Reading…
My whole life has been defined by reading. As a child, I was a total bookworm. Brought my books everywhere: at my parent’s dinner parties, church, and snuck them behind my textbooks in school. I re-read everything- it wouldn’t be unusual for me to read a favorite 6-7 times. I would get in trouble for reading under the covers after the lights were supposed be out.
Devouring This Boys Life a couple summers ago...
So, it has concerned me in my life when I’ve stopped reading. Like now- it’s been a few months since I’ve really been into anything, and it’s not for lack of trying. I’ve been to see Jeanette Winterson speak this spring, and bought and enjoyed a few chapters of her memoir. I’ve flown through some easy reads, and tried buying other novels from favorite authors. But nothing is really pulling me in, in that can’t-put-it-down, have-to-read-this-every-second-I-have-a-chance, so-bummed-I’ve-finished-it, sort of way.
The last time this happened, about 8 years ago, my wise friend advised me to read Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club. Which worked. I was happily back into reading, and soon after discovered Barbara Kingsolver, by way of The Poisonwood Bible, which was a page turner. Then, Nicole Krauss’ History of Love was the next to be saturated.
Some other favorites:
So, now that you know my favorite kinds of books, let me know, what should be the next read that will pull me back in?
How to Hand-Cancel your postage
Many of our invitation clients ask about hand canceling stamps. No doubt you’re heard about it, but may not be sure what it is. After all the time designing, printing and assembling your wedding invitations, you may be reluctant to hand them over to the post office to do what they will with them.
Most pieces that you receive in the mail have been machine sorted and cancelled. They get a few things printed on them: a barcode, which could be on a sticker if your envelopes are dark, and the canceling mark, which “cancels” the postage, so that it cannot be reused. Sometimes, there will be a message printed on the envelope as well, like Happy Holidays.
To hand-cancel, you may have more luck to go to a small or suburban post office during a quiet time of the day. The hand canceling is a more precise, pretty looking postmark that must cover all of your stamps. hand-canceling prevents the machines from being placed in the automatic sorters, so it is ideal for envelopes that include a wax seal, or other bulky inserts, and generally, it’s a much prettier look.
Our client took her lovely vintage-stamped save the dates to a downtown Chicago post office to hand-cancel, with great luck!
happy may day
I remember making these as kids. Or maybe receiving them from our neighbors. In either case, May Day baskets are a fun, lighthearted way to wish a little spring cheer on your neighbors. In case you don’t know the tradition, flowers are placed on your neighbor’s doorstep, or in baskets like these on their door handle. You ring the bell, and run away. If they catch you, they’re allowed a kiss. I didn’t tell my little helper that part, for fear he wouldn’t help me.
We made these with leftover envelope liners from a custom invitation job, and they are pretty simple- just roll a little sheet of paper, affix into cone shape with a staple, and add a length of ribbon, also affixed with two staples. I pre-ordered daisies from our friends at Pistil and Vine, because I really wanted to evoke that nostalgic feeling with these sweet little door hangers.
Did any of you celebrate May Day today?
if April Showers bring May Flowers….
…what does a canopy of white umbrellas bring? Ultimate wonder. As I drove Max and Charlie to school last week, from a block away this seemed like an unfortunate tangle of construction garbage caught in the trees on the northside. But on closer look, we see that some fantastic person has attached about 15 white umbrella tops to the trees. All I can say is thank you.
April 16th
Seth and I celebrate our anniversary today. 12 years later, I still love everything about our wedding. I remember pouring over wedding magazines, dreaming of linens, and hand wiring our candle lanterns to hang in the trees at our outdoor ceremony in Santa Barbara. Picking the antique bottles for our centerpieces, and shopping at the farmers market for wildflowers. My sense of relief, when my caterer took over planning the layout, and my nervousness the day of the wedding. A keg of Guiness, and BBQ tri-tip, served family style under the arbor. The petal train of my handmade dress, and the pins Seth chose to honor his mother, who had recently passed away. (Today is also her birthday) Deciding what my something blue would be, and of course, laying out all the paper I had purchased over my bed to figure out how sage cardstock, lavender sprigs, white tissue and handmade japanese paper would become my wedding invitations. Can you believe I don’t have a picture of those? I designed our wedding with the help of my friends, my mom, and Martha Stewart. Who/what is influencing your wedding design decisions?
Photos by the lovely Elizabeth Messina
in the studio…
This was a whirlwind week of scheduling, planning, communicating, making progress on many of our custom wedding invitation projects, getting invitations and save the dates to the printer, but still so much more to do. I’m just glad we got to finish up our week celebrating with Kelly at Fleur on 10 years in the business! It was such a lovely celebration; her shop filled with flowers, abundant displays of gifts, and a celebratory feast that truly hit the spot- tacos from the Curry Cruiser, a keg of 3floyds, and sweets from Truffle Truffle. Congratulations, Fleur!
