Posts from — August 2008

Because I do custom invitation design on the side right now, I love hearing the process of how other designers go about designing an invitation set for a bride and groom-to-be. I think it is also very important for all of us bride-to-be’s to know about the process, and what all of our options are as far as invitations go. There are so many different ways to do invitations, from DIY with a Gocco to letterpress and everything in-between, and with costs ranging from next to nothing to out of this world   Christine from .cevd. {custom invitation studio} is guest blogging over at Santa Barbara Wedding Chic about her design process, check it out! Oh, and how amazing are her business cards?! I am in love with fish scales right now

I am going to admit, I have been out of college for just over a year now, and i kind of miss it… I think what i miss most of all is having a summer break. Being able to go to the beach all the time, not having to be at work until 4 or 5 at night, getting errands done when they needed to be done, you get the idea. Now don’t get me wrong, I do like being a ‘working woman’. I still look forward to getting new work outfits, I definitely like getting paid to design all day better than waiting tables, and paid time off is a new and very exciting thing for me  But some days… I just miss school. Bringing me to this wedding that is featured on Martha Stewart Weddings.  The entire thing is so adorable, and I now want to paint our dinning room table with chalkboard paint!! Enjoy

For almost every bride, wedding shoes are important. Whether they come with a red sole, are flat, and even if there are no shoes at all,  each pair is chosen for a specific reason. Wedding shoes even get their own pictures.  It has now come my time to search out and find the perfect wedding shoes for me and for our wedding. I love the idea of colored shoes.

(from here)

(three images from here)

My dress is lace, and up until i re-opened my “shoes” folder, i didn’t think I could wear colored shoes with it. Well, the two brides above, each with lace, look stunning in their shoes!  I am not sure if these beloved ones will work with the color of the lace:

But these might, and the grey bow matches our colors :

(both from here. where else?)

I love the sparkly ones, especially the ones up there from the brides cafe, gorgeous.  Now all I have to do is pick a pair and hope that they are on sale

Jason over at Designfruit just emailed me about his latest photoshop brushes, stitchy circles.  At only $14 (for personal use) these brushes plus a little know how and photoshop would make for some great DIY invitations and other wedding related print goods.

And these patterns would look great as envelope liners, table runners, whatever!

Update: The stitchy circles now also come as vectors, for all of you illustrator/indesign lovers Thanks Jason!

So we are planning a pretty non-traditional wedding reception. Cocktails and hor dourves instead of a seated dinner, only a first/father-daughter/mother-son dance, and, I thought, no cake. But as we were talking to my parents the other day and I mentioned our lack of cake, Bryan shot me this look of “whaaaaaaaaaat?!” Hmm… ok, so a cake…  If we are going to do it, can I have this one please?

(image from here)

Or this one? 

(from here)

Ok, so we are still about 11 months out from our wedding day and we have the church booked, my dress bought and… our reception venue?!  

It hasn’t been booked yet, but we like it. A lot. The location is amazing, the price is right, and the details work. Where is this wonderful place I speak of? It is Cannons Restaurant in Dana Point. I have seen it a million times, but never eaten there, and I didn’t really think of it as an option until I saw it on the Knot.  We went on Saturday to check it out and besides the amazing view and great menu, they aren’t open for lunch so we would be the only ones there, leaving all of the parking for our guests and a more intimate experience all around. Here are some pics I grabbed from their site (we totally forgot to whip out Bryan’s iPhone and get some pics!)

This is the room that we would rent out (below). It has a balcony out to the left with french doors all along that wall, as well as a bar behind where the picture was taken for people to enjoy some beverages

Well, I am excited about it, and am not sure how many other places I need to see before I choose something.  The real question is… what will I do for the next year with all of the big stuff booked already? Don’t tell me, I am sure I will regret that question in a few months

When you are having a budget wedding, the first piece of advice given is always “cut your guest list!” Easier said than done sometimes, but this article on the consumerist gives a helpful way of deciding who is in, and who is out.  Send out this quiz before sending out your invites, and you may have less invites to order

1) Name the city I’m living in now.
2) Name at least two of my closest friends.
3) Name my current employer and my past employer.
4) Do I have any kids?
5) Do you know the name of my fiancé? Bonus question: Where and when did we meet?
6) Do you know where my parents are and whether they are still alive?
7) Name at least two of my hobbies.
How old am I?
9) Where did I go to college?
10) Name my last boyfriend before this engagement.

(Note: I don’t recommend using this quiz if you don’t like to offend those you love)

So today is the last day of antique week. You are sad, I know. Don’t worry I have a ton more pictures that I will use randomly in the future, so don’t forget to check back  And in following (kind of) with this mornings post, today is all about AFTER the wedding. Today is home day here at the bar. Let’s get right to it, shall we?

I went back to the barn after taking pictures to look for some cool salt and pepper shakers to hold us through until we get the ones we registered for (for some reason that sounds bad). Let’s just say I didn’t buy these ones.

And remember the conversation I overheard? Well my mom totally owns the bowls in the top right corner. 

It doesn’t get much more literal than this.

Who needs china when you have an antique barn?

The classiest shot glasses I have ever seen.

And everyone always raves about their mothers cooking, so getting an ‘antique’ cookbook has to be a good idea, right?

Well, that is the last day of antique week. Hope you enjoyed it I am so ready for this weekend. Should be pretty relaxing except for one appointment with a local restaurant to  see if it is a good place for our reception I will let you know who it goes next week!  Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!

My deep thought for today… what happens to all of these wedding blogs after the wedding?  I mean, I know that sites like EAD and Style Me Pretty are there always, but as I went down my list of daily wedding reads, most of them are girls who started their blog specifically to chronicle their wedding planning experience. But once they get married… then what?

I have thought about that for my own blog, and I tell myself that a year from now i will be doing a lot more freelance work and will use my blog to showcase that, as well as life inspirations… but that is a year from now… so I really don’t know. 

I want to take more pictures ( I was a photography major after all), so maybe this blog will turn into a photo blog… 

I like how the girl from Tartraz just blogs about her life, and I would assume most of her readers know her personally, judging by her list of friends blogs. However most of my friends make fun of me for having a blog (I know, they just don’t get it) so there goes all of those readers. There is Dooce, but really, how many bloggers can do what she has done? 

Maybe mine will turn out like Joys from Oh Joy!, She is a designer and had her blog before she got married, blogged about the wedding and wedding inspirations during the planning, and now that she i s married she went back to blogging about design.

What do you plan on doing after your wedding is over? Will you continue to blog? Will you rejoice that you don’t have to write about weddings anymore? Where do wedding blogs go to die?