Shaunta's Custom Wedding Accessories

Shaunta's wedding invitations was one of my favorites to work on yet. She had three different patterns throughout the invitation suite and we incorporated each one into her accessories.

We created a custom seating chart.

Table numbers with crystals accents throughout the pattern.

Menus and separate  children's menu's for each guest. She is having Spider Orchids attached to each menu as well. I can't wait to see those pics!

Guest Books and Signature Cocktail Menu with crystal embellishments.

Last but not least, a custom die cut fan with crystals on the front blade and beautiful satin tassels. 

Alpha Phi - Red Damask Invitations

This is the third year in a row that we have had the opportunity to work with the Beta Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi sorority. Every year they host a Red Dress Ball to raise money for the Alpha Phi Foundation. In keeping with the theme of the Red Dress Ball, we make each invitation to include an aspect of a dress. This year we chose to do a vibrant red damask pattern and made a "belt" with their greek letters to hold the response card and invitation together.

Candyland Boxed Invitations

We were contacted to create Caroline's 5th birthday party invitations by Gabby of Flowers by Gabrielle in Grosse Pointe. She is doing all of the candy displays and a candy bar for the party. We then knew we had to incorporate candy into the invitation.

We decided to do a boxed invitation so that we could easily mail the candy and it wouldn't get damaged. We incorporated the candy cane border on the mailing label and chose a fun type face for the address. 

We thought it would be fun to recreate the gameboard with start being Caroline's address and ending at her Candy Castle. We purchased the game so that we would be accurate. Let me say, the Candyland of today, is not like the Candyland that I played when I was a little girl! Much more graphics and I think that there are some new characters. Princess Frostine being one of them. That is Caroline's favorite character and her mom made a special request that we include her in the invitation.

The best part of these invitations is the rainbow lollipop. When Caroline's friends open their invitation, there will be a little surprise for them inside!

Lobster Dinner & Signature Michigan Drink

So Saturday night we had some good friends of ours over for dinner. I love the excuse to entertain because I get to bust out the fancy glassware, serving dishes and linens that don't normally get used on a regular basis. It's my chance to act like Martha for a day.

I always try to do some sort of flower arrangement. I added fruits with warm, fall colors, purples and golds and put it all in a silver serving dish.

I chose to do whole lobsters for dinner. I have never done this before! I have done tails, but never the whole thing. I was a little nervous about the whole presentation of it all and how I was going to get the meat out of the tail, but it was actually quite easy...just messy. I served it with crusty bread and a nice mixed green salad with pine nuts and honey gold apple slices. We finished up the evening with home made chocolate mousse, topped with a strawberry.

I made a signature drink that I have never had before either. Now that I think about it, it was actually a lot of firsts for me, which they never say to do if you are having people for dinner! As I was making it, I was thinking what a perfect signature drink this would be for a Michigan themed wedding. It has cherries and Vernors in it! For those of you who don't know, Traverse City, MI is considered the Cherry Capitol and Vernors was originally created and bottled in Detroit. I must say, it is delicious and refreshing. You mix the ingredients in a serving dish and freeze it so that it creates a slush and then top with Vernors and a cherry. Give me a shout if you want the recipe!

Ork Posters

I LOVE typography. I LOVE the challenge of typography when you are trying to make it fit creatively within a space. You have to really think about the font itself, placement of letters, the size, width and spacing of each letter. It takes real thought and time people! So, when I saw these posters from Ork Posters, via Clover and Bee, I had to have one. Especially the Great Lakes version me being a Michigander and all!  Then I thought, "Damn! Why didn't I think of that?!" 

Definitely check out the Ork Poster's website, they have tons of links to other great sites of talented designers and state and city themed designs. Perfect place to find unique ideas for welcome baskets or wedding party gifts.

