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A Quilled Marriage Certificate

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

The fabulous Rebecca sent me a link to this totally amazing quilled marriage certificate created by paper filigree expert Ann Martin. Glorious!

Now, paper filigree is new to me, and maybe to you, too. According to Wikipedia, “paper filigree is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper is wound around a quill to create a basic coil shape. The paper is glued at the tip and the coil shaped, these shaped coils are arranged to form flowers, leaves, and various ornamental patterns similar to ironwork.” Zow! Sounds like one of those hobbies that’s time consuming but produces an amazing finished product.

And what a nice way to display a marriage certificate – it’s certainly a lot nicer than the one issued by the state. I have one of those, and it lives in my fire safe.

You can see more of Ann’s quilled marriage certificates in this little Flickr set – and from what she writers, it looks like she’s in the market for commissions. So if you love what you see, get in touch with her!

P.S. – Don’t forget to enter the yummiest giveaway yet!

Posted in Accessories, Keepsakes, Stationery, Weddings | 4 Comments »

Invitees: Please Inflate the Balloon

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

How absolutely adorable is this balloon save-the-date?

And not too pricey, either, when you compare it to the cost of other save-the-dates if you print the cards yourself. This could even make a fun wedding invitation for a couple who doesn’t take themselves too seriously!

Posted in Alternative Ideas, Stationery | 2 Comments »

Show Them Your Wedding Will Be an Event to Remember

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

In the past, we’ve seen custom movie posters for weddings featuring brides and grooms and rock ‘n’ roll poster wedding invitations. Now, from Marit Hanson Weddings, I want to show you all some totally sweet save-the-dates modeled after promotional materials. I love them – great for the sports lovers or the show lovers, no?

Here’s a save-the-date that your guests will want to frame – or at least stick to the wall with that blue gummy stuff. It includes space for a photo and all your wedding day details. Do your guests really want a poster-sized save-the-date? Who knows, but think about how cute it would look in your house once you’re wed.

If a poster seems like a little much but you want the same look, how about a promotional postcard save-the-date? You can let your personalities take center stage and feel just a little famous with these much more manageable pieces of pre-wedding stationery.

Of course, not everyone who really wants to go to your nuptials can make the cut! Be sure that your wedding is invite-only with these awesome save-the-date tickets that will keep the riffraff out of your reception.

P.S. – Happy birthday to me! It’s the first anniversary of my 30th birthday!

P.P.S. – Angela of Your Fairy Tale Wedding wrote to tell me about her CHRISTMAS WEDDING DRESS GIVEAWAY. In her own words: “I will be giving away a free wedding dress for Christmas! Any Bride who purchases her dress between October 1st and December 24th will automatically be entered into a drawing to get their dress for FREE! If you name is drawn your money will be refunded and you will get your dress, shipping and all n…o charge. I am going to be asking one of my past brides to be in charge of drawing so if you are a past bride and you are interested in taking on this responsibility please let me know!”

Posted in Fun stuff, Stationery | 6 Comments »

Photo Wedding Announcements, Three Ways

Friday, October 15th, 2010

Earlier this year, I wrote some about the ins and outs of wedding announcements. It’s not a complicated piece of the wedding stationery suite – you can’t invite so-in-so or you eloped so you didn’t invite anyone at all but you want to let them people you’re hitched, so you give them a little taste of wedding after the fact. While modern wedding invitations can be pretty crazy, I still think there’s a lot more leeway to play in the world of wedding announcements.

Here are three fun, customizable wedding announcements from Wedding Paper Divas that I really like. They may be much enhanced by the fact that the model brides and grooms are all frozen in time in beautiful photographs, but my guess is that you’ll look just as amazing on your big day.

The Iconic Vegas postcard is obviously for the couple who said their vows in Nevada, whether or not there were actual guests or the only witness was an Elvis clone.

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Posted in Stationery | 2 Comments »

The Write Stuff

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

Calligraphy… sometimes it’s frou-frou. Sometimes it’s less girly than you’d think. Sometimes it’s hard to read. And it’s always one of those wedding expenses that is absolutely not a necessity but some brides and grooms just plain like. And that’s cool. As far as calligraphy goes, I can take it or leave it, but I’m nonetheless loving Primele. Created by Patricia Mumau, Primele has so much more than invitation envelope calligraphy to keep penmanship enthusiasts amused and occupied! Think favor tags and amazing return address stamps, place cards and thank you notes. It’s all gorgeous stuff – and that’s coming from someone who usually thinks invitation calligraphy is kind of meh.

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Posted in Invitations, Stationery | 2 Comments »

Pencil It In

Monday, September 13th, 2010

How awesome are these pencil and magnet save-the-dates? Real bride and groom Amber and Jeff designed their own monogrammed magnets and had custom pencils engraved with their important info. Everything was prettily boxed and looked super professional, but it was DIY all the way for Amber, who said on Once Wed that her “craftiest pre-wedding endeavor involved cutting a heart out of construction paper”.

For real, I love stuff like this. Is anyone out there reading this thinking of a similarly original save-the-date? Or for those resigned to something simple, what kind would you be sending out of money, time, or skills were no object? I might have snagged this idea if I’d seen it before sending out my own save-the-dates, which were your standard postcard save-the-dates. They didn’t even have our pictures on them, boo!

Posted in Fun stuff, Invitations, Stationery | 1 Comment »

Saying Thanks In Style

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

One hopes that by now we all know that thank you cards are never optional and should really be sent out sooner rather than later. While it might seem like a hassle, sending out thank you cards – for wedding gifts that arrive before, during, or after the big day – in a timely fashion is as much about making things easy on the happy couple as it is about not cheesing off etiquette-obsessed relatives and friends.

How’s that? Consider that it is a lot easier to write a heartfelt thank you when the emotions you felt upon receiving a gift are fresh in your mind. A thank you card written in the post-wedding glow of excitement is almost always more gushy – guests like gushy – than one penned months later, which is likely to read kind of flat. As in “Thank you for the waffle iron. We will use it every time we want waffles and will think of you when we eat them.” *yawn*

I know, I know, writing thank you cards can be a boring job, and one too often shouldered entirely by the lady (though The Beard and I split them fairly evenly) and done all at once instead of in dribs and drabs as gifts roll in as they ought to be. So how can one pep up this dull yet necessary task? First, pop in a movie… as long as you’re not so easily distracted that you’re likely to jotting down the actors’ lines instead of your own thoughts.

And second, choose a thank you card that makes you want to send it just so everyone can see how awesome your thank you cards are! The gorgeous Mommy Holly, for example, makes colorful thank you cards that even I, queen of paper pitching, would keep!

Aren’t these thank you cards just super cute? They might almost make writing out 100+ thank you cards fun. Almost.

Posted in Inspiration, Stationery | 7 Comments »

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