Programs: Another Labor of Love

Long ago, I saw a post by fellow bee, Miss Plumeria, on her great wedding programs. This is totally inspired by her work!

They're the size of a letter size piece of paper folded in half... twice. Remember my invitation's sash and envelope liner? well i also got a spread printed of two of our engagement photos.
They make for great surprises for the guests, dont you think?
It was several pages long, with a few dedications, 2 pages for the bridal party, 4 for the ceremony, an acknowlegements page, a thank you, and a quick list of the reception's program as well.
Bound with gold thread, just like Miss Plumeria's was!

Menus, and Placecards, and Thank you's OH MY!

Here is the outcome for all of my prints:

Menus, Place Cards, Table Numbers, and Thank You Cards! Yep, you know I designed them!!

Name tents that double as escort cards and place cards, complete w/ table number and meal choice.

7x7 inch table numbers, to be held by stanchions!
Menus! They're half a letter size page cut the long way:

and to show my gratitude to countless guests and vendors:

M&M Favors, Part Deux

In a previous post, I had blogged about utilizing my Gocco Machine, as well as my time stuck in the house during DC's Snowpocalypse 2010, for a wedding project. That was to print little 1oz glassine bags with the graphic flourish that I will use throughout my wedding.

Well, with the help of my skillful mom, I was able to complete the task. Here's what you'll need...

Materials Needed: Glassine bags, M&Ms (or your choice of candy), precut fancy tags w/ your monogram, colored thread, and an awesome sewing machine.

What I used: 1oz White Glassine Bags purchased from papermart.com gocco'd with my flourish, Orange and Pearlized white M&Ms, Precut Tags that say M&M and the date on it, and gold embroidery thread.

You then have to stuff the bags with M&Ms. My mom was extra anal and decided to count the M&Ms so that everyone gets an even amount, but you don't have to do that. You jsut have to make sure you don't put too much in that you cant fold it to sew it later. We did 27 M&Ms per bag.

Another tip, because the orange was so strong, i decided to double bag them. I am actually using 2 bags, one printed and and the inside "liner bag" plain white, so that you can actually see the design i goccoed without too much interference from the orange M&M color.

And then you just fold, add the tag (which is also folded over), and sew them with your trusty singer machine. I won't lie, my mom did the sewing. If i did it, it would be all kinds of crooked.

Here's a tip from my Mom... To save yourself from re-setting up the thread on teh machine, keep the sewing at a continuous loop, and don't snip off the thread of the bags until the next one is sewn. (not sure if i said that right, but it worked out for me)

Here is the finished product!

Hope you like it! I happen to love it!

Ceramic Candle Holder Favors

Another labor of love... Packaging the Candle Holder Favors!

My mom and I were a little busy this weekend...

We started off with the ceramic cut out candle holders that my aunt so generously bought me, made in the Philippines... Cavite to be exact.

We had to package them special with lots of newspaper and bubble wrap before stuffing it into our luggage back to the US. It wasn't the smartest choice given how heavy and bulky they were.

In fact, we had to ask two of my mom's friends to put it in to their suit cases as well.

As you know from my one post about ideas, that I was going to get 4x4 tucktop boxes from papermart to hold them. I also got chocolate tissue paper from the same web site for a little contrast when you open it up.




Afterwards, we finished it off with a similar sash and ribbon that was on the invitation, only this one was 16.5 inches long while the sash on the invite was only 12 inches long.



My mom came up with a great idea of sealing the chocolate tissue wrapped candle holder with a gold sticker that we bought from Staples. It added a nice, classy touch when you open it inside.



How does it look? DO you like it? i happen to love it!

Invitations: A Labor of Love...

As you all know, I'm professionally a graphic designer who loves a great layout and lovely typography. I also do wedding invitations and reception print items as a side business, so it was only natural to go the DIY route for my own invitations.

Here are the results:

They're offset printed with 2 pantone inks.. one was a metallic burnt orange, and the other was a very deep dark chocolate. I used a gocco to add another color to the main invitation, a leafy branch in gold. It was printed on Textured ESSE Latte paper.

I chose a 6x9 inch gatefold pocket style invitation from my gatsby (Classic Metallic Ecru), with a main invitation card and the center, and the pocket filled with 3 enclosure cards of succeeding heights, and a bonus map on vellum paper of the area that I drew myself in illustrator. The invite cards were made using Esse Textured cardstock in Latte. I didnt go with the metallic version b/c i wanted there to be a contrast in the paper type since the colors were the same. The vellum was a white vellum that my printer found cheap for me.

The enclosure cards consisted of the RSVP, Directions, and an Info card that contains nearby attractions, Airports, hotels, and registry details.

