For the Love of a Good Menu

Anyone who has ever watched Top Chef knows how important presentation is. That goes for menus too- a great looking menu enhances the food and gets your guests psyched for eating. Mmmm I'm hungry just thinking about it. I've seen menus done in donzens of great ways, but my current obsession comes from my friend R's wedding. Girlfriend printed the menus using her home printer on standard-issue brown paper bags- perfect for carrying home the wedding favor post-celebration! I think this is such an adorable idea for outdoor, winery, barn, or really any kind of rustic wedding. But I also might use these for my next BBQ!  Or, someday, maybe I'll make little lunch bags for the first day of school- I can see kids loving them too... and brown paper bags cost next to nothing.  Oooh the possibilities!

Check them out and tell me you're not in love too...

image source

image source

photo by me- from R's wedding!

 

Are you considering making menus for your next celebration?

A Compendium of DIY Pinwheel Love

I was recently reading a post about pinwheels over at $2000 Wedding, and ever since I'm been stark raving mad about paper pinwheels.  There is something so utterly romantic and playful about them!  And I feel like they have so much hidden versatility, not to mention their absolute customize-ability and cost-effectiveness!  So far, I've come up with 10 potential ways to use them, many of which could save you considerable cash:  

  

- Have guests waive them in lieu of bubbles, rice or birdseed when sending you off! 

- Incorporate them into floral centerpieces. 

- Or, forget the flowers altogether and use a bunch of pinwheels AS the centerpiece! 

- Write guests' names and tables on them, and use for escort cards. 

- Top cupcakes with mini-pinwheels for a playful cake table. 

- Leave them on the kids table for the young and young at heart. 

- Tuck them into the napkins at each place setting for a whimsical favor. 

- Give them to your flower girls to carry during the ceremony instead of a basket. 

- Put your pinwheels on extra-long sticks and plant them in the ground for a festive aisle runner. 

- If you really want to get creative, you could even make your invite with instructions for how to turn them into pinwheels. 

  

Anyways... I clearly have no life... if you want to learn how to make your very own adorable pinwheels, the blogosphere is filled with great tutorials!  I've compiled some of my favorites to share but if you know of more, I'd love to hear them!  What would you do with pinwheels at a wedding?   

[caption id="attachment_2731" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="via Paper Source"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2730" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="via BHG"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2729" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="via Intimate Weddings"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2728" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="via Style Me Pretty"][/caption]

via Once Wed

 

Once Upon A Time: Invitations!

I am so excited today to FINALLY be able to share with you a project I'm particularly proud of... baby shower invitations for my sister in law!  I made (designed, printed, assembled) these myself, 100% from scratch.  And I'm so excited about how they turned out!  Sure, they were work, but I love projects and crafts-- and these were a labor of LOVE!

The first thing I love about them is their theme.  Sister in law T is a teacher, and so a book reference was a no-brainer.  When searching for invites online, I was instantly drawn to the "Once upon a time" themed invites, but the company I liked best did not make enclosures or RSVP cards-- and since we needed both for this set, I did some thinking. I realized, I could totally do this myself!  And so I ordered the paper and got to work!

The invitation consists of three parts printed on light pink cardstock- the main invite, the RSVP postcard, and then an enclosure with registry information, asking folks to bring a baby book in lieu of a card (cute, right?!)  The components are wrapped in a belly band of bright pink, and the envelopes are lined with the same shade.  And then, around the belly band, I wrapped and tied some yarn.  It's a little nod to my mother in law who knits, as well as baby appropriate- and on top of all that, it's a great little textural addition that peeks out of the envelope when you open it.  LOVE!

Since we saved some money making these, I splurged on custom Zazzle stamps for the postcard and envelopes... I think they add just the right finishing touch, and of course I had some coupons and Ebates to help with the cost!

One of the other things I love about this concept is that it would also work well for a girly-girl bridal shower.  And the components themselves are simply 5 x7 paper/envelopes, traditionally sized postcard RSVP's, and then smaller enclosures- all of which are easy to find at Paper Source or the craft store.  Seriously, anyone could make something like this!

