As promised we have some born out of craziness Valentine’s Day cards for you!
To download them I’m going to lure you to The Future Mrs. Darcy facebook fan page where you can find the links to get the pdfs. And if you want to become a fan once you’re there WONDERFUL! If not, you still have awesome Valentine’s Day cards. If by some chance you have a moral or religious aversion to facebook or an anal retentive IT teams that’s blocked it at work just fill out the contact form on the home page and I’ll let you know where to find them.
Edit to add: AHHH sorry!!! I “posted” this on Tuesday but the way this wordpress blog is set up I have to remember to categorize the post as “blog” or it doesn’t show up in the blog. Annoying, indeed. Anyway sorry sorry sorry! I’ll be posting the Valentine’s today (Friday Feb. 5) so check back later!
I think it was Confucius who said
Let he who watches renovation shows on TV not forget the power of time elapsed photography and secret crews who have actual renovation knowledge. For if you do, you will spend 3 days of insanity paintin’ trim on uneven walls, dawg.
Oh how Confucius loves to do his Randy Jackson impression! And, yes, I have gone completely insane. HAHAHAHA! HA! I have indeed been painting my living room for the past 3 days and this morning had to bring Michael to the airport at 5 am so there is a whole new lack of sleep angle and over-caffeination angle that is now playing itself out.
Here are some NEVER BEFORE SEEN painting progress photos (they’re not even on facebook- that is how fresh these are)
(This is the before and by “before” I mean WAY before- this is a shot from the series I took when we did our first walk through of the house)
And here is a current progress shot
The lighting isn’t great at the moment but it does look a lot better than it did before. The walls were a slight off white and the trim was a blah cream and I think the gray is pretty slick. The furniture is all pushed towards the center of the room (away from the walls) which is why it looks cramped. That and the fact our furniture is too large in general but we’re taking baby steps.
A friend sent me this article from Apartment Therapy about the “Finding the Perfect Gray” but then I read this article from humblehappenings after googling Benjamin Moore’s Gray Owl and now, looking back, apparently just skimmed it because we went with Stonington Gray. We had also tried Silver Fox for those who have come to this page after googling the color names and it was very brownish. Once it dried it was a little more appealing but just not for us.
We also have 6 fugly sconces littered about the living room (as can be see on the left hand side of the before pic) which is just too expensive to replace all of them (and makes it living room look kind of hotel-y) but these did make me think about keeping them for a couple minutes: LightsUp!
I love it every time I see it but we have too many sconces. We are opting for floor lamps which they make too so YAY!
I’m also looking into Customizing Some Roman Shades to get rid of the vertical blinds.
Ok so none of this is wedding-y or paper-y BUT the insanity has brought some good-for-you just not good-for-you-that-is-already-done-by-Tuesday. I am in the process of making some awesome FREE musically inspired Valentine’s Day cards! They will be print and cut yourself UNLESS you can get me Season 2 of True Blood on DVD then I will make them for you, spritz them with perfume, forge your signature and mail them to your loved ones. So… yeah. Keep that in mind.
It’s time to grab your thinking caps and check out this fabulous new design:
Isn’t it gorgeous?! Our girl, Shannon, knew what she wanted. Before we got started she sent me a pdf with example of birch trees she likes (simple and slightly abstract), what kind of birds she wanted (graphic and not too cartoon-y) and this lovely palette:
And she Canadian so she has a “u” in colour. Swoon. I wish I could write it like that and not look desperate. So, anyway, the above ideas were stirred (not shaken) and we ended up with a darling little invitation.
The RSVP is a little hard to read in the photo but it says
Will be there with bells on!
Will be there free of bells
Will be there, undecided on bells
Will not be there, heard there will be people wearing bells
Will not be there regardless of the bell controversy
Did I mention Shannon was in advertising? Indeed, folks. Very clever.
So what shall we call the newest of the new invitations? Let me know in the comments and have a great week!
Bonjour Internetland! This Tuesday brings us to an invitation that I liked but really needed the couple to love. This was one of the possibilities for our last lovely bride, Shannon, whose wedding is Saturday so everyone send good brain waves to Ontario, Canada this weekend.
