Design, Coordination, and Mandatory Dancing

OKAY, let's keep this blog train a-rolling! (Alright, to be fair 2 posts in one month wouldn't really be considered "rolling" but let's go with it, shall we?)

Next up we have Amy and Steve. Sometimes weddings make me sad, because they mean the end of a really long, fun road I get to go along with - often - a new friend! We started with Amy all the way back in 2012 with her Save the Dates, and when our first meeting took almost two hours (they usually last about 45min to an hour) I knew we were kindred spirits. Ridiculous, hilarious, kindred spirits.

The paper they chose, and used throughout the whole wedding design, was this beautiful bright white, column textured paper. It was such a nice compliment to the classic black and white designs.

We were lucky enough to be asked to do Amy's total wedding design, from the invitations, to the centerpieces, the flowers, even the linens. But first, the invitations! Amy and Steve decided on a black, white and silver color palate, with touches of deep kelly green. Colors that coordinated beautifully with their chosen venue, Asbury Hall.

We are by no means a "letterpress studio" but my little Kelsey tabletop does give me the opportunity to offer touches of letterpress to our digital designs. Enter this gorgeous silver monogram. Pressed into the already textured column paper, against the black and deep green, it adds a spectacular little pop of sophistication.

There was a lot of info to convey with these invites, so we opted for a black pocketfold. We weren't quite sure initially how we were going to display all those cards in a horizontal pocket, until one morning in the shower the idea struck me to have each card tiered and at an angle! {Doesn't everyone do all their best thinking in the shower?}

We had an additional silver letterpress element on the inside! We pressed Amy and Steve's names onto each of the invitation cards, which were then mounted on a green layer, and then a silver one. 

Here you can see each of the cards, along with a place card, and the program. You can see we letterpressed their monogram again on the programs, hooray!!

I think my favorite part of the cards is where it says "Mandatory Dancing."  

SO, we didn't necessarily attend Amy and Steve's wedding to coordinate as much as we were invited to attend as guests... I mean what greater feeling in the world is there to get invited to a wedding you've helped design? There is none, FYI. We did do a bit of "making sure everything ran smoothly," but we also did our share of partying and "mandatory dancing."

SIDENOTE on the "mandatory dancing": Amy and her sister were long time dancers, and as adults teachers at a dance school. Seeing an entire bridal party and half the guest list do the Thriller dance from beginning to end = perfection.

Photo by Nickel City Studios

As for the rest of the details, I told you already Amy is hilarious. She's also really smart, and loves books, so obviously for her centerpieces she had to get roses made from the pages of the Princess Bride. {What? Yes.} 

All the guest and entry tables had these hand made paper flowers {I cannot for the life of me find the link to the Etsy seller who made them!!} 

Photo by Nickel City Studios

So remember last time when I said sitting at the vendor table is pretty much the funnest part of my job? Especially when its with awesome photographers? Rich and Alyssa from Nickel City Studios  are definitely one of our favs because they are so much fun and seriously, they always make what we do look so cool... Thank you to them for these gorgeous reception photos. Asbury Hall is dark, and not very friendly to regular {read: iPhone} cameras.

Photo by Nickel City Studios

We did half of the centerpieces high, with these lovely tall vases, wrapped in lace and satin. The other half were lower, with urns filled with white sand and taper candles. Here is a terrible photo of it from my iPhone (I'm sorry, my photos will be better next year, I promise!):

Also, as you can sort of see in the above photo, but better in the photo below, we had silver free-standing numbers for the table numbers. They really popped against the black linens and white candles... Speaking of, thank you to the lovely ladies of Thelma & Louise Catering for the lovely linens, and for not killing us for returning them covered in white candle wax. :)

Photo by Nickel City Studios

More detail shots:

Photo by Nickel City Studios

Photo by Nickel City Studios

Photo by Nickel City Studios

Photo by Nickel City Studios

Photo by Nickel City Studios

Oh, we also did these flowers:

Photo by Nickel City Studios

Since Amy and Steve opted for paper flowers at the reception, we did simple baby's breath bouquets for the girls, a white rose bouquet for the bride, and baby's breath boutonnieres for the gents. 

Amy and Steve, we have loved getting to know you, and your families, we are beyond honored and thrilled to have been invited to be such a huge part of your big day. Thank you for being beautiful people and I'm sure you will spend the rest of your lives making each other happy. You absolutely deserve it.

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!!!!}

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. :)

Balboa Style

 I always say how lucky we are to have so many super creative friends around us. Andrea and her fiancé Michael, who you have met before, have been our letterpress-hobby guinea pigs going way back to their Save the Dates. So when they decided they also wanted us to letterpress their invitations, we were all over it.
And by "over" I mean in over our heads... way over. Andrea is seriously like, the nicest person you will ever meet, so of course she had roughly a million friends and family to invite to their big day. Okay... not a million, but a whole lot, and after giving it the old college try, we had to concede that our little table top sweetheart Kelsey was just not up to the challenge.
Enter our heroes Jodi and Shelly at French Press. They totally saved the day by finishing up these deliciously pressed invitations you see below.

Andrea's wedding was at the Prado, in Balboa Park, in San Diego. Surrounded by gorgeous Spanish and Moorish design, Andrea and I went back and forth over many different designs to come up with an one that was inspired by both old wrought iron scrollwork and the patterns on Spanish tile. 

This was a Wedding Weekend Extravaganza, if there has ever been one! Andrea thought of everything, including arranging childcare for guests traveling with children. We did press the Childcare, Brunch, and Accommodations cards in-house! (Yay us!) 

We chose Crane's 220# super duper thick cotton paper, that was 100% tree-free!

 We also pressed the envelopes and envelope liners. The bride and groom's name was printed on the liner in charcoal ink for you to see when you opened the envelope. The outer and RSVP envelopes both had 2 color printing, with the design from the invitation in green around their names and address in charcoal, on the flap of the envelope for the return address, and the front of the RSVP envelope.

 Thank you Andrea and Michael for being our letterpress guinea pigs, it was an adventure, and we wish you all the best in the world as you start out on your new life together. I only wish we'd been able to be there to see it!! Congratulations, I know you will spend the rest of your lives making each other so happy. :)

Our Newest Pet {Project}

Oh my goodness, we've been so busy with the start of wedding season we've had no time to blog, OR to introduce our newest addition...
Here she is, our darling "Kelsey."

(Yes that's a baby monitor on the letterpress table... luckily Sam sleeps right through the clanging of the press; perhaps she finds it soothing, a girl after my own heart...)

Right now she's just our little pet hobby, we're only pressing invitations for close friends and family. We do hope to open a little greeting card Etsy shop someday soon though, so we will keep you posted!

A sneak peek at Andrea's. {You can check out her gorgeous Etsy shop here!}

A sneak peek at Kacie's.

End of Year Wrap Up

Well here we are at December 31, and what an AWESOME year it has been!! I still have 2 more weddings from 2011 to post, but they will have to wait for January. For now, let's do a little looking back at some of the smaller projects we did this year!!

This was Josh and Amanda's thank you card/Christmas card! They were married so close to Christmas they wanted to combine the two, which is such an adorable idea!

Some art deco stationery done for Mr. Rich Mattingly over at Nickel City Studios for his "Oma." 

More personal stationery, this time a gift for a lovely lady who is actually getting married ON New Year's Eve! This one was fancy schmancy letterpress though, the metallic purple ink made us swooooon!

We love when people give stationery as a gift, I hate to think that hand-writing notes is a thing of the past. Even as much as I love my menagerie of technology, nothings warms the cockles of my heart as much as receiving a hand written card or letter!

We also had the opportunity to design some awesome biz id for a pie company! (This is the only sample photo I got #sadface)

Now that your mouth is watering, check out this menu card for the amazingly talented ladies at Thelma and Louise Catering (again, no samples, wah waaaah):

Some stuff we did in-house this year, the birth announcement for our little fire cracker:

And her baptism invitation (we may have gone slightly overboard, but we couldn't help ourselves!)

An library-inspired e-vite for a book club friend's baby shower:

A business card for my Uncle-In-Law, if you are in the Lockport area, you can find him playing his GUI-tar at Pour Boys most Wednesday nights!

Holy hell, I almost forgot one of Buffalo's greatest triumphs of the year. It's barely worth mentioning from a design point of view, seeing as the guidelines for the branding on these events are the strictest I've ever seen, however it represents one of the most AMAZING acts of determination I've ever witnessed. The fact TEDxBuffalo even happened is a testament to the solid people of this city, and I feel honored to have been a [small] part of it, and the incredible group of people that actually pulled it off. You can check out a full recap and more about it here.

Well, that's it for us this year, we are still in hurry mode for BridesWorld 2012, coming up January 8th - if you haven't gotten your tickets yet there is still time! We hope to see you in the Convention Center! Until then, have a happy and healthy new year, from all of us here at Rust Belt Love! xo