Bridget's Bridal Shower

Bridget's future-sister-in-law Miriam asked me to create a bridal shower invitation that included sheet music of some kind since she loves music and musical theater. We kept it very feminine with lace and blush pink as well. I love how the invitation turned out!

We did a simple insert that listed rsvp information along with where Bridget was registered. 

The third thing we created I absolutely love! We created 4x6 recipe cards that were mailed with each invitation. Guests were encouraged to write down a favorite recipe that was inserted into the plastic sleeves of a photo album (hence 4x6 instead of 3.5x5). When put all together, Bridget was presented with a cookbook to start her married life with. Miriam did this with a her friend Ashley's bridal shower too!

I hope the party was a blast, stay tuned for a post sharing Bridget's wedding invitation!!

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!!

Latiffe & Chris

Latiffe and Chris had a gorgeous destination wedding in Guadalajara, Mexico and they wanted their invitations to reflect that in style. We discussed using papel picado graphics, but in the end decided on using Talavera tile as the graphic inspiration. I adore how everything turned out!

But first, here's the save-the-date we created for them. They wanted a simple silhouette of Mexico with an indication on where the wedding would take place.

Talavera style pottery comes from Puebla, Mexico (where Latiffe's family is from) and is known for bright colors, geometric designs and for having a white base glaze. It was a wonderful inspiration for this invitation and really fun looking at a variety of beautiful pieces for inspiration.

For their RSVP card, we did a very simple, two-sided postcard that directed guests to RSVP on the couple's wedding website. I've changed the URL and their address to protect privacy.

Latiffe asked me to make the map to look a little like a vintage treasure map and I was happy to oblige.

At the wedding reception, they had a taco stand making street tacos for their guests, and I created a menu that sat at each place setting. Photo Cred: Rocio Luna Weddings

We also created a large seating chart that let guests know where to sit. We weren't able to get a photo of it at the wedding, but this is a mockup of what it looked like:

The wedding looked absolutely gorgeous and it's one I wish I could have attended in person! Congratulations guys!!

Liam's 2nd Birthday

Since Liam was WAY into garbage trucks when he turned two (so many toddlers are!), his mommy Joanna, chose a garbage truck theme for his birthday party. It was such a fun theme to work with! Joanna picked up miniature garbage can pencil holders from Amazon to decorate the buffet table and goodie bags were made with mini black trash bags! Perfect!

Here's his invitation:

We created a couple of welcome signs that were posted in a few spots in the house.

2" circle cupcake toppers for the cupcakes that Joanna picked up from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Sooooo delicious!

A pennant banner hung over the windows.

We created a super simple coloring book for kids to play with too:

My oldest thoroughly enjoyed the coloring book!

Lastly, I created a t-shirt graphic that Joanna ordered through Zazzle. They were the only shop that would let us order one custom t-shirt in navy blue. I usually recommend CafePress, but they didn't have navy blue. Taking a non-blurry photo of Liam actually wearing the shirt proved to be very hard, so this is my mockup of what the t-shirt looks like. Someday I'll try and get a better photo. Ha!

This birthday party was so much fun to create and even more of a treat to get to actually go to the party! Happy happy birthday Liam!

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!

Jake's 1st Birthday

I was honored to get to design wedding invitations for Kelly and Patrick a few years ago, so it was a real treat to get to design birthday invitations for their youngest son for his first birthday. They wanted to go with a sports theme that had a little bit of a vintage feel. Kelly was finding lots of invitations she loved, but most of them only showed one sport rather than a variety and many weren't done in a style she loved. 

Here's the invitation:

I love that huge smile!!

For the party, we made a faux chalkboard that contained all of his favorite things, books, foods, toys along with his one-year stats. I love doing these!

A rookie card long with a few toys and yummies filled goodie bags and they were tied with these favor tags. 

Here's a closer look at Jake's rookie card:

Lastly, with a bunch of the photos taken at Jake's birthday party, we created a two-sided thank you card that included a space for Kelly and Patrick to write their message. 

Wishing you a very happy birthday Jake!!

Jaxon's 1st Birthday

Jaxon's mommy JoAnna has been a long-time client of mine from many years ago when I designed her wedding invitations. I had the privilege of designing invitations for her baby shower and again a birth announcement for her firstborn. Now that baby is turning one and it's time for his birthday party! JoAnna went with a festive circus theme and I had a blast playing with the text. 

We had a little fun with the wording too!

 I created a simple favor tag that JoAnna adhered to popcorn boxes for guests. She was gracious enough to send me a couple of photos from Jaxon's birthday party.

After the party, we created a thank you card that included a couple of photos from his cake smash too. I love how it turned out!

The back included plenty of space for JoAnna to write in a thank you message.

I love the primary color scheme for this party and how everything came together. It looks like the party was a blast, happy birthday Jaxon, and happy momiversary JoAnna!

Melissa & Patrick's Baby Shower

As if there weren't enough bicycles throughout the decor and printed items at Melissa and Patrick's wedding, we took it a step further with their baby shower, and even added a bike trailer.

We took the same two bicycles that I used on their wedding invitations and I added silhouettes of the two of them riding the bikes and a baby trailer. The result was a super fun design theme for their baby shower and gender reveal.

These were printed at their local Office Depot and they purchased Papaya envelopes from Paper Source.

For this baby shower, we had signs ALL over! First was a sign on the front door of the venue:

They had Burt's Bees lip balm as a party favor, so it made it fun to add the "what will it bee" schtick throughout, but without doing a full-on bumblebee theme.

Guests were encouraged to mark their guesses on the board for the gender of the baby. I guessed girl, but was really second-guessing myself. Even on a chalkboard that was printed on paper, it served well as a real chalkboard.

Guests were also encouraged to fill out a card leaving their wishes for baby. I LOVE these for a wonderful keepsake for both the parents and the baby.

Rather than have a guestbook, we did this thumbprint tree instead. This is the same tree I created for Patrick and Melissa's wedding, including the two bicycles leaning against the tree trunk. I flipped it around and added a tricycle and the Dr Seuss quote. It's one of my all-time favorite quotes:

Today you are you, and that's truer than true.
There is no one alive who is youer than you.

This was such a FUN sign to make. We looked up as many gender-predicting folk tales that we could find and asked Melissa to do all of them. I love the mix of results. 

Melissa and Patrick created a series of games and deemed them the Baby Shower Olympics. Events included guessing a baby item by feel only, Blindfolded Diaper Changing, Pin the Sperm on the Egg, Bottle Chugging, and a test on the pregnancy duration for multiple animals. 

Participants kept track of their own points with the scoresheets we created and the top three winners won a gold, silver, or bronze "medal" that Patrick made by glueing a bottle nipple to a medal and spraying it with metallic paint. 

The mimosa bar just made the day that much more fun. By the way, POG mixed with champagne is a stellar combination (POG = passion fruit, orange and guava juice)!

This was such a fun and entertaining baby shower, and I really love how Patrick and Melissa made a huge effort to make it a fun event for both men and women among their friends and family. Just like their wedding, their baby shower was truly a reflection of their personalities. Congratulations!!