Inspired by Letters

Planning a wedding has opened me up to so many new things in so many different areas. While I expected to learn about wedding etiquette, dress styles and fabrics, invitation wording...you know, the stereotypical wedding stuff, what surprises me the most is how much I learned about graphic design and print. Well, maybe not learned, but was exposed to...I still feel like I know nothing about it but at least have seen some of what is out there...and now I am starving for more.

Since the wedding, it seems I can't get enough of anything artistic...whether it's print, photography, even dance (I was a dance major for my undergrad). Maybe it's because I know hardly anything about it, or maybe it's from studying a bit of calligraphy to get ready for the wedding, but I've been somewhat infatuated with graphic design for the past couple weeks...letterforms and typography in particular. Even for my wedding, using a font I loved was important to me, but now that I have a lot more free time, I've been trying to learn more about type and checking into different artists that catch my eye.

This brings me to where I was tonight. While I can't remember where I first heard about her (I do know it was somewhere in the 100+ wedding blogs I follow daily...most likely from the always-inspirational Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper...), Jessica Hische had a way of popping up several times in my wedding planning. I think the biggest influence was from her "Hendrix" wedding invitations on Bella Figura:



I also remember seeing the work she did for Tiffany & Co.:



{ via JessicaHische.com }

The exhibition I went to see tonight at Art in the Age in Philadelphia though was of her Daily Drop Cap project:

"The Daily Drop Cap is an ongoing project by typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische. Each day (or at least each WORK day), a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap will be posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere." { from DailyDropCap.com }




{ via Jessica Hische }

I went down to Philly right after work and was looking forward to seeing some of her prints in person. I felt a little out of my element and imagined that everyone else in there were all graphic designers/art students so I just casually checked everything out in the super-cool place while making my way to the back to see all the prints. I ended up talking to Daniel, the guy who is actually the curator for Art in the Age for a little bit! I explained my love of and appreciation for but lack of knowledge about type and design. He was super-nice as we discussed Jessica's work and even offered to take a picture of me in front of the prints with my iPhone:



He definitely made me feel more comfortable. I was able to meet Jessica and chat with her for a little while too. She was so friendly and encouraged me to keep feeding my love of type. I picked her brain about letterpress, how calligraphy can help with understanding letterforms, and how I should expand my vocabulary of letterform variations (...did I just geek out there for a minute?). Before leaving, I did end up purchasing the F unmounted print (although I had asked the girl working the desk if they had her ampersand print which is my absolute FAVORITE of the letterpressed ones, to which I received the response..."am...amp...huh?" Sigh. Oh well, maybe once I can fit another print in the budget?) and a little present for Mr. that was totally unrelated to Jessica's prints.

While her letters are "not for use in personal logos and branding", I can't help but be inspired by how one letter can completely change the feel of a document. Anyone else feel me here? So even though I'm already a huge fan of invitations that incorporate a unique font overall...



{ via RIFLE }



{ via Oh So Beautiful Paper }

...I'd be interested to see how the concept of a Daily Drop Cap could be incorporated into an invitation suite, aside from the traditional monogram.

First thing that comes to mind is the M on the reply card...the one where you're supposed to fill in your name after?



{ via Minted ... I don't think it'd look right with this type of RSVP but just so you know what "M" I'm talking about... }

Anyone else have any ideas? I would LOVE to receive an invitation that uses type creatively and it would certainly make me even more excited for the event! ...Is that bad?

It was awesome to be able to take the trip down to Art in the Age and meet Jessica. I am even more a fan of her work now than I was before! I will certainly have to get her ampersand print in the future too :)

Has anyone else developed a new, unexpected interest while wedding planning?

The Little Details - II

Here is round 2 or our wedding projects!

Our programs were inspired by Cyd's cute little booklet programs (I even had the same corner punch from when we did our save the dates! Hope that's not too weird, Cyd...). I loved how mini they were so I made little 4.25"x 5.5" booklets for our programs, printed all here at home on our printer.



Slicing and dicing...



Folding...



The finished product!

Another project I broke out the paper cutter for was our table numbers. I had some left over envelope lining paper so i used that as the background and then glue-sticked (glue-stuck?) the numbers on.



My sister, and MOH, Caroline, needs to open up her own Etsy shop. She did such a wonderful job with the bridesmaids' jewelry: aqua pearl bracelet for herself, blue drop earrings and a blue lariat necklace for the other two bridesmaids. Pardon the beautiful blue printed paper towel in the background...



