Hey everyone! I’ve just finished up Brandy’s site over at Modern Toile Photography and she should be feverishly getting her galleries up now so be sure to stop by in the next couple days.
BUT now that that has been checked off ye olde To Do list that means The Future Mrs. Darcy is finally ready for her little web overhaul. I’m working on it locally (on my own computer) so you won’t tune in and find the “website has gone through a blender” look but that means that if I don’t finish by next tuesday, there won’t be a new post because once I upload the one I’m working on on my own I’m worried it will overwrite and be lost in the ether. Never fear though, I’m going to start tagging images and links on my tumblr account #wedding so if you are in desperate need of inspiration just head over there.
I also post non-wedding things there in case you need a break. Like did you know they now have a water bottle that has a little compartment for your license, cash and keys?! I know it’s simple but what a good idea.
Also I’ve been creating tons of little google ads and sending them off into the wind in direction of wedding sites so if you catch any of those famous couples out there let me know how they look!
See you soon (fingers very tightly crossed) and if you want to say hi head on over to The Future Mrs. Darcy on facebook.
Hello everyone!
I’m not sure why but table numbers have been roaming around in my head lately. A strange thing to be roaming in one’s head for sure but I also had a long dream about drinking orange juice last night so I take what I can get. And it seems some of you out there might be on the same wavelength (table numbers not OJ) because I was just contacted about making some custom lovely table numbers with a Harry Potter twist. I’m so excited to get started on them.
But it got me thinking that, aside from the FREE! DIY woodgrain table numbers, I’m not sure if I’ve really shown the invitation suite extras from the original suites. There are a lot.
Like did you know that Allie + Noah has an available directions card, menu (which I love love love the teacup), place card and table number?! Unless you’ve been squinting close to the screen trying to catch them in the background of the product shot, you probably haven’t. And if you have, no need to squint (it’s bad for you anyway)– just ask. Geez.
Bogey + Bacall ceremony programs, accommodations card, menu, table number and placecards.
Elizabeth + Darcy ceremony programs, accommodations card, directions card, table numbers, placecards, and menu. (There’s also a map [because Elizabeth and Darcy were my invitations] but it still has all my wedding info on it so it’s not shown)
Holly + Paul save the date, menu (which reads Tipple & Nosh and has drinks after the diamond cuts, Marquise, Cushion, and Asscher and buffet stations named Princess and Emerald– I got really into that one!), map (Manhattan maps are my favorite– all those straight lines), table numbers and placecards.
Jim + Pam directions, menu, table numbers and place cards.
Sandy + Danny accommodation/events combo card, menu, table number and place card.
Sloane + Ferris save the date, map, table number (the Seurat painting- it says it small on the bottom- no art degree required), and place card.
Whew! That’s quite the list.
Good morning all! I didn’t get home at a reasonable enough time to start blogging last night, which is always a sign of a good party, so here I am today. Last night I went to the Harvard Club of Boston for the Boston Wedding Group/Wedding Wire open meeting.
First let me say the the Harvard Club is GORGEOUS. I took some photos but they really don’t do it justice.
It’s all chandeliers, lofty ceilings, and wood paneling. Like a library without books or Hogwarts without the long dining tables (though they did have lots of tea lights around these two little Evita balconies so there was kind of a floating candle look). The food, drinks, flowers everything was great. I wish I’d have been able to partake in all of them a little more but I found myself too busy talking to everyone else to give the cheese plates my full attention and that, my dears, is saying something about the quality of people.
A quick round up of everyone I chatted with (and even if you’re not local, everyone has photos on their sites and good ideas that you are just waiting to find):
- Jeri Solomon Floral Design who is the one who got me the invitation to the event in the first place. (Thanks, Jeri!)
- Rita Tatem, the blogger behind Boston.com’s wedding blog.
- Andrea Murphy and Romy Ganz, who work at the Boston Marriots (Cambridge and Long Wharf, respectively, and let me just say that the first photo that came up for me at the Long Wharf website was an amazing wedding set up)
- Leslie, Erin, and one other whose card I feel horrible but didn’t receive her card so I’m not sure of her name from Planned Perfectly.
