Invitations continued

I say I'm going to post something the next day, and then it takes me over a month to actually do it... Here are some shots of our invites. The quality of these images are not so good. In hindsight, I should have had our photographer get some shots, while we had her in our power.

Folded up, referencing our Save the Dates

In the process of unfolding (I'm trying to give the full experience)

Lots of info for those not inclined to use the internet

Not the most accurate map, but people should really just use the internet.
Grandparents, let that be a lesson to you.

Flip side: the Alphabet poster that took a large chunk of my life to illustrate
The letters G, S, and T are supposed to coordinate with the itinerary on the other side.
Don't know if that was clear.


I do like to design me some icons


Personal stories surrounding the alphabet.

Wedding invite and tourist brochure

RSVP cards -- Rob lobbied to use the phrase "meal of food"

Weeks later, Rob pointed out a typo. My instinct was to get really angry at him, then cry. It was a small misspelling, but it's enough to annoy me for all of eternity.

My intention is to turn this into a more generic poster for Door County and to seek my fortune in the gift shop circuit (that will hopefully cover cost of production). This time, there will be no misspellings.

From Miss to Ms!

The title 'Ms.' is noncommital. It inhabits the bland middle ground between Miss and Mrs. that is very unclear. Are you a divorcee, widow, or just really hate bras? Who's to know which? And whatever the case, it implies a learned cynicism or a world-weariness that I'm fortunate not to possess at the present.

I've started to brainstorm a friendlier version that says 'I'm keeping my maiden name but I also like my bra and heels.' 'Ms!' is as far as my wits have taken me.

***

I am now officially a Ms! and very happy to be so. Besides the obvious bonus of being married to my favorite gentleman, I also don't have to plan a godforsaken wedding again. To be clear, I loved our wedding and was overwhelmed with warm fuzziness, but the week preceding the day was a circle of hell I would rather not reenter.

Our photographer, Erin Hansen did an amazing job at capturing the warm fuzzy parts of the wedding and making us look better than we do in real life. Here are some people shots:

Wedding Invites and Throwing Stars

I had kind of cut myself off from reading any wedding blogs a few weeks ago to keep things sane. But I cheated and peaked at Green Wedding Shoes this morning, where I found examples of some awesome new invites from Studio on Fire and someone I previously had not seen, Erin Jang.

Ms. Jang does some handsome and clever work. And her type takes my breath away (and type really can do that -- take breath away).

I like the carnival-esqueness to this, like your organist should be the bearded lady and the ring bearer the two-headed boy, bride and groom depart on elephant...

I would keep this program if I went to their wedding

This type is gasp-worthy

When I kicked off design of my own invites, I did a lot of hunting for inspiration and image loading. I was finding a lot of the same stuff out there -- birds, big blooms, everything letterpressed -- lots of pretty stuff, but not especially thoughtful, so most just blended together. Once in a while something would really blow me away, and it was more often than not from Studio on Fire.

Here are some more recent pieces:

This pattern is somewhat unexpected for a wedding invite

It's all bird-trendy, but this type is so handsome



Not a wedding invite, just cool

I need to get my act together and photograph our finished invites. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Here's a preview of the folded and packaged piece, pre-envelope stuffing:

Clutch Progress

I'm happy with how the bridesmaid clutches are turning out. I'm working off a really simple pattern by Keyka Lou that I found on Etsy. Here's the making of the prototype:

Pieces cut out and ready

Finished interior


Cute little guy

I liked my little prototype, but something wasn't quite right with the fabric. It wasn't luxe enough and the print was bugging me. I'm a little sick of Damask-inspired prints. And what these pictures don't show are some serious alignment issues at the seems.

So I chose to move to a solid by using a dark, espresso-brown velvet as the exterior. The inside is a floral cotton print. Here's a sneak peak of the six bags in progress:



I just need to insert the lining and other end of the magnetic snap... and then, Presto! I've got me part of a bridesmaid gift. Hopefully I'll have the finished product up tomorrow.

Dude-wear

Rob and I went out hunting for his marital suit this weekend. We set out looking for a three-piece suit, but had no luck. Almost no one carried them, which was kind of disappointing. We're in the wrong season and the addition of a vest makes the suit cost skyrocket, which leads to no demand for supply in this cursed economy.

As our level enthusiasm for the shopping trip started to subside, we gave up on our quest for the three-piece. But in the end, Rob found a really great fitting suit that was actually long enough for him and he is pretty excited about it.

BOSS Two Button Suit, Charcoal

For the groomsmen gifts, we're hooking each of them up with a shirt, tie and a tie clip. I love the ties! They're slim, but not super anemic like something Pete Doherty would wear. And although the economy at-large worked against our favor in the suit situation, it helped us in the tie department.

Mixture of Ben Sherman and Calvin Klein, Rob's is the plaid in the middle

I think they'll look sharp with the addition of a tie clip. The Art of Manliness has a post about outdated men's fashions that still have charm and the tie clip gets a mention with a picture of this manly man. The article is fun, but for the record, I disagree that the tie clip is indeed outdated, or an item that ever goes in-and-out of style for that matter.

I would sit in a lawn chair on the driveway with this man any day

Other less manly men with tie clips, just 'cause...

Milo Ventimiglia from GQ

Ditto

This has J.Crew's fingerprints all over it, but I'm not entirely sure where I grabbed this

The Lady and her Gent are photographed

We had our engagement photo session with our photographer, Erin Hanson, on Saturday and she just posted some shots on her blog. We had so much fun! And I was brave enough to wear the feathers, despite getting scathing comments from my brother and Rob beforehand ('It's like you have roadkill on your head,' 'What the hell is that,' etc). Whatever guys; don't question my flair.

One of the favs

Sassiness with the heal kick

Water was cold, cold, cold

Just, you know, dancing in the bay like we always do

Love this one. Rob looks handsome.

I thought Erin was great and I'm so excited to have her take our wedding day pictures.

Bonus: we made the homepage of her site!

She's a lady

I was hunting around for an outfit for our engagement shots next weekend and I found her. I'm undecided on the whole feathered headband though. I love the feathered hair accessory trend, but I also envision myself wondering what the hell I was thinking in a few years. It will probably depend on how I'm feeling that evening -- if I'm in the mood to damn timelessness, then she will be worn and that bird will not have lost its feathers in vain.

Classy dress

4" heels will make me only 2" shorter than Rob

A bird is naked somewhere

This outfit also calls for some red lipstick, but I'll have to feel out my level of bravery for that as well.

I asked Rob what he was wearing and his answer was more or less "a shirt, maybe some pants..." This means that I get to call the shots and tailor his outfit to mine. We're ordinarily not a couple that coordinates outfits to events and such, but I'm going to wield the hand of art director in this scenario.

* * *

We were in San Francisco last weekend. I always leave that city feeling so inspired and motivated. Once I get more caught up at work, I have some cool stuff to show from the weekend.