Friday’s FAB Finds {039}

So it’s hot. Really hot here in good ole shiny Virginia, although it looks like we might be getting a bit of a reprieve this weekend. But before you head out to the beach, we thought it would be fun to share a cool find with you before you’re off on your Summer adventures. Ya know, just to get you in the mood. Today we’re continuing our FAB Find from last week with Tori & Nick’s colorful and sweet BHLDN-inspired wedding. So without further ado…

Invitations (& People) We Love – Tori & Nick and Rock Paper Scissors – Part 2

You may remember Tori & Nick’s sweet summer garden affair with fun, light & bright colors – just looking at their paper designs and event decor made you feel instantly cooler. Rock Paper Scissors, along with Easton Events and Pat’s Floral Designs, all worked together to create a unique and cohesive look for this fun couple. We think it all came together beautifully to capture not only the couples personalities, but the light-hearted mood of their garden wedding, perfectly.

We personally hadn’t seen this many colors used together (2-3 colors are more standard) and when we’d heard about all of them, we were really wondering how it would work out together. Yet the green, coral, yellow and blues on the paper products all complement each other and beautifully pick up those same colors used elsewhere in the decor from the flowers, the vintage vases, the ribbons, the linens, dishes, candle holders, even the wallpaper used to line the table trays, in sublime and unexpected ways. Just a note of caution: we don’t recommend trying this at home. We would leave this type of expertise to the professionals. 😉

Oh, and just in case you’re like us and have always wondered what the heck the difference is between table, escort & place cards, be sure to check out on of their fun and informative recent blog posts on that very subject.

Love the Mr. & Mrs. forks from BHLDN, too!

The programs doubled as fans–a tried and true feature that your guests will surely appreciate in the Summer months.

So what do you think? Do you like how it came all together and if so, will you be taking any inspiration from their wedding and applying it to your own event or party?

Stay cool y’all,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {038}

Happy Friday’s FAB Finds, everyone! (C’mon, you remember those don’t you? ;))

Whew, well, what a week. We have some really big stuff brewing here at Holland Photo Arts World HQ that we absolutely can’t wait to share soon. We thinks we took on a bit too many projects during the height of wedding season, but really, how much sleep do we need anyway? 😉 We recently got to take a little break though and headed up to NYC this past weekend to catch the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as a showing of Book of Mormon on Broadway. Holy cow, what an amazing trip. Sadly, Savage Beauty’s run ends this weekend, (hopefully you got to see it??), but Book of Mormon has been extended through Fall 2012 and we can’t recommend it highly enough. The only time we stopped laughing was when we we couldn’t hear the lines over everyone’s laughter! We wanted to put the pause button on the entire weekend – too much incredibleness to take in all at once. But alas, work and home were calling. Our loss is your gain though! 😉

Invitations (& People) We Love – Sara & Matt and Rock, Paper, Scissors – Part 1

You know our love of paper so whenever we get something in the mail from Rock, Paper, Scissors, we just know it’s going to be good. We recently two lovely weddings (Sara & Matt and Tori & Nick) that took advantage of Dani & Heather’s incredible talent and we were so excited to photograph their creations. We shared just a taste of what they did for each unique couple in their individual blog posts, but we loved them so much, we just had to share some more. This week you’ll get to enjoy Sara & Matt’s invitation suite, which definitely did not disappoint! We love the dark navy blue with light fern green color combination that they also carried through to their ceremony programs, their custom wine bottle labels, and even their doughnut favor bags!

Beautiful calligraphy by Jen Maton of If So Inklined. How perfect is that name, btw?)

Sara & Matt’s invitation color scheme was crisp and clean – the perfect antidote for a steamy Summer day.

Check back next Friday to see more from Rock, Paper, Scissors and Tori & Nick’s incredible BHLDN inspired wedding!

Friday’s FAB Finds {037}

So we’re putting the finishing touches on our next recent wedding that we can’t wait to share with you, we’re thisclose, but it’s not quite ready yet (the Elves’ response to our tequila-featured incentive program hasn’t exactly been what we had hoped) so we’re going to take the opportunity to share another fun FAB Find with you!

And the crowd goes wild at the news. You are going wild aren’t you? Sure, of course you are!

Oh, and just in case you missed our last “really freakin’ cool” find, you can find it here. Trust us, it’s a good one if you haven’t yet discovered it.

