Bam bam!

Three hundred tiny felt flowers cut. Check. Let's get down to some invitation business!

Thank You Card (ideas)

There isn't going to be stitching in the invites...so maybe in the thank you cards. I'm really inspired by this overprint of type (forth picture down by Sassen). Maybe I could carve a stamp with that same feel in mind and then stitch around the edges. Work with analogous colors. Maybe the "thank you" would be in a sparkly cream on a cream background. Time to get spray paint and stencils involved?

Invitations: Ready, Set, Go

I think I have an invitation design. It's both exciting and a bit scary. There's excitement when there are possibilities and now that I've made a decision (with Z's approval :) the possibilities close and the reality of what we have is now the reality of what we have.

But you know, I prepared myself for this, and writing this post has helped remind me of the strategy I put in place going in. I can still ogle pretty invitations. I love invitations. I love paper and ink. That doesn't change b/c we have ours now slowly curing.

Ours will be simple and lovely and us. It will consist of stamping and ironing and fabric and paper. These are all good things, and I will only feel happy.

Weekend Getaway

We're off this weekend. We're sort of camping...if camping means staying in a cabin with electricity but nothing else. On a river. It's January and I'm not hard core so this all sounds perfectly luxurious.

I'm bringing a stack of to-do's. I think I've spent the entire morning printing notes out and hopefully we'll walk back into next week with a really solid plan of the wedding variety. With deadlines attached to the ends of sentences. I think this will make everyone much happier.

Papery Goodness (by Olive Manna)

Flags!

This is the work of Olive Manna. I love it! She has a ton of other really cool papery-things at her website and at her store on Papernstitch.

I'd never heard of Papernstitch, but it looks like an etsy of handmade paper things. Oh, *drool.*

(Thank you Oh So Beautiful Paper for this one!)

Invitation (by Meghan and Patrick)

This is an invitation designed by the couple themselves, Meghan and Patrick. To say they are both interested in design is somewhat of an understatement. Check out their wedding site. It's delightful.

I love the colors and the straight forward design.

Also, their ceremony starts at 6:30, so I'm going to say it's OK that Z's and mine begins at 6.

(Found via Mint)

Table (via OnceWed)

Tables are sort of the next big project after sending off the Save the Dates and designing/making invitations. So, on second thought, while they are the next big project, they aren't on the radar. Except when browsing the blogs. Then I'm always looking. Because, yeah, flowers and pretty fabric and candles? What's not to love.

This lovely set up is from Bryan and Nicole's wedding, featured on Once Wed.

The photographer is Agaton Strom.

Natalie and Jared (by Jil Thomas)

This is such a happy photo. I love the banner.

The photographer, Jil Thomas, has a ton of beautiful photos from the day. (Also the bride's mother made her dress. w.o.w.)

(via OnceWed)

Thomas Marlow Photobooths (via Brooklyn Bride)

Add this to the list of, "Things I would have wanted to be as an adult if I had known it was an option."

Chicago Photographer, Thomas Marlow, creates photobooth backdrops for weddings. He brings in artists to help bring the couples' ideas to reality. Faaaaantastic.

Here's Thomas's website. I can't find any more photobooth shots but he has some other spectacular photography there. I particularly love some of his abstract work. Like this.

(More booths at Brooklyn Bride.)

Paper Flowers (via Brooklyn Bride)

I know pictures are very different than the thing itself, but sometimes wedding pictures really convey a mood of the event. I love these from Amber and Joe's. Innitally, it was the paper and fabric flowers that caught my eye but the whole thing really is lovely. Fantastic photography by Jenny Ebert (whose blog I may have to bookmark :)

(Via Brooklyn Bride)

So.

This is what pisses me off about weddings. And maybe this is just a rant I need to do every 5-7 weeks. I'm not a weddings girl, so I never had even thought about weddings in terms of me. The most I've ever thought about a wedding is when I'm sitting watching one happen. "Oh look!" I think, "A wedding." And then it's over and so are my thoughts on the subject.

But now that Z and I are getting married, I have to think about them. It's now like my full time job to think about them. People expect me to have answers and to just bring those answers to them like clockwork. And just when I think I'm doing OK, WHAM! Out of no where comes a leveler.

It's like the engagement ring. I never gave a damn about expensive, sparkly jewelry, and then in the matter of weeks I'm suppose to just turn around, suddenly have opinions on the matter and both make suggestions and know what questions are relevant. Engagement ring shopping is not fun. Don't let people tell you otherwise. It's only fun in stories and movies where you don't actually have to feel the sales lady trying to push something on you. But it was a really annoying process and one I'm glad I did b/c this ring is something I will cherish forever.

But back to weddings. Weddings are either about you or they are about everyone around you. I'm beginning to think they can't be both. And maybe that's just b/c the guest list is the one thing we are sticking on, so for us it's about us. And I know you're thinking, "Well it should be." And no one disagrees with this in principle. It's easy for people to say it and believe it, theoretically. I will probably say it after, like childbirth, the pain of this whole experience is erased by Darwinian chemicals in my brain. But right now. Right this minute when I don't have hindsight to ease the discomfort I'm causing those around me. Right now it sucks.

That's all I got. More later. Back to my actual paying job.

*****Update (an hour later) *********
A lot of this is still true. But the emotions are better. Thank GOD.

Yay Card (by Me)

I did some Yay cards awhile ago and while browsing through CraftAmor unearthed this one. I still really like the feel of spray paint over paper. And this even has flags!

I HAVE to spend some time on invitations.

Almost There (Save the Dates)

I am spending my gym break (and lunch break) today photographing Save the Dates. Last night I finished writing in the, "SAVE the DATE." Each and every time, I glanced over at the date terrified that it would be wrong. I still look at the image and get nervous.

**Update**
I was worried about the date, but what I should have been worried about is names. Names. Hmmm. That's funny, there are no names on here. Probably b/c the person designing them KNEW the names. Haha! Looks like I'm carving a stamp tonight! (A tiny square one that will go on the very back...you know, where names go for Save the Dates :)

Candy Boxes (by me)

This wasn't for a wedding but it could be. I made these little candy boxes as part of the thank yous for a show I was recently in. It was called "String of Pearls" and had a cast of 6 women. Notice how each box is wearing felt pearls. While these went to the crew of the show, but they could just as easily be gifts for bridesmaids. All my bridesmaids are getting at this point is stiff hands from cutting things out!

How To Eat a Cupcake (in four easy steps)

This is wedding related b/c you know what's often at a wedding? Cupcakes! I'm generally not a huge fan of the gloriously cute desert and while mostly it's because of the flavor*, it's at least a little in part b/c it's a messy little monster. Enter very smart woman Beth, who I just met at a New Years Coast weekend. (I will also be stealing her couscous recipe.)

1. Cupcake!

2. Take off the wrapper. You're not an animal.

3. Twist the top cupcake portion off and flip over.

4. Squish it down into the bottom.

THIS way you have something to hold so you don't get as sticky. Second, the frosting won't go up your nose when you bite into it. Third, this method redistributes the frosting more evenly throughout the cake so you don't end up alternating between between mouthfuls of pure frosting and pure, slightly dry cake.

*Z's Mom cooks cupcakes pretty often, and her cupcakes are teaching me to actually really like cupcakes. But it's getting to that point where I'll look at a cupcake and think, "Did Pam cook this? No? Then no thank you b/c sometimes you can't go back."