Sunday, November 29, 2009

a few words about fonts

I wanted to share a little bit about my program design because I love it lots and it only took a few minutes. The critical part for all of my paper products is the font.

I chose Leitura Display, a professional font set. For $50 I got three full fonts (including glyphs) and it makes all the difference in the world. Free fonts are awesome for novelty usage, like signs or labels, but become less than optimal while designing a full suite. For instance, a free font I tried had no apostrophe. That's trouble.

So I bought Leitura knowing I'd have some options - a solid serif and a cool novelty set.

I'm sticking with my one font family for consistency, but you can successfully mix two fonts without making your print products look like a jumbled mess. I'm always in favor of a sans serif and serif pairing and indeed my favorite one ever is Century Gothic and Garamond.

 
They're both extremely well-designed fonts standard on most computers. I highly encourage you using them if you're designing any of your paper products at home and can't invest in a professional font. 
 

the ceremony program

I've drafted our ceremony program - perhaps you'd care for a peek.

I have a slight advantage here. I designed the English department programs when I graduated from college, so I have plenty of experience grappling with the intricacies of creating programs from letter-sized paper.

Okay, they're not really intricacies. But I have a pretty strong aesthetic, regardless. And I had really really great inspiration to rip off:

 

I'm also lucky because my officiant recently sent me an outline for the wedding. We discussed some changes, but I have at least a general idea. With that, I was able to create the interior pages too.


Here you can see I have the second page with our names, and then the inside with the major players and the order of events. White space is just my thing. Also, just noticed the date is wrong. 2009? Heck yes I'm a time traveler..

I won't be printing these for a few months still, but I do have in mind my binding method.

This tutorial was on 100 Layer Cake recently. Threading 50 programs does not seem so taxing and it's absolutely an adorable touch. I won't be using letterpressed paper, but I will be springing for Crane paper.

Designing these things ahead of time is critical for me. I have huge procrastination problems, so the more steps I can complete now, the better. How do you deal with a mounting pile of DIY ideas? Start now or later?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

envelope inspiration

I know, I haven't exactly completed my save the dates and yet I'm working on my invitations. I have a pathetic attention span.

I've known my envelopes would be aqua for ages.

That's from love jenna calligraphy and it's beyond lovely and inspiring.

So then I also knew I wanted the liner to be something graphic and bold because the invitations themselves are going to be completely unadorned.

 
I love love love a chevron pattern. I would be so damn excited to open an invitation that was aqua on the outside with hot pink zig zags inside!

Do you get ahead of yourself in your planning?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

prettifying the reception

As mentioned earlier, my reception space is pretty blah. One of my strategies to combat this is having 1 long banquet table, to create a prominent focal point.

This gives me an easy opportunity with the florals: instead of equally-sized centerpieces like the ones pictured above, I can have large and small and still create an impact.


The goal is too really draw the eye down to the table. The room is large - too large - for my 50 person reception, so the amount of "empty" space is going to be massive. In addition to the center area, where we'll have the table and dance floor, there's a whole upper level with a railing circling the entire room. The caterer suggested setting up food stations in these areas, but even so, I want most of the focus on a beautiful table.

I saw this in the summer issue of Martha Stewart Weddings. I loved the throwback feel but more importantly, another trick to bring the eye down. I'm still waiting to find out how or if I can hang things in our room, but if it's possible, I'd like to include these paper orbs, from Bulk Party Supplies. The effect would be something like this, from Style Me Pretty.

 
Finally, I want a photo-worthy section. While I'm toying with polaroids (which would ultimately be another post), I do want a natural spot guests gravitate to for pictures, preferably near the dance floor. How marvelous would this be?

The streamers are 12 feet long each and come in a pack of 12, so I think I would only need to buy two or three colors to cover A TON of wall. Ideally it'll cover an area that's a bit of an eyesore, perhaps the mini-stage.. Ew, mini-stage.

So those are my current decor plans for the reception venue, surely to be revised constantly.



Friday, November 20, 2009

party party oh my



I was catching up on my blogs after work today and came across these images. Holy moly how fabulous?? It's apparently a collaboration between Urban Outfitters and Confetti System. I thought I was going to DIY garland, but those are so enticing.

I haven't found any prices yet, but I will be investigating this!

Monday, November 16, 2009

oh flowers

I've been a really negligent blogger, I know. I did a brief stint in the hospital last week (it was for a totally lame reason) and since then I've been waiting on a few supplies so I could finish a DIY project and post it!

But in the meantime, you may enjoy chewing on the image I just sent my florist.

Heck yes I've rehashed a lot of images. The new stuff is all from Martha Stewart Weddings.

Also, I've committed to that color scheme, courtesy of 100 Layer Cake.

Hopefully by this weekend I have a finished..cake topper!


Sunday, November 8, 2009

wedding websites

So I just sort of finished my wedding website.

I still have to finish creating the Registry section (i.e. because I haven't registered..) but I wanted to get this out of the way so I could finish my save the dates.

Yes, as you can see, I abandoned the car from our faux monogram. I couldn't make it look not-wonky, so I abandoned it completely.

At first I intended to use a template from one of the wedding sites, but none matched our colors or feel. Every pink template had brown as an accent and I just didn't want to go there. As a fake communications professional, the first rule of branding is consistency. So I needed to find something with more customization but no html. I do not code.

Oh Google, thank you. Google Sites is absolutely all I needed. I chose a simple template, changed the background color, added my "logo" to the header. Then, like magic, it lets you edit pages as you seem them, typing directly on the site. It's lovely. When you want to add your "accommodations" page, you simply click "Add Page" at the top, and voila, you get to start a new page. Demon magic, for sure.

But you can't stop there. You need a domain name. I can never remember long or confusing sites, so my guests definitely wouldn't. Instead I purchased a short and sweet domain from godaddy.com. Yeah, I feel guilty encouraging their stupid Super Bowl commercials. But we get the name for a year at the low, low price of $7.50.

The fun doesn't stop there. What am I doing with that domain name, for instance. Well, I'm forwarding it to my Google site page. And, in addition to forwarding, I'm "masking" the site, so it always shows my godaddy domain instead of the craptastic google one.

Are you making a wedding website? How did you decide to make it?

Sunday, November 1, 2009

horse meet cart!

I'm getting waaay ahead of myself with the invitations. I haven't finished the design and yet I'm trying to pick out a return address stamp for the response cards. That is, if I decide to use response cards..



How great is this? See more address stamps at Paperwink here. They also have quite the adorable collection of coordinating note cards and calling cards. Too cute.