You can bring your own calligraphy pens!

Someone asked me recently if I was able to write on pearl paper, which unfortunately my ink does not. I have the type of ink where it’s in a bottle and I literally dip my pen in there to give the envelopes a rich, traditional feel. But in her case, she needed her inner envelopes were made out of pearl paper. I suggested that she can bring a calligraphy pen that’s normally found in art stores. It’s sort of like a sharpie, and since she had samples of the paper on hand, she was even able to test it out and confirm that it works!

Wedding vows

Here’s a recent project I worked on. Someone asked me to write his and his wife’s wedding vows on calligraphy paper, which he then framed and gave to her on their first wedding anniversary (paper is the first anniversary’s theme).

Escort cards vs. place cards… what’s the difference?

These two cards are often used interchangeably, but there actually is a difference between the two.

Escort cards let your guests know which table they will be sitting in. There’s usually a table in front of the reception room with the guests’ names written either on cards or on envelopes. They’re probably arranged in alphabetical order, although there are some unique ones where the cards are hanging on branches, or on a wall. The card could say something like, “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith Table 2.”

Once the guests have found their table, place cards then indicate which seat they’ll be occupying. The cards can be placed either on the plate, or above the plate, or on a napkin. The card can say “John Smith” or just “John.”

I find that these two cards are so useful to keep your guests from awkwardly wondering where they’ll be sitting, and will save you and your wedding party a lot of time from having to answer questions as to where they’re supposed to sit.

Unique guestbook idea

Here’s a great idea from one of my customers: a handmade book as a guestbook! This particular event was for a colleague’s retirement party, and so they had ordered a handmade book from Papyrus. The beautiful parchment and leather-bound binding made the guestbook so unique.

I’m back from the crazy world of Motherhood!

I can’t believe how long I’ve neglected this blog, but I have the best excuse ever! Little Ian was born 4 months ago, and as any mom can attest, has taken up the bulk of my time and then some. He’s a happy little booger, smiles a whole lot, is trying to roll over, and venturing into solids (food, that is!).

In other news, I’m now a bridesmaid for my friend Jenny! She’s planning to get married later this year, so it’ll be a fun several months to come. She’s still looking for a venue, and I’ll be helping her with her invitations and calligraphy. Like I told her, the venue-searching is the most stressful part of wedding planning. Once you have that down, all the other elements are easier to handle. No wonder too; half of the costs of a wedding tend to go to the venue alone!

How to start looking for a venue? Figure out your guest list number. This will determine the capacity of the venue as well as your budget goals. I went online to projectwedding.com to look for venues that fit her needs.

Tea party shower

I recently went to a cousin’s bridal shower with a tea party theme. They rented a rec room where they set up tables topped with lace tablecloths and fresh flowers. Each table also had a picture of the bride and groom, and each place setting had a tea cup and saucer. The host happens to collect tea cups but I’ve seen some available at thrift stores too. It was cute that the tea cups were all different.

Along one side of the wall were the different tea pots, five total, marked with a little sign of what it was (i.e. “earl gray, decaf”). The other side of the wall had the food — four different types of tea sandwiches, ham and cheese croissants, egg rolls, and a salad. And yet another wall had the desserts — finger bites of brownies, tarts and cakes.

A nice touch they had was spa water! She had a large glass jar with a water “faucet” on the bottom, and it was filled with different flavors that I now forget, but something along the lines of cucumbers, mint, etc. that gave the water a refreshing taste. Most of us don’t have a glass faucet jar so if I were to re-do this, I’d just mix it all in in a large pitcher and it should do the trick. You just have to make sure the stuff inside like the cucumbers don’t fall into your glass!

My baby shower cake

I had a WONDERFUL baby shower this weekend, surrounded by friends and family. Everyone kept ooh’ing and ahh’ing over the cake and favors that my sister-in-law’s friend Beth designed and made because it was customized after the invitation I made!

Remember this?

Well here is the cake:

and here is the favor:

Notice how the bottom of the cake is the same green and white gingham pattern on the invite, and how the color schemes are the same, and of course the adorable giraffe that she fashioned after the illustration on the invitation. So adorable!

The favors had either a giraffe, a pacifier or a bib on top of cupcakes and had my name on it too. Each one was packaged in a plastic container with cute ribbons around them.

This is Beth’s hobby but you would think she’s been doing this professionally for decades! And of course the cake tasted great 🙂

Dancing Down the Aisle

Have you seen this video of a wedding procession groovin’ down the aisle?

It looked like a lot of fun! I wonder where their ceremony was; I can’t imagine doing that for mine even if I wanted to; I doubt the church I got married in would’ve allowed that!

Coasters for favors

My cousin got married this summer in New Jersey, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to come because I was preggo’s. But his mom sent me their cute favors, which are these beautiful glass coasters:

I used them right when I got them hehe! They put their names and wedding date on them, but you can also put photos, illustrations, messages, etc. Each guest got two coasters. Beautiful!

DIY centerpieces

I did my own centerpieces for my wedding. I got the idea from Style Me Pretty, where they featured a bride who did this for her wedding. It looked simple enough, and so I thought I would try it for my own! Here’s how they turned out:

The supplies are pretty simple. I bought key limes from Ralph’s and the vases from Michaels. Then I went to the downtown flower district and bought hydrangeas. In the same area is an arts and crafts store where they sold those twigs you see shooting out from the flowers.

To arrange them, you cut the hydrangea stems so that the flowers sit right on the top of the vase. I kept the rubber bands on the stems so that they were all grouped together. After that, I took some twigs and stuck it in the middle of the hydrangeas. Then I inserted the key limes into the vace to fill it up. I used key limes instead of regular limes because they were smaller and therefore filled it up more. And finally I filled it up with water. Viola!

A huge mistake I did though was making the arrangements the day before. We arranged them at my mom’s where it is super hot, PLUS it was already hot because it was a scorching summer. So the next morning the hydrangeas wilted a bit 😦 My brother-in-law came to the rescue; he drove to the flower district and bought new hydrangeas. Unfortunately he had to re-arrange the vases, but I’m hoping it was easy enough considering the simple ingredients. But a word of advice: if you’re doing any type of flower arranging for your wedding, definitely do it the day itself (or have someone else or a florist do it).

These centerpieces turned out beautifully though and lasted throughout the wedding night. I think it’s because the reception hall was air conditioned (my mom’s house wasn’t). A big plus of course is that we saved money by making them ourselves!