Cavallo wedding #2

Finished these Save-the-dates for another Cavallo wedding this time in August. Vintage/Americana themed paper goodness with a folded map and custom pattern inside. Lovely calligraphy in gold by Neither Snow with an assortment of vintage stamps collected by the bride.

Envelopes were hand-made, just folded text weight navy paper, glued the seam in the middle and ran one side through a sewing machine. We closed by folding the other end and sealed with custom letterpressed address labels.

We came across this envelope addressed to the White House while assembling. Apparently if you send the president an invite you will receive an official congratulatory letter. How fun, right? The bride and groom have a great sense of humor. I love this notion :)

Will be walking these up the street to the post office tomorrow. After spending so much time designing and crafting a set like this, letting them go is always so bitter-sweet. But the idea that people will be receiving these lovelies in the mail always makes me smile. So all the hard work is always worth it.

Cavallo wedding #1

Just delivered this Japanese-inspired wedding suite for clients Rachel and Blake who are getting married at Cavallo Point this spring. When we first met a couple of months ago the gingko trees just started to shed their pretty leaves and the image resonated with me. This design is organic from it's conception to final product. Love it when things just happen naturally :)

Stitching by Mira Aster -- Anne's attention to detail is exquisite.

envelopes were individually hand stamped

These were my setups, trying to get the yellow just right. The top ones were too dark for the job but I still really love the copper color base.

belly band with their monogram double "SS" that created a heart shape. cute.

Palm Desert Suite

Kyla and Michael's invites from this past spring, more to come from my website currently in the works...

This design inspired Kelsey (The Whole Cake) to make this 3-tiered interpretation during our spring soiree in April:

Anthology Winter Gift Guide

Check out a recent article on Alison Hotchkiss (of Alison Events) on this month's digital issue of Anthology Magazine. Great interview of her and tips on entertaining. I love working with Alison and her team, they produce such amazing events. Lots of great pics included in the article, a couple of them I've worked on too :)

If you haven't heard of Anthology, it's a beautiful quarterly shelter magazine that's worth collecting. And I love that it's born and bred locally too. More info here.

Top photo Leigh and Andrew's Dawn Ranch wedding
Bottom photo escort cards from Jodi & Jon's Sundance wedding

This photo was from Dana & Adam's Lake Michigan wedding, calligraphy by Nancy Hopkins

Julia & Dan

My intern Julia Neises just got married recently and I thought it would be great to share her wedding invites. They turned out absolutely amazing, so proud of her :) She started planning early this year around the same time she started her apprenticeship--Julia splits her time at my shop and nextdoor which gives her a unique blend of both worlds.

All the text was set in metal, the image carved from linoleum blocks then hand-printed on the Vandercook. Definitely labor-intensive but worth all the work!

What's great about this project is that she was able to take it from concept to production and learned quite a bit during the process (i.e. what makes a design suited for letterpress, basic typography and composition, how to mix inks, trim  and prep paper, etc..). And her hard work shows. This wedding suite is classic and beautiful, you can tell she poured her heart into this one. Good work lady!

Production Extravaganza!

This wedding job was a doozy. But I'm almost fully recovered from the exhaustion AND and I got to see everything come together this past weekend! I joined the AE team for all the setup fun which I never get to do as an invite designer. Typically, once I produce and deliver all the wedding collateral, I never get to see how my designs get integrated into the space so this was an exciting opportunity for me.

My first wedding setup experience did not disappoint! If anything I feel extra lucky since this event was on a grander scale than most. To honor the privacy of my clients, I can't really say much more about it or show any event photos. But hopefully soon I can share more once I get the green light. In the meantime, here are some production photos from the shop to give you an idea of what we were dealing with. As you can see, I was able to spread my design wings a little and experiment with different materials such as wood. This is only about half the stuff I produced, I didn't get to take photos of most of the paper goods so in time I hope to show you more!

I had rounded up the best possible team to help me during production, I can't even thank you gals enough! Team "Day-Of": Anjel, Christine, Jane, Julia, Lauren A, Lauren H --you rock.

On Press: Harbour Island wedding

We're at it again! Busy getting this awesome wedding suite together. Chock-full of beautiful beachy letterpressed colors and of course, more book binding!

I own a press, therefore I can make books!

This past week has been one of the most production-heavy I've had in a while (if not ever). We hand bound 175 booklets that I made for an upcoming wedding...

But it went so smoothly, thanks to the awesome team I recruited to help me. I couldn't have planned it any better. Thank you Hillary, Stephanie, Maya, Julia & Ofri. Yep, it took six of us to get this shit done in record time ;)

Here are some process pics! Hopefully I can share more after the wedding in a few months.

Design + Print: Sonya & Micheal

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! Up to my neck in wedding production and other various projects that I can hopefully blog about soon. In the meantime, enjoy this Healdsburg wedding invite I made last year for clients, Sonya & Michael :)

Jen & Karl at Playa del Carmen

It took only about a year and a half for this post--sometimes it just takes that long for me to get my act together and gather the photos! Without further ado, here's my reveal of one of my most fun (and production-heavy) weddings. Jen and Karl put together a wonderful event, I enjoyed their enthusiasm and love of adventure--they even own and fly their own plane!

