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! 

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. 

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.

Orange and Green Summer Wedding

Today's post is about Ashley's green and orange wedding invitations. Ashley is our favorite kind of bride, the "I don't know what I want, but I'll know it when I see it" kind. The kind that is open to seeing what we come up with. Fun!!

Ashley and Bill long discussed the different styles we sent them, and they compromised on the design you see, incorporating Ashley's love of vines and floral, and Bill's desire for something uncomplicated and graphic. 

I really love the paper they chose. It is such a unique texture, I think it really picked up their simple design well! 

Thanks so much for being awesome to work with guys, I know your day was amazing and gorgeous, and we wish you a lifetime of happiness together. 

Simply Sweet Style

This week's invite was for the darling Miss Karen (now a Mrs.). Karen did not want anything floral, or anything decorative, she wanted all of her styling to be through the text, and we were more than happy to oblige!

Karen wanted to feature her traditional but fun style in navy on cream colored paper. By featuring different fonts and sizes in the text, the words become the design, rather than any graphics or illustrations. It really shows how you can keep things simple but still make a dramatic impact.

She also did a response postcard, which I love! It was the perfect complement to this simple, sweet invitation.  I really just love Karen's style.

So a short and sweet blog post today; if you live here in Buffalo, get out and enjoy this beautiful sunny weather before its back to the darker days of winter!