Baby Shower Invites

For the mom-to-be of a boy, but who very much loves pink.

Vowchella: Summer of Love

The icing on the cake of designing the Fall/Winter issue of Vow Bride is creating the Launch Party Invitation. This issue I'm so extremely proud of the beautiful images, unique stories, elegant design and stunning collaboration of so many wonderful LOCAL businesses.

Wanna know what's really sad? I won't even be able to attend my own party! Flowy, showy and flower crowns is totally my jam!! But, I'll be happily jamming with one of my besties at her Portland wedding and road tripping down the West Coast so I can't be sad for too long.

Bachelorette Party Invites

New to the design portfolio - Bachelorette Party Invites. Unfortunately I can't take credit for this adorable theme, but the designs are all mine! Best of all? I actually get to attend the party as well. Can't wait to celebrate this very special bride-to-be and see what other fun surprises the hostesses have in store.

Baby Shower Gaggle

My dear friend is expecting a baby girl this Summer and what better way to celebrate than with an adorable baby shower!? I was honored to help plan with four other amazingly talented ladies to make our 'Oh Deer...Baby Lauren is Almost Here' woodland theme top notch for the mommy-to-be. Above are the invitations I designed with matching insert cards. I also made coordinating food place cards, a signs and baby games. 

Lucky for us, the host has this gorgeous (handmade by her and her boyfriend) wooden dining room table that perfectly fit our theme. Our wedding decor, once again, came in handy as we used the wooden slabs (from our centerpieces), cake plates and branch garland.

The menu consisted of lots of treats from chicken salad sandwiches to dill potato salad, Mexican rollups, a cheese plate, veggies and dips. For dessert we served red velvet cupcakes (the lady of the hours' favorite) and chocolate chess pie. For the non-pregnant guests we served white peach sangria and champagne. 

As an advocate for no games at showers, I actually liked the games we picked - mostly because they required no effort or awkward moments. The clothespin game, the yarn game and the Wright Family game were general crowdpleasers.

We were also very fortunate to have a florist on the planning committee. The flower arrangements were absolutely stunning and seriously classed up the day. But you can never go wrong with ranunculus in my book! Everyone participated in our 'books for baby' which is a great way to build a unique collection of books - and touching words from loved ones. We're so excited for Sarah, her hubby and their little bundle...now finish out these last couple months and arrive safely Lauren!

January Project Log

Finalized projects from this month. As you can see, no two designs are ever the same.

{vowbride.com  // 106-page print magazine // design, art director}

{CBDX 7th Annual Casino Night  //  young professionals group  // member & graphic design}

{American Classic Self Storage  //  location map for 11 regional locations //  graphic design & illustration}

{cloudstream.systems  // tech company in charlotte north carolina  //  logo design and flyer creation}

{Virginia Beach Convention Center  //  10th anniversary emblem, save the date and invite design}

No job is too big or too small.
If you have graphic design needs you'd like to talk about, shoot me an email here.

Wedding Wednesdays: Invitations

As a graphic designer I have been thinking about creating my own wedding invitations for years. My typical design style is bold & busy. For our wedding invitations I wanted something beautiful. Something just, stunning, with pretty script fonts and pale colors. I confess, I also wanted an elaborate map, a schedule of events, a policy-sized (4" x 9") invite, possibly a photo strip, baker's twine, a paper bag, printed envelopes and perhaps a custom stamp! In my first attempt, I created seven different font combinations, only to be denied by The HTB. In my second attempt I tired all new fonts, introduced some colors and still, he was not impressed. Honestly, neither was I.

So I took some time off from designing. I looked over and over at the collection of the invites I loved. I made the HTB look at hundreds of invites to get me going in the right direction. I finally realized that while I loved the beautiful scripty invitations, they just weren't us. It wasn't my design style so everything I designed just wasn't good enough. Plus, I hated the way a capital A was looking in every script font I picked! I found some serif and sans serif fonts we were both really digging and all of a sudden, the invitations were starting to come together. We kept all the designs to ourselves until they were almost complete. I think we surprised quite a few people with the designs and color choices, but we couldn't have been happier with the outcome.

I will pass along two pieces of advice, which we learned the hard way. 1) Create a numbering system for your RSVP cards (i.e. Aunt Tillie is #16 and a 16 is written on the back of her card in light pencil), because you will get some RSVP cards back without names. 2) Don't use an inkjet printer to print the addresses on the outside of your envelopes. After the Post Office processes them, they'll look like this:

We were lucky in that only one was returned to us and what was on the inside completely blew everyone away so they immediately forgot about the outside (at least this is what my Mom and sister told me after I saw these two arrive in this condition). 

Toss Bouquet

My sweet friend Sarah and her handsome groom got married on October 25, 2014. I was more than thrilled do design their wedding invitations and signage, but I was so honored when she asked me to make her toss bouquet for the wedding. Her colors were coral and navy so I perused the artificial flower lanes at the craft store and found these perfect little Carnation minis for the filler.

Turns out, coral felt (the pretty, soft coral color) is really hard to come by. It's either red, dark red, or approximately 15 shades of pink. I ended up with "grapefruit" and got to work. A typical toss bouquet will come with 4 flowers and filler for $20-$25. It can match the wedding bouquet flowers perfectly (in a smaller fashion), or it can be something completely different that your lucky guest will be able to cherish for many years to come.

As for the rest of the evening, the wedding couldn't have been more splendid. The Attic at Waterman's is such a hidden gem! The venue over looks the Atlantic Ocean and is stunning as the afternoon and evening sun starts to set. The food was fantastic - and lots of it, plus the ice luge (which brought fond memories of a friend's 21st birthday) was a more-than-appropriate touch! Many congrats to my two wonderful friends!