Viola of Chewing the Cud designed their invites and I printed them. She was also very pregnant during this time and had to go on maternity leave mid-project. Super-sweet Viola decided to hand off the project to me to finish off, so I did and continued on to design & produce the rest of their wedding collateral...

Her design was based on a travel ticket, complete with itinerary for the weekend event:

I thought it would be nice for the guests to have a little takeaway gift from the wedding so I turned the program into a pocket notebook. Their logo was letterpressed on a velvet cover and they were individually hand-bound by Anna Ji with a leather twine. All photos below were taken by the talented Jennifer Skog.

Carolyn & David at the De Young

Lush and sophisticated museum wedding designed by Gloria Wong and photographed by Lisa Lefkowitz on Style Me Pretty this week! Lots of eye-candy...

Paper goods by yours truly--and I even got the chance to design some awesome large-scale installation panels (see below) as well as the graphics on the custom pillows. Gloria orchestrated the whole thing along with Jubilee Lau Events. Props to everyone involved!

For more pics and vendor info, click here.

Stencils for Mexico

I have a huge love for making stencils--they're quick, easy, affordable and have that distinct handmade look. I find them really useful for one-off signage, perfect for events. A couple of weeks ago we made these for a client who just got married in Tulum, Mexico. The ladies over at AE looped me into the project and they will eventually post pics on their blog. In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share our process in making their wedding-day signage.

This was a joint effort between me and the girls: I designed them, Lauren cut the stencils out (I think this was her last task before leaving the shop--thanks Lauren!), and Camille spray painted.

Here's a look at one of the stencils.

Design + Print: Ellie + Pete

I just found out one of my wedding clients just got featured on the blog Green Wedding Shoes! This was one of my favorite projects last year and I've been meaning to ask my client Ellie about the photos. She and Pete got married on a ranch in Utah last October, and I'm a total sucker for ranch-y rustic weddings :)  You can check out the post here.

She was sweet to mention me in the article, thanks Ellie! So I thought I'd include pics of her paper goods here on my blog. She had some great ideas and got me excited about designing, I really loved their traditional yet laid back vibe and I think the invite suite captured their style well.

Here's the inspiration board I put together for them, lots of Aspen trees and yellows with woodsy touches.

I carved an image of the trees on a linoleum block for their Save-the-Dates which set the tone for the rest of the invites pictured below. Ellie likes to ride horses so I added the horseshoe and rope motifs to personalize and bring in the ranch setting. These little details make all the difference :)

On Press: Scandinavian Design-Inspired Invites

I had a great time printing these envelopes...

that I decided to make notecards out of the motif!

Off the Press: St. Lucia invites

Just finished these! Caribbean colors makes me miss the beach. Sigh...Stitching by Mira Aster.

Wedding Day: SF Map

Almost exactly a year ago, I made this custom map for SF couple Marina and Wayne. I'm happy to report that they are still in wedded bliss and will be expecting a baby in the spring! So very exciting :)

Here are some shots of the map on display courtesy of their photog Mark Kuroda.

Design + Print: Healdsburg Garden Invites

Here's another August wedding from last year for clients Laura & Thanh. They got married at the Madrona Manor in Healdsburg, CA which has such a specific Victorian feel. We went with this theme but wanted to keep it from feeling too dated. So we went with the non-traditional stitched vellum pocket design with the postcard tear-off for the rsvp. The color palette also had a fresh, California vibe to it--neutral browns paired with summer berry hues. This was a fun collaboration with the couple and it's really rewarding to see it come full circle with the final wedding pictures which can be seen here.

Behind the Scenes

Thought I'd share some production photos of the New Buffalo wedding I worked on last year. I find that sometimes the process is just as interesting to see as the final design. This invite in particular was very involved in terms of assembly. Almost every piece was custom, down to the postage stamp. The envelopes were handmade, I had a monogrammed wax seal (in hot pink!), a hand-bound booklet, stitching on the invite (by Mira Aster), calligraphy in yellow ink (by Georgia Deaver)...You name it, we made it work!

Lake Michigan Wedding

More posts and photos can be seen from this dreamy Lake Michigan wedding I had the pleasure of working on on the AE blog this week! Make sure to check out Part 1 & Part 2...

Photos by Thayer Gowdy

Lake Michigan Rehearsal Dinner

A couple of months ago I blogged about this chalkboard project I worked on with calligrapher Nancy Hopkins. The ladies at Alison Events just posted pics of the event on their blog--thought it would be nice to share the final outcome with ya'll :)

Full post can be seen here (there are 3 parts to the post so make sure to check them all out). And just to be clear, this is just the Rehearsal Dinner--the night before the Big Day! Such an amazing display, every detail is worthy of the actual wedding dont'cha think?!

Photos by Thayer Gowdy