We always love a challenge, and being someone who loves the outdoors, I always love it when I get to create something earthy and organic with an elegant flair. Our client, Jennifer, came to us because she said our designs were the most creative she found out there!! We love to hear that, and love her for the wonderful compliment! (and she was just amazing to work with) Jennifer is also the best friend of Mother of the Bride. She has know the bride her whole life, and wants to host the shower of the bride's dreams. She explained to me, that the theme was rustic, natural and organic and she wanted something unique and earthy that would WOW the guests and still have an elegant flair!
My inspiration started with materials. What could i use that was earthy and different, and would still be elegant enough for a bridal shower. I started brainstorming and decided mixing metallic and linen paper with some rough texture would do the trick.. Enter... Muslin!!
The invitation came in hand stamped Muslin Bag, and mailed in a Brown Kraft Envelope. We had a custom rubber stamp made, with the graphic and then hand stamped the muslin bags with brown ink. Client loved the Muslin Bags so much, she purchased extras to use them as favor bags during the event!
Project was printed on Ivory Linen, and is closed with a chocolate brown satin ribbon belly band with a champagne metallic accent piece. The contrast of Muslin, Metallic and Linen papers, and satin ribbon really created a unique rustic and stylish feeling.
Love this pattern detail on this linen paper. The texture, just makes you want to touch it! Anyone who follows me, or knows me, will tell you. "I have a paper problem!" I love a nice tactile piece of paper or texture!
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| Eblast invitation by The 2u Collection |
As many of you know, I not only work a lot with Lisa Stoner and Abby Liga, but they are both also very close friends of mine. The three of us have spent many a lunch, happy hour and dinner, discussing and brainstorming small morsel ideas, and we nurture them into BIG GIANT IDEAS! Table for Ten is one of those ideas! So before I give you all the fun insight into our fun event. Let me first give you a little background of how it was born!
Quote from Lisa Stoner:
"A few months ago, I decided I'd had enough. It was a week that had three local wedding industry networking events scheduled, and as much as I love my industry peers, it was getting to be too much. I mean, I have a family…! ;)"
On the drive home with Jeffrey (Stoner), I commented that what I really enjoyed at those events was finally getting to spend a few minutes in conversation and getting to know someone I'd been wanting to meet, but with hundreds of people in attendance, those moments rarely presented themselves. In that moment, inspiration struck.
We created a comfortable, intimate niche networking evening to get to know our fellow wedding professionals. What makes them tick? What inspires them?
A crazy, rainy first attempt, but our first "Table for Ten" was incredible! We've gotten such favorable feedback from our guests, and we plan to continue! Check it out!
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The three of us Hostess' acting silly and trying to take our own photo!
Lisa Stoner, Amy Morelli, Abby Liga |
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| Our beautiful tablescape...before the rain! |
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| Amy Morelli opening some wine so the festivities can begin! |
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Details of the Evening. Wonderful Appetizers by Abby Liga. Amazing Disco Balls and Chocolate Covered strawberries by Ronnie Renaud of RW Chocolate Fountain Rentals, and of course some Paper Accents (place cards) by yours truly here at The 2u Collection!
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| Jeffrey Stoner screams WHY.... as the sprinkles start! |
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| The sprinkles turn to DOWNPOUR... |
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All of our guests are gracious and wonderful.. Thank goodness we had color caps on hand! (Thanks Marjorie!) They made for a fun photo op!
back row, l to r: Lisa Stoner, Gina Ricci Ward and Tali Gallo of Solutions Bridal, Lee Forrest of Lee Forrest Design, Marjorie Robinson
front row, l to r: Amy Morelli, Ronnie Renaud of RW Chocolate Fountain Rentals, and Kristin Hubbard Wilson of DJ Rocks! |
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| Plan B: indian style slumber party vibe in the office of E-Events and Liga Photography! |
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| Kristin and Lisa sporting "glitter glaze" from the Amazing Disco Balls provided by Ronnie! |
Hope you enjoyed this recap! Stay Tuned, our next one will be toward end of summer, and we'll have a new group of fun guests to get to know!
There is a misconception that we only provide stationary for weddings but we also do a wide range of other social events. Any social event over twenty-five people is in need of invitations, place cards, menu cards and so on. Today, I want to share with you one of my recent projects. I've been working on developing the Bar-mitzvah invitations you see above since February. The Bar Mitzvah will take place this Saturday!
We did something very unique for this event by developing e-blasts invitation accompaniments. The client opted to send both Save the Date's and Menu Preference Card's via email to their guests. This was a great way to save both time and money. Guests were able to get the Save the Date almost immediately after the planning of the event was underway and by having an electronic Menu Preference Card the client did not have to rush to have their menu tasting by a certain day.
For this type of event I think it was a great way to make use of email while still making the email accompaniments something that correlated with the rest of the printed invitations.
As you can see there were several elements that went into the formal invitation. We used natural white linen paper, navy matte finish envelopes, a pewter grey mailing label to complement and navy blue grosgrain ribbon to finish the look. The response card was actually part of the original invitation and guests were asked to fill it out, tear at the perferated edges and return. By having a built in response card we were able to save the client money by printing just one piece verses a separate card. In addition to the invitation, there was a separate brunch invitation that was only given to certain guests that were family of the hosts. This is an additional service we are able to do for you when you select to have us mail your invites for you.
