Works of the Imagination by Trish Grantham

OK So it's not wedding related, but when you get married and get a house you have to decorate with something! I was exploring around on etsy today and found this amazing artist Trish Grantham. Trish is a self-taught artist located in Portland, Oregon and I really love the style of her designs.

She creates her art using a variety of media and acrylic paint on wood panels, and paints a multitude of doe-eyed characters: Bunny, Robot-Panda, Girl, Carl the Squirrel, Think-Monster, Toast, Birds, and more populate her surfaces.

Again, its not wedding-related but I really love her style!

Favor Boxes from Politesse

Politesse offers beautiful, handmade, refined favor boxes, complete with the highest quality contents. You can design your gifts by choosing the perfect combination of paper, ribbon, tags, decorative elements and unique contents. Boxes have been used as wedding and shower favors, invitations, attendants' gifts, hostess gifts, jewelry boxes and corporate gifts.

Erika was inspired to create Politesse while planning her own wedding. Using a sand dollar as the theme, she designed all of the event details to include it. When it came time to select the favors, She was surprised by the lack of quality packaging choices. So, she decided to create my own. Her love for personalizing and perfecting the details lends itself to the creation of these adorable boxes. I received a set of 3 in the mail last week and was so delighted with them I had to share.



The boxes come in lots of different shapes and sizes, and in general run $6-8 in price. Erika doesn't even require a large minimum to order.

There are also other favors available on the site including these adorable custom matchbooks.

Save the Dates by Brown Sugar Design

When Whitney of Brown Sugar Designs and her client Sacha contacted me to collaborate on a map for her Save the Date set I could not have been more excited. The save the dates had a specific green and gold color pallette and I made sure to put plenty of those colors into the map.

The wedding is taking place near their home in Seattle, so I made sure to incorporate the Space Needle, and of course a ferry boat in the bay.

Sacha and Will used baby photos on their save the dates as a cute way to show where they came from.

Genuine Swarovski crystals were painstakingly adhered to mark the date on the cards. What a wonderful idea!

The maps were made into magnets with gold backers on them so that the guests could stick them on their refrigerators -- and who wouldn't want to!?

Sacha, it was such a pleasure to work with you and I look forward to doing the rest of your wedding calligraphy next year!

DK Designs Giveaway

In other wedding vendor news, DK Designs, an artist based in Hawaii who creates amazing clay flowers (yes those flowers are made of clay!) The contest is running until November 7th:

Diane of DK Designs is having an exciting giveaway of her amazing clay flowers on Melissa's Smitten Blog! Simply email info@smitteninvitations.com with your name, email and snail-mail address and wedding date to enter! Contest ends on November 7, 2008. One entry per person per day. Be sure to email all your friends to let them know about this fun giveaway!

Gardenia Hair Flower - $20 value: Gardenias are a very popular flower to wear in your hair on your wedding day. Why not try a handcrafted gardenia hair flower! This way it will last you through the ceremony, reception and beyond! The gardenias are slightly off-white, but not ivory. They are 3.5 inches in diameter and are VERY lightweight. The flowers are attached to a U-shape hairpin to fit securely in your up-do or low-do hairstyle. Passionate about Peonies - $100 value: This arrangement is called, Passionate about Peonies. It measures 6 inches high by 7 inches across the top. It's filled with light pink and fuchsia pinkish-red peonies, both in full bloom and in bud form! The full bloom peonies have over 30 petals, all handcrafted one petal at a time. The flowers are arranged in a 3 inch square white ceramic cube vase. If you love peonies, you will absolutely love this floral arrangement.

Gardenias in Something Blue - $75 value: This beautiful light blue latte cup is brimming with gardenia blossoms! 2 buds, 2 half open and 3 full gardenias mixed with some light blue floral fillers finish this piece off. It measures approximately 6 inches in diameter and 4.5 inches high. It's clean, stylish and sophisticated. This would make a great gift for a bride or even a centerpiece for a bridal shower!


