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

Alexis' Bridal Shower

Lexi's maid of honor, Erin contacted me to create a bridal shower invitation that meshed with Lexi's personality. We had already created a retro/rockabilly invitation for Lexi. So, we went with pin-up artwork by artist Gil Elvgren and modified it to work with the bridal shower brunch Erin was hosting. This included changing the background from green to purple, extending it to be landscape orientation and giving the pin-up girl a tattoo on her arm. 

The tattoo on the girl's has the same sparrow that I used on Lexi's wedding invitations. 

Alexis and Matt

I had a blast working with Lexi on the items for her and Matt's wedding. She wanted a mix of different theme elements to tie in with their wedding venue (an old Hollywood-style theater) and her own personal style. I really love how everything turned out.

We went old Hollywood for their vintage, postcard engagement party invitation:

For the save-the-date, we continued with a vintage feel and added some rockabilly style to compliment their engagement photos:

From there we kept the same fonts and graphic elements for their invitation, which was a ton of fun to work on!

For inserts we created a map and an insert directing guests to rsvp online.

The last little insert was to let guests know details about the reception. And yes, Lexi and Matt cut out each insert into the shame of a top hat!

We created signs for a few things at the wedding along with a border to go with photos printed from their photo booth and a large poster of the couple that mimicked a movie poster. Lexi gave the graphics from the invitation to her baker and elements were added to their wedding cake. Neato!

This wedding was a ton of fun to work on and it looks like the big day was a blast. Congrats!

Shenell & Omar

Shenell and Omar eloped on a beautiful beach in the Bahamas and wanted to send an announcement to friends and family. We created a two-sided fake postcard using photos from the shoot they did after the ceremony.

I love the custom postmark and the fake stamp!

Congratulations!

Joanna & Matt

Joanna is one of my oldest friends (as in, I've known her forever) and when she told me she was getting married in Maui, I was SO thrilled for her!! 

For their save-the-date, she and Matt wanted it to be fun so we did a two-sided postcard that asked guests to let them know if they were planning to make the trip out for the wedding. 

The back showcased a few photos that they took on a recent trip to Maui.

And I loved making a custom, fake postmark for them with their wedding date and location.

For the invitations, we went more formal, but kept the same brightly colored floral graphics.

These were printed on linen-textured card stock by Cards and Pockets. The linen card stock really added an extra level of class to the whole invitation.

Details! 

We created a response card that was a two-sided postcard. 

They were so stoked that they found postcard stamps with Aloha Shirts!

A second insert was of a map showing the locations for the ceremony and reception.

Lastly, we created folded place cards for the reception using the same graphics and fonts as the invitations.

These were such an honor to work on and I love how beautiful everything turned out. Congrats

Abby & Mark

I had the pleasure of working with both Abby and Mark on the printed items for their summer wedding in Massachusetts. There were nautical stripes, pint glasses, crab and lobsters! And they were gracious enough to share some photos that their wedding photographer got of the items I created.

Here's what we came up with:

It's not easy to see, but there's a crab and a lobster inside the circle of their monogram; an ode to their coastal Massachusetts wedding venue. 

The program was one simple printed card.

Escort cards were simple, they printed every guest's name onto a card with a crab faded into the background. Those cards were clipped together with a matching card that listed their table number and had an image of a lobster in the background. I love the shells they used to pair each set of cards together. And, of course, they're all sitting in sand!

Each table was named after a sailboat owned by a family member at one time. We included the name of the boat along with what type of boat and the year it was built. Since we had a variety of photos (some color, some black and white), we made them all sepia-toned to stay consistent. I love how these turned out!

Lastly, Abby and Mark took the monogram that I created for them and had them printed onto pint glasses that served as favors for each guest. I LOVE these!

Such a fun wedding, congrats guys!

Brianna & Justin

I had so much fun working with Brianna on the printed items for her May wedding. Many, many thanks to them for sending me one of their beautiful invitations!!

Metallic silver pocketfolds and fuschia belly bands are from Cards and Pockets.

I love the accent of the rhinestones that Brianna added to the invitations.

We had a little fun with the swirly flourish on the inserts... when they are stacked in the pocket, the flourish is whole.

We created a simple program that consisted of a piece of 8.5x11 card stock folded in half.

Lastly, as a fun item, we created these door knob hangers for guests. Fun!!

Erin & John

I had a ton of fun working with Erin on the items for her and John's wedding. Erin was kind enough to talk to her photographer, Ben Krantz about taking additional photos of the printed items I worked on. He totally wowed me on the photos he took. 

But first, here's the engagement party invitation. We did a two-sided postcard showcasing a few of the photos John and Erin took while on vacation in Italy (where they got engaged!).

I loved creating a customized "postmark" that listed the date they got engaged.

I have photos of their save-the-date,I just don't remember where they are. I'll update when I find them.

Here's their invitation:

Sapphire pocketfolds are from Cards and Pockets.

I love the accent on the corners. It's amazing how a fun corner punch can transform an invitation.

Many thanks to Ben Krantz Studio for the following photos of the big day. 

Image by Ben Krantz

I designed that fun graphic that was projected onto the wall over the dance floor. Rad!

Image by Ben Krantz

Each table was given a number and the sign contained photos of both Erin and John when they were that age. So fun!

Image by Ben Krantz

Their favors were small bottles of limoncello that a friend made (that friend was also their officiant).

Image by Ben Krantz

These signs showed wedding photos from Erin and John's parents and grandparents, including their wedding dates. I thought this was a heartfelt touch for their wedding decor.

Image by Ben Krantz

Even the bathrooms showcased fun photos from their childhood.

Images by Ben Krantz

Lastly, we used some of the photos from their beautiful wedding to use on their thank you card:

Many thanks to Erin and John for sharing photos from their big day and for asking their photographer to take these for me. I really appreciate it!