You know how much trouble I have sometimes assigning couples after the fact (like for custom brides but never fear I already have Shannon and Jason on the case for the design they picked which I already know you will totally love so stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for that) but this one I stared at for a minute and was like “Uh-doi. Charlie Brown”. I was pretty sure good ol’ Charlie had a thing for the Little Redheaded Girl but I wanted to double check and I found out this from wikipedia:
A former coworker, Donna Johnson, was Schulz’s inspiration for the character.[1] A 1947 high school graduate, Johnson was working in the accounting department of the Art Instruction, Inc., a correspondence school where Schulz worked. Johnson and Schulz eventually became romantically involved and dated for three years, but in 1950 when Schulz proposed to her, she refused him, ended the relationship and abruptly married fireman Allan Wold on October 21, 1950. Schulz was devastated, but he and Johnson-Wold remained friends for the rest of his life.
Said Schulz of the relationship, “I can think of no more emotionally damaging loss than to be turned down by someone whom you love very much. A person who not only turns you down, but almost immediately will marry the victor. What a bitter blow that is.”[2] This experience became arguably the most poignant of all story lines for the entire Peanuts strip.
So for this upcoming Valentine’s Day I thought it’s only right that Charlie FINALLY gets his girl. I think we’d all agree that “The Little Redheaded Girl” is probably a little longer than more names on an invitation but, thankfully, in the 1977 animated TV special It’s Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown Linus lets us know that her name is, in fact, Heather.
A happy little winter invitation.
Also if you’d like this more for a wedding shower or save the date, just let me know. When it came time for Stefanie’s (whose invitation became Ariel + Prince Eric) bridal shower she told me how much she liked the Holly + Paul invitation so we changed the info and voila! bridal shower invitation.
“I’d like to see Charlie Brown kick that football, and if he gets the little red-haired girl, that’s fine with me”
-Donna Johnson
And if you like the details these are pretty easy to figure out. I chose “Schulz” as Heather’s last name after the Peanut creator Charles Schulz. The wedding takes place on Valentine’s Day since so many of Charlie Brown Valentine’s Day efforts were for the Little Redheaded Girl, and the reception is in Woodstock after Snoopy’s little bird friend, Woodstock.
To purchase this design, please visit the Charlie Brown + Heather page under “Love Stories”.
So, I know, I know- you’re thinking- hey it’s Thursday not Tuesday- what gives?
Well on my walk to yoga this morning this image of flowers popped into my head. Why? Who knows. It’s not like there are any flowers spouting up in the mid-20s weather we’re having out here. Anyway it was this image:
Though (at the time) I couldn’t remember what the name of the flowers was so I figured “Hey! If Jeri’s there I’ll ask her!” (Jeri being Jeri Solomon of Jeri Solomon Floral Design who goes to the same yoga classes I do and makes the pretty arrangements at the front desk that I fawn over as well as arrangements for weddings/other businesses/open houses/and you if you contact her). Well it turns out I was really crossing the above image with this image:
Because I thought the flowers were red and I was calling the whole shbang “narcissus”, which we quickly realized was wrong but in my [limited] defense this image was across from the original poppies image in the magazine and in my old wedding notebook:
So I’ll just pretend I’m Rain Man or something and remembered that. Jeri’s guess (which based on what I was saying was a damn good guess) was “anemones” which I now covet more than any other flower and plan on tracking some down this summer to wear in my hair.
How sexy are these flowers?
Jeri said she has a friend who calls them the “Zha-Zha Garbor” of flowers because their so “LOOK AT ME”. 
So, in conclusion the reason I said I though the flowers I was thinking of looked like poppies was because surprise- they were poppies! And the name I was trying to assign to them which reminded me of narcissus was ranunculus:
And I promise not to ask any crazy question like that again.
Image credits: Top 3 images (poppies, tulips and narcissus) are from (I believe) an old Brides Magazine circa 2007. The anemones is a Martha Stewart Weddings images and the ranunculus are from a Better Homes and Garden segment about creating bouquets for Mother Day.
It’s now official: the invitation formerly known as Meredith + Patrick (the one featured on Snippet + Ink) is now Melanie + Jake from Sweet Home Alabama.
