They are
like birds on a wire,
wooden claws
clamping sheets
and nightgowns
that flap freely
above country lawns
and dark alleys.
Perched in trees,
on silver branches,
doors,
and fences.
Holding signatures,
hearts and wishes.
Pretty
and plain.
Ever
practical.
Want a brilliant idea for DIY wedding invitations? Find an artist you love and have him/her paint a portrait of you and your sweetie. Not only will you have fabulous, one-of-a-kind invitations, you’ll have an original piece of art that you can cherish for a lifetime.
Emma and Michael (yesterday’s real wedding feature) had their friend Catherine Thompson paint their portrait which they used for their wedding invitations.
“Since I’m a designer, I really felt like the invitations needed to be the best thing I’ve ever done. I knew this was sort of impossible given the time factor and the importance of the event. We always loved our friend Catherine Thompson’s work and felt her style would work perfectly for the invitations. We posed for pictures, sent them to her along with references for all the stuff in the background, and she painted the portrait in a weekend. We were completely floored when we opened the box,” explains Michael. “From there, we pulled out all the stops designing the other materials for the invitations. We mimicked the worn paper texture by printing in 4 color offset. All the red was printed in letterpress. Our printer made it financially possible by giving us 50% off the entire job.”
But the creativity didn’t stop there. Michael and Emma typed (on a typewriter!) each invitation individually with text written specifically for each person.
” I thought this would take a long time, but we got through it over a weekend,” explains Michael.
The result?
“Our guests really freaked out when they actually read the invitations and realized it was specifically for them. It was great,” he says.
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I have a special place in my heart for at-home weddings (I had one), so when I discovered Michael and Emma on Cup of Jo I couldn’t wait to contact them about their NY wedding. Stay tuned tomorrow for their one-of-a-kind DIY wedding invitations.
Michael, 30 & Emma, 28
Upper West Side, New York City
Wedding Date: September 25th, 2008
Number of Guests: 30
Wedding Ceremony Location:
Emma’s parents’ dining room, which has since been renamed “The Wedding Room” on the Upper West Side in Manhattan.
Wedding Reception Location:
We decided to rent out our favorite restaurant, Mary’s Fish Camp, for the dinner after the wedding. The space was so small that everyone was sitting down, so it wasn’t really a reception in the traditional sense. It was more like a dinner with lots of mingling.
Want to add a little pizazz to your wedding drinks? Get out yer glue gun, find some pretty paper and bamboo skewers and create these DIY cocktail umbrellas from Pretty Good Things. Perfect for a backyard wedding.
Check out the full DIY cocktail umbrellas tutorial here.
What’s the latest wedding food craze in L.A.? French fries.
You can read all about it in this New York Times article, which discusses the trend towards more casual weddings. Interestingly, as the article points out, many affluent brides feel an over-the-top event is tacky and even offensive in these tough economic times, so they opt for a more casual affair (what’s more casual than French fries?). Thing is, they often spend as much money (sometimes more) trying to make their weddings look homegrown and low-key.
I’m all for the fries though. With salt and malt vinegar of course.
As the event specialist quoted in the New York Times said:
“There is nobody who won’t grab a French fry.”
Photo One: Life. Love. Lipstick; Photo Two: New York Times via At Home with Kim Valee
