Create your own inspiration board!

{Board courtesy of Snippet and Ink. Credits:Top row from left: flower hair piece by Austie, photo from Sunflower Events, photo fromBig Leo Productions, Jussara Lee dress from Martha Stewart Weddings Row 2: photo from Brides, cake from Martha Stewart Weddings, photo byMichele M. Waite, flowers byAriella Chezar from Brides Row 3: silhouette cookies from Wedding Style Guide, sabayon and berries from Martha Stewart Weddings, iris bouquet photo by Anna Kuperberg, envelope liner from Mika78}

For those of you brides-to-be who read wedding blogs daily like I do, you're probably loving the idea of putting together an inspiration board for your own wedding. Kathryn, the author of one of my favorite wedding blogs, Snippet and Ink, is famous for her daily boards and now, it seems, that every wedding blog is following this trend. When I first started planning my wedding (2 years ago!) I created my own board so that whenever I was having a hard time envisioning the event I could glance at this image and remember the overall feeling I was going for.

{I have to apologize because I created these boards so long ago that I don't have any of the photo credits. A big big no-no here in the blogging world, so if anyone knows of any of the photographers or stylists, please leave a comment!}

My original board above was created in Photoshop which is a design program most of you probably don't have. But, no need to worry because there are websites out there that will do it for you! Hooray! One of the latest to launch is Dessy. This name is familiar to you because they are the mother of all bridesmaid dress companies. Even if you aren't a customer of theirs, you can still log on here and create your own board. Using their library of Pantone colors, you can make sure you get that perfect robin's egg blue you are dreaming of and you can even pull in the guy's ties and the flower girl sashes. You can upload any personal pictures that you may have taken of your dress, the cake or the venue. And, the best part is that you can upload all the images on your desktop that you've been collecting from wedding blogs over the last six months! What's not to love? Below is my Dessy interpretation of my original inspiration board:

In addition to the Dessy site, here are some other wonderful options:

- Mosaic Maker

- My Kate Parker Wedding

- Style Me Pretty

- Wedding Wire

Super promotion from Wiley Valentine!

Guess what? Great news! The super-talented gals at Wiley Valentine are offering a fab promotion right now on all their gorgeous invitation suites. Order your invitations before March 31st, 2010 and receive 10% off the entire order! That's a pretty awesome savings!


The WV album is wonderfully varied; from rad destination-themes (see above!) to romantic florals and graphic contemporary designs, the album has something for almost every taste. Their fabulous album is shown flat-printed, but couples have the option of upgrading to their luxurious letterpress printing, too. Pretty awesome, right?






(All photos courtesy of Wiley Valentine)

Hi, Whit! Hi, Gus!

Whitney and Gus: workin' hard and gettin' it done.

I love these two.

PS - We drink a lot of Polar Springs seltzer water. A LOT.

Designer Spotlight: Soiree by Dabney Lee

Do you love color? Do you love pattern? Are you cheery, bubbly, chic and fabulous? Planning an event, throwing a party or in need of amazing custom stationery? Well then, there is a good chance that you might fall head-over-heels for the invitation album we just added to our collection: Soiree by Dabney Lee.

The Soiree album is everything I could ask for: It's bright, chic, contemporary, flirty and oh-so-darling. From joyous party invitations to rad baby shower invites to sophisticated wedding suites, Soiree has it all! I love Dabney's use of pattern and her attention to detail with font. All the invitations are printed on luxe textured paper and all the designs come printed double-sided (the back side of the invitation/announcement is printed, too! Usually with a fabulous, bold pattern). What a fun surprise for your guests/recipients as they pull the piece out of the envelope!

As if the album needed any other selling points, the flat-printed collection is quite affordable and totally customizable. Mix and match patterns, colors, sizes, shapes and embellishments (hello amazing envelope liners!!) to your heart's content. I'm pretty smitten and I think you will be too.

Be sure to stop in soon to take a peek!

(All photos courtesy of Dabney Lee Inc.)

A swoon-worthy proposal.

(Screen shot of this video, found on BridePop and shot by Stereo Waltz Films)

Holy crow is this proposal romantic. Watch the video HERE and then read on.

As you all know, I'm a sap. I'm a big, crys-at-everything-happy-and-sad, jumps up and down and squeals when excited, loves all the mushy-stuff kind of sap. I love love stories. I'm always up for a good RomCom and I absolutely love hearing proposal stories. It's pretty much my favorite part of meeting a new couple.

While I know some ladies take matters into their own hands and pop the question, I'd say it's pretty much the norm for the man to do the proposing. And, boy, is that a big job! How do you find the perfect way to ask someone to spend the rest of their life with you? For some people, it's an intimate conversation smack-dab in the middle of an everyday occurrence or sitting side-by-side on the couch. For others it's a big event full of all-out surprises and twists and turns that the bride-to-be never saw coming. Both styles are lovely and romantic and perfect for the couple involved. That's the great thing about love - exactly how you and your honey fall in love, stay in love, express your love and share your love is just pitch-perfect for you!

The proposal in the video is totally right up my alley. One of the MANY things I love about this proposal (again, watch the video before you read this!) is that it's clear that Casey spent some serious time thinking through all the special things that make him and Amy right for each other. I love the creativity and thought he put into this and I love that he included their dear friends in the process. Could there be anything more wonderful than getting engaged to your beloved and then immediately being whisked to an engagement party to celebrate with all your besties? I think not!

