First comes love

Free prints from A Print a Day

I love A Print A Day blog. Yasmine is such a talented artist and I really have to admire her consistent output of inspiration and generous freebies. (freebies provided that they are for personal use of course).

Take for example these labels, stickers and notepad template:

Love the bright candy colors.

Or imagine what you could do with these lacy labels:

 

She also sells kits and I particularly like this one.

She also recently announced her involvement with Feed Your Soul, another great outlet for artists and art lovers.  There are some fantastic free prints in their downloads section that I like to print out and cheer up my gloomy cubicle and I think some of them are fantastic sources of inspiration for wedding daydreams like this one:

Cute, n'est pas?

Keep it real

My bridesmaid Angie sent me this article in the New York Times, I think mainly because the title of it mentions burgers.  As I read it I found myself nodding as well as getting annoyed at the same time.

One of the trends it identifies is people rejecting "traditionally" lavish weddings in favor of more "down to earth parties".  Burgers instead of lobster.  Garden picnics instead of hotel dining.

"I don’t want a big show, just the best backyard party ever."

Awesome, I'm all for that.

But that quote is directly preceded by, "What she is hoping for, she said, is an experience that, despite months of preparation, seems unfussy and authentic". (emphasis mine)

Ugh, what?

There is nothing wrong with hard work and preparation for a wedding. It actually is a very special occasion.  The key point is that you choose how to spend your time and effort and that you're not fake about it! 

You can have champagne and cavier. You can have hot dogs and lemonade.  But it's gotta be all you.  If you guys are champagne kind of people, on this day of all days you shouldn't be ashamed of popping a few corks and instead hide behind organic lemonade served in crystal mugs.  I just don't see the point in spending money to make it look like you didn't spend money.

I'm reminded of some wise advice from a famous knitter (yes there are famous knitters).  She tells people not to discount their hard work and effort when making things. When people compliment you, don't just shrug and say it was nothing. It wasn't nothing!

So when the big day comes, no matter how it turns out, if I am lucky enough for people to tell me they think the wedding has gone really well, I will resist the urge to say it was nothing. Instead I will smile, look them in the eye and say, "Thank you. I'm so glad you're here with us to enjoy it.  It makes it all worth it".

And we will live in a house of bowls

I've gotten some lovely wedding books and magazines from friends, some more helpful than others but still appreciated all around.  One of them goes into some detail about the wedding registry along with a guide for what you should register for.

Now, the whole registering for gifts thing makes me a feel a bit icky but ok I'll bite. We're starting a life together, people want to help us out, it's tradition, etc. I'll play along.  But I kid you not, the suggested list included "4-6 decorative bowls".

Wha?

What exactly is a decorative bowl and what would one do with such a thing, let alone 4 to 6 of them?  Does it actually hold anything besides dust or is its pure function just to be at one with itself?

I'll save you from the rest of the snark because then I got sucked into the rabbit hole that is Etsy and I've changed my mind. I want nothing but bowls to cover every inch of our home.  All things will be stored in bowls, I will bathe in bowls, and our whole family will wear bowls on our heads like hats.

Because seriously, I want to make room in my life for these:

How adorable is this Sweet little blue birds bowl by tashamck?

But let's say we have room in our life for more birds. How about a whole party of conversing birds by redhotpottery?

I am really drawn to the graphic print on this bowl and I couldn't bear to put anything in it and cover up the lovely teal color. (Teal circles bowl by luckalilly)

And I don't think I could pass through a room that had this bowl without picking it up and holding it: (Sweet Pea in bright green by Kim Westad)

I wonder if Etsy does Wedding Registries?

Who could toss this away?

Wonderful, just gorgeous.

It's got all the elegance of black and white without the severity.

Just love the variety packed into one boutonniere.

From Small Stump, via Broken Saucer.

Invitations: Which way to sanity-ville?

We've got the Save the Date cards sorted.  Well sort of.  We know exactly what we want to do, just need to do a bit of chasing up to get them done.  But no more details on that until after they are sent!

