Cindy & Scott

Cindy and Scott were planning a beautiful mid-October winery wedding in northern California and wanted to use simple and straightforward designs for their wedding invitations. I was more than happy to oblidge!

First we created a simple save-the-date with a chalkboard background. Cindy had these printed with VistaPrint. The matte finish really showcased the chalkboard texture.

When we got started with the invitation, they wanted to keep the same overall look with a chalkboard background, but incorporate their wedding colors: blue and gray. 

These were printed by FolgerGraphics in Hayward, CA. 

For a response card, Scott had fun creating a Mad Lib for guests to fill out. This was really fun to create for them!

The response card was a simple two-sided postcard. Their address has been changed to protect privacy.

For their wedding day, Cindy's dad (who's a wine maker), bottled his delicious Zinfandel Rosé for guests to toast with and I designed a custom label to go with them. Waterproof labels kept them from wilting when the wine was chilled.

In lieu of a traditional guestbook, Cindy's dad went above and beyond and had a giant wine bottle filled with his delicious Zinfandel wine and engraved with the same label design. He then built a wood mount for the bottle that allowed it to be spun without risk of it rolling off of the table. Guests signed with metallic silver Sharpie markers. This turned out SO cool!! 

The bottling, engraving, and painting was done by Doc's Trophy Shoppe in Napa Valley, CA. They did an amazing job!

Cindy and Scott's wedding was a blast and I really appreciate the invite. Congrats!!

Jackie & Michael

My little sister got hitched back in October and it was only natural that I would design the printed items for her beautiful, southern California wedding. She wanted her main colors to be navy blue and ivory with lots of lace. Accent colors were a Fall palette in orange, red and gold. Her wedding gown and the bridesmaid gowns had lots of lace too.

First, for a save-the-date, we paid homage to how Michael proposed to Jackie. 

He convinced her they were participating in a road trip scavenger hunt that took them all over southern California and then up the coast to northern California. They ended the hunt and spent the weekend with our parents where he got down on one knee and popped the question in front of our family... and admitted that the scavenger hunt was a ruse and an excuse to drive up to the Bay Area.

Every red dot represents a stop on the scavenger hunt.

On the back I turned the silhouette of the state into a photo collage from when Michael proposed.

When it was time to design invitations, Jackie wanted to use lace along with their colors. She loved the invitations I created for Erin & John and wanted a similar vibe. 

We went with gate fold cards in Cobalt from Cards and Pockets and they were held closed by a circle that we designed using the same lace motif.

Michael requested that I include a graphic of a samurai sword to represent the honor code he follows with martial arts. He and his groomsmen all carried swords in the wedding ceremony too, it was pretty rad.

For the big day itself, we created a lot of fun items! First, each of the guest tables was named after a submission move in jujitsu. Jackie and Michael posed in each move and took photos of them all, with Jackie in the winning position. 

The rest of the photos from this post were taken by the very talented Katie Jackson. 

Then, we printed escort cards for each guest directing them where to sit. The folded cards were color coded to indicate to the catering staff what menu item they were having for dinner.

Jackie (a Lifetime Girl Scout) wanted the favors to be Girl Scout Cookies and Michael was more than happy to agree. They each chose their favorite cookie (Thin Mints and Samoas) and placed a couple in individual boxes, each with their own unique label. 

"Love Samoa" and "Mint to Be," get it?! 

This was the sign that adorned their sweetheart table.

We created a bunch of signs that were placed throughout the reception venue:

Side note: Jackie and Michael had no idea what they wanted to use for a guestbook. They weren't thrilled about a book that just listed everyone's names, and they don't have space in their home to hang a big print on the wall with everyone's names. I told her I'd take care of it (two weeks before the wedding!). I took all of the engagement photos taken by Katie Jackson and made them into a photobook that had lots of white space on the pages, like a yearbook. That way people could leave their well wishes wherever they wanted. With a coupon through Shutterfly the book was less about $35. This is by far, my favorite way to do a guestbook. I did it for my wedding and I still sometimes thumb through our book almost 10 years later.

Back to photos!

A table set aside in memory of the family and close friends who couldn't be there. This is what the sign says:

In Loving Memory
Those we love don't go away,
They walk beside us every day.
Unseen, unheard, but always near,
Still loved, still missed,
And very dear.

"Life is Short, Eat Dessert First" Jackie doesn't care for cake, so they had wedding pie!! The light-up letters were a last-minute thing too, I love how they turned out!

It was truly an honor to get to design all of these for my little sister and I'm so thrilled with how it all turned out. It was an honor to stand beside you as you said "I do," congratulations!!

A last little gem from Katie Jackson, she really captured our relationship here. Hahaha!

Raquel & Mark

I had the privilege of working with Raquel on the invitations for her wedding a few months back. She and Mark were planning a destination wedding at the Hard Rock Resort in Cancun, Mexico.

First we did a fun safe-the-date. She wanted to incorporate a little bit of a concert poster vibe and also let her guests know they if they were planning to come, they needed to book their trip as soon as possible. 

Can you see their adoring fans, subtly in the background of their sunset. The reservation information has been changed to protect privacy.