Have I convinced you?  Would you try making your own invitations for an event??

Thank You Notes: Much Ado?

If you've been following this blog for a while now, you know that I've got the stereotypical "thing" for paper, which most brides develop during their wedding planning process.  And even though the wedding is over, J. and I need to send thank you notes to our generous, generous guests.  Amazingly generous guests.  And of course, I've obsessed over all the other details so why not obsess about some thank you notes?  J. says that I need a new hobby (and he's right) but until the Snowflake Run gets here in February, I'll still be thinking about paper!

Here's some of the contenders that I pondered (images link to their source):

(1) The trusty photo thank you note

[caption id="attachment_1864" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Super sweet, no?"][/caption]

I love getting a photo of a bride and groom as part of their wedding thank you.  But lately, I've gotten quite a few thank you notes sans photos, often times really strikingly simple or elegant ones.  And J. and I used photos all over so many other wedding elements (the website, the save-the-date, the rehearsal dinner invitations, the guest book, even our first Christmas card) that another photo of us might be overkill.   So although we both love a solid photo thank-you note, we decided against them this time.

(2) The budget-friendly thank you note

[caption id="attachment_1865" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="These are from David's Bridal, but you get the idea."][/caption]

I've seen basic, pretty sets of thank you notes running about $1 per package at Michael's.  There is nothing wrong with them, and they certainly do the trick for a bride on a budget.  After all, saying thank you is the most important part.  But with such generous gift givers to thank, something about these made me feel, well, cheap.  Used.  Dirty.  I refused to go there.

 (3) The hand-embossed thank you note

[caption id="attachment_1866" align="aligncenter" width="275" caption="Hello trusty monogram!"][/caption]

Remember how J. and I embossed our new monogram all over various wedding elements?  Well, I thought maybe we could emboss some cardstock and make our own, personalized stationary.  One problem: it is really, ridiculously tough to get the embossed image onto cardstock in a way that looks properly aligned.  And I'm a perfectionist.  Fail.

(4) The coordinate-with-the-invitation thank you note

[caption id="attachment_1867" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sigh, love."][/caption]

I surely did love our wedding invitations so I considered revisiting My Gatsby for the thank you notes- but their online design tool kept malfunctioning so I couldn't get a good preview of the note in action, and they actually weren't terribly cost effective either- it would have been about $100 with shipping for 100 notes, and for that amount you can get higher quality.  Furthermore, while green and gold on cream cardstock were fun and festive for a Mid-October invitation to a December wedding, I questioned whether the same could be said if we sent these in February.   Naaah.

(5) The random "because I like it" thank you note

[caption id="attachment_1868" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="They go, but they weren't quite right."][/caption]

Next I considered just choosing something random and green that spoke to me.  But after pursuing this angle, even looking on etsy, I realized I had a problem: nothing spoke to me.  Everything was too boring, too modern, too theme-focused, or too expensive.  There's a lot out there, but I'm picky.  And the prices weren't great- it was going to be $186 + shipping or so for 100 of the above.  Meh. 

(6) The brilliant "ah ha" thank you note

[caption id="attachment_1869" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hello my thank you note friend!"][/caption]

I made one final web-stop at one of my favorite stationers, The White Aisle, and to my surprise they were having a sale.  My bridesmaid H. used them for her own wedding so I'd seen the quality of the inks and papers already and knew them to be excellent.  Plus, I had desperately wanted letterpress for our invites but with the prices, it was out of the question at the time.  However, letterpressed thank you notes (on sale!!) were very much in our budget!  And when I saw this pretty palm tree, I was totally sold!  It has a vintage botanical feel (vintage vibe, check!), is in shades of soft brown and cream (goes with wedding colors, check!), reminds me of where we're going on our honeymoon (Hawaiian reference, check!), and it is a high quality, beautiful card (something I can feel proud of, check!).  And for $1.25 per card, it was only a little bit pricier than My Gatsby's option, but at a significantly higher quality (affordable, check!).  Even J. liked them- and if J. likes paper, you know its right.  The plan is to write these on our honeymoon airplane ride, slap some tropical looking stamps on them and send them when we get to Lihui for a totally Hawaiian thank you!!  