Hand torn logos for a South Carolina wedding:
Wrapping invites in gold and pearls:
We’re loving Pinterest…
Pinterest has so quickly become the go-to planning resource for our brides. I think we all can agree, it’s a great way to collect your wedding inspirations in one place. I love it when a bride sends me her pinterest page of invitation inspiration. It’s such a great way to see exactly what they’re loving. Take a look at our Pastel Invitation Inspiration Board on Pinterest. Your invitation board would probably have more invitations in it, but we look to many sources to find inspiration. We want to see yours – what’s inspiring your wedding?
Are Custom Wedding Invitations Right For You?
The custom invitation process is such a collaboration between client and artist. The client comes to me with a vision – something they can dream up, but haven’t yet seen. Or they know they love our design style, and want a clean, custom illustration that defines them. We’ve talked about it before- what the custom process is, and how to determine what is special to you. But how do you know if they’re right for you?
1. You have an idea. You don’t have to be creative to collaborate on custom wedding invitations, just have an idea. Sometimes, our clients bring in nothing, and we just talk about what they want. It’s my job to creative the visuals from our conversation.
For our custom clients, we create a visual inspiration board to show them the direction we will go in. For this couple, we ended up creating so much more than invitations: their engagement party invitations, their custom website, and full set of custom china. More photos coming soon!
2. You can let go. My most successful invitation outcomes (client is happy/ created something truly reflecting of their style) are when the client is comfortable with me. They trust that I understand their sensibilities, and know I understand paper, ink, printing, and details.
3. You have a healthy invitation budget. Custom invitations do take a lot of time, whether it’s researching a particular art style (we recently created a folk art inspired invitation) or getting an illustration just right. Once we did 15 different iterations of a monogram, until the S and P we just right!
Above is a preview of Marisa and Mike’s Custom Wedding invitation for their Jamaican wedding earlier this year. We were excited to learn that Martha Stewart Weddings chose to feature their invitation in their Beach Wedding Gallery. Much more to show you, coming soon!
this week…
I really admire Lara Casey. Editor-in-Chief of Southern Weddings Magazine, Business Consultant and Rep, Founder of Making Things Happen, and now new Mom. Her honesty on her blog has really inspired me- here’s a woman who isn’t afraid to live life, no matter how it goes. I’ve always been more of a private person, and my blog has been a great outlet for me to share the origin of some of my creative projects, and what makes me tick in the business. But I haven’t used it to express much personal stuff, but I’ve been trying to change that. I won’t lie- I find it hard to put it out there for others to read, to be transparent. But, I’ll try: I’ve had a hard week. Monday, I threw out my back, and the pain has made it hard to focus on anything else.
In my life, my priorities are in this order: I have my family and friends to put before work, my clients to put before the other parts of the business, and myself. Putting yourself last turns out to be kind of wrong. If you neglect yourself, you can’t help anyone else. I mean, I know this. They tell you on any flight- secure your oxygen before helping someone else- I talk about it with my business-owning friends, other moms, and we say how can we find balance? Where does it come from and why is it so hard? But it turns out knowing something and doing something about it are two very different things.
And, this week, in the depths of back agony, when I couldn’t sleep, get up without moving like a snail, and only putting in 3-4 hours of work a day, it turned out I really couldn’t hardly help anyone else because I needed to recover.
Sometimes, we need to receive to give, and there needs to be balance in that. You can’t give, give, give without taking something for yourself. Trying to take the negative implications out of being selfish, self-centered, so that when you receive, you can then give again.
So my challenge to myself in the upcoming weeks, is to carve out a day for myself, and on that day to do something I want or need to do, whether it’s to work on the new invitation line for the company, or get a massage, or walk along the lake, or have a long lunch with my husband.
And, as Lara Casey has shown me, take the time to be a little transparent, because in that, you can really find what you need.
Thanks, Style Me Pretty!
The weeks really fly. I can’t believe it’s almost April (I mean, everyone says that, but it’s true!) and soon all the summer weddings will be here. This week, we put the finishing touches on our dual language, German and English invite, and we’re really trying something so old it’s new- I can’t wait to share it with you. In fact, this year’s custom invites are more interesting than ever before, and I know it’s due to my amazingly creative, savvy clients. The custom invitation process really sings when it is a true collaboration between creator and client, and I’ve been lucky to get to work with THE BEST people so far this year.
Case in Point: This completely over-the-top glam shower at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago (formerly the Elysian). Pistil and Vine not only created the gorgeous floral and table decor. Megan also seamlessly orchestrated the entire event, planning it down to every last detail, from the AMAZING sweets table – I mean, a 3 foot tower of pastel macarons, come on! – to the french soap favors, to the white linen runner, to the whisper peach menus and pearl-wrapped invitations we designed with champagne tissue liner, beautifully calligraphed by Stacey Shapiro.
Captured by Julia Franzosa, and excitedly, chosen by Style Me Pretty to be featured on their blog yesterday. So, if you missed it, please check out the full post.