This time (read: FAB Find) it’s personal. In a good way though – I really didn’t say it in a spooky serious voiceover kinda of way when I said it in my head. 😉 We’re super excited to share this FAB Find with you because it’s from one of our former wedding couples!

Ideas (& People) We Love – Personalized & Reusable Wedding Favors

Loyal blog readers may remember Tessie & Matt, who married a few Winters ago at the-stunning-in-any-season Clifton Inn. Well, they also happen to own their own small business in Charleston, West Virgina–Wallace Metal Works. They do incredible custom-made wrought iron work for private homes, companies, and restaurants throughout West Virgina and have recently added hand-made metal ornaments to their offerings that can be engraved with a couple’s name and wedding date.

We got to see the ornaments first hand at Ali & Ken’s wedding last year where Tessie was her made of honor, returning the honor as Ali was Tessie’s MOH – we love to see that and love even more getting to photograph weddings of friends of friends! Tessie and Matt also made the favors for all the guests – metal ornaments in three varying leaf/flower shapes – Dogwood Blossom, Grape Leaf and Oak Leaf, which fit a&k’s leaf/tree theme from their invites and escort cards, perfectly. Not surprisingly, they proved very popular and we even saw a couple of guests that day making trades with their table mates to get the one they wanted!

Since they were so popular, Tessie and Matt have since added a few more leaf designs, too. You can now choose between those three, as well as Maple Leaf and Ginkgo Leaf. Oh, and if you chose not to invest in the ornaments for all your guests, wouldn’t they make great wedding party gifts?

Leaf theme wouldn’t work for your wedding? Well, you’re in luck. Tessie and Matt are true artists (he’s a blacksmith, she’s a jewelry designer turned welder/metalsmith) and are happy to make other types of ornaments for couples looking for something unique to them. Give them a call or send them an email with what you’re thinking and I bet you’ll be amazed at what they can design and create in metal!

The cost per ornament for hand-painted personalization on the back like Ali & Ken’s is $20 and $35 each for the one with hand stamped personalization – both of which appear on the back of the ornament.

What a great idea and such a sweet way for your guests to remember their wedding whether they hang it each year on their Christmas tree or display year round hanging from a sunny window sash, which is where our very own ornament resides. (Thanks, t&m!) Oh, and this Christmas they’ll be debuting a wrought iron dragonfly ornament (can’t wait to see that one!) and next year they’re planning a tea rose ornament.

Friday’s FAB Finds {036}

Whoa, is it Friday already?! Excellent! Well, I’ve been sitting on this truly fabulous find for a while now since we’ve had so many gorgeous weddings & fun portrait sessions to share with you. Since we’re not quite ready to share the next one in the queue though, I get to feature a great find today! Yea! We hesitate to say it, but we think you’re going to fall in obsession with today’s FAB Find…

Links We Love – Pinterest

You may remember a while back when Bill posted about using Evernote for your wedding planning. Well, a fantastic new website has come along to also help save your back from lugging around that wedding inspiration binder! Seriously, we hope you don’t hold it against us when you find all the copious amounts of free time that you we know you have 😉 gone. Just gone. But I promise you, this time-suck is worth it!

What is Pinterest you ask and how can it work for me? Well, it is a basically a virtual clip board and anything you see on the Interwebs or that you scan in, can be copied and pasted into a “board”. Basically, you can pin a photo that you find of interest into a board you created. You can create an unlimited amount of boards (or at least as many as any human would want). You can create collections of things you love and share them with your friends and followers. You can also follow other peoples’ boards and pin something they found to one of your boards.

(Clink on the screen shots to see them full size.)

I have to admit, though, I’m quite the newbie and haven’t pinned a lot yet, but I absolutely *love* using it! Since I don’t have a wedding to plan, I’ve been using it primarily for home decorating & design inspiration. What I have so far:

My Studio Inspiration board has the most pins and is my most active board.

You can follow your favorite event designers & bloggers, whose taste and style you admire and get updates when they add new pics to their boards. I checked with a few of my favorite “follows” to see if I could share a few of their incredible boards with you…

Courtney Spencer of Merriment Events has a huge amount of eye candy pins and I absolutely love all her many specific categories. Makes it SO much easier to find things of interest.

Her gorgeous ceremony details board…

LOVE these unique color combos!

Jeannine is the founder of the fabulous Small & Chic in C’ville blog. She also happens to be planning a wedding!

