Winter Wonderland {the invitations, menu, program cover}

I am delighted to finally share with you this invitation suite and matching menu, & program cover. You can view the save the dates here. I am so excited as we will also be shooting this wedding in Whistler, Canada and enjoying a week long vacation as well.
All the pieces are designed by me and letterpress by my favorite peeps over at Spark Letterpress.

Ceremony program...a collage of our love notes!

These are quick photos of my wedding programs. I had made 4 versions of different collages of notes, drawings, journal entries and fun items {the giving tree} from our 10 years of dating that we gave each other. Some of them were in my husband's wallet for 10 years so they were folded and dirty but it made it more fun. I printed the ceremony program on the back with poem that I wrote in place of the "order of service" and I made up names for all involved. It was so fun to watch people trying to collect all 4 versions.

Vintage Garden by the Sea...Real Wedding: Cambria, CA: 10.18.08

Here are the pics from the wedding of Courtney and Erin in Cambria California 10.18.08 It turned out beautiful!! A beachy vintage garden wedding. The Ceremony was in a small chapel with the reception in the small garden of a local restaurant near the ocean and surrounded by pine trees.
It was so gorgeous. I did all the paper products starting with the save the dates, to the invites, programs, welcome bag artwork, and signs with calligraphy done by Jill Valez. The escort cards were tea dyed tags hung from the tree with the guests names and table number, this was a spin on the little tag attached to the invite (also tea dyed to make it look vintage) with twine tying it all together and a wax seal. The couple's monogram was used through out the wedding on the wax seal, matchbooks, & cupcakes.
My husband and myself photographed the wedding. Splitting up at times to get full coverage. While he took them to the beach after the ceremony to capture beautiful shots, I ran to the reception to capture the details and cocktail hour. I know how much the details meant to the bride, so I wanted to make sure all of it was photographed before the partying began. :) To view more of his wedding photos click here (There are a few on the website which are mine too. :) )
They rented an old fashioned photo booth for the reception. All the center peice vases are from the brides own collection.
There are so many great photographs!! Here are a few of my favs.

Wax is great for programs & favors too!

Here is a fun way to use a wax seal. Although I have not had a moment to photograph the invite for this wedding here are the programs and welcome basket favor for the wedding. I will be attending it this weekend and my husband and I will be photographing it as well. FYI the bride and groom have the same name as me and my husband "Courtney and Erin"
The favor is a letterpress art piece that goes with the invite suite. We used burgundy wax through out the suite but I chose to use a white wax on the artwork to make it stand out and give it a modern flair. The wedding is in Cambria california a sweet little beach town with the name "Where the pines meet the seas" The invite also included pine cones and shells with a vintage and organic feel she didn't want any starfish and sand dollars!! I don't blame her.
The program is a mix of letterpress and ink jet.
Enjoy!
When I get back from the wedding I will post some more pics.

Wedding Day Accessories Galore!!!

Wow!!! Finishing the day of accessories for weddings is the hardest part of the wedding timeline. As many brides often don't have the info for the programs, or escort cards until 2 weeks before it makes it unbelievably stressful to get it all done by the wedding or 3 days before if they want to assemble themselves. However I get it done and the lack of sleep that I endure, something magical happens and I become SUPER COURTNEY WEDDING STATIONERY EXTRAORDINAIRE. Although I would like to totally blame my brides (hi girls- I still love you all to pieces...) I will have to say that I often underestimate my ability and time it will take to print these item. Maybe I am too nice and shouldn't allow any changes or require all wording 1 month before and no later?!? :-) Or maybe I open my big mouth with crazy ideas like:
1.sailboats for table numbers using cantaloupes for the boat and printing tear drop shaped sails that are put together with wooden dowels... which did go smoothly I hear, waiting to see some pictures...
2. Perhaps decoupaged table numbers on to wood.... which also turned out fantastic. see the pics below.
3.How about 2 musicians that are getting married and are trying to find a cool way to display the escort cards.... My solution: find and old stand up base and use clothes pins to attach the escort cards to the strings.... But that was impossible to do 3 weeks before the wedding, thus giving me even less time to print for the escort cards....
But again I am proud to have finished some pretty cool designs with not a minute to spare....
4. lets wrap wire and buttons around paper mache kraft numbers for your tables....what? you have 25 tables... okay... I'll do it... Again I have heard it turned out lovely and matched her invites and the rest of the wedding stationery and brought the fun theme all together. It was a little rustic modern.

I have a problem. I LOVE trying to find great ways to display the accessories which leaves me with no time as the bride and groom discuss easy ways to get my ideas executed.:-) This makes the wedding event coordinators love me even that much more (sarcasm) as I give the couples crazy ideas.... Crazy ideas are the best! I always try to be more then just a printer. I don't just print escort cards I figure out the best ways to display them. This goes with all my accessories. The detail is not just the design but how it will be presented.

Here are a few pics of the signs on wood.... I will take some pictures of the last few programs I did and put those up soon. Soon being probably a week.







The table numbers were the years they had been together. 12 years 12 tables. perfect. Each table # had a photo from that corresponding year, They wanted them to look like old blue note jazz record album covers so each one was all red, blue or green overlay... Here is only a picture of the 2008 as I had no time to take a picture of each year, having to deliver everything 10 minutes after I finished.... I made a seating chart to go along with it and fun drink and desert signs.