- Molly Lanigan and her sister both from Wedding Wire, both wearing fabulous dresses. And I didn’t quite realize this earlier but if you’re not on Wedding Wire– you should be– they are TAKING OVER. They’ve paired up with WeddingBee (which was THE wedding blog when I was getting married), Martha Stewart Weddings (we all know my love for Martha) and Project Wedding. The main speaker at the event, Sonny Ganguly, is their Chief Marketing Officer and he seems pretty unstoppable. And have I mentioned that I’m on there too? I even have my new little review widget in my sidebar!
- Felice Pomeranz, of The Gilded Harps. My best friend growing up was from a family of harpists so needless to say I am a big fan of harps. (That harpist is Lucy McCaffrey, in case anyone is in the Albany, NY area)
- Patty Lamb and her associate from The Milton-Hoosic Club in Milton which seems like it would be a perfect option for those looking for a home-y wedding but don’t quite have the “home” to do it in.
- Ellen Sax, president of Table Artistry. OOH we got name cards just like the ones on the top left in the photos. Mine had a pretty white flower
- Espresso Dave himself, Dave Salzman, gave me a delicious Chai Tea because coffee can upset my stomach and it was late and I had to take both a bus AND subway to get there so I didn’t want to roll those die but everyone around me was RAVING about the coffee drinks. I know I had heard of bringing a coffee guru in at the end of events but for some reason I keep forgetting what a fun way to end the night.
- I did get to sample MANY tasty desserts as well. Since I was jumping from table to table I’m not sure whose was exactly whose but it was all good: I know for sure one was Cakes for Occasions and I think Jenny’s Wedding Cakes was there too but again, too busy eating trying to make sure I sampled every sort of a deliciousness, less paying attention to the small signs next to them.
- And last but not least: Karen Hasenfus of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum, which appears to be apart of a large beautiful park, just happens to look like a gorgeous castle, and was apparently listed as one of the Top 10 Boston Museums for a Wedding. Can you think of a better way to have a fairytale wedding where EVER MALE IN YOUR FAMILY wants to help out?
So that was my schmooze-fest. Hope some of those links prove useful to those in the area and those just trolling the web for wedding ideas.
Sorry about the day switcheroo, I am officially on “summer time” which means I always forget what day it is. So I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but I live in Somerville, MA which is a suburb of Boston/Cambridge. It’s a cool little town where you can walk lots of places and, though for some reason I kind of forget this sometimes, but it’s really artsy. There are A CRAP-TON of artists and people who work from home and do artsy thing (like moi) which means sometimes I come back from my little printer friends in Harvard Square and decide to go to Davis Square (the artsy hub of Somerville) so I can look at this skirt that’s been in the window of Buffalo Exchange and exit the T (Metro/Subway/etc) and VOILA- giant art carnival called “Art Beat”.
The vendors I loved the most I thought I’d share with y’all. They happen to be 2 AMAZING hair/hat/headwear vendors and 2 jewelry-perfect-for-the-girl-who-doesn’t-want-what-everyone-else-has.
What was that? Did you all scream- START WITH THE HAIR FIRST? I thought you did.
First up:
Wicked Peacock.
(photo credit: Laura Parent)
I believe that is the owner, Silvana Costa, with some of her AWESOME pieces.
Here is a wedding photo from the site that I love as well:
(photo credit: Meg McGovern Hamilton)
Now there seem to be several examples on the website but I’m sure she has more. Silviana, if you come across this and you want to talk websites just let me know (I hope that doesn’t sound bitchy).
Next in the hair department we have:
GALVIN-ized Headwear
They have every sort of on top of head accessory you can think of. It’s like the Dr. Seuss of top of head accessories. Big hats, little hats, tall hats, short hats, crazy hats, feather hats. For example, I saw these at Art Beat, they are so cool:
It’s called “gossip curl”. Wonderful.
And I can’t believe I’ve lived my life without the following:
I would take up horseback riding for that hat. I’d wear it everywhere except yoga where it would undoubtedly fall off and get quite sweaty.
And on to the jewelry.