Some added superfluous touches are the sash made of vellum, ribbon, and cardstock, and a lined envelope (liner printed on vellum). I went ahead and had the return address labels offset printed on the back flap of the invitation, as well as the front side of the response envelope. I also got mailing labels done for the addressing. I got them printed on natural white writing weight paper and then ran them through a xyron to make them into labels.

It was a lot of work because I'd chosen so many different components. I certainly kept people busy one sunday afternoon when we all gathered to put this together.

What do you think?

The Graphic Designer Bride

In case any of you don't know this by now, I'm a motion graphics artist and a graphic designer by day. I have a lot of training on things such as layout, and typography. I know trade secrets liek "the grid," and the all important "white space."

I LOVE GREAT DESIGN.

And incase you haven't figured it out... i also love weddings.

About six years ago I offered to do my cousin's wedding invitations and reception print items. I designed them, printed them, etc. I found it to be stressful (what design job isn't) but fun at the same time! To do design work that doesn't have a department of defense theme or a higher education accounting concept is WONDERFUL!

I've done about seven weddings since my cousin's in 2006. I am even in the middle of another wedding reception design right now!

As you all know, with the work I’m trying to get into with print design for weddings, I have a bunch of ideas for my own event. It’s my way to showcase what I can do, so a lot of what I’ve planned is a bit involved. Since I’ve got my tasting this Saturday, I’ll be able to secure the entrée choices and schedule. Printing for invites will go out a week from today, so after the weekend of 4^th , it’ll be go time!

Just to give you an idea of what I’m gonna do, here are some ideas revealed:

Invites:

http://www.mygatsby.com/product.jsp?ProductID=405856

• So that's the format, but with a much better design and layout than the rotating gif above (which to me is a little too generic. sorry mygatsby, but its the truth).
• the cards that are actually printed will be from a real print house in Maryland. They’re using something called “offset” printing. I’m using a great uncoated (Nonmetallic) textured ivory paper and a dark orange metallic ink, and an uncoated chocolate ink. I’m using my gocco to add a gold swirl to the main invite card (to save money b/c a new color means an extra $200).
• The cards in the pocket will be taller than what you see in the picture. Some people will have 4 cards for the rehearsal dinner invite. There will be an extra vellum sheet behind the directions which is the map of the area.
• The metallic ivory gatefolds will be wrapped in a vellum/ribbon sleeve with the swirly design. The sleeve a little monogram of our first names as a seal on top (see picture below, but without the cheesy bow) and then stuffed w/ a metallic ivory envelope which is lined w/ the same swirly designed vellum.

Yes, I just reread that and it sounds just as confusing to me as you might feel right now. But it will be awesome. I promise! lol

Programs:

http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/05/10/programs-done/

• I have the gold thread to sew them together and all, just like Mrs. Plumeria did (who happens to be a graphic designer too. I got the idea of sew-binding a book from my bookmaking class in graduate school
  

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• The cover won’t be vellum like the example online. It will be a hard cover (same paper as my invites), but there will be a vellum page utilizing 2 of the awesome engagement photos that Trang did for me in march.
  

Ceramic Favors (to be done by one of my witnesses/godmothers/primary sponsors):

• They will be stuffed in this box with chocolate colored tissue paper:
  

• They’ll then have a vellum sleeve that matches the one that wraps around the invite, just to bring in some continuity… kinda like this, but without the cheesy bows:
  

·

M&M Favors:

• These are my very bags, of course w/ my swirly design:
  
  

• and then im ordering orange and cream M&Ms (and since they’ve already got M on them, I don’t need to do any special printing.
• these are what I plan on doing with the bags, but with gold thread:
  

The favors will alternate on the tables between place settings (ie you get M&Ms and the people on either side of you get candle holder.

Other items that we’ll have that im doing myself are:

• Table Numbers/Names
  
• Menu cards per place setting
  
• Escort Cards/Place Cards
  
• Welcome Bags for Hotel
  
• Cookie Favor Bags
  

Save that date!!

Our save-the-dates are going out this week! I chose to do a postcard with one of the photos from our engagement session with Trang Dam. It's a full length body shot taken by the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Memorial. It had great negative space in the sky for my monogram placement. On the back is the date of our wedding, stating the town and that formal invitations are coming soon. I also provided a link to our wedding web site. I used the colors and fonts that i will be using for my invitations.

I bought Stardream Metallics 110# cardstock in Opal, and printed on a cardstock-friendly laser. Laser prints on metallic paper are quite awesome, and for such a low cost. The dimensions are 4.25x6, which is the largest postcard USPS allows to be mailed at the post card rate of $0.26.

Very simple, cost effective, and it gets the job done!

What do you think?