Createlive: save the date

Showing posts with label save the date. Show all posts

6.10.2013

DIY Save The Dates

Now that my "Save The Dates" are long received (and our invitations are out!), I'm finally sharing our Save The Date cards.

Because my fiance had a photographer lined up for a photo shoot right after we got engaged (literally - we went straight there!), we already had a bunch of great pictures of the two of us. I had shared some of the images on Facebook, but kept most of my favorites for use in things like Save The Dates, Wedding and shower invites, etc.

That meant that, when it came to designing our own Save The Date cards, we had a plethora of gorgeous pictures to choose from. But, we didn't even have to discuss it, because there was one picture that we were all drawn to.

I knew from the start that I wanted to design my own Save The Date. There's something about stock cards online that just puts me off, and I am so visually particular that I would probably be a designer's worst nightmare anyway, so hiring someone seemed out of the question. Since starting a consulting business, I'm now seasoned enough in Photoshop that I thought it was something I could do on my own.

I ended up going with a front that was very simple - this awesome picture of us kissing near the Kinzie Street Bridge, with some slightly transparent text on top of it.

The Front of our Save The Date card

If you read my post about designing my own wedding monogram, you might recall that we wanted "Vintage with a touch of modern." It is how I would describe our style, and it's the description my fiance says he used when designing my ring (they actually took some CAD designs for a more vintage looking ring and modernized and customized it to fit that description). I am equally drawn to weddings that are very vintage as well as weddings that are modern, so to choose just one or the other would have been difficult and left me feeling like something was missing. So, Justin and I decided on two typefaces to use on our wedding stationary.

The first, Raleway, is very modern. It is sans serif (or, as I call it, "without feet"), and is very clean looking. It's also the typeface I was drawn to a long time ago, when I started my blog and used it for my header.

The second, Modern No. 20, is a bit more vintage. It is a serif typeface ("with feet") and has a bit more of a vintage, country vibe to it. The most ironic part is that it has modern in its name, but we're using it as our more vintage font.

The Back of our Save The Date card

On the back, we used our custom wedding monogram. In some shape or form, it is on every item in our wedding stationary suite - from the save the dates to the bachelorette party information. Here, we used it with light blue lettering to give the back of the Save The Date card a bit of color.

Because our wedding is the same weekend as Lollapalooza (yes, we are insane), we decided to put some hotel information on our Save The Date to encourage our guests to book their rooms early. We also added our own hash tag for twitter and instagram, because I do social media consulting, so it seemed like a crime to not have social media be a part of our big day!

And last but not least, information about our website. Yeah, we bought the domain name. Not sure what we'll use it for after the wedding, but I'm sure we'll find some fun stuff to fill it with!

What about you?

How would you describe your style?
Would you ever design your own Save The Date or Invitations?

3.11.2013

My Engagement Party!

My parents threw us an engagement party this weekend, and it was absolutely wonderful! I woke up on Saturday morning and had a nice run on the treadmill in my parents' basement (we had driven up to their house on Friday night). Naturally, there was some watching of Alias.

Afterward, I had a quick body shower and threw some makeup on.

Then, I went to a salon near my parents' home. I had an appointment for a blow out and a bit of curling.

My hair went from a nasty, post-run mess to va-va-voom in about 45 minutes. My stylist, Nicole, was super sweet and we chatted away about wedding planning the whole time. That topic is an easy bonding opportunity for most strangers. Thumbs up.

When I got back to my parents' home, I pitched in and helped put the finishing touches on the party decor. My aunt and uncle and their family had driven up to help, and my cousin Clara was also in town, so we had all hands on deck.

My sister spent a lot of time this past week buying decorations and props, and and my cousins put them all together. My cousin, Maggie, got fancy with the hot glue and it all came together.

I was thrilled with what my sister put together. I'm not having any wedding "colors," it's all a lot of neutral colors, so we kept things light. White flowers, white candles, and bird cages.

My sister picked a variety of white hydrangeas and roses, and my cousin distributed them into about 12 mason jars, which were scattered around the house. We also put out a lot of shiny photo-frames and spread the flowers all around the house.

