer is IN the wedding! PHEW!

Photo by Stephie Lei Photography

The bride's bouquet:

Photo by Stephie Lei Photography

Please enjoy these awesome iPhone photos: (I know, I am THE WORST)

Thank you so much, Kacie and Mike, for letting me be a part of your special day. You both looked amazing, and I don't think I've ever seen such a happy couple in my life!! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness and health, we love you so much. :)