Now I’m not sure how many people have read what each invitation says but I try to incorporate some truthiness in there. For example, in the Melanie + Jake invitation the ceremony is held at the Carmichael House (which is where Melanie claims have grown up in in the film) but the actual “Carmichael House” (the one shot in the movie) is actually the Oak Hill & The Martha Berry Museum in Rome, Georgia. Since it’s only logical that a Sweet Home Alabama invitation suite has Alabama in there I switched the address around to 24 Rome Street, Oak Hill, Alabama. There’s the reference to the lightning which is in the movie. And the movie came out on Sept. 27, 2002 which was a Friday. The return address on the RSVP references Starr’s Mill which is where the glass shop scenes were shot. And lastly Jake’s plane landed on Lake Peachtree for which the movie was fined $300. TA-DA!
Now maybe you’re not getting married in the fall or your pale Irish skin looks sickly in yellow (which is sad because you REALLY want to dive into yellow/gray combinations, sigh) and you want different color leaves- not a problem. Here’s a sample in a bright modern green with a brown/gray.
YAY!
Like it? Do you happen to like several designs you’ve seen on The Future Mrs. Darcy and wish there was a way to declare it not just your closest friends and family but also the past classmates and co-workers you haven’t spoken to in years? Well FRET NOT!! The Future Mrs. Darcy is now on facebook! My sincerest hope is that you can click here and then you’ll be directed to the become a fan page in your facebook account but if that doesn’t work just search in the top of your facebook page for “The Future Mrs. Darcy” and if THAT doesn’t work… well get back to me and I’ll try and figure it out.
Happy 2010 one and all! I hope everyone had a great bunch of holidays. A lot of times I feel like the holidays are like taking lots of quick breaths in and once January rolls around it’s like one big sigh out. Not that I don’t love the holidays and spending time with family and friends but I just frenzy myself a bit. You know what I mean.
I’m not usually a resolution person (my resolution last year, if I recall, was to carry less tampons in my purse) but this year I’m using this resolution time of the year to try and force a little order into my life. From now on I’m going to try and make Tuesday blog day. YAY! If you have anything you’d like me to chat about wedding-wise or party-wise or whatever either email me using the forms to the right or leave a comment.
Right now, I’m working off a design that I had proposed for a custom bride to turn it into a Bella and Edward suite. 
Here is the original:
The custom invitation was in the vein* of vintage glamor and dreamy winter colors. I started going for some really deep magentas for Bella and Edward but I think I need to go back and read the section about the invites that Alice made for them. Anyone want to save me some time and let me know whether that was the 3rd or 4th book? Pretty please. OOH! Also I just read Soulless by Gail Carriger which is basically like the book form of a bastard child by Stephenie Meyer and Jane Austen†. I loved it.
Not to start sounding crazy vampire lady but I’ve been hitting the True Blood on Netflix as well and I’m a little disappointed nobody told me about it until now because that too, I loves. Netflix, come quickly my dear!
And now for shout outs:
Today is my sister, Kelsey’s 18th birthday so for her
Everyone I worked with in 2004 (or 2005) will no doubt recognize that card but I just love it so. Wow, I’m in love with a lot today.
And lastly but definitely not least (-y) (?):
YAY!! The best man from Michael and my wedding (Drew) is getting married to a charming lovely wonderful girl (Theresa) that he met when he (Drew) was a groomsmen and she (Theresa) was a bridesmaid at her sister/one of Drew’s old roommates weddings. Aww… Now let that be a lesson: always match your bridesmaids and groomsmen based on how cute their babies might look.
*I am so witty.
†Which would totally not be called Reneesme.
That’s our happy little holiday card this year!
Now you can probably file this under ” a day late and a dollar short” but let me tell you a little something about labels. We have a list of names and address from our wedding that we now use each and every time we need to send our a mailing. Poor Brandy who was so ahead of the game in Xmas Cards this year told me her harrowing tales of writing out her addresses in cursive followed by a crazed facebook post about how she liked all her friends in Illinois a little less because of capital cursive “I”s.
Now after writing the same thing twice my handwriting slips from nice to serial killer, so I made me some nice little coordinating labels and those puppies were in and out the door in under 12 hours and only took about a half an hour to get addresses and sealed.