And, of course, in honor of the BIG Wedding happening today, some royal inspiration for you!

And no proper English wedding inspiration would be complete without some fabulous hats!

Well, that all looks and sounds great, Anne, but how the heck do I pin something??? First you need to request an account. Since they’re a new site, they’re trying to take it slow and add people as they can, but you should hopefully get your verification email in a week or so. Create your account and install the Pin It bookmark (instructions on are their website) and then start pinning (even works on iPad). If you see some eye candy you love, click the Pin It bookmark and then choose the photo you want to pin. It’ll ask you which of your boards you want to pin it to, make notes about and even create tags so it’s easier for you and others to find something specific. Pinterest takes the source link and credits where the item was pinned from.

And if you’re worried about your fiance, family or friends seeing “too much” of your wedding plans, I would suggest creating another account without your full name where you can put all your finalized wedding plans.

And they even have an iPhone app coming soon!

There’s only one thing I’ve found I don’t like about Pinterest and that’s that oftentimes the original creator of photos doesn’t get credit for the photo because somebody pinned said photo from another blog or website who obtained it from the original creator. Yup, it’s happened to us. We’ve found photos of ours pinned from wedding blogs and the wedding blog gets the link credit on Pinterest boards. We don’t see any way around this right now, other than to require blogs to keep our watermark on the photos, but please do try to be fair and pin from the original creator when at all possible.

So what are you waiting for? Get pinning! Recipes you want to try, books you want to read, things you love, favorite quotations…..the possibilities are truly endless! And let me know when you do – I’d love to follow and see what you think is FAB!

Yours in pinning,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {035}

Happy Friday! Let’s get right to it as we’ve got a “chockfull o’ beautiful, inspiring photos FAB Find” for your viewing pleasure today!

Places We Love – Veritas Vineyard

Well, looking back over some past FAB Finds, I was shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you, to discover that we had not yet featured one our very favorite places in our neck of the woods. Notice, I didn’t say favorite wedding venue. While it is most certainly one of those, it’s also just one of our favorite places to visit on our own time, as it were. When friends and family visit from out of town, Veritas is the FIRST (and oftentimes the only if it’s a short visit) winery we take them to. We love attending Starry Nights with dear friends and attending their big New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball one of these days is most definitely on our must-do list. Maybe you want to check out their upcoming Easter Brunch or Mother’s Day Brunch?

We can think of nothing better than hanging out on their big, comfy leather couches in their warm, red-hued tasting room, sipping some incredible wines, discovering tasty cheeses and toasting our good fortune that we get to live in such an incredible area such as the beautiful Blue Ridge. We are also lucky enough to get to shoot at Veritas more often than any other venue – local or otherwise! (We can’t believe our first wedding there was over five years – back in the Summer of 2005!) Owners Andrew and Patricia, along with their wine-maker daughter, Emily and equally fabulous younger daughter, Chloe, event manager extraordinaire, have been making brides and groom’s wishes come true for years now. Truly. While they host many, many weddings (sometimes three in one weekend!), they treat each and every couple as if it was their only wedding on the calendar – no matter now large or how intimate the wedding.

Just in case you need more enticement, check out just a few of our favorite Veritas wedding photos through out the years!

If you’re looking for an incredible space and location for your upcoming wedding, do yourself a favor and make sure Veritas is on your must-visit list!

Your FAB Finds Fairy Godmother,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {034}

TGIF, ya’ll! It’s looking like Spring has just about sprung here in beautiful Virginia and we are looking forward to seeing some buds (hopefully!) on our beautiful new Tulip Magnolia (thanks a&g and yup, chicken-fenced this time to deter our resident beaver!), the smell of freshly cut grass, and cherry blossoms (of course!), not to mention some incredible Springtime weddings coming up! In honor of the DC Cherry Blossom Festival that starts this weekend, we wanted to share the invites from our first “semi-spring” wedding earlier this month. We hope you enjoy them. Happy Spring!

Invitations We Love – Liz & Jon

You may remember this gorgeous couple from their one super sneak peek just this week. You’ll be seeing lots more from their truly beautiful wedding very soon, but in honor of Spring’s arrival, we wanted to share their lovely invitation suite with you today. Liz & Jon live in and love Washington, DC so they wanted to share that love and enthusiasm with their many friends and family who would be visiting the city for their wedding. Their invitation suite evoked everything we all love about Spring in DC and got their guests even more excited to attend, I imagine.

