I'm Thankful For... | Part One

In order to get into the spirit of Thanksgiving, we want to share some things we are thankful for. We are always thankful for any bride who chooses us to be a part of their big day. Because of this, we plan to share some invitation suites leading up to Thanksgiving that truly embody what we are thankful for. Many of you know that I lovvvvvve my dog.  She (used) to be my child, I would take her with me ev.ery.where.   Since Jackson has come along, she's been miiiiiildly displaced but I still love her to pieces and she will always be my first fur baby :) So THIS girl is Miss Popularity apparently, because she has been featured once again! Check her out and many of the other cute fur babies on BRIDES Magazine "Top 40 Ways to Include Pets in Your Wedding"! Seeing the BRIDES blog made me think about this stylized shoot that I was part of with many other wonderful vendors to kick-off Tidewater and Tulle's blog launch.

Beyond drooling over the beautiful compilation of greens and ivory flora, we had a lot of fun creating a romantic invitation suite that embodies the classic, southern elegance of the Hampton Roads Area.

The natural cotton fabric and the Kraft envelope are a wonderful compliment to the eucalyptus leaves used throughout the decor of the shoot (and also donned by Miss Kayley in a gorgeous wreath . The soft gray ink gives the invitation a softness that fits perfectly into the overall aesthetic of the big day and compliments Tiderwater and Tulle's color palette beautifully).

This program is an interesting spin on the traditional day-of paper goods. The program is assembled into three tiers and attached to a spindle. This would be a perfect idea if you were planning a romantic, outdoor ceremony.

Each table setting had a menu with elegant calligraphy on the same fabric that we used on the invitation.

To add a pop of color and to provide labels, we created fun tags for each food item.

We are so thankful to work alongside so many wonderful vendors and to be a part of many stylized shoots.

VENDORS: Venue: Hermitage Museum and Gardens // Photography: We Are The Mithcells // Event Coordination & Custom Linens: Antonia Christianson Events // Hair: Behind the Veil // Cake Backdrop: Bluebird's Garage Vintage Rentals // Cake: Cake Delights // Catering: Chef by Design // Chairs: Distinctive Event Rentals // Videography: Jeremy Mitchell Cinema // Makeup: Makeup by Kim Porter // Stationery: PaperDolls Design // Bridal Gown and Bridesmaid Dress: Pure English Couture Bridal // Wooden Tables: River Design Vintage Furniture Rentals // Florals: Roost Flowers

Please check back next week to see more of what we are thankful for! As always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

Happy Halloween! Kiss or Treat Styled Shoot

Recently, we teamed up with some of our favorites to create a styled shoot exclusively for Tidewater and Tulle (check out their blog post about the styled shoot here: http://www.tidewaterandtulle.com/2014/10/eclectic-halloween-wedding-inspiration.html). With Halloween right around the corner (can you believe it is almost November?!), we wanted to share the styled shoot that combines some of our favorite parts of October: pumpkins, Halloween, and the leaves changing colors (if it ever gets cold enough...). Enjoy!

To keep with the changing of the leaves, our friends from Leslie Hartig Floral Design used reds, purples, and oranges to capture the essence of the leaves changing. Having these colors in mind, we followed a similar color palette with our invitation suite.

Our eclectic invitation suite ties in our favorite elements of fall with the spookiness of Halloween. The varying fonts, use of color, and pattern create a fun, festive vibe! The invitation is tied with white and metallic gold baker's twine and has a large Halloween pumpkin tag with the wedding date. The vibrant purple RSVP envelope ties in the use of the purple on the invitation and the festive theme.

What better way to tie in your spooky theme than to continue the pattern into your day-of paper?! Below are the place cards that we designed to go along with the paper goods and to continue to tie in the deep reds, vibrant purples, and oranges.

We absolutely loved teaming up with so many wonderful vendors for this exclusive shoot. Check out Tidewater and Tulle's blog to see more photos and to see the many other wonderful vendors we had the chance to collaborate with.

As always, please keep a look out for our new blog posts. We try our best to post something new and exciting every week. If you have any questions or would like to receive more information about our company, please contact us! We hope every one has a safe and wonderful Halloween!

The Art of Typography

Happy Tuesday all!  Today I wanted to touch on the art of typography.  Typography is the technique of arranging typefaces to make an appealing and recognizable design. In stationery, we use typography to distinguish between lines and to enhance the design. Take this invitation suite, for example:

There are almost too many typestyles to count! The combination of multiple typestyles to create the overall aesthetic of the invitation suite is an example of typography. In this instance, the mixture of typestyles creates a vintage theme that you will see is tied throughout the couple's save-the-date, invitation suite, and day-of paper products.

The invitation suite is placed in a pocketfold. Pocketfolds are a great way to organize your invitation suite, especially if you have multiple inserts!