What kind of thank you notes do you like best?

DIY Matchbooks

If you are planning a wedding, you may have seen all those adorable, personalized bride and groom match books out there.  I know I loved them, and absolutely HAD to incorporate them somehow into our wedding.  But they're kind of pricey when you think about what a small detail they are.  The solution?  Make them yourself!

I gave my matchbooks to J. with a box of cigars to pass out on the wedding day, but you could leave these near doors or on the bar, restaurant style, for guests to pick up as they mill about!

Here's a quick overview of all the different ways I've seen brides do this (each image links to the source, with instructions for making your own!):

[caption id="attachment_1835" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mod Matchbooks"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1836" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Simple Elegance"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1837" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Paired with Sparklers"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1838" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="With Candles as a Favor"][/caption]

And so with this inspiration, here's what I came up with!  All it took were some mailing labels, some scrapbook paper, and some penny matches purchased from the dollar store.  Cute, no?

[caption id="attachment_1839" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="With the fancy cigar box..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1840" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Up close and personal"][/caption]

A Mad Men Breakfast (Without Booze & Cigs)

We're baaaaack!  Oh.  Mah.  Lord!  So much to share!  But while I gather photos and process all the good stuff that happened, I'm going to start by recapping some of the other wedding details I couldn't  blog about in advance or didn't have time to blog about yet!  So today, I'll kick things off with the breakfast invitation we ended up using.  As you probably already noticed, I'm a huge fan of Vista Print, mostly because their prices are so ridiculously good, and so I turned there first when trying to design an invitation.  I looked at the actual cards and invitations, but because they were a hair pricier than I preferred, I decided to try to think outside the box.  I looked at menus and postcards, but ultimately found rack cards which are supposed to be for advertising, but had a great verticle shape that could easily be turned into an invitation!

So next, I began thinking about how to design the actual invite.  I originally had considered victorian postcards, but then I had an "ah-ha" moment.  I love the show Mad Men.  Everyone else I know does too.  So why not try to go with a vintage breakfast advertisement-theme?  So I ran some google searches and found this

[caption id="attachment_1685" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Circa 1954, from A&P"][/caption]

Hello Perfection!  Others I liked included this (Sanka ad), this (sheets ad) and this (mildy disturbing and yet somehow hilarious Chase and Sandborn ad):

[caption id="attachment_1686" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="Sanka, circa 1960"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1687" align="aligncenter" width="231" caption="Pacific Sheets, from the same era"][/caption]

 

Well, it WAS the age of repression, I think?

Ultimately, however, the first ad won out, so I did a little photoshopping and viola!  Our breakfast invite was born!

[caption id="attachment_1689" align="aligncenter" width="138" caption="Thank you Photoshop and Vista Print!"][/caption]

 Would you incorporate Mad Men inspiration into your wedding?

Welcoming Guests from Out of Town

I can't believe the wedding is almost here!  One of the final details we recently finished up was making our welcome boxes for out of town ("OOT") guests who will be staying at the hotel.  We put a lot of thought and time into these, because we really wanted our guests to know how much we appreciated that they traveled to be there for us, especially during this very busy time of year!

Each guest will receive a box, and an envelope.  The boxes are gable boxes with a green toile print, and an embossed foil sticker with our wedding monogram.  I tied each box closed with gold or white ribbon.  I think they look adorable!

[caption id="attachment_1622" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The finished OOT boxes, with their embossed foil seals!"][/caption]

Inside the bags are two bottles of water, with labels I made on our home computer.  We purchased Halloween candy on sale on November 1, and wrapped up a selection of our favorites for each bag in cello.  We also made cello bags containing hand creme (a winter essential!), hand sanitizer (possibly even MORE essential!), tums and tylenol packets (for the morning after the wedding).  Also enclosed were pita chips and apple chips, which I found in bulk on Amazon at very reasonable prices.

