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!)
So a great big THANK YOU to Melanie and Kathleen who wrote in innocently today to ask if they could see more designs WHICH has alerted me to a GIANT FRIGGIN’ BUG in the website!!! Without getting too technical (I hope) I wanted to use pretty fonts for the navigation (which can be seen working in the blog header as well as the lower portions of the home page and “blogroll” to the right) what I didn’t entirely realize is using them in the navigation was causing the links to just not show up in some browsers.
I’ve abandoned the pretty fonts in the navigation for now and gone back to our trusty old standby Helvetica. If you’ve stopped by before and haven’t been able to see the rest of the collection PLEASE take a look through the “Love Stories” above and rate your favorites to your heart’s content!
If by some chance you know a lot about sIFR, cufón, or their respective wordpress plugins and you know why the fonts would show up in the bottom but not in the navigation (which pulls the info dynamically), let me know!
I’m very pleased to announce that Meredith and Patrick were a featured wedding today on Snippet and Ink. I realized we haven’t gotten a good close up of the invitations themselves and although the couple and I still haven’t found the perfect couple to name it after yet I’m throwing caution to the wind and we’ll debut with the lucky couple themselves. Maybe we just need a close up to really get the creative juices flowing:
Despite that we’re using real names all the info has been changed so you can forget stalking the couple or trying to track down the parents to use their house!
Now what shall we call it? Faith and Tim? Forrest and Jenny (they got married under a tree at his Mother’s house, if memory serves)? Joey and Pacey (I was way to into Dawson’s Creek one summer I was home from college)? Bobby and Pam (to go off a Texas connection [Bobby and Pam were character on Dallas])? So those should get you started. Be sure to chime in with more in the comments section!
Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here!
Happy November everyone! As promised starting off today we have some awesome DIY party planning bits. My friend Mandy and I planned an elaborate Alice in Wonderland themed 30th birthday party for our friend, Jenn, a couple of weeks ago in NY and it was so fun and adaptable to other parties (bachelorette, baby shower, wedding shower, birthdays of all ages, etc) that I thought I’d share.
We started off our party with a Mad Hatter Tea (and Champagne) party at her house with some fun (relatively) easy decorations.
The photos aren’t the best quality. I took them with the flash off b/c the flash was blinding but the pom poms were in front of the lights so there were weird color things going on. Brandy helped a bit so now they look a little retro but anyway- long story short here they are:
Alice in Wonderland Party Decorations
I made little “Drink Me” and “Eat Me” tags for all of the food and drinks. In addition to the tea and champagne we had tea sandwiches (Mandy made these but if you need the recipe just ask and I’ll get it from her), chessmen cookies, macaroons, cupcakes, jelly beans, and chocolates.
We printed out poems from the book and posted them on the walls along with LOTS of card suits (hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs) along with some very cute cut-outs of flamingos (with which Alice and the Queen played croquet) and the Cheshire Cat (which I was quite proud of but didn’t get a picture of him). And for the birthday girl Mandy found a top hat (it helps that Jenn’s birthday is near Halloween), put a nice red ribbon around it and added a 10/24 30 card in there (10/24 being her birthday and 30 being how old she is) instead of the Mad Hatter’s customary 10/6.
What really made it in my mind though was the pom poms which you see hanging from the ceiling. It’s a very easy Martha Stewart craft with instructions online
here. They sell kits for them at Michael’s but you still have to put it all together and just buying your own tissue paper is cheaper. One of the best things about them that night (besides being easy and cheap to make yet totally show stopping for your guests) is that they are TISSUE PAPER. So if there’s a mishap and one, say, falls on the head of one of the guests while you’re talking to them- they barely notice. It’s lighter than a beach ball so it’s great for all sorts of kids parties as well.
There was also lovely “Happy 30th Birthday” garland which you can see a smidge of in the last photo which I adapted from this Martha Stewart
how-to. I printed out the letters on red, white and pink paper and bought some very cool printed paper (zebra print, silver swirls, magenta swirls and brown embossed to look like a basketball or leather) which I used on either end to frame it. All the paper was less than $1 a sheet at Michael’s- you can find a lot of stuff in the scrapbooking section just make sure that your printer can handle whichever pages your going to print the letter on, i.e. it should probably be 8.5 x 11 instead of the normal 12 x 12 scrapbooking paper. The scrapbooking paper is fine, though, for the circles on either end.