What I love most is that each of the pieces of their wedding day products are similar and different. By using the same typestyles throughout the individual pieces, the wedding stationery is cohesive. The addition of different borders and motifs allow for subtle differences that play into the vintage theme.

Here is a picture of what the outside of the pocketfolder looked like. We placed a wax seal with the soon-to-be last name initial and used bakers' twine to seal the pocketfold.

We will revisit this save-the date again in the near future when we discuss how to set the tone from the very beginning of your wedding stationery products.

The vintage postcard sets the tone for the remaining pieces we designed for the happy couple. The vintage postmark adds the final touch to this save-the-date postcard!

Please stay tuned for our new blog post next week! As always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you are interested in discussing your wedding stationery visions or if you would like more information.

LET'S GO....HOKIES! (and fall-themed invitations)

When a bride came to me a couple of years ago and said that she wanted her invitations to reflect fall and her love for Virginia Tech, I had a step-brothers moment and thought "Did we just become best friends??".  YEP! Being a Hokie alum, there are a few things that make my heart happy, in the fall specifically: college football and the leaves changing to the beautiful colors of orange & maroon. This week's featured invitation set combines both of these elements into one hokie invitation suite ;)  (Hokie in the good way).

The combination of orange, maroon, burlap, and kraft paper creates the perfect fall-themed, Hokie invitation set. Both the invitation and RSVP card have a matching leaf motif to reflect fall and my alma mater, Virginia Tech. For this invitation set, typography is used to create a rustic-chic vibe.

Finally, we cannot share the next few photos of this adorable invitation suite without paying homage towards the envelope liner. An envelope liner can provide a fun twist or an additional pattern to any invitation suite. Personally, I love the inclusion of an envelope liner to add a pop of color. I may be biased, but I absolutely love the subtle nod to Virginia Tech inside the liner (look closely at the repeated pattern).

The invitation suite is wrapped with an maroon-striped belly band and tied with a jute raffia and burlap tag with the couples' initials printed on Kraft paper.

The burlap tag is a fun and unique way to add a rustic-chic element to the invitation suite.

I try not to show favoritism towards any one suite, buttttt this one definitely stole a little piece of my hokie heart <3

Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi, Tech Tech VPI!

Be on the lookout for our post next week about how fonts (also known as typography) help to enhance any theme or invitation suite! If you have any questions, please do hesitate to contact us!

Jackson David - 6 months

Howwwwww is it possible that Mr. Jackson David is 6 months old already?!?!  It seems like just yesterday I announced that we were expecting. I have been SO lucky to have the smoothest pregnancy, easiest delivery and a God-send of a child (minus this current month-long sleep regression).  Many people have said I won't have as good of luck with the second, but hubby and I are hoping to be this lucky a few more times :) Its really a whirlwind of emotions to think back to life before baby.  While I was preggo, strangers would always ask "Is this your first?", and I would smile, grin and think to myself "I must have that 'new mother' glow and this 45lb belly clearly looks "all baby" (as rumor has it the 2nd, 3rd, 4th pregnancies do not look as good)", however, looking back, I realize all of those strangers were thinking "Ohhhhh lady, you're absolutely screwed, life as you know it is about to change dramatically".  Its amazing the "then and now" moments you have after baby.  You always hear "Sleep? Whats that?" and "Oh but don't worry, its all worth it".  Well, let me tell you... its a whole different ball game when it happens to you.  For the first 4 weeks, I had what they call "baby blues" (and no, it has nothing to do with your sweet babies angelic eyes).  It is a hormonal outrage that some women experience postpartum.  I remember sitting on the couch, my hair a dishelved mess and bags under my eyes as dark as night, looking at my dog and bawling my eyes out as I thought "Whatttttt have I done?? I will never have another day to sit back, relax, maybe take a nap, go to the mall, or enjoy doing 'nothing'".  At my 2 week postpartum check up, I assured my doctor I was suffering PP depression and needed meds.  He looked at me with a little smirk on his face, and said "oh no, you're just experiencing baby blues".  Um WHAT?! Why didn't anyone tell me about this beforehand??  Here I thought you had this little meatball of a baby, and would stare at it for days thanking your lucky stars and cherishing every moment.  All mothers experiences are different of course, so I very well may be the "exception", but it was definitely not puppy dogs and rainbows the first few weeks.  I actually look back and wish that I could tell myself what I know now, and to really soak in those moments, as they do go by unbearably fast.  But I guess all I can do is to remember this for baby #2.

What I can say is, once those baby blues clear out(which they do), you realize you wouldn't trade a single second of it for the world.  You will sit and stare at the most perfect little face, and wonder what on earth you did to deserve such a beautiful blessing.  Your friendships surely change, and your marriage is put to the ultimate test (patience patience patience my dear), but its all so so worth it.

So anyway, while I sit here weeping over these most perfect images of my 6 month old meatball, I figured I would share with the world all of my ins and outs and how life is so much better with him in it.

xoxoxo