Hello friends! I hope life has been treating you well lately. We have been busy as always, which is wonderful, and also taking time to enjoy spring too.

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Of course, beautiful weather means wedding season is here, so we have been busily sending out invitations and printing up fun day of pieces too, like these welcome kits for this weekend’s bride.

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I know I’ve mentioned before that, for whatever reason, the spark finally came alive and I’ve become really interested in food and cooking. I think now that I know a thing or two (albeit not much), it’s a lot more fun because I feel like I can get creative.

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I’ve also spent the last three and a half weeks really focusing some energy on health. I have to confess it’s not something I’ve spent much time on before in my life — I am a workaholic, so if there is time to be had, I usually work — but I’m really working on a lifestyle change. Making sure to exercise even just 20 minutes a day has made such a difference in my stress level. So it’s been fun to incorporate that into cooking and learning about food and nutrition and exercise. Wish me luck that I can stick with it :-)

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In that same spirit, I’m really excited about the upcoming Food Film Fest!

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A client of mine is involved in putting it on, so I can’t wait to check it out. Here’s what they have to say about it:

The Food Film Festival – the only film festival in the world where guests get to taste what they see on the screen – will debut in Charleston this spring with two events showcasing more than 15 food films! In Charleston, we will present a “Best of” exhibition of favorite food films from around the globe, along with the world premiere of a film about Lowcountry shrimping from Festival Director and Travel Channel Host George Motz.

Sounds really interesting doesn’t it? I will be sure to share some snaps and thoughts after the event!

In the meantime, though, if you want to check it out and are in Charleston that weekend, they were kind enough to share a coupon code with me that you can use (“MELT10″) to receive 10% off the ticket price. Tickets are on sale here. We hope to see you there!

So that’s all that’s going on around here right now. I’ll try to be better about posting – it’s just hard to find time sometimes between work, exercise, cooking, and play! Tell me what you’ve been up to in the comments…I love to hear from you!

Last weekend was very special for many reasons…not the least of which was that two of my very favorite brides got married. Funny enough, both of them were named Maggie! We had very different styles for each of the weddings though, which is part of what I think is so fun to see. Same name & same weekend, but oh-so-different in the approach, and I have to say, I love them both!

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Maggie H and I have been working together for awhile on her save the dates, invitations, and day of paper. She adores paper so we hit it off quite well from the start, and she and her mom will both be missed as they dropped by the office from time to time. But I know her Southern Protocol wedding had to be amazing!

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For Maggie H’s suite, we had a really fun blend of contemporary trends with the traditional. Saturated out-of-the-ordinary colors, more traditional fonts, and a really fun construction. The invitation is two color letterpress, backed with a metallic brocade pattern. We really focused on the stacking of the pieces as well and how they would play with each other — alternating the corner treatment (rounded versus square), colors, etc.

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Once Paige Tanenbaum added her beautiful calligraphy, we had something really really special!

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On the other side, Maggie D loves music and planned a beautiful gray and coral wedding. All of her paper had a really casual, fun and modern sensibility.

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Don’t you just love that “awkward but enthusiastic dancing” bit?

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What have you been up to lately?

Oh what a lovely week it’s been! Being home and back to routine is quite nice. I’m getting sweet emails in my inbox from couples engaged over the holidays, and we’ve been honored to see several of our brides in the blogosphere. Here are a few updates, in case you missed them!

Southern Weddings

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Nicki stole my heart with her wedding…it is yellow and gray, after all, and the gospel choir and the Boone Hall setting just made it. She also has a whole bunch of four legged friends that we included in the paper so that was quite fun! And plus, we are such big fans of Katherine Miller Events.

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See more of the day here. Photographer: Charlotte Elizabeth Photo

The Wedding Row

Jenn and Robert are the cutest couple. For her stationery, we really celebrated the sweet ad casual feel she wanted for the whole day. I love getting to see what the decor looked like, and it’s even cooler when you see how well every little detail came together! See more of the pretty Blue Planet Green Events day here!