There is a lot of sadness in the world, so I'm a big fan of celebrating as much as is possible (you bet your bottom dollar that I throw parties for just about every holiday, life event, random mid-winter evening!). I love taking photos of my family and friends, sending sweet (or sarcastic, as it were) cards to those people that I love, and generally taking time to share joy, spread happiness and dance a bit in my little world. And I love that Casey thought about all the goodness he and Amy had shared and made the special efforts to share joy, spread happiness and dance with their pals at this most important event.

Swoon.

Style Me Pretty: Inspiration to Reality Shoot!

We are so super excited to be teaming up with a slew of amazing wedding industry vendors, headed by the so-uber-talented Jubilee Events in CT, to participate in a Style Me Pretty "Inspiration to Reality" photo shoot. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you all have read Style Me Pretty before.

If you haven't, and you love weddings, parties, pretty things, you need to go over there right now. OK great. Now that you've done that and are ready for more amazing inspiration and ridiculously fabulous events, check out Jubilee Events' blog for details about the shoot, information how to submit your inspiration board for consideration and general squeal-inducing content from the crazy-talented Jubilee Event team. Who knows? You may have the winning idea and the shoot could be all because of YOU!

It's going to be awesome and we couldn't be happier about our involvement. Teaming up with talented folks (thanks for the invite, Candice!) and having unlimited creative control over the paper goodies is just a dream come true!

Share love.

As you all know, we love the artist Freya. We've been carrying her charming prints since we opened and I just can't get enough of them. They are sweet, simple, full of love and care and thought. They melt me, really.

With Valentine's day just around the corner, I thought it might be the right time to once again share these sweet prints. They make absolutely the most lovely, thoughtful and joyous gifts.

Gals, do each other a favor and send your best friend's hubby or significant other a little *hint, hint* on your friend's behalf. They'll both be thankful you did. Or, better yet, just send your special someone in and we'll help them from there!

We can even help you (or your snuggle bunny) order a custom print to make the message even more personal. Include your names, a special date, a child's birth or a message all your own!

(All photos courtesy of Freya)

Farm wedding save the date: design to delivery

We met Elizabeth back in October when she and Danielle, her soon-to-be sister in-law, came in to browse through our wedding albums. Elizabeth flipped through them quicker than anyone else I've seen. She wasn't loving anything because she had a vision for her invitations and we quickly realized that creating something completely custom for her was the way to go.

She and David are getting married in July at David's family's farm in Madison, New Hampshire. Elizabeth is taking full advantage of the beautiful landscape and is incorporating hay bail seating, custom table runners and local, in-season flowers. As we sat and chatted about the scene, her dress, and the colors, Elizabeth was insistent that we go "all out" with the farm theme for their stationery suite. Sam and I were over the moon because we could really be as creative as we wanted. First on the list: the save-the-date. I did some initial sketches:


But, in the end Sam and I decided playing off of farm related words such as hay, flock, coop, udders, etc... would be a fun, different approach:


I quickly went to the computer and began playing with type:




We sent 3 initial looks to Elizabeth and David (my original favorite was #2):



They loved the 3rd, but wanted to expand the content so it was more justified like the 2nd option: And this is the final piece printed:


(Photos above courtesy of Gus & Ruby Letterpress. Photos below courtesy of Emilie Inc Photography.)


I had such fun printing this piece because the colors were so bold and this type-driven design really lends itself well to letterpress. And, while we originally had wanted to incorporate illustrations of the actual farm, we decided we would save that idea for the invitation, which we are currently working on.

I don't want to give away the secrets we have up our sleeve, but take my word for it - the invitation is going to be amazing! Don't worry, we'll post pictures of it when it's done... along with photos of their wedding in July!

Well, that's funny!

Look what arrived in our mail this week. Pretty hilarious, eh? I've been trying to get a hold of Mr. Gus Letterpress myself for some time now. Happy weekend!

Documenting the process.

Planning a wedding, party, shower, or other big celebration is a serious process. From the hundreds of emails with planners, managers, chefs, photographers and florists, the dozens of phone calls, hours of reviewing contracts, inspiration boards and days of driving to and from appointments a lovingly crafted, planned and agonized-over celebration is born!

It takes months to put together a big event and the planning and decision-making can be a huge part of the fun. The friendships you make with vendors, the discoveries you make about your own style, organization and creativity all contribute to the big event and last long after the party has come and gone.

I've always been a planner and I get excited about things long before they are close at hand. Planning and prepping, for me, can be the best part of an event. So, when I recently came across this post in G&R favorite blog, Oh So Beautiful Paper (gee, I wonder why we like this blog?!), I was totally inspired by Jen's (from the haystack needle) idea.

Creating a scrapbook of the whole planning and event is such a wonderful way to document all the hard work, inspiration and creativity that goes into throwing a fabulous bash!

I love the way Jen included swatches of fabric, little hand-written notes and ideas, business cards, photos and ribbons to document her trail of inspiration and planning. It's such an intimate look into the process and I imagine it's a blast for her and her hubby to look back through the album and recount the entire experience, not just the party.

Pretty lovely, don't you think?

(All photos by Charlotte Jenks Lewis via the haystack needle)