First up – their cool Save-the-Date! Don’t you just love the embroidery look?

And the main event – their light, bright and beautiful invitations!

Love, love, love the coordinating envelope liner!

Cherry blossom branches from their Save-the-Date on their invitation envelope stamps. Great tie in!

Response card envelope. Almost too pretty to send back! Seriously, though, send those things back, people! ;-D

I adore the soft pinks and sage greens. Perfect for a Springtime wedding.

Ceremony program. Love the soft, but shiny ribbon!

And their coordinating menu card. Love their monogram on the pink cocktail napkins, too!

And last, but not least – their welcome boxes! We just love how they used the Jefferson memorial from their Save-the-Date on the welcome tag and aren’t these boxes printed with popular DC landmarks and monuments just the cutest? Perfection.

A huge thanks to Liz & Jon for sharing their stunning Spring wedding papers with us on this FAB Friday and we can’t wait to share their wedding with you all soon. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to our last weekend off here at HPA HQ for a while as Spring wedding season really heats up and are looking for some fun things to do. What are your favorite ways to celebrate Spring’s arrival and do you have cherry blossom fever, too??

xoxo,
…a

Friday’s FAB Finds {033}

Well, hello there, old friend. No, no, you’re not old, it’s just, well, we know it’s been *quite* a while since we shared any fun and fabulous finds with you all. Since November actually, but boy, that was a good one! Well, the season kind of winded down, but a few lovely Winter weddings have been keeping us humming along at full pace here at Holland HQ. Ahem…New Years Resolution #46, post Friday’s FAB Finds more consistently! Okay, so now that it’s March (wait, what?) that resolution went the way of all NY resolutions and didn’t actually happen, eh? 😉

We know we’ve missed sharing some cool stuff with you, but rest assured our FAB Finds folder has still been getting fat (maybe, that folder should make a resolution, too!?) so we have lots to share with you in the upcoming months and we’ll endeavor to post just as many FAB Finds as we can even though the 2011 season is beginning to ramp up again.  (Some Fridays, though, it might be a FAB real wedding, but y’all can’t really complain about that can you?!? I didn’t think so.) So without further ado…welcome back, we missed you and as always, we’d love to hear from you, so don’t be shy. 🙂

Ideas We Love – Gorgeous and Unique Wedding Certificates

A while back, I saw a truly stunning marriage certificate featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper (one of our favorite blogs, btw). Longtime readers will not be at all surprised by our love of paper, hence why so many FAB Finds tend to feature it! This stunning quilled (rolled paper) certificate was created for a very lucky couple by paper fil­i­grée artist Ann Mar­tin. The things she can do with paper, well, let me just say, WOW!

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of Oh So Beautiful Paper

Ann created this one based on the painting Kristy Rice of Momental Designs (yes, you know that name) created for the couples invitations. Such a cool and lovely idea!

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of All Things Paper & Momental Designs

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of All Things Paper

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of All Things Paper

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of All Things Paper

Ann even encourages couples to quill their own certificates and has several, detailed tutorials on her blog! If you decide you want to attempt that, I’d recommend starting with a smaller project, such as this lovely quilled heart – a perfect addition to a card for your sweetie.

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of All Things Paper

And a better close up of the heart.

Photo by Ann Martin courtesy of All Things Paper

While we haven’t yet been fortunate enough to photograph a quilled wedding certificate, many of clients have had some crazy cool marriage certificates made.

Joy and Jerry had a Quaker Wedding Certificate that all their guests who witnessed their vows signed. Such a wonderfully inclusive idea and it can take the place of a guest book, too!

We’ve seen several really unique ketubah’s, as well, which are the Jewish marriage contract for couples.

Caren & Ed

Sarah & Ori

Abbie & Jeremy

Alisa & Brian

Emily & Jonathan

Literally, pieces of art. Are you having a unique, keepsake wedding certificate made just for you and your sweetie? We’d LOVE to see it!

xoxo,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {032}

Whoo-hoo! As the wedding season starts to wind down and we find a minute to catch our breaths here at Holland HQ we’ve (finally!) got another fabulous find for you this happy Friday. Enjoy!