And some stalker photos from facebook to go with it...

Julie's lariat necklace:



Megan's earrings:



No good action photos of Caroline's bracelet, but it certainly looked cute on her.

{ all photos from author's private collection }

Speaking of how ridiculously talented my sister is, I wanted to include one of the photos that she took from the wedding as well.



Can you believe she is only 18? Starting school in Minnesota this fall for art education and photography. She actually is booked for her first wedding next year. Can't wait to see how those turn out.

The last photo of hers I'll share is one of my favorite from the end of the night...a very happy, teary-eyed bride, and four-legged best friend.



Was anyone else lucky enough to have a family member or close friend offer up their talents in order to help out in a big way for their wedding?

The Little Details

Understatement of the year: I feel like I spent a lot of time planning this wedding. But the end result? A day filled not only with people that we love but details that I loved as well!

We are still waiting for our official photos from Punam Bean, but in the meantime I'll share with you some of the projects we took on for the wedding.

Early on, I was inspired by this tutorial on The Bride's Cafe and decided to make one similar using our CK monogram that my mom created. I was lucky enough to be substitute teaching for a couple months so I used an old teacher trick to start out the project. I printed out the CK on a sheet of 8.5x11 paper and then traced it onto a transparency sheet. I threw the sheet up on the overhead projector and then traced the projection onto a larger sheet of paper. That larger paper is what I used to create the wire frames for the monogram.



I then followed the instructions in the tutorial and wrapped both moss (I just got the fake stuff from Michael's for this project) and some seeded eucalyptus onto the frame with floral wire. To finish it off, I attached two small sedums onto each of the monograms (the photo below only shows one though...I added those on the wire last minute because they wouldn't last as long out of water).



A quick little project that we also did was our welcome bags for the hotel guests. I was shocked, but Mr. actually took the lead on assembling these. Once I brought home all the stuff to make them, he just started putting the bags together. I did have to stop him so I could stuff the bags with colorful tissue and put our monogram sticker on it (which I still have about 200 of...any ideas what to use them for?)



We filled the bags with some of our favorites: pretzels, trail mix, gum, york peppermint patties, tootsie rolls, and a couple bottles of water. I love how colorful they were! Although they were not expensive to make and we didn't make them very fancy, they were very much appreciated by all our wedding guests who stayed at the hotel.

Thank goodness for my sister and my stepmom. They came in from South Dakota before the wedding and spent a LOT of time helping me with the last minute details for the wedding. One of which were the table runners! I had a difficult time finding affordable fabric that I liked, and finally I found a natural colored linen type fabric from Ikea at something crazy like $2.50/yd. My sister, stepmom, and I tirelessly cut, steam-a-seamed, and ironed until we had 10 beautiful 10 ft table runners!





Although now I have 10 10' natural colored table runners (and fabric cut to make 2 more)...anyone need them?

My favorite detail and HANDS DOWN the most time consuming (from studying and practicing calligraphy...to messing around with different inks and finally deciding that no calligraphy ink I could afford wouldn't bleed on the escort cards I had already ordered...to actually doing the calligraphy itself) was our escort cards.

I was inspired by calligraphers like Jenna Hein and Laura Hooper but actually using them for our wedding did not fit into our budget. So, I set to it myself, buying a book on copperplate calligraphy last summer and practicing the basics until I felt somewhat comfortable enough to start playing around with the traditional style to get something a little more whimsical. Here's the final result:



For the actual arrangement of the escort cards, I once again was inspired by a tutorial on Bride's Cafe. The moss I used was real moss so it was a bit of a pain to keep misted and fresh until the wedding, so if you try it and use real moss (I think it made a difference to use real) I'd definitely suggest to do it as close to the wedding as will keep you sane.



I am so so so happy with how they turned out! Although it was ridiculously time consuming, it is probably my favorite detail that I created for our wedding.

{ all photos from author's personal collection }

What was your favorite project from your wedding? Was it the project that took you longest to complete?

We did!

…and now we’re heading north for our honeymoon! But before we leave, I wanted to share the sneak peek Punam sent to us:

{photo by Punam Bean}

We spread the festivities out all weekend and are now thoroughly exhausted! Time for some rest and relaxation with my husband. Can’t wait to share more when we get back!