First we have:
Twigs and Heather (main site / etsy store)
Their stuff is so fun and cool and organic and different and amazing that I had to make you a little collage dedicated to their awesomeness.
Our second jewelry maker and final vendor spotlight is for:
Da Metals
DA Metals is as slick and precise as Twigs and Heather is organic. And they are SUUUUPER customizable so incorporating your wedding colors into your jewelry looks like a piece of cake.
Here are some examples of the shapes available and the color chart.
In other news, my other site is done and ready if anyone would like to take a look. I know I’ve been mentioning it forever. The Future Mrs. Darcy site is still in line to be updated and upgraded but my dear Brandy, at Modern Toile Photography, is next in line for tinkering. Hers is going to be (hopefully) easy to do but will make her site roughly a ba-jillion times better because I’m adding a bunch of galleries so you’ll be able to feast your eyes on all her fab photos and steal all the wonderful ideas her brides have had.
ALSO, my other dear Renée (of Harry Potter inspired weddings fame, who I’ve mentioned quite a bit) emailed me last week to say she was in Michaels and saw this thing and thought it would be great for favors and other wedding things and thought I should tell everyone. I had to then remind her that SHE was the fabulous writer and quick give her some blog writing privileges and tell her whenever she is ready and/or willing to jump right in, so if you see a post that’s grammatically correct and free of spelling errors and wild tangents and you’ve think I’ve been abducted and replaced by a Linguo* the grammar clone— fear not! It’s probably just Renée.
*In keeping with the Boston-theme of this post and the new “I randomly insert The Simpson’s things into a wedding blog” for some reason theme, I will mention, since I didn’t see it anywhere in my 2 second internet searches that Linguo, the grammar robot, happens to have a strong resemblance to the Harvard Lampoon building WHICH Conan O’Brien used to write for AS WELL AS writing for The Simpsons.**
**Did google images just update how it works while I was writing all of this and image searching? I think it did.
I’ve been flitting around the internet finding nice things.
Like these fun glasses that make you wish you could register at Kate Spade and EVEN MORE SO that they were made by Urban Outfitters and 1/5th of the price:
I took a glass class in college in which we did glass blowing, stained glass and sand blasting (which I’m guessing is the above). Sand blasting is the easiest but do you know where your local let-anyone-use-it sandblaster is? Me neither. That’s actually a re-occurring thought I have. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a craft repository? You could learn then use wood working tools, screen-printing/letterpresses, and all sorts of fun craft things. I suppose they’re called “art colleges” but that seems like a bit much to go through. I’m not saying let anyone wander in and screw around with everything but I’m not sure they let you come back much after your courses are over.
And this isn’t from the web but since I’ve shown you Kelsey’s graduation invitations and party decorations, I might as well finish it off with her Thank You cards.
They’re simple but I dig it. They’re also small (5 x 3.5) so there’s no need to write a novel. I’m thinking of printing them up in sets of 10 and adding them to the store. Thoughts?
In website news, I’ve nearly finished rehashing my corporate site (kristenhcox.com- it’s still in development so the old one is still online) which means I’m getting close to taking everything I’ve learned to this site! First thing that will be changed– MENUS. It’s dorky but I can’t wait! These menus we have now have given me nothing but grief. Other key highlight- you’ll be able to see all the designs at once so no more next, next, next, next… It’s going to rock
It’s hot here. And I live in the Northeast, Land of Pilgrims therefore houses with no A/C but thankfully my dear friend Lucy posted something quite awesome:
Doc, Marty, Jen and Einstein are due to arrive TODAY!!! AND you’re in luck– Back to the Future Part 2 is on hulu right here. (boo! Sorry, they just have clips not the whole thing)
And since we were just talking about bunting (the little flaggie things)– I thought this was so cute– kind of a photo bunting:
from With This Ring Weddings
Lastly:
How delicious does this look: What Katie Ate?
I kind of want to try this but a) I’m not sure my hair is long enough and b) it’s one of those things where I’m sure I’d get it done and be like “Whoa. This is not for me” and immediately take it out.
And I’m sure I’ve mentioned the Letter Button before but I just love it. Now if I could only learn German I could buy one.