Invitations We Love – Momental Designs

Who says wedding stationary has to be boring? You’re not a bland, non-descript couple, so why would you want a generic invitation that doesn’t reflect who you and your beloved are? It doesn’t have to be like that. Trust us. Help is on the way.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure and delight of seeing Kristy Rice’s incredible, incredible work, well, you’re in for a treat today. Kristy, creator and founder of Momental Designs designed the invitations, programs and escort cards for Sarah & Ori’s Fall wedding. (Check out Part 1 & Part 2 of their lovely King Family Vineyard wedding!) Since the couple’s new surname would be Fox, they had that as their design theme. So perfect! I especially love the three different layers of paper (so thick!), the unexpected mix of the blue and pink colors and different “textures” on their invite. Definitely one of our favorites that we’ve seen this year.

Kristy and her team specialize in truly gorgeous, custom, often hand-painted, wedding invitations, but also offer all kinds of unique invitations and stationary for any need you might have. Not only is Kristy an artist, she’s a storyteller. If you’re looking for a wedding invitation that captures your wedding or you as a couple, you most definitely want to check her out. Don’t just take my word for it, though. Check out their website and Kristy’s blog, Rice Ink, to see Momental’s many incredible works of art!

The escort cards displayed on rustic wood shutters.

The fox makes his appearance!

Programs!

The whole “suite” shebang!

Seriously, how cute is this fox?! He just might be giving Ori a run for his money. 😉

LOVE that fox!

Have a great weekend y’all!

Cheers,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {031}

Happy Friday, y’all!

People We Love AND Invitations We Love – Lilywillow Paper & Press
A special two-fer FAB find today! We found Lilywillow, and thus Lilywillow’s founder and uber-talented designer of Lilywillow, when she did the invitations for Marcie and Garret’s sweet plantation wedding in Richmond a few years ago. We absolutely loved their custom-designed invitations. Not only were they gorgeous, but they captured m&g and their wedding to a “t”.

Shortly after their wedding, Blake contacted us about using some of photographs I took of them in the buttercup grove at Tuckahoe on their wedding day on her web site. We, of course, said yes and thus a wonderful relationship was born. We were so impressed with her work, her attention to detail and her responsiveness. In addition to having Lilywillow on our recommended vendor’s list ever since, we’ve turned to Blake several times over the years when we’ve needed some professional design services.

I was perusing her lovely little blog, Mowing the Driveway, (how cute is that name, by the way?! :)) a little while back and among the many cool designs she’s done for couples, one in particular made me swoon. Check out this gorgeous suite she did that were inspired by the bride’s teal suede shoes! I *love* the teal ink color with the kraft brown paper and simple single red heart indicating the location of the wedding. Simply stunning!

And another reason we love Blake – her sense of humor! The reply card in this suite was especially charming. Check out the responses:

Please Respond by September 1st, 2010

_ We’ll be there with bells on

_ We’ll be there free of bells

_ We’ll be there…undecided on bells

_ We’ll not be there…Heard there will be people wearing bells

_ We’ll not be there…Regardless of the bell controversy

Pure awesomeness. Needless to say, if you’re looking for a great designer, you’ll want to give Blake a ring or drop her a note. We’re sure she’d love to hear from you!

One of the projects we had her help us with was our 2009 Postcards desk calendar to coincide with the launch of our Postcards travel section of our website. We sent her several of our travel photos from some of our favorite places that we wanted to use and gave her some guidelines as to the look and feel we wanted and let her run with it. Needless to say, we LOVED the results the calendars were a BIG hit among our clients, colleagues and friends.

And, of course,  we couldn’t leave  you to start your fabulous weekend with out sharing Marcie & Garrett’s sweet invite and programs. 🙂

Have a FAB weekend!!

Cheers,
…anne


Friday’s FAB Finds {030}

Happy Friday! Since Summer is officially over (A says yea, B says boo, but since A is writing this, she automatically wins – YEA for sweater weather!), FAB Find’s has finally come back from vacay and will be making periodic appearances when we’ve found some fun FAB Finds to share with you! We’ve still got lots of awesome late Summer and Fall weddings to share with you, so FAB may step aside every now and then to make room for some great real wedding action, too. 🙂

Ideas We Love – Photo Booth Props

So now that you’re getting SnapHappy, you might want to supplement your photo booth fun with props! Here are just a few super cute ideas sure to get your guests out of their seats!

Chalkboard Quote Bubbles

I saw these a while back on one of the wedding blogs and couldn’t wait to share them with you. Just think of the possibilities! Sweet wishes from Gramma, dueling chalkboard quotes and proof of which one of your groomsmen was clearly knocked out of the first round in the Spelling Bee!