[caption id="attachment_1614" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And the contents! Pita chips, apple chips, chocolate, bottled water, tylenol and sample goodies!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1621" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="This is the envelope which will be give to each guest with their OOT box. Inside, more goodies!"][/caption]

Each guest will also get an envelope with their OOT box.  In the envelope is a welcome letter we made containing directions, maps, and of course, a crossword puzzle.  We had some extra "give us your photos" cards, which had been made for the favor bags, but we decided to put the extras in the OOT bags for good measure.  Hopefully people will send those photos along!  In addition, we put New York City travel guides (with fold out maps) and vouchers for coupon books at the nearby outlet mall.  I think these round out the boxes well, and maybe give some of our guests some ideas for activities while they are here!

[caption id="attachment_1620" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The welcome letters were folded, and I printed seals on mailing labels which were folded to close the letter."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1619" align="aligncenter" width="272" caption="The newsletter, which has directions to all key wedding locations, along with a map!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1618" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="And of course, a crossword puzzle about the bride and groom, to complete the letter!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1617" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="A not-so-subtle reminder to guests to send us their pics!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1615" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Detail of the fold out maps, in the NYC visitor guides."]

[/caption]

All the paper goods together! Now we just need to add the breakfast invitations...

Would you make OOT bags/boxes, and if so, what would you put in them?

Vintage Postcard Breakfast Invitations

One of the absolute most wonderful things about getting married so close to Christmas is that, in fact, it is so close to Christmas (!!), my favorite holiday!  And one of the things J. and I have been mulling over as the final countdown gets closer, is whether to have a breakfast the morning after the wedding for the guests, and if so, how to invite them!  So I began thinking about all how much I love those old victorian post cards you see in antique shops, and how fun it would be to incorporate them into our potential breakfast invitations.

After spending just a little bit of time surfing the net, I've already found three potential images which I think would work well, and I made a couple of little mock-ups for what such an invitation might look like.  These little cards could have the details of the breakfast itself on the back (postcard style) and could easily be printed at home or at my favorite place, Vista Print!  These samples are literally something I spent 5 minutes on, and nowhere near close to the final product (I'll need to spend some time in Photoshop getting the resolution and colors just right) but isn't it fun to see all the directions one might take this project in?  What do you think, is this a project you would attempt?

[caption id="attachment_1452" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="click on image to see source for original postcard"][/caption]

I cannot figure out where I got this image- if you know, please comment!

click on image to see source for original postcard

UPDATE:  Since writing this post, I have totally changed directions with this project.  The victorian thing ultimately didn't work out for me and I found a better format for shape to work with.  Stay tuned because I used some Mad Men-inspired fabulousness that was even better!

Eat, Drink, and Be Married! Rehearsal Dinner Details

Today we are exactly ONE MONTH AWAY PEOPLE!  Ok just had to get that out of my system.  Back to the regularly scheduled program!

Last week, I had so much fun sharing the invitations I made with FMIL and FSIL for the rehearsal dinner.  And I loved them!  But with so many cute crafting supplies, I just couldn't stop there.  Nope, I discussed it with FMIL and decided to make menus and seating cards as well.  Since its an informal buffer dinner, I didn't want to go too crazy.  Instead I decided to make two menus per table, something that could stand up and be read easily, that wouldn't take up much space.  I needed to include the menu, the beverage options (we're having a beer and wine open bar for the dinner), and a note from J.'s parents.   As I pondered how best to set up this information, it hit me.  Have you seen all those adorable "Eat, Drink, and Be Married!" invitations that are sold everywhere?  Well, I thought, why not use them for the menus?  So that is what I did!

Eat: the menu.  Drink: our beverage list.  And Be Married: the note from J.'s parents.  Perfect!  Love!  I printed the information on regular printer paper, cut cardstock (carefully counted and measured before starting the project to make sure we had enough) backers for the paper, and then glued those onto more card stock which I had scored using a ruler and bone folder, every three inches (leaving 2 inches to tape the fold under, as seen in the photo below).

[caption id="attachment_1499" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="All three sides together."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1500" align="aligncenter" width="188" caption="And the menu fully assembled!"][/caption]

 The escort cards aren't quite as catchy, but they coordinate and they are simple, and will be a perfect way for guests to reserve their spot at their chosen tables.