The flowers are all handcrafted by the artist featured on the Martha Stewart Show, utilizing Claycraft by DECO soft clay, which enables the artist to create lifelike flowers one petal at a time. Diane’s work has been featured in For the Bride Magazine, In Style Weddings Magazine (via http://www.estiloweddings.com/) and Pacific Rim Weddings Magazine. The bulk of the Diane's work is in custom bridal bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres and other floral decor.

A New DIY Invitations Website

I'm very excited to announce a new DIY Invitations website for brides looking to create their wedding invitations on their own. CardgirlDIY is a terrific new resource site brought to you by Cardgirl Invitations & Stationery.

This site was designed to fill the gap in resources for the large numbers of brides interested in creating their own wedding stationery. There was no "one" place to go to find practical information about where to buy paper, what size the cards should be or how to best print them. Although it was started with brides in mind, Cardgirl DIY has turned into an everyone site. It's even a good quick reference for those in their own custom invitation business...so everyone take a look.

In celebration of CardgirlDIY & a general love of letterpress, Cardgirl Custom Invitations is offering 15% off all letterpress orders placed before the end of October. This includes holiday cards, birth announcements, stationery & wedding invitations. Nessa is truly a leader in the letterpress stationery world, and I look forward to reading more of her tips and tricks for creating "the perfect" wedding invitation!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I just got this promotional email from The Wedding Library in NYC announcing a special offer from Thread Designs for 10% off all orders placed in October, plus some proceeds will go to benefit Breast Cancer Awareness. You must have your order completed by October 31 to qualify though. So go, save some cash on your bridesmaids dresses and do a little good for women (and men) everywhere by supporting Breast Cancer.

Blair and Ryan's Arizona Wedding

I just had to share the map from my real life couple Blair and Ryan from last week's post Picking Your Perfect Icons. Blair and Ryan chose to put particular emphasis on the Arizona Biltmore, as it was extremely important to them that the reception is being held there. It's an iconic Phoenix landmark and so it is placed right in the center of the map. There are lots of other fun things, we put on their college mascots, and other important places in their history of togetherness.


Here's some of what Blair had to say about her maps:


" Thank you SO much for all the work you’ve put into our Save The Dates… We L-O-V-E your map. LOVE. I’m seriously all teary over here! I’m crying over a map! It is so BEYOND perfect, I don’t even know what to say! Thank you SO SO SO SO much, you just made me the happiest girl in the world!! "



I'm so pleased to make a client this happy! Now I'm off to work on more maps for a while....

Thank You Signs

Loving this sign my client Sheryl just sent from her September Wedding. We created a custom Thank You sign in Parisian Script with a rose border in her favorite pink and chartreuse green colors. The photo, taken by Stephanie Williams of Next Exit Photography, will be used on their thank you cards.

More Seating Arrangements for the Reception

One of my favorite event planners, Beth Helmstetter, sent over these photos of escort cards and table numbers for an event I worked on for her last week. These reception cards were handwritten in Cherise script on ivory cardstock in chocolate brown ink.

Here's a zoomed out shot of the table numbers we made for the wedding as well.

I love how organized the cards look lined up in their wooden boxes and surrounded by moss.

Sparkling Details

{Calligraphy in Bickham Swash Capitals}

Joannna at Nickelson's Invitations has done it again. These delicate placecards and menus are painstakingly adorned with beautiful crystals. When I was writing the calligraphy I had no idea they would look this good! Each placecard has a table number written inside to denote table assignments and each menu as a bellyband wrapped around it with each guest's name on it. They turned out great. Photography by Melissa Musgrove.

Signs, Signs, Signs!

If you want a creative way to tell your guests what's happening in each area of your venue, try something like these cool signs we wrote on for one of Rebecca Stone's couples. Calligraphed on black, chalkboard-like pieces in white paint, these signs make a stunning addition to your decor. For more on this wedding, please visit Rebecca's blog.

Hanging Tag Placecards

I love this idea for placecards: My client, Ashley, used hangtags with little pockets where I wrote each name in pink on the pocket and the table on a white insert card. Photography by Jennifer Domenick of Love Life Images. Letterpress cards by Rebecca Shriver.