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Photographer: Shannon Michele

Style Me Pretty

Lauren and Tim also got a shoutout on the Wedding Row as well as on Style Me Pretty while I was away.  I loved doing the signage for their awesome candy bar, which the talented Sara from Southern Protocol had to put together :-) I can’t believe we’re not too far from their one year anniversary! See more of the day here.

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Photographer: Virgil Bunao

Best Day Ever

One of the paperiest (new word!) weddings ever just went up on the Yoj Events blog. We got to do lots of special things for this bride, such as the cake topper, drink flags, and lots of other goodies. Check out more here – those glittery chevron table runners are amazing!

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Photographer: Juliet Elizabeth

Wedding Wire

We found out this week that we won the Bride’s Choice award for 2013! I so appreciate every one of our brides who took a moment to leave such great reviews. It’s an honor to work with such wonderful people.

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phew!

What a great week, and it’s not even over yet! It’s funny, you don’t realize how much you’ve done sometimes until you really step back and take a look. And there is so much more to come with spring weddings and other items we have planned for 2013….I am trying to make good use of a quiet week or two after the holidays before we have paper flying all over the place again.

How is your first official no-holiday week going?

Although yesterday was a splendidly yucky day — nonstop rain and cold — for the most part, we are blessed to have very very mild winters here in Charleston. Which is exactly why I think winter weddings down South are a pretty smart idea! It’s technically low season still, but truly, you get the same beautiful city with less humidity and weather most likely to hover around the mid 50′s and 60′s. Not a bad plan at all!

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You may remember the super fun art paper save the dates we did for Ashton. For her invitations, we went a little more classic but still had some fun elements with a shimmery Art Deco pattern on the back. And letterpress, of course.

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Calligraphy by Paige Tanenbaum finished off the suite beautifully, as always. I can’t wait to see photos of this beautiful Yoj wedding!

Happy Thursday!

Oh my goodness, this wedding was gorgeous. I had the pleasure of working with this couple to create a true wedding suite – all the way from save the date to place cards + signage. Designed by Southern Protocol, this Lowndes Grove wedding was all about classic style with Lowcountry influences.

Paige Winn was their photographer and she was sweet enough to share these images with me.

The day of paper included signage, programs, diecut gate menus (LOVE!), place cards & escort cards, and favor tags. It was quite fun for me! :-)

These photos of course are not going to measure up to Paige’s beautiful photography, but here are a few photos I took of the pre-wedding paper: save the dates and invitations.

I really love how, because we knew we were doing multiple elements of paper throughout the wedding, we were able to create a theme without being too “themey” (does that make sense?). i.e. we didn’t put a house on everything and call it a day – we were able to weave this sort of Lowcountry story throughout with trees, gates, and architecture.

To see more than just the paper, visit Paige Winn’s blog!

Before I head out this Friday afternoon, I wanted to leave you with a little prettiness for the weekend. I have been positively dying to share these invitations with you (not only the invites, but the awesome day-of paper too), as this may go down as one of the coolest, hippest wedding in history.

I only have my own snaps of the invites to share right now, but hopefully they’ll serve to get you excited for the other amazingness that Yoj put together for this bride…

Shades of peach, blush, gold, and gray. Chevron accents, two color letterpress printing, all tied up in a neat little package of Divine Twine.

I had such a great time working on these and am so thrilled with the results. I cannot WAIT to see the photos from the day! I got to see this sneak peek on Facebook…

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! It should be a beautiful one here in Charleston, and it just so happens to be our one year wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe it.

At long last, the new computer is operational! Yippee! When you’re a graphic designer and you have 100+ specialty fonts on your computer — not to mention thousands of huge files — it is no small feat to move that info.

So moving on to other things – aren’t these save the dates awesome? The bride works for the Preservation Society and has a passion for history and art, so we ended up coming with the idea to use marbled art paper on her save the dates.