Anyway don’t think I’m just rambling on without giving you all the tools to do this yourself!
Here are the “Eat Me”/”Drink Me” straws and toothpicks: download.
[Print out on desired paper, cut into strips and fold around straws or toothpicks, glue shut and trim a "v" shape into ends]
Here is the “Happy 30th Birthday” garland: download.
[The colors are named on top but you can choose any 3 colors you like. I alternated red, white, pink, white which is why it looks like it's not in order. If you would like different text, Martha has you covered.]
Again the Pom-Pom instructions are here.
And lastly, I found the email I sent to Mandy after some Alice in Wonderland research:
Here are other links that I’ve amassed although most of them just have touches of things i like
http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-decor-alice-in-wonderland
(obviously this is a little too complex for what we can do but i like the kind of mismatched craziness of it all)
http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-weddings-cherry-harvest-table
(i like the flags for the “eat me” and “drink me”)
http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/10/real-parties-chic-colorful-birthday/#more-8072
(i like the flags and the bright colors. it seems a little too pretty though for alice in wonderland)
http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/09/free-printables-cirque-du-bebe-pink/
(I like the concept of the feathers- maybe not the execution. I can see what Michael’s Craft store has to offer)
http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/party-hats
(probably more work than I’m willing to do but i’m throw it all out there)
http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/08/tea-party-shower.html
(the more i see it the more i think lots of big things hanging from the ceiling are a good easy thing)
http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2008/04/party-hats-101.html
(more hats and ceiling hanging stuff)
Other Alice in Wonderland elements:
cards/suits (queen of hearts, jack of spades, etc)
flamingos
cheshire cat
tweedledee and tweedledum
white rabbit
dodos
mushrooms (fake ones for decorations?)
jaberwoky
doormouse
If you fall down the rabbit hole for your next party make sure and send us some photos! Oh, and remember to use the flash unless your a super cool photographer (apparently I was acting out of my pay grade!)
Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here!
Yup- we’ve barreled past Halloween so it’s all turkeys and shopping until that New Year’s Ball drops! Now despite that fact I make invitations and cards for a living, my husband and I were definitely the ones you saw in the post office parking lot on Dec. 23rd trying desperately to address a stack of holiday cards. THANKFULLY, though, Brandy thinks ahead.
So I bring you what will hopefully be the first in a long line of sweet collaborations: custom holiday cards.
You send me your holiday photo OR if you live in the Metro DC area contact Brandy for a portrait session (maybe combine it with an engagement session- can you say two birds with one stone?!) and a brief list of what you did this year and plan to do next year and voilà- you just earned yourself another eggnog for being so proactive.
cforms contact form by delicious:days
*Please note the price does not include photo retouching for the cover.
Happy Hump Day All! I’ve got a busy little color correcting bee helping me with my next post which will showcase Jenn’s Alice in Wonderland Themed 30th Birthday party but in the meantime I received a plea for volunteers for a couples research survey which I thought I’d pass on.
Here is Cristina Reitz-Krueger:
Engaged volunteers needed!
I am looking for volunteers for a study of attitudes towards marriage and parenthood among engaged couples. The study consists of a 25-30 minute online survey. To qualify for the study, you must be 20-35 years old, live in the U.S., and plan to marry or have a commitment ceremony within the next 365 days. You and your romantic partner must not have children, and this must be the first marriage for both of you.
You can:
-Help a doctoral candidate;
-Increase the pool of scientific knowledge;
-Support research on marriage and families; and
-Spend some time thinking about your relationship!
I am working with Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson, a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia. This study has been approved by the University of Virginia Institutional Review Board #2009025800.
If you and/or your romantic partner are interested in participating or want further information, please email me at survey.couples@gmail.com. I will send you a link that you can use to access the study.
Thanks!
Cristina Reitz-Krueger
Doctoral Student
University of Virginia
(434) 243-8558
survey.couples@gmail.com
Some quick googling shows me other people who have posted asking for volunteers, that Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson is indeed a professor at U of Va, and a fellow doctoral student that mentions Cristina so that all leads to being reputable in my book. If she offers to pay for your whole wedding if you just give her $1000 first though… please don’t. 
UPDATE: Further googling found Cristina online through U of Va. to read more about her or what she’s trying to accomplish with her work (which sounds very interesting) please click here.
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