When it was time to create their wedding invitations, they wanted to incorporate ocean life in watercolor and have it look very elegant. I really love how they turned out!

The upgraded their printing and had the gold text printed with metallic gold foil. I LOVE how it turned out!!

We did a simple RSVP card that directed guests to share their responses on the couple's wedding website. I changed their website URL to protect privacy.

Lastly, I created a simple coral graphic that they had printed in gold foil on the back of their gold envelopes. This was such a subtle detail that I really love. And yes, I changed their address in Photoshop. 

I am so in love with how this invitation turned out, it almost makes me want to plan another wedding. Almost. 

Congratulations Mark and Raquel, I hope your Cancun wedding was amazing!!

Sharon & Cesar

Sharon first contacted me to create a save-the-date for her and Cesar's destination wedding in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We brainstormed some really fun ideas and we came up with this vintage map style and included one of their engagement photos that was taken in New York's Central Park. We even managed to make it bilingual! I really love how it turned out.

When it was time to work on invitations, we discussed a variety of different options and styles. In the end, I created a couple of mixed media illustrations using watercolor and pen & ink to make something special for the couple.  

Their bilingual wedding invitations features a watercolor and pen & ink drawing of one of the many sentry boxes from Fort San Felipe de Morro in Old San Juan. 

For the inserts, I created small illustrations of the two historic venues along with keeping the information bilingual.

La Catedral San Juan Bautista:

el Hotel el Convento

On the back of one insert I created a map of Viejo San Juan (Historic San Juan), where both the wedding and reception would take place. 

Another insert back displayed an engagement photo of Sharon and Cesar along with the monogram I created for them.

It was an honor to get to work with Sharon on the items for her and Cesar's wedding. Congratulations!!

Melissa & Patrick

I had so much fun working with my younger brother and his fiancé on the items for their bicycle-themed wedding. Both Patrick and Melissa are avid athletes, running marathons, triathlons, sprint races, you name it. And they love long bike rides and races, so it was perfectly fitting to have their bicycles throughout their June wedding.

In the beginning of wedding planning, Patrick was very set, he didn't want to use graphics of a tandem bicycle (which are very popular in wedding decor). "We each have our own bikes!" he said. So I created the graphic with two separate bicycles and things took off from there. 

Many, many thanks to Jessica Kay Photography for her stunning images. I don't always get professional images of the work I do since not very many photographers take pictures of the printed details unless the bride or groom specifically asks. But Jessica knew I'd want photos to share and she happily obliged. If you're ever in need of a photographer for weddings, newborn, maternity and family photos in northern California, give her a call!

Their save-the-date introduced guests to the vintage, bicycle theme and included images from their travels together:

Their invitation was a blast to come up with and the folks at FolgerGraphics in Hayward, CA were fantastic with helping us print. More than one custom print shop I contacted said they wouldn't be able to print the bicycles on the gatefold card like I mocked up, but FolgerGraphics was happy to do it for me. And they even scored and folded them all!

We used paper bag colored card stock and envelopes from Paper Source. 

They opted for a two-sided, postcard rsvp and we had fun with the wording.

Don't freak out, I changed their address!

We also included a map to the wedding venue plus information about parking and their wedding website URL:

I created a custom return address stamp with Hello World Stamps. I've worked with Kelly on a few stamps for a few different clients and she's been fantastic! I highly recommend her shop.

I changed their address here too, no worries!

Escort tags were printed small and clipped to the spokes of a bicycle wheel that Patrick mounted inside a planter. I LOVE how this turned out!

Images by Jessica Kay Photography

Each table was named after favorite bike rides throughout California with the sweetheart table named after a bike ride Melissa and Patrick planned to ride in Italy on their honeymoon.

Images by Jessica Kay Photography

In lieu of a traditional guest book, they did a "thumbprint tree." I created a bare tree (with bicycles too!) and guests were asked to leave their thumbprint on the tree. It really turned out cute!

Images by Jessica Kay Photography

Patrick and Melissa made all of the desserts for their wedding (yes, you read that right, they even made the small cake!). We created signs to identify each dessert plus a bigger sign for the table. Plain white takeout boxes were adorned with a custom sticker to allow guests to take some treats home.

Image by Jessica Kay Photography

Images by Jessica Kay Photography

We created a custom wine label to go with the Zinfandel that our uncle bottled specially for their wedding along with a fun sign that sat at the bar. The label says "cycling happily ever after" at the top.

Images by Jessica Kay Photography

I tried my hand at creating a couple of custom chalkboard signs too. I used the method Mary Ellen used in this tutorial and I created these two signs. The big one served as their wedding program. It was quite a bit less expensive than printing one for each guest.

Old fashioned bicycle bells were the wedding favor. We added a simple sticker and these came out towards the end of the evening. No one wanted to deal with kids ringing these during the ceremony!

This wedding was truly a blast to work on. And I'd like to give some extra special thanks to my husband for his patience as I got the last minute items finished, especially those chalkboards. Oh and I was eight weeks postpartum when this wedding happened, so there's that! We even managed to get a decent family photo!

Images by Jessica Kay Photography