My sister went all out and hand made these name tags. The girl has seriously wonderful handwriting.

Justin and I were initially name-tag-less, because we figured people knew who we were if they were coming to our engagement party. Then, after about the fifth person who asked me where my name tag was, my sister whipped up some tags for us so that we matched the rest of the guests.

Because my fiance's family is from Michigan, there were a lot of people who didn't know each other yet. So, a big reason behind throwing the Engagement party was to get people to come together and get to know each other. The name tags were part one.

Part Two? Booze. Obviously. It's like human glue.

Can you tell we're related? #SISTERS

A few hours into the party, the food arrived. My parents catered Mediterranean food and it was delicious. People ate it up and raved with positive "reviews."

The rest of the night went by in a bit of a blur. It's hard to feel like you spent enough time with each guest when there are so many people you love around you. But, I think that, under the circumstances, we did a pretty good job.

Also, I just have to point out... You know how I take a ton of pictures? Well, so does my future MIL, and she's a pro. God bless my fiance, who grew up with a snap happy mom and is now marrying another snap-happy woman. Too. Funny.

And there you have it!

Have you ever been to an Engagement Party? Did you or someone you know have one?

Dear Engagement Party,
Thank you for being the reason to get so many people I love all in one place. I felt showered with love just because of their presence.
Love,
Carly

3.05.2013

DIY Custom Wedding Monogram

**FYI, I recently updated my website so that every image has an easy pin button! Just hover over any image on the page and a big red Pinterest "P" will show up on the bottom right hand of the image! Click on that to pin any images on this site, and they will link directly to the individual post that image comes from!**

A month or two ago, I started working on a custom wedding monogram. I wanted to make sure that there was something symbolic of us that marked every part of our wedding, from the Save The Dates to the Thank You Cards. Some tiny little ribbon of familiarity that ties everything together.

If you know me, though, you know that I am very particular about design, presentation, and visuals. It's something I'm passionate about, so I have a hard time handing it off, even to a professional. I also enjoy challenging myself to make things work, so I decided that I would be designing all of my wedding cards, paperie, and stationary on my own.

When I started looking around for Pinterest inspiration, I have to be honest and admit that I was not impressed. A lot of the monograms I found looked fake or mass produced. Definitely not something custom and grand.

(An early draft I was working on that didn't make the cut)

After a while, I found Wedding Chicks' templates and started playing around with this swirly design. Their template comes with just one letter inside, so I dumped it into Photoshopped and started cutting things away. I was liking it more and more, but still thought it was just too boring. Too tried-and-true. Too already-done-before.

So, I had to slow it down. This happens with me a lot. Sometimes, my creative juices just get flowing and I start working so fast-and-furious that I fail to stop, sit back, and evaluate what my goals really are. But, for my very own wedding, I knew I had to get it right.

I tried to brainstorm about the words I wanted to be associated with my wedding. After all, if this custom monogram is meant to embody the wedding in one visual cue, I needed to know what I was going for. I came up with a few phrases and words:

Classic, yet unique.

Grand, but not stuffy.

Vintage, with a touch of modern.

I know, a lot of those things don't seem to go together. But that's kind of what my wedding is all about. Combining rustic and vintage elements with modern spaces and city views. Taking something old and pairing it with something undeniably fresh and new. So, that's what I wanted to find.

I finally found an inspiring set of stationary that gave me an idea. I liked the idea of something that almost looked like a crest, with some embellishment around the sides, but still had a hard "border." And this is what I came up with:

(The winner!)

What do you think? I used a vintage looking "ring" to form the shape, which I was later told by a coworker reminds them of the look and feel of my engagement ring. Then, I used a slightly more modern font for our initials on the inside. Old meets new?

Some of my Save The Dates are already in the mail (for close family and old friends who are coming to my Engagement Party this weekend), so you may have already seen this "crest" in action. I'm looking forward to sharing my Save The Dates with all of you, but for now, what do you think of the monogram?