A Fourth of July Riddle

Here's a good one for ya:

What's red, blue, and white all over?

The answer?

Hopefully not me on my wedding day!!!

With 8 days left until the wedding, I've been working very hard to get rid of the cuts, bruises, and marks I get from my daily klutzy life. I have my 3x daily routine:

Neosporin for any cuts or scrapes



Mederma for the marks left by said cuts and scrapes (and the huge burn mark on my left hand from the oven in December)



Arnica gel for bruises



Lots of stuff, right?? Just to make sure I'm not all black and blue and completely cut up. Should be enough to keep our photographer from spending even more hours photoshopping, right? Well, I'll share with you the letter I wrote yesterday.

Dear Mr. Poison Ivy,

Seriously?

-Me

Um, has anyone else been smart enough to do yardwork in a yard full of poison ivy 2 weeks before your wedding? Sigh. Yes, with 8 days to go, I now have a few beautiful spots on my left forearm and all over the back of my neck (thank goodness I'm not doing an up-do!). So now I add to the list:

Ivarest wash (for the shower)



Ivy-Dry



My stepmom says Ivy it's the best, so I'll let you know after the wedding how things went. Keep your fingers crossed!

{ images via drugstore.com; ivydry.com }

Dear Mr. Zit,

Wherever you're vacationing, I hope you're enjoying it! Please feel free to remain there for the next 9 days...I'll cover your bar tab!

Thanks,
me

Do you have any favorite remedies for poison ivy? Did you have any major skin issues right before your wedding?? If so, how did you deal with it?

It's not you, it's me

I have difficulty committing sometimes. I take a long time making my final decision, especially in something as serious and important as this! I mean, it's not like it's something that will only last a moment and then be over...maybe I rushed into things?

I wasn't having second thoughts until I saw my other options. Although I thought my decision was the right one, it turns out there are other fish in the sea. Sigh.

This story is about my new fish, Eavan.

At the time, I had already made my choice and committed to Sheila for our wedding day:



{ via Amazon }

I was happy with my decision. Very excited in fact, talk about party shoes!!! Way fun. I couldn't wait to spend the whole night with her. Or so I thought...

We were shopping for bridesmaids shoes and decided on these beauties for all the girls:



{ via Aldo }

They look so cute on and all the girls are very excited to wear them again after the wedding. I read somewhere that nude shoes make your legs look longer, total plus!! As I said though, I take a while to finally commit to things so I still wanted to walk around a bit to see if there was anything else we liked. Unfortunately, the shoes I found next were not to be for the bridesmaids.



{ via Zappos }

Meet Eavan. She had style, she had flair, she was there (as in, at the outlet on sale...and um, please tell me someone gets this reference)! Although I felt so glamorous when I put them on, they were still way more than what I wanted to spend...especially when I found a pair of shoes that I already liked. I just couldn't see spending that much money, even if they were already significantly reduced.

Oh, but "I'll give you 30% off" says the woman. Excuse me...What??? Quick mental math and I realized that made them only $10 more than the pink ones. Yes please!! I'm sorry Sheila, but I'm going to have to go with Eavan. Sold.

While I'm not big on bling, I'm excited to have a little more glam on my wedding day. I like to keep things pretty simple, clean, and low on the bling factor, but I think these give just the right amount to balance out with everything else I'm wearing that day. I'm happy I found these shoes and while I'm sure I would have still loved the original ones and been just as happy, I'm ridiculously excited that I'll be wearing the new ones!

Did you change your mind on anything you were going to wear less than a month before your wedding day?

Another Postcard Giveaway

***Update!***
Congratulations Mo! I sent an email to the email address you have listed on your blog...let me know if you don't get it? Yay! Hope you can put the postcards to good use!!


We've done practically every piece of our wedding invitation suite and other printables for our wedding through printing company UPrinting. I feel so lucky to be able to host giveaways and for the month of June, they have once again given me the opportunity to give away 100 of their fabulous postcards from their printing services. Here are the details:

100 4x6 Postcards
14pt Cardstock Gloss
4 Color Both Sides Printing
Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above

To enter, please leave a comment below with how you will use them. Leave a separate comment for an extra entry if you are already a follower or if you become a follower. Giveaway closes at midnight on June 24th!! Winner announced June 25th.

As a sidenote, even if you don't win and you need postcards printed cheap, check out UPrinting!

*This is a sponsored post.