Photo courtesy of Photojojo

Photo courtesy of Photojojo

Photo courtesy of Photojojo

Photo courtesy of Photojojo

You can buy them pre-made from Photojojo….or if you’re feeling especially crafty (or thrifty), you can make your own! Seriously, they could not be more easy. Check out the directions here! Thanks to Jordan Fereney of the lovely Oh Happy Day! blog for the tips! (Did you know they make chalkboard contact paper?! That is seriously cool!)

Photo courtesy of Oh Happy Day!

Photo courtesy of Oh Happy Day!

Smitten Sticks!

Nikki & Josh used Smitten Sticks! in their homemade fabric back-dropped Polaroid photobooth at their wedding this past May.

The ever fabulous Pam Barefoot and her fantastic team got in on the action, too!

LOVE these custom made bow-tie sticks!

Photo courtesy of Lara Casey via Smitten Sticks! FB Fan Page

You can find Smitten Sticks! where else, on Etsy of course! See what those fabulous ladies can create just for you. 🙂

Smitten Sticks! and the Chalk Board Quote Bubbles are some of the more well documented photo props on the wedding blogs, but there are a wide range of possibilities. Just check out Etsy for some more great options such as these:

(click on each pic to be taken directly to their Etsy page)

Glasses on a Stick!

Photo courtesy of MaroDesigns via Etsy

Beard on a Stick!

Photo courtesy of MaroDesigns via Etsy

Bowties and Neckties on a Stick!

Photo courtesy of whimzycreations via Etsy

More hot pink lips on a Stick!

Photo courtesy of whiskerworks via Etsy

Of course, feather boas, funky hats and big sunglasses are obvious and hilarious choices, but how about setting out bubbles, mardi gras beads or empty antique art frames for your guests to play with. We’d LOVE to see those pics! If you want props that are more unique (ie. your friends are unlikely to have in their wedding photo booth), add props that personify you both as individuals and/or as a couple. How about foam fingers from your favorite sports team(s), if you love going to the circus when it’s in town, how about some clown wigs and noses? You could also use your favorite stuffed animals from when you were kids, or if you’re going to Hawaii for your honeymoon, how about Hawaiian Lei’s? Truly the possibilities are endless – you and your guests are guaranteed to have fun with whatever props you choose even if if you decide to not use any, as guests will often make their own! Trust us on that one. 🙂

Happy Weekend, ya’ll!
….anne


Get SnapHappy?! Sure. You know you want to!

Ok, so how’s this for a FAB Find?! 🙂 Want to give your wedding guests a way to express their inner child without that extra glass of wine? Looking for a way to get even more fun photos of your friends and family? Well, look no further than our new SnapHappy Studio! It’s self-contained, self-run, and just a blast. Your guests just pick up the handy remote, strike a pose, and get SnapHappy! It’s now officially available to all our Holland Photo Arts clients this fall (as well as next year). Check out the all the fun the happy couple and their guests have had at a couple of recent weddings, and drop us a note to check on its availability for your wedding. In fact, the first of our upcoming clients (who don’t already have a photobooth, please) who emails us will get SnapHappy FREE at their wedding! Enjoy and get SnapHappy!

Friday’s FAB Finds {029}

Whoo-boy you guys are in for a treat today if you love stationary and papers as much as I do. I’ve been so excited to share Nikki & Josh’s invitation suite ever since we received it in the mail. Each and everyone of their guests had to have been super psyched just seeing the gorgeous calligraphy on the invite, let alone what was inside. Well, heck, I’ll just show ya!

Invitations We Love – Nikki & Josh

Notice anything especially interesting about them by any chance???

They’re printed on WOOD! Pure GORGEOUSNESS!! (That’s their welcome bag for their hotel guests in the background, btw! Always such a thoughtful touch.)

Of course, we had to take a few pics of them in their proper wedding environment. (You’ll see this lovely vintage screen door more in their full blog post – can’t wait to share more of their wedding soon – it held the escort cards, which of course were also part of the whole suite.)

They were designed by the incomparable Saima Khan Saima Says Design and perfectly captured the mood of their sweet, fun and flirty vintage inspired wedding to come! (She also addressed the gorgeous envelopes!)