In the meantime, another thing to turn our attentions to is invitations and I'm a bit at a loss of how to approach them. The path to invitations is a tricky path indeed.

There are a couple of choices that beckon, with all with their pros and cons:

1. Complete DIY - This seems like the scariest but also really fun option.  I think I'm creative and crafty enough (and if I'm not I've got a wealth of inspiration from friends) to at least consider this option.  But then I start thinking about exactly what needs to be done and my chest starts to tighten.  I can really go in circles for hours browsing PaperSource, Michael's, Confetti, and on and on... Lots to have fun with but also lots to stress out about and do I have the TIME??
2. Etsy - I've seriously considered Etsy. There's such a load of talent out there though that it's almost as much choice as the DIY route.  It tends to be a bit pricier but I think it would be well worth it if you found exactly what you wanted while contributing towards an individual's own business.  I couldn't really know where to start at all though.  Anyone got suggestions?
3. Off the shelf - Now, I know I'm all Miss "Everything must be unique and personal" but when it comes to the invitations I have to put it in balance.  Funnily enough the invitations don't even make it to the wedding day! Seriously, I don't know who holds onto invitations except maybe the scrap with the directions on it and I'm totally going internet geek with that info.  So I'm open to consider places like: Wedding Paper Divas, Modern Girl Invitations, Hello Lucky, and Scissor, Paper, Stone (that last one is the one UK supplier I've found that I liked. Do you know others?).

What would you do?  What did you do?

No clowns or balloons. It's a start.

So I think we we really need to buckle down and start pinning down colors and/or themes but that's where we get stuck.  We've only agreed on what we Don't Want.

• Craig has firmly turned down pink. Reds are still on the table as long as I promise not try and sneak in a pink as a red. Same with orange.
• No balloons. *shudder* For that matter, no circus theme in general including clowns. *shudder*
• No Easter colors. (Even this is shaky, I do like baby blue and dark brown.  Or with gray.  Or navy...)

Basically everything is an option.  Vintage, modern, irreverent, or romantic.  Or all of the above.

And it's not like I'm ambivalent about everything, it's quite the opposite problem.

Just this morning I was swooning over this flower arrangement from Housemartin.

They used purple kale. KALE! How awesome is that?  Lime and dark green, purple, and apricot/peach to create something relaxed but sophisticated with a bit of cheek.

Hmmm do you think I can nominate apricot or peach under the heading of Orange... or will the masculine eye call them Pink?

More monograms!

Ok I think I'm starting to get the hang of this.

Craig particularly likes the font for this "M" and it goes with my original idea board, which is still up for debate as I'm not convinced it really goes with the mood of the venue.

I think this would make a cute coaster.

Not really serious about this one but it was a fun "exercise" to try and get the effect of the lines going over and under the "&" sign.

Crazy lady notes? Actually, guest list.

I've taken a fancy to addressing invitations by hand as well as making name cards by hand.  That means brushing up on my penmanship!

That's a cheap little Puka Pad I bought when we were in Scotland a few weeks ago. I wanted to take notes when we met with the venue and some photographers.  By the end of the weekend though I was writing names over and over... and over again in my spare moments. There's seriously like ten pages of this stuff.

Then I got some graph paper so that I can practice being a bit more consistent with spacing and sizing:

I'm beginning to find the whole exercise relaxing and meditative, sort of like knitting!  And I'm also finding it to be a moment to think about the guest while seeing how unique their names come out.  I have two Angelinas in my bridal party but even their names look slightly different.

Next step:  Getting a real calligraphy pen and see how that changes things!

Sometimes you just know.

How's this for chucking the traditional wedding picture out the window:

From here.

And their personalities are also plastered all over the invite:

...sometimes, when you know, you just know.

Love!

Dabbling in design

My eyes are tired, my back is aching, my computer is roasting and I'm all sweaty (what?) and this is all I got to show for it:

I think it's not bad for a first effort.