More pieces to come as I continue to work on this project and develop the escort cards and table numbers.
I am super excited to be published in the Summer 2012 Issue of The Knot Magazine- SPECIAL NEW YORK EDITION! They featured Samira and Jesse’s gorgeous wedding at Gotham Hall planned by amazing and talented Christine Godsey of Engaging Affairs.
Vendor List: Events Consultant: Engaging Affairs Venue: Gotham Hall Dress: Vera Wang Draping: Dazian Fabric Videography: I Do Films Catering & Cake: Thomas Preti A/V: ESP New York Musicians: Vali Entertainment Invitations & Stationery Elements: The 2u Collection Lighting: Jeff Ledford, Bentley Meeker Florist: Golf Srithamrong, Tantawan Bloom Hair & Makeup: Maria Licari Limo: NYC Royal Limo Bridal Hotel Room: Trump SoHo Groom’s Hotel Room: Radisson Martinique Photography: Shira Weinberger
I am extremely proud of this! Stationery Images made it on 3 of the 5 pages!! Congratulations again to the Bride and Groom, and to all of the vendors who worked so tirelessly to create this amazing wedding, it really is one for the book of "All time best weddings!" (if there even is such a thing. LOL)
If you are interested in others posts related to this wedding, be sure to check them out!
You can read previous posts I've done on this wedding here (part 1) and here (part 2). You can check out THE KNOT LIVE show here, Samira was a guest and discussed her wedding, we even got a mention! Her interview starts at the 21:00 minute mark. Our invitations for this event were also featured in Central Florida Bride Magazine, you can read that blog here.
We get asked all the time if we are open to working with out of state or out of country clients. And my answer of course is YES! Luckily, with today's technologies we are more than able to do so. In fact, even with the busy schedules of my in town Bride's sometimes I will only meet with them one time face to face and the rest of our correspondence is done via phone and email. I only end up meeting about 25% of my clients. So majority of my in town clients work with me {and technology} the same way an out of town Bride would do so. So you ask, how exactly does working together without meeting face to face actually work...allow me to break it down for you.
Conception
The first and most important step before designing a couples wedding invitations is getting a clear idea of their expectations. What design have they envisioned, what colors are they working with and are they traditional or contemporary are just a few questions I like answered before designing. For an in town Bride I would gather this information in person at a sit down meeting. However, with an out of town Bride-to-be we will often schedule a phone or Skype call. Instead of sorting through several images via email I ask Bride's to use Pinterest or The Fancy as a tool. The site can be particularly helpful in the conception stage because with just a few clicks I can get a very clear understanding of the Bride's style and preferences. I can also see what other wedding elements she is planning because after all the invitation is the first piece the guest will receive and a first impression is everything. It should help the guest anticipate and visualize what to expect on the wedding day and I can only design that if I can visualize it myself.
Design
Once I know what direction to go in, I begin design process. Once I get a few invitation concepts together I will send them to the Bride in a PDF format to review. Clients often want to get back to me right away and I encourage them instead to intentionally not answer me right away. Everyone has lots of thoughts and ideas running through their minds and by not letting concepts sit with you for a few days we might end up doing more revisions than necessary. Everyone has different thoughts the more or longer they look at something. This is why it's good to let the concepts "marinate". After they have let the concepts settle in we start the feedback and revision process. Sometimes Bride's will love one concept in its entirety while other Bride's will want to combine a few elements from all the concepts into one invitation. From there we chat and re-design until we've created the perfect invite. Once the perfect invite is decided on it's time to choose paper, I can overnight samples right to the Bride's doorstep and once she's decided on her paper her invitation is ready to order!
Time to Send
Many of my clients opt to have my team send their invites out for them. This can be a huge stress reliever for the Bride and all those around her. Even the budget conscious Bride should consider allowing her stationary vendor to do this task. Not only does is save time, but it ensures it is done correctly. My team uses digital calligraphy (pictured above) to ensure the envelope looks as stunning and the invite and even takes care of proofing the guest list, stuffing the invites, postage and mailing. Selecting this option really allows the Bride to enjoy the planning process. As her guests are receiving and opening her wedding invitation with excitement, she too has one waiting in her mailbox! Keep in mind we also offer Hand Calligraphy, if you want it. But a lot of our brides opt for the Digital Calligraphy option as it is a little more affordable.
See the below pictured invitation from a client of mine that resided and was wed in the Big Apple! We designed her invitations without ever meeting face to face and the process could not have gone more smoothly.
As you can see from the steps above, meeting in person is no longer necessary to create the perfect wedding stationary. All the above steps also apply to designing your save the dates, place cards, menu cards, table numbers, thank you cards and endless other stationary needs. With the technologies provided to us today communicating has not only become much easier but even more fun with the use of design sites such as Pinterest and The Fancy!
However, If you are one of those Bride's that wants to meet face to face please know we always encourage studio appointments because nothing tells us more about your style than actually meeting you. In the occurrence however that we don't have the luxury to meet a Bride that are other endless ways we can still work with her and design exactly what she'd envisioned.
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