Janet & Jack's 50th Anniversary

My dear friend, Krista was helping with the planning of a celebration for her in-laws’ 50th wedding anniversary. We were brainstorming some table signage ideas for this travel-themed event when I brought up the idea of making a custom cootie catcher for the party. Janet and Jack have traveled all over the world and visited all of the continents, so creating a travel-themed cootie catcher was a perfect little accessory to add to the tablescape. I used world maps for background images and rather than add fortunes to the inside panels, I found some travel-themed trivia questions. It was so fun to make!! I matched the fonts that Krista used on the invitation that she created and voile!

Thank you so much Krista for the great photos and a heartfelt happy anniversary Janet and Jack!

Ashleigh's Bridal Shower

Ashleigh's friend, Tamera went all out when it came to her beautiful bridal shower brunch. Tamera wanted to use bright colors, flowers and some references to rain and umbrellas. This is what we came up with:

The invitation was printed square and mounted on petal fold enclosures. The bright green really looked pretty against the pink, orange and yellow.

We carried the floral graphics and fonts into a variety of signs, including a welcome sign.

On the water bottle label, we touched on the "shower" theme with the umbrella. The graphic of the umbrella was Tamera's original inspiration for this brightly-colored bridal shower.

Custom napkin rings. A super simple detail that can add a little extra. 

Small flags were adhered to bamboo skewers to identify food at the buffet table.

Fizzing bath soaps were one of the party favors.

Guests were asked to leave marriage advice for the bride-to-be. These were saved and put into a scrapbook for Ashleigh.

This sign adorned the candy buffet table.

One of a few different shower games included this trivia game about the bride and groom.

There was also a rousing round of Bridal Shower BINGO. 

Tamera really went all out with the beautiful and colorful details for Ashleigh's bridal shower. It was really a treat to get to create so many unique items. I hope the party was amazing, 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!

Matthew's Red Egg & Ginger Party

My husband's family is Chinese and it's a Chinese tradition to celebrate when a baby turns one month old. This tradition dates back to when infant mortality rates were high and new moms would spend a month in postpartum confinement. At this one month birthday, mom rejoins the world and they announce the baby’s name to family and friends.

Red represents good luck and happiness. Eggs are symbols of fertility and renewal of life. Ginger is representative of the postpartum mama; an ingredient that’s beneficial for her postpartum recovery. 

It’s also tradition to celebrate when a baby turns 100 days old. Since we live two states away from most of our friends and family, we chose to have Matthew's Red Egg & Ginger party closer to his 100 days birthday. 

Here's the invitation I created:

I had originally created a simpler invitation. When I showed it to my husband he joked that I should create a cartoon of our son riding a horse (it's the Year of the Horse), holding a red egg and some ginger. It was too awesome of an idea to NOT do!

We invited about fifty of our friends and relatives to join us at a local restaurant for a traditional Chinese banquet. I created a centerpiece that was made from an 8.5x11 piece of card stock that I tri-folded and put information on each of the three panels. One panel listed the evening's menu, one listed the names of everyone sitting at that table, and the third panel briefly explained the history behind the shindig for our non-Chinese friends and family.

Since a Chinese banquet is serves family-style on a lazy Susan, these centerpieces were easily moved once the food started coming out.

Lastly, I created this fun favor tag that adorned red, plastic eggs that were filled with ginger candy. My older son loved having the responsibility of handing these out to guests. 

It's often common to give dyed, hard-boiled eggs to guests, but neither my mother-in-law nor I wanted to boil and dye that many eggs. They never really end up truly red either, they usually end up pink. 

If you'd like to see more from my son's Red Egg and Ginger party, check out the full post on Mama Say What?!

Cari's Baby Shower

My dear friend Cari is pregnant with her second baby and our friend Bonnie wanted to throw her a grand baby shower. I was thrilled to get to create the invitations and printed items for the big day. 

The color scheme was gold with lots of different purples and we were going with a vintage fairytale theme. I had so much fun creating these!!

Using card stock from Paper Source in their Plum color, I created simple pocketfolds that displayed the invitation and held the two inserts. I layered a metallic gold, vine-y ribbon on top of some purple satin ribbon and a couple pieces of card stock to hold the pocketfold closed. Both ribbons were purchased at JoAnn's.  

I backed the invitation with a mat using Stardream Antique Gold paper, also from Paper Source. I had everything printed at my local Office Depot. I have been really happy with the print quality from my local store. 

The two inserts:

This time I didn't want to do address labels, so I printed addresses directly onto the Antique Gold envelopes with my laser printer. 

At the shower, a simple welcome sign sat on an easel at the doorway.

Bonnie stained a couple dozen onesies and set up a decorating station. It was so fun!

Here's the onesie I decorated; my first time "painting" with a bleach pen!

I printed out a few quotes from famous fairytales or authors that we framed and displayed on the tables.

A "wishes for baby" card was at each place setting and Bonnie collected them to be made into a book for Cari. 

This shower was such a treat to work on! I'm working on publishing a more detailed post about the party itself on Mama Say What?! I'll add the link here once it's up.

Congrats Cari!!