Jeannine and Fal's Hindu/Christian Wedding Invitation

Jeannine contacted us about a little over a month ago. She is having both a Hindu and Christian wedding ceremony and had seen a previous Hindu/Christian wedding invitation we had done for a past bride that she loved. Jeannine had put off ordering invitations, because she was debating on wether to order them direct from India, after all they are much cheaper there, but she was nervous about working with a company overseas, especially when she was in such a time crunch. She decided to work with us and I am so glad she did! In the bride's words, she said "I really like the bling" and bling we did!


She chose a burgundy shimmer pocket fold with ivory shimmer insert cards. For embellishments she picked gold and ruby rhinestones that accent throughout the design. We also did custom stamps for the envelope and response postcard. The fun part of this very formal invitation was the timeline. Because the entire day is filled with events, it was very important that her guests know what was happening

Gary & Jodie's Seating Chart

Stephani's Damask Invitation

We have been working with Stephani and Dan for awhile now. We did her Damask Save the Dates earlier this summer. Which, by the way, we offer a discount if you order both! We kept her entire design consistent for both the STD's and invitation suite.

For the invitation she wanted a more formal look, but she said to have fun with the rest of the cards, and that is what we did! The invitation is held together by a black band and the envelope has the enlarged damask printed on the flap and front of the envelope.

My favorite part are her response card and timeline. Stephani didn't give us a whole lot of direction on what she wanted them to say, but she wanted them to convey that the evening was going to be a big party. So, we winged it, but I think it came out really cute.

The timeline is a new layout for me. Not the typical way we do it, but it was fun to switch it up. I love the "Exchange of the Bling" and the graphic of the two of them kissing good-night.

Laura's Accessories

We did Laura's custom swirly monogram invitations a couple of months ago. Initially she thought that she was going to do all of her accessories herself, but as her wedding day was drawing near she decided she just didn't have the time. So she contacted us to do them for her about a week prior to the big day!



We did programs, place cards and tented table numbers that were double sided with a special thank you to their guests. Instead of table favors, they made donations to two causes that were near and dear to their hearts, The Cancer Research Institute and The Special Operations Warrior Foundation. The SOWF is dedicated to providing a college educations to surviving children of fallen special ops forces who lose their lives in battle or training. I thought this was especially touching since the groom's brother is a Ranger and could not attend the wedding.

Plantable Wedding Invitations

Paul and Libby contacted us earlier this year to design their fun & unique save the dates. For their wedding invitations they wanted something very natural and personal to them. Libby was very interested in using plantable paper. We researched and found a great resource for all things plantable paper!

Plantable wedding invitations is a  first for us! I love working with new products! This is a great option for those of you who want to make a green choice for the environment. The paper is hand made and Wildflowers grow right out of the 100% post-consumer waste paper!

Notice the seeds within the paper.

The invitation and response card are held together with a handmade red paper band with gold leaves inked on it.

Imagine how fun it will be to plant all of the response cards and see all of the wildflowers bloom out of them! Paul and Libby have promised to send me a picture when they have all bloomed! I can't wait to see!

Black and White Pocket Invitation

Casandra wanted a simple, yet elegant wedding invitation. This design was based on her wedding cake. The cake itself, is black and white and has a simple black band around the bottom of each tier and a swirl pattern overall. That inspired us to incorporate a black satin band on the invitation and created a swirl design throughout.

Family Photos courtesy of Jessica Johnston

Ok, so I have been dying to share this with everyone. We had our family photos taken back in June with the super talented Jessica Johnston. I have always admired her work and have following her blog for awhile now. She did a shoot awhile back called the Red Dress Session, which I fell in love with. I wanted to do something like that, but with my own spin on it. I also had a special request, I wanted to recreate the image of Bob Dylan that I have mentioned in previous posts. They were so open to any ideas and suggestions we had, and did a fantastic job recreating the image, which I guess is pretty tricky to do digitally. So, a special shout-out to Nate, the other half of Jessica Johnston Photography who did the awesome post production work, I'm pretty sure.

I have to say, Nate and Jessica we so great to work with