So the moral of the story is, if you want coordinating labels to go with ANYTHING you see on TFMD or anything you see anywhere– just let me know– I can save your pretty little hands from seizing up into claws!
And though it’s completely unrelated I came across this bridesmaid dress company today– Quail– and LOVE IT. Makes me want to be excessive and buy a fancy New Year’s Eve frock.
Time to go behind the scenes again and see the weddings that inspired the invitations.
Here’s what our very own “Ariel” (Stefanie) was looking for:
Basically I am looking for a ’seaside elegance’ theme – we are getting married in Gloucester [seaside town in Massachusetts] next July. The reception site is really beautiful and elegant, so I don’t want any of those casual beachy wedding invitations that I keep seeing.
Photographer: Dan Doke
You’ll notice that the original Ariel + Eric invites were blue text on white and you may have even been around for the voting that decided the last details along with the naming but just know that both options are available if you’re looking for some seaside elegance if your invitations.
Here is some extra details from the bride herself
DRESS
Pronovias (they’re a Spanish company, so they do the whole Mediterranean elegance thing really well, and I loved the combination of pearls and beading on my dress, I thought it fit the theme perfectly)
For Boston locals: I purchased it at Bella Bridal in Amesbury.
BRIDESMAID DRESSES
Every girl had a different style from the JLM Couture line (either Jim Hjelm, Alvina Valenta, or Lazaro). The dresses were all satin-faced taffeta and in the color Jasper. The color was PERFECT for a seaside wedding, and the fabric was great because it was more formal than a chiffon or tulle, which is what most “beach” weddings incorporate.
For Boston locales: We got them all at Cristina’s Bridal in Andover.
GROOM & GROOMSMEN TUXES
MW Tux….we had all of the guys wear black vests with silver ties, as the color scheme of the wedding was shades of white, silver, and blue.
FLOWERS
I wanted to keep all of the flowers different shades of white for the tables’ centerpieces, to give it a streamlined, modern, yet classic and glamorous feel. So we did white roses for some elegance, but also white hydrangeas because those are so commonly found near the water. For the bouquets, I wanted to keep mine as the classic bridal look, so I did all white roses, but the florist wrapped my bouquet with the lace and pearls from my dress. The bridesmaid bouquets were also a combo of roses and hydrangeas, but we did did a mix of white and blue hydrangeas just to bring out the blue of their dresses.
For Boston locals: The florist I used is Andrea D’Amelio of AD Floral Designs.
JEWELRY
I wore my mom’s bracelet; however, I purchased those earrings last minute on carolee.com, and I’m so glad I did…they were gorgeous!!
EXTRA TOUCHES
For table numbers, we instead decided to name each table after a beach that had meaning to us….for example, the beach where he proposed, the beach in Gloucester that was right by our reception hall, the beaches in Greece and Italy that we’d be visiting on our honeymoon, and then other beaches that we had visited together. We used black and white photos and pretty script font for the pictures on each table, and it really gave the place a personalized, yet sophisticated, feel (at least I like to think so !).
Thanks again for sharing your gorgeous fairytale wedding, Ariel… err Stefanie! 
Hey! There have been a couple of updates to the site.
First we have the new “NON-FICTION” section which is everything that is not wedding invitations like the Viva Italia Thank You card above… because you have a life outside of wedding planning, remember? Ahh yes. Slowly coming back to you. If you see something that you like send me a message for pricing.
Next we now have enough votes to switch up the viewer favorites! So if YOUR favorite is something other than Ginny + Harry, Sloane + Ferris, Bonnie + Clyde, or Bogey + Bacall — GET CLICKING!
I’ve also sent our fabulous suggestions for the naming of the invitations currently known as Meredith and Patrick to our happy couple and as soon as I hear back, they’ll get their own page and will be in the running as well.
Lastly, speaking of Meredith and Patrick, we have ANOTHER inspired wedding on deck, that is the wedding around the custom invitations that we now know as “Ariel + Eric”. It’s all written up, I’ve just asked “Ariel” (Stefanie) for some more details so you can put her good ideas to use!
(There are also some new custom invitation in the works so you know what that means- 3 brand new TFMD invitations right around the corner!)
More