Rachelle + Todd’s Garden-Inspired Wedding Invitations

This is turning out to be quite an international week for wedding invitations!  Kate from Ruby & Willow sent over these gorgeous floral wedding invitations, with vintage stamps from New Zealand.  In addition to the lovely floral design, I’m loving the invitation colors of warm brown and peachy hues like apricot and shell…

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Kate tells me that the invitation design was inspired by the bride’s parents garden, where the wedding reception will take place.  Rachelle, the bride, wanted a mis-matched and vintage-inspired design, but definitely nothing overly formal or serious.  The color palette was inspired by the bridesmaids’ chocolate brown dresses with peach details.

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Just gorgeous!  Thanks so much Kate!

{image credits: ruby & willow}

*Ruby & Willow is one of my fabulous sponsors; for more on my editorial policies please click here.

{happy weekend – and a big announcement!}

I know, I know, it's only Wednesday but I'm taking a very short blogging break for a very good reason, I'm moving to a new site on my very own url!  Over the next couple of days we'll be moving all of the content over to the new site and getting it ready to share with all of you!  I hope you'll come check out the new digs starting Tuesday, June 1 (after the holiday weekend), where I'll have a Father's Day card round-up, a couple giveaways, and some truly spectacular wedding invitations that I've been saving for you!  But in the meantime… 

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…a few links for the rest of your week and weekend!

That's it for me this week come visit me over at the new location next week!

{image credits: Karen Mordechai for Martha Stewart Living via A Cup of Jo, floral arrangement by Saipua}

Melissa + George’s Vibrant Folk Art Wedding Invitations

Melissa and George were married last October in San Antonio, Texas.  Melissa works as a graphic designer, so naturally she decided to take on the task of designing her own wedding invitations.  With her bold pattern selections and color palette, Melissa infused her invitations with a folk art-inspired feel, while still maintaining a traditional layout that suited her semi-formal wedding:

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From Melissa: I loved the idea of a square format invitation and a full-bleed (no white border) design, but knew I needed to include a lot of information and wanted a more formal look-and-feel, since our church wedding and reception was more on the traditional side.

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I sourced vector artwork from Shutterstock and colored and rearranged the pattern until I found one I liked. Our wedding colors were navy, cranberry and cream with a hint of turquoise, which I think was fully reflected in the final design.

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We had more than half of our guests traveling from out of town, so I needed to include hotel and transportation information and a map of the area, along with our web site url and RSVP postcard.  The three stacked cards were designed to look like one cohesive image, but staggered to fit all the necessary details.  The diagonal pocket folder and envelopes were from Paper Source.

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The invitations were digitally printed by Ginny’s Printing in Austin, Texas on 100# Classic Crest natural cover.  My mom, sisters, grandmother and bridesmaids helped assemble more than 200 invitations by affixing glue dots to the back of the navy blue card and attaching the cranberry belly bands.

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My mom hand-addressed each envelope — and she also calligraphed the guests’ names on small square cards attached to the belly band around the invitation.  She’s a champ!

Melissa is now offering her wedding invitation design and several other designs as printable invitations in her etsy shop — check out the full selection right here!

{image credits: invitation photos by Katie Shagman, assembly photos by Melissa}

{happy weekend!}

I'm pretty sure the sun is shining for the first time all week here in DC – hooray!  Between sunshine and a friend visiting this weekend, I'm definitely ready to get a move on the weekend!  But in the meantime…

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…a few links for you all to enjoy:

Oh, and just a reminder to any DC-area folks that I'll be speaking at the Not So Big Wedding this Sunday at Rockwood Manor. I hope you'll come by to say hello!

{image credits: revivify via you are my fave}

Save the Date Contest Finalists {Part 2}

As promised, I have more inspiration boards from the finalists of the Save the Date contest from Delphine!  Here are the next three finalists (again, in no particular order):


Kate S: Design: Meeting Street;  Ink Colors: Crimson and Freesia
My fiance and I had our entire wedding planned in my native New York City, but the economy has taken its toll and we have had to cancel our plans and move everything to my moms backyard in Westchester, NY. Its even more exciting now as we are planning a very communal wedding, asking friends and family to contribute towards the day in lieu of gifts. The style of the wedding is going to be very outdoorsy and whimsical, with a vintage feel. We are going to have a 1930's style band, elegant dresses, men in straw hats and floral prints – a sort of hippie meets glamour evening. Since I love color so much its hard to narrow them down for a theme, but red and yellow have always been my favorite combination, they shouldn't work together but they just do!
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image sources, from left to right: hair piece via ban.do; Save the Date card via Delphine; cake via MS Weddings; backyard viaLittle Winter Bride; bouquet via New York Magazine; papel picado banner via Ay mujer; boutonniere via Something Old, Something New


Libby: Design: Savannah;  Ink Colors: Two-tone greens (like
key lime and palm)

My fiance, Lee, and I live in Providence, RI, but are getting married next May in Fairhope, Alabama (close to my family and friends). Lee and I are having to pay for the majority of the wedding, and because of extra costs such as traveling and hotels, our budget is tight. I feel that the Savannah style fits perfectly with my wedding. We are getting married at The Fairhope Inn. It is a small charming bed and breakfast and restaurant in Fairhope, AL. We will have both the ceremony and the reception in the garden courtyard. I want my wedding to be fun and springy and green and fresh. I love botanical anything, and I love, love the Savannah invitations and Save the Dates! They would fit so perfectly with the theme!

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image sources, from left to right: Save the Date via Delphine; centerpiece via Style Me Pretty; bridesmaid dress via J Crew; shoes via Style Me pretty; sparklers via events wholesale; dress via Once Wed; bouquet via Style Me Pretty; centerpieces via MS Weddings

Lindsay: Design: The Robin Collection;  Ink Colors: Tangerine +
Chocolate. 

Lindsay and her fiancé are planning a wedding that reflects their memories of a trip to Napa Valley, California, where they were engaged:

We chose the Fairmont Copley as our venue because of its beautiful architecture, intricate gold detailing and cozy, warm ambiance. We picked the month of October for its rich autumn hues and seasonal food offerings. From there we began focusing on the little details: stacked corks to hold the seating cards, wooden wine crates to give depth and height to our antipasto display, olive oil favors to honor my fiancé's Greek heritage. We started thinking about the flowers; clustered vases with full garden roses, submerged orchids, dripping crystals and floating candles. We want our wedding to reflect the romance and beauty of the California vineyards. We see the candlelight as being reminiscent of the wine cellars with their antique candelabras and cool cement walls. The colors that we chose; gold, champagne, ivory, peach and cream play to the peaceful elegance of the area and the cascading crystals add that sexiness that permeates everything in Napa Valley.


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image sources, from left to right: sunlight photo via flickr; invitation via Delphine; boutonniere via Style Me Pretty; Pumpkin
Soup
here; wine cellar via flickr; dress via Style Me Pretty; flowers via the knot; vineyard via National Geographic; flowers and escort cards via the knot; submerged flowers via Style Me Pretty; cake via Southern Weddings; bridesmaid dress by Jim Hjelm; Lindsay's venue, the Venetian Room.
I've got a few more finalist inspiration boards to post, so if you entered the contest, check back tomorrow morning!