Hello all! Today I wanted to share with you a birthday card I made for my friend Mandy (the one who was my bridesmaid not the custom bride of late- I know- I point this out every time). Poor Mandy has been having a hell of a time with dentist issues for the past couple of months and had to get a crown right around her birthday. We’re both very big 30Rock fans and have been known to sit on IM and recite lines to each other for days on end AND like Liz Lemon we are very big cheese fans so it was only logical that I make a “Guide to Hard Cheeses” like Liz’s dentist did on 30Rock. But since I’m not a dentist and have no idea what you can and can’t do after a crown I made it all up. So ta-da:
Mmm cheese. Also bit of of The Future Mrs. Darcy trivia: my favorite Simpsons episode is the one where Maggie gets Mr. Burns’ teddy bear. Mr. Burns and Smithers break into their house and are suction cupping their way across the kitchen when Homer comes in and starts eating 64 slices of American cheese. “64″ gobble gobble gobble “63″ gobble gobble gobble fast forward to morning and Marge comes in and says “Homer have have been up all night eating American cheese?!” and Homer says “I think I’m blind” and Mr. Burns and Smithers fall off the ceiling.
Ahh. Hilarious.
Hey Everyone! My sister’s (Kelsey- remember the invites?) graduation party was this past weekend and I made some inexpensive fun decorations that can work for a variety of parties and (hopefully) upcoming dorm rooms!
Using the colors from the invitations I made bunting (the little flags), tissue balls and some drink labels.
(bunting and tissue balls)
(close up of bunting and tissue balls)
(Drink labels- these photos were taken a little late in the day hence the disarray. Download pdf below)
BUNTING INSTRUCTIONS
What to buy: I bought 3 yards of navy fabric, blue/white stripe fabric, and gray fabric and 2 yards yellow gingham. That turned out to be waaaay too much but it was $2.99/yard so whatever. I probably used about half of all the fabric and made 15 yards of bunting. I bought all sorts of fabrics because I was after certain colors/patterns but the cotton fabric worked best. I also bought wide bias tape to connect it all though in retrospect there is probably a better solution. Ask the people who work at the fabric store but wide bias tape is cheap and worked! The one I got was gate folded (at least that it would have been called in printing- the ends folded into the middle) and I needed to unfold and refold it with an iron in half.
Other tools: something to cut fabric with (I used a rotary cutter), piece of paper, ruler, sewing machine and an iron.
First things first: Take your piece of paper and fold it vertically. Cut the paper diagonally so when it’s unfolded you have a large isosceles triangle. (Hells yeah, math!) See step 3 for what it looks like unfolded. Since we now have an 11 inch triangle we know how long to cut the fabric which brings us to Step 1:
[Step 1] Using another piece of paper (or in this case chip board because it was hanging around) as a template mark 11 inches into the fabric and…
[Step 2] …cut it using your ruler and cutting instrument.
[Step 3] Line up your triangle template along the bottom left edge of the fabric. Since you just cut the fabric to be 11 inches the point will come to the other end. Yay! Line up the ruler to the bottom edge of your template and cut. Then leaving the template in place, cut following along the other side. You have now cut out one flag.
[Step 4] Since the angles are the same on each side of your triangle template flip the pointy side around and cut along the top of the template (as seen above) and now (with one cut) you’ve got another flag. Continue until you’ve got as many flags as you want/need. Handy tips: having the fabric doubled not only doubles your time but later insures that your flags front and back are always the same. For fabrics that would allow it (one was a cotton stretch and too thick) I had the fabric folded in half for steps 1-4 and stored the flags in sets of 2s.
[Step 5] With the good sides (the sides that will show in the bunting) facing in sew the long edges. (I didn’t see a reason to sew the tops.
[Step 6] Once you’ve got all your flags sewn, turn them out and iron the seams flat.
[Steps 7 ] I didn’t have a large enough space to spread all of the flags out like they would be in the bunting so I laid out the flags in a somewhat random pattern on the ironing board. Once the flags were in an order I liked I piled them up and one by one tucked the short edge into the folded bias tape. I back stitched a bit on either side of the flags to make sure they were securely affixed to the bias tape and wouldn’t sag or fall out and left about 3 inched between each flag. I used a straight stitch the entire way but a zig-zag would probably look cool as well.