I am head over heels in love with the result.

The best part is that every single one is unique just because of how the paper is made. I really love that each save the date is special in that way. The colors and texture are just beyond cool.

We just met on Tuesday to talk about her invitations, and more pretty things are to come….can’t wait!

July. I didn’t realize until last year what a crazy month July is for stationers. September & October weddings are being mailed (which is hard to fathom in this heat – it was 97 degrees last night at 11PM!), November is being finalized / designed, and July / August weddings need day-of paper.

Luckily I learned and this year I knew what I was in for.

I am so excited about all the things we’ve been working on and shipping out, but there just isn’t any time for a photo session at the moment! So Instagram serves the wonderful purpose of documenting what we’re up to in the moment.

I use it to send brides little sneak peeks when I send them their tracking information and it also helps me document exactly when I take invitations to the post office for mailing. Instagram is fun, but it also has fantastic business applications if you think creatively about how to use it.

So, above & below, we have:

  • Pretty stamps we ordered for a bride’s invites instead of the traditional wedding look.  Hand cancelled by me at the post office.
  • New beautiful order of Divine Twine just arrived a week or so ago!  We have new colors including the green, peach, and the holiday red+green mix. I need to hurry up and get them listed online.  But if you want some, you know where to find me :-)
  • Adorable save the dates we just shipped out – this bride is doing coral, khaki, and white.  Love.
  • Possibly my favorite invitation suite ever, for a KME bride, with a custom “Oh Happy Day” liner and other gorgeous details.  I won’t get into more until we have the good pictures!
  • Pretty navy calligraphy on invitations going out in the mail.
  • My poor little car at this time of year is just stuffed positively full of paper going places.
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  • Nautical style “scroll” programs with awesome navy and white ribbon tie.

 

Are you an Instagrammer?  What do you find you like to use it for?  If you pulled a bunch of your IG photos together, what does it look like?

When I met with this Southern Protocol bride, I was beyond excited at the prospect of designing her save the date. She knew she wanted to really celebrate the destination aspect of her wedding, emphasize typography, and come up with some clever out-of-the-norm wording.

Charlestonian that I am, it was great fun to think about the highlights of my hometown, since this bride was sweet enough to give me the freedoms to be creative with both design and wording. I’m completely smitten with the end result!

Psst…you’ll also notice we made good use of the back of our save the date by listing accommodation options. It’s so good to give your guests advance notice, especially in Charleston, when hotels are nearly always booked.

Okay so maybe not your back, but your invitation’s back :-)

It is the funniest thing, but with all the shows and demonstrations and meetings I do about paper, I’ve noticed time and time again that people flip over almost anything you hand them. I’m not sure why, but we all seem to do it.

With all the bells and whistles you can add to your invitations, the back is often overlooked in favor of pockets or liners. However, it’s a finishing detail that can really set your suite a part from the rest.

3 Ways to Enhance the Back of An Invitation

1. Letterpress it.

If you’re using a heavyweight stock, such as Crane 220, you can letterpress both the front and back of your invitation, as we’ve done in this example with pretty coral seersucker stripes. This bride’s invitations haven’t been in the mail long enough yet or else I would show you the front — another post soon, I promise! You should be able to tell from the photo though, that this is quite thick stock…

2. Back it.

And in this instance, I literally mean back it. Use a different paper to add texture and interest, such as a cool handmade paper like we’ve done in these…

3. Print it.

For save the dates, this is a GREAT place to get a little more information out to your guests, such as your hotel blocks or weekend events.

Or you can also just custom design what you want the back to look like and digitally print it there, the way we’ve done with this suite, so that the lace pattern was consistent throughout.

Backing it in any of the above 3 ways makes it a little bit of a surprise when you flip the invitation over, but you can also back it so that there is an edge or border to the invitation. Here’s an Instagram update we snapped of an invite we did this way…

So tell me, do you flip invitations/letters over when you receive them in the mail? I’m curious to know!