Note the two different styles at play!

 

Seating card closeup

Total project cost: $0, because I used only leftovers.  And as an added bonus, they match the dinner invitations!  Did you use up any old supplies on a crafty project for your own wedding?

 

 

Brilliant, DIY, Budget Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

 Today I am so excited, because our rehearsal dinner invitations have been sent and should be at their destinations by now!   These invitations were so much fun for me, because although I didn't DIY the wedding invitations (I had to make the call to preserve my sanity!) I decided that the smaller number of rehearsal dinner invites merited some DIY action.  And in case you didn't know, making invitations is WORK!  I'm glad I just stuck with these (and glad I had FMIL and FSIL to help)!  Don't worry though, I'll give you all the details for how you can make them yourself!

First, I went to Paper Source and I purchased enough of the following supplies to make 30 invitations: (1) A7 note cards in leaf, (2) cover weight 8.5 x 11 cardstock in leaf, (3) soft white enclosure cards, which are slightly smaller than the A7 cards, (4) 4 bar cards in soft white, (5) "Retro Snowflake" envelope liners, and (6) A7 envelopes in superfine white.  I also gathered up my handy-dandy address labels, which have been used for a variety of projects.

For step 1, we attacked the envelopes.  I had 50 envelope liners but only needed to line 30 envelopes, so I cut rectangles from the leftovers and glued them to the front of the envelopes.  I also used a heart-shaped hole punch to add a heart near the return address.  Using fonts we selected for the invitation, I printed out address labels and added them on top.

[caption id="attachment_1485" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Of course we couldn't send a plain envelope..."][/caption]

 Step 2 involved making the invitations themselves.  I set up a custom paper size in Microsoft Word to work with our soft white enclosure cards, and used my selected fonts to create a few different "proofs" which I circulated to my FMIL for her thoughts (she and FFIL are generously throwing the rehearsal dinner, so her input was important to me!)  Once we nailed down a look, I set my home printer to its "best" print setting, and fired them off.

[caption id="attachment_1484" align="aligncenter" width="260" caption="Detailed view of the invite itself"][/caption]

 Next came the belly bands.  Those were fun and easy!  I scanned baby photos of J. and I, and then used photoshop to crop them and turn them to sepia tones!  I also used the photoshop tools to age one of the photos a bit, so that they had a similar texture.  I printed the baby photos onto leftover soft white insert cards and then cut them out with crinkle-edged shears so that they would look antique!

We also took the 8.5 x 11 leaf cardstock and cut it into 1.5 inch strips.  Using the bone folder, we scored and folded the bands, and then used foam tape (to give the photos some height) to adhere the photos to the belly bands.  Cute right? 

What guests will see when they open the envelope...

Now it was time to work on the map and direction card, which would be inserted with the invitation into the belly band.  These were pretty easy to make.  I designed the map itself using the same technique as my invitation map enclosures and I made sure that all work was done in the same colors as the invitation and address labels.  It took some fussing (and some time) but it wasn't difficult.  When I finally liked the look of the maps, I printed them on the 4 bar cards using my home printer's "photo" setting- this was important for the map image, because it allowed for those tiny words to print crisply.

[caption id="attachment_1482" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The front of the direction card"][/caption]

On the back of the card, I included directions: hotel to church, church to restaurant, and restaurant to hotel.  The map itself has addresses, in case people want to plug into their GPS systems.  I carefully printed the directions on the backs of the map cards- I say carefully because I was very worried about ink smearing, or printing upside down.  By taking my time, neither was an issue.

[caption id="attachment_1483" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Back of the directions card"][/caption]

And there you have it- our rehearsal dinner invitations were complete, and for only about $50.  Which is less than they cost even at budget retailers- and so much cuter, don't you think?  A special thank you to FMIL and FSIL for their most excellent help in putting these together last Sunday.  It look a little while, but I think the final product was SO worth it.  And FMIL even found adorable holiday stamps for the envelopes.  Another wedding project successfully completed!

[caption id="attachment_1481" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The total package"][/caption]