Save the Date!

I was absolutely blown away with our engagement pictures that Angela Douglas took for us. An hour walk around Downtown Norfolk and bam, she cranks out more than 60 images that I can't stop drooling over! So you can imagine the time we had narrowing it down to just ONE image for our Save the Date postcards...

After many emails and votes we finally decided to go with my personal favorite. I was able to design the back in no time and sent them off to Vistaprint for a quick turnaround. They look great and it seems more real than ever that we're doing this 'getting married' thing (as goosebumps just covered my body).

I'm participating in the 92 Days of Summer challenge. Click here to read all about it and here to a see a gallery of pictures of everyone participating.  

My Golden Year

Have I ever told you how lucky I am? For my Golden Birthday (Which, for those of you who don't know is the year in which you turn the age of the day you were born on. i.e. 29 on the 29th), I threw myself an "All That Glitters is Not Old" party. With everything shiny, sparkly, sequined and gold. With the help of my friend Cali, we made an ever-so-cute photo wall out of tissue paper from the Dollar Tree. Cali also make an adorable cake stand from stove covers and candlesticks, also from the Dollar tree, adorned with her delicious cupcakes.

My friends put up with obsessing about the perfect gold dress to wear, what to serve, finding a champagne punch recipe (which I didn't end up making), decorating, cleaning up, a cold Winter monsoon and downtown Norfolk parking, just to make me feel special on my birthday. Since the Summer, since friends bought houses and moved, had babies, had meetings, work and life in general, we haven't had as many opportunities to party like old times. So this was just a reason to get everyone excited for a night with good friends and good times. I couldn't have asked for a better way to ring in my 29th year...it's going to be the best yet!

If you're looking to throw a golden party, definitely find the clearance section after New Year's. Also, hanging Christmas bulbs are easy and cheap (after-Christmas sale). Hit up the Dollar Tree, there I found:
Star wrapping paper I used as table coverings
Plastic trays I spray painted (the under sides) gold
Gold star plates
Chinese take-out boxes
Gold and cream tissue paper (for the photo wall)
Streamers and confetti
Tall candles (spray painted gold)
Props for photo booth (glitter glasses, top hat, gold clock necklace, tiara, beads)

We served champagne, white wine, white cheddar popcorn, Parmesan goldfish, golden snack mix, golden Oreos and cheese and crackers.

Baby Shower Invites

Some days I want to be pregnant just so someone will throw me a baby shower. Oysters, burgers and beer?! Although, I suppose if I was preggers, I wouldn't be participating in any of those delicious activities. So...maybe I'll just stick to designing the invites for the time being :)

This fun invite is for a mommy-to-be who's husband is in the military. There wasn't a lot of time to plan a shower after his homecoming and before baby, so their friends decided to throw them a joint party. I love the "Ahoy, It's a Boy" theme, and I think this invite is so fitting.


Throwing a party and want your own custom invites? Contact me for details!

Monday Musebles

 

We did it! We finally threw our housewarming party (#4)! We invited our closest friends and family to a get-together with food, drinks and yard games. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for us. About an hour before our guests were supposed to show up, the heavens broke loose and filled our backyard, frontyard, driveway and streets with water! We actually were able to make the backyard look quite hospitable with our cornhole boards, tiki torches and makeshift firepit, but that will have be for another party (I will mention that in the middle of the blackness and rain, the sun came out and we have this amazing rainbow in the backyard. I suppose that has to be a little good luck, right?). So instead of the backyard games, we hosted 40 people indoors. Note to Self: 40 people definitely fit in our house, no problem. Another Note to Self: At least 17 of those people will try to hang out in the kitchen and only 6 in the biggest room of the house (the living room).

Regardless, we had a blast. I picked up some essential party decor from Table 7 (their Summer stuff is on sale!). Deb made her yummy meatballs and Italian sausage. I stuck with my old faithful dips of roasted red pepper dip, jalapeno ranch dip and hummus (although this time I added some chipotle peppers) with lots of veggies, cheese, crackers and salami. I tried a new puppy chow (or trash as I was informed it is called in the South) that tastes like Reese Pieces.

We also cracked open our bottle of Almond Champagne (#5), which I finally found at Trader Joe's. The consensus was that the little dixie cup taste was just the perfect amount. I, however, could have had the bottle to myself :)

Mike and I are so fortunate to have so many wonderful friends and family around to celebrate such an exciting time in our lives. I wish we could host parties every weekend but just not pay for them, haha.

I'm participating in the 92 Days of Summer challenge. Read about it here.

#79: Freelance Projects

One of my (many) dream jobs is being a wedding planner. A wedding planner who designs all the printed materials for the event, how fun would that be? You can imagine my excitement when I got the opportunity this Spring to design the wedding invitations of a very good friend and his fiance.

They are such a fun-loving, outgoing and amazing couple and we wanted their invites to scream those sentiments. Not to mention, he was in a local band for years, so we knew the invites would be a little non-traditional and, of course, include the band's font. After the amazing job Norfolk Printing Company did with the Better Block maps, I had no doubt I was going to use them again. They did a fantastic (and quick) turnaround job and I couldn't have been happier with the final product.

invitation

map & info card

RSVP postcard front

RSVP postcard back

rehearsal dinner invite

If you, or someone you know, are getting married, please email me for having custom-made invitations for your big day!

I'm participating in my third annual 92 Days of Summer challenge. Read about the project here.