Bunting final thoughts: This was fun but time-consuming. It took about 3 hours to cut the fabric out and about 6 to sew the flags together and then into the bias tape. I am glad though that I did use fabric (I had also considered paper which obviously wouldn’t have been sewn) and glad that I did make them double sided because I think they’ll last longer and I probably would have had to hem the sides anyway if they were single sided so same work for less.
DRINK SIGNS
You can download the files here. You can find mojito recipes online although I usually cheat and use rum, limes, mint and sprite zero. I’m not sure where my Mom got the boozy strawberry lemonade recipe but I will ask. The dispensers they were served in were from Kohl’s and Walmart and I think we decided the Walmart one was better. There are also bonus “onion dip” and “garlic dip” labels too. They should be cut down and folded in half around a toothpick and notched at the ends like the “eat me”/”drink me” labels.
Edited to add: Strawberry Lemonade recipe from Mom:
It’s easy 1 things of simple lemondade, 1 cup of citrus vodka, 1/4 c sugar, 1.5 cups of blended strawberries (I think the frozen ones worked ok) if I use fresh again I’m not sure if I would puree them – made it a soupy mixture.
TISSUE POOFS
If they weren’t before these are now my favorite decorations of all time. They are cheap (I found packs of 8 sheets of tissue paper [which is what it calls for] at Party City for $0.99 a pack), they are easy and they are pretty quick. See Martha Stewart for the instructions.
And that’s a wrap! If you have any questions about anything- it’s pretty obvious I’m not the most proficient sewer but I try- just ask!
Ok I didn’t get as much as I planned done today due to the fact: a) I received a mysterious email from a friend of mine who was “mugged” (turned out it was just that her yahoo account had been hacked), b) the Brazil v. North Korea game (I have a World Cup Fantasy team- don’t be fooled though I’m not sporty), and c) various other blah blah blah work.
So instead I bring you: bridesmaid dresses and awesome vintage to you!
I’m sure you’ve seen this floating around the interwebs lately but, honestly, where the hell was this when I was getting married? It wasn’t 1987 it was 2007– a mere THREE YEARS AGO and we basically had to locate seven horicruxes (meh it’s late, it was either a Harry Potter reference or something about the penitent man kneeling at the breath of God from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and, THAT, my friends, is arcane) before you could find a cocktail dress! And I know Dessy group was around then. Grrr… Anyway. Dessy Group:
Lela Rose Bridesmaid Style LR120
Cynthia Rowley Style 8007
And the awesome vintageness comes from etsy seller High Street Market.
Large vintage cast iron ship doorstop: $42. Perfect for a kids’ room… or, like, my room.
Tall vintage brass vanity mirror, double sided: $38. Who’s the fairest of them all?
Vintage light up globe: $48. Everyone has a mild globe obsession, right?
Vintage golf club, wooden hickory shaft with brass head, putter: $52. Stereotypes tell me your Dad likes to play golf and Father’s Day is coming up.
Look at me posting a whole day earlier. I saw these the other day and can’t stop thinking how they could be great for placecards!
(And they have both the green [as seen in the first photos] and the brown [above] so despair not fall brides!)
You could have tables separated by branches or have the names organized alphabetically (by area) and the table numbers written on the leaf along with the name.
Actually, that might have been what I created Shannon did earlier this year. I’m not sure if I ever showed this but this was for her seating chart:
(note to self: ask Shannon for some photos)
And let’s just go through how many of the invitation suites these leaves would go so well with:
Adam + Eve
Bonnie + Clyde
Elizabeth + Darcy
Jovie + Buddy
Melanie + Jake
And a last note: I’m still planning on posting tomorrow but Task Numero Uno is to do a little tinkering with the website. I’m planning on add tags to the invitations to help you search for exactly what you want and then recommend similar concepts (like the majority of the above are all nature inspired) so if you look at the site tomorrow and it looks like it’s been through a blender and everything is everywhere– don’t worry– it will go back to good in no time.
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