Can I just say how much I *heart* turquoise blue and orange together?! Well, I guess I can since it’s my post. ;-D

We seriously can’t wait to share soooo much more of this incredible wedding with you, but we hope you enjoy this FAB amuse bouche! (Yeah, I might have a tad bit of Top Chef fever again!)

Happy Friday!!
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {028}

Happy Friday, y’all! We’re back and have some fun and of course, fabulous finds for you as you head into your weekend. Enjoy!

Ideas We Love – Stylish Favor Bags

Sending your guests off with sweet and delish treats is a timeless idea. Brides and grooms (and wedding planners!) are moving beyond a simple box with Jordan almonds, thank goodness. Whether you have a candy/dessert bar, homemade baked goods or even something non-edible like flower seeds, why not further personalize it with a cute quote, your wedding monogram or theme, or your names & wedding date–all in your wedding colors. The possibilities are endless; if you pick something you love and that suits you and your personalities, you can’t go wrong.

Style Me Pretty recently featured a sweet little DIY project designed by Kathleen over at Twig & Thistle. Click on the photo below to go to the post with instructions and the exclusive download. Be sure to check out all of Kathleen’s fun stuff at her Etsy shop and blog.

Courtesy Twig & Thistle via Style Me Pretty

Or how about these stamped bags from Martha Stewart Weddings.

Courtesy Martha Stewart Weddings

“Simple sacks make perfect favor packages when given a handle and personalized with a stamp. To make them, you will need white paper bags (ours are 3 inches by 6 1/4 inches), a rubber stamp, paper cord, double-sided tape, and candy. A rubber-stamp company or office-supply store will make a stamp for you; just provide a line drawing or printout of an image with your names and wedding date. Stamp your design onto a flat bag (place a piece of cardboard inside for a smooth surface). Place candy in bag (don’t make the bag too heavy), and fold top of bag over twice. Place double-sided tape under flap of fold (but do not seal yet). Cut an 11-inch length of paper cord; knot ends and trim. Loop cord under flap, knot in center; press the flap down, enclosing the cord.”

These super cute bags also serve as your wedding menu! LOVE that they’re held shut with a clothes pin, too!

Courtesy Snippet & ink, Photo by Janae Shields

Burlap+Twine+Custom Stamp=Adorable Favor Bags!

Courtesy The Knot, Photo by Allison Davis Photography

How ’bout making a bag the favor?! Totally diggin’ these reusable grocery/tote bag favors – fun and GREEN!

Courtesy Grey Likes Weddings, Photo by Sea Studio

Letterpressed candy bags – beautiful!

Courtesy Oh So Beautiful Paper, Photo by Christine Brandt

Love the old school quality of these!

Courtesy Oh So Beautiful Paper

Sweet little muslin bags for your sweets.

Courtesy Bird & Banner

Courtesy Bird & Banner

And lastly, this one is perfect for loose tea favors!

Courtesy Bird & Banner

And last, but certainly not least, a few of our clients have put their own spin on favor bags, too! Caren & Ed have a friend who specializes in roasted coffee blends so guests picked up bags of a special morning blend named after their adorable cats, Bago & Goon. LOVE the photo, too!

Have you seen any unique favor bags that you loved? How about at your wedding? We’d love to see them!

Recipes We Love – Roasted Portobello Caprese Salad

Okay, so I know this FAB Find isn’t wedding related, but I just couldn’t resist sharing it with you because it is that FABULOUS! This portobello caprese salad is the perfect summer recipe and is simple, but substantial enough to be the main event at your alfresco dinner. Even Bill, an avowed meat eater, loves this one. If you make it, I’d love to hear what you though of it!

Courtesy WholeLiving.com

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

xoxo,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {027}

Happy FAB Friday you fabulous peeps!!

Invitations We Love – Emily & Jonathan

We’ve been getting some beautiful wedding invitations in the mail from our couples getting married this Spring and Summer and can’t wait to share some of our favorites with you. Emily & Johnathan were recently married at the beautiful Meridian House in DC (check out their one : e&j post) and we’ll be blogging more from their lovely wedding very soon, but today we’re excited to share their gorgeous, gorgeous invitation suite with you! I love that all their paper products tied together, too – from the invite to the save-the-date to the brunch invitation to their thank you note card. (Click on the first photo below to see it bigger.) The soft blue and warm chocolate inks, thick cotton paper, the super sweet lovebirds graphic all combined with yummy letterpress printing – well, you can probably see why we love these from Bella Figura.

Congratulations on your wedding, e&j and we can’t wait to blog more from your wedding soon!!

xoxo,
…anne

Friday’s FAB Finds {026}

Whoo-hoo! We’re this close to posting our next FAB wedding and can’t wait to share it with you early next week, but in the meantime, we’ve got a fun FAB find for you on this fabulous Friday. Go grab your favorite adult beverage (it’s ok being that it’s Friday, right?) and settle in. Go ahead. I can wait. This is a big one and you won’t to miss any of it! 🙂

Ideas We Love – Unique Cake  & Cupcake “Toppers”

Make your cake or cupcakes even spiffier by including a cake topper customized for you as a couple. Heck, you don’t even need to put it on or near your cake, but could use one (or two) as decoration on your dessert buffet or guest book table. How cute are some of these?

Photo by Jason Walz Photography via Style Me Pretty

Courtesy Ann Wood Handmade

Not surprisingly, Etsy is a GREAT resource for custom cake toppers!

Courtesy of Country Squirrels-R-US Etsy shop

Courtesy of The Wooden Owl Etsy shop

Hmmm….noticing a theme here? ;-D

Courtesy of dearjes's Etsy store

Courtesy of sugarrushcakes Etsy store

Courtesy of HeyMiemie Etsy store

This next one is definitely one of my favorites. So simple and sweet.

Courtesy of RedLightStudio Etsy shop

Courtesy of marthastewartweddings.com

There’s many more besides the feathered variety from which to pick though…

Courtesy of BunnyWithAToolBelt Etsy shop

Courtesy of BunnyWithAToolBelt Etsy shop

Courtesy of BunnyWithAToolBelt Etsy shop

Or how about these modern bride and grooms? Very cool!

Courtesy of BunnyWithAToolBelt Etsy shop

Courtesy TheKnot Wedding Shop

I love these meticulously detailed paper sculptures, yet they also have an elegant simplicity about them.

Courtesy of concarta's Etsy shop

Courtesy of concarta's Etsy shop

Courtesy of concarta's Etsy shop

Or perhaps something even a little more personalized is your cup of tea…

Courtesy of mudcard Etsy shop

Love her Anthropologie shopping bag and his UT “Hook ’em Horns” tie! That could be us is she were blond and he had more of Bill’s luxurious head of hair!

Courtesy of mudcard Etsy shop

This one would be especially perfect for a lovely farm wedding.

Courtesy of YouAreAStarHouse Etsy shop

Interesting! What do you think of the Lego’s B&G? I’m undecided if it’s funky cool modern or just kinda weird.

Courtesy of FoldedFancy Etsy shop

Courtesy of dandelionland Etsy shop

Or, of course, you can always go vintage and use your parent’s or even your grandparent’s wedding cake topper. Retro and a sweet gesture as the same time.

Courtesy Bride's Little White Book

Or if you’re feeling especially crafty, you can make your own. Love this DIY bird’s nest one from Once Wed! Click on the photos for the full set of directions at Once Wed.

Courtesy Once Wed blog

Courtesy of Once Wed blog

If you’re having cupcakes instead of cake, they don’t need to feel left out. How about some custom cupcake flags?

Courtesy of Brides Little White Book - Photo by Matha Manning

Courtesy of marthastewartweddings.com

Courtesy Notepolish Paperie

Courtesy ButtercreamBee Etsy shop

Courtesy ButtercreamBee Etsy shop

Click on the photo below for directions from MSL on how to make these festive DIY flags.

Courtesy of Martha Stewart Living

Courtesy of Elizabeth Anne Designs blog - Photo by Kate Mathis

Even some of our couples have even gotten in on the act!

Julie & Andrew had perfectly dressed chocolate covered strawberries on their top two cupcakes…

and some Ninja fighters sprinkled throughout the display. Hey, like we said, sometimes they don’t have to be on top of the cupcakes! 😉

Love the B&G wearing lampshades that Lauren & Dennis had on their cake!

And Sally-Anne & Michael’s cake featured their three adorable cats!

Well, all this looking at cakes and cupcakes has made me hungry so I’m outta here. Hope we’ve given you some food for thought on this FAB Friday!

We’d love to hear what you have planned for your cake (or cupcakes, or pies, or tarts, etc.) in the comments. Happy weekend!

xoxo,
…anne