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.

Purple Lanterns

One of my very favorite sayings about Buffalo is it is a giant living room. More often than not I am fortunate enough to remain in contact with my brides after their wedding, usually through the magic of social media and the interwebs. Rebecca is one such bride.

We loved designing this invitation, most of all not because friends of Rebecca have seen her sample in my display and said, "oh yeah, that's SO her." Which is absolutely our favorite part of what we do, the total customization and embodiment of a bride and groom's style.

Rebecca and Matt were having lanterns and hydrangea as their centerpieces, so they sent me a photo of the lanterns and I drew them for the invitations.

They also wanted to stay as green as possible and went with RSVP postcards, our favorite! And to top it all off they put a funny little twist on their responses. (Our other favorite thing for couples to do!)

Thank you so much, Rebecca and Matt, for letting us be a part of your beautiful day and for sharing such wonderful words about us. Looking forward to seeing you around the "living room" - since everyone knows you are most easily spotted by Matt's beautiful hair, haha!

Cozy, With A Touch of Rustic

 I have to admit, when I first heard Jeanne's wedding colors were red and turquoise my first reaction was not "WOW that sounds so pretty!!" However, I am a gal who can admit when she's wrong, and as soon as I googled some photos of red and turquoise weddings, well, color me embarrassed! They look AMAZING together, I only wish I could have seen the photos from the rest of her wedding. {hint, hint, Jeanne, if you're reading this, hint...}

Their style was going to be simple, with a rustic touch. November in Buffalo is definitely not toasty and warm, so they had an almost holiday-y feeling going, with jute twine, cranberries in the centerpieces, the tone she described was almost cozy feeling!

I think my favorite part of this suite is the red response envelopes, with the white writing. Definitely not the easiest thing in the world to pull off, but I think it works SO well with this design.

Thank you Jeanne and Billy for letting us design your totally rad invitations, and for teaching me to never doubt a bride's color choice again!! I'm sure your day was absolutely gorgeous. 

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

An Art Deco Affair

This week we have another FULL wedding design post for you, and what's more, some GORGEOUS pro photos for your viewing pleasure.

Let's start with the invitation. When we first met with Katie and her mom, and her sister, and her mother in law, and her fiancé (yes, we LOVE when everyone wants to be involved, it is actually super fun for us, haha) Katie just wanted simple, clean, with shades of green and an art deco feel. Which was perfect since she was having her reception at Asbury Hall, a gorgeous gem of a hall in Downtown Buffalo, an old church repurposed by Annie DiFranco for a multitude of musical purposes. If you've never been, I hope you get the privilege sometime soon, it's a sight to be seen.

Since the interior is so beautiful, and green, we decided to incorporate an illustration of it right into the design of the invite. 

Katie (and her mom) also opted for layering, and an RSVP card with matching envelope. I think the off-white linen paper complimented the design perfectly.

Now on to the real eye candy. Katie and John's photographers were Jenn and Ben from Ayres Photography , and as you can clearly see below, I should stick to the paper and let the pros do the photographing.

The programs were double sided, mounted on a green layered paper that matched the invitation style, replacing the drawing with the bride's and groom's names. 

At Asbury Hall, we did all the centerpieces, as well as several extra bouquets for the guestbook table, the fireplace near the entrance, and the gift table.

Each vase was a mason jar, with ribbon, raffia tie, and tag that had Katie and John's name on it, with the date. Inside the vase were river rocks, and bouquets of white and green hydrangea (our favorite!!).

Also near the entrance were the escort cards that matched the invitation and programs. 

Each table had a green cloth napkin that grounded each centerpiece grouping. Along with the bouquets, we did up table cards that, in addition to the traditional table number, each table also had a different street in Buffalo. And with the green color we were using for everything, we just had to make them look like actual street signs. 

We had SO much fun designing this wedding for you guys, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Here's to you, and an eternity of happiness, thank you for allowing us to help bring to life your vision for your special day. 

**Thank you also to Jenn at Ayres Photography for sending us these truly amazing photos. Check out their whole blog post on Katie and John's wedding day.

A Vintage, Wine-Country Inspired Wedding Invitation

This invitation debut has been a long time coming!! One of our favorites, I've been holding out on getting these professionally photographed before posting them, but finally I said, enough! It's time these lovelies had their day in the sun, and what better way to kick off OUR official start of "Wedding Season?!"

Let's start with the envelopes, which I totally heart. Tricia wanted a natural, almost vintage plantation feel for her invites. We used kraft button-tie envelopes, raffia wraps, and ivory textured paper for first impression.

Inside, Tricia picked a fun green and blue color scheme that went so nicely with the Niagara-On-The-Lake subtle rustic, wine country theme. 

She also did one of my FAVORITE things, and put a funny twist on her RSVP options. They were "Wouldn't miss it for the world" and "Being detained against our will elsewhere." 

Rather than having a lot imagery, we used a variety of fonts with different sizes and spacing to create the graphic feel of the design. Then we topped it with something sweet. 

Well there you have it, a wedding invitation suite that is as sweet as Tricia and Michael and their perfect day. Our brides are as much a part of our design process as we are, which is how there are never two alike, each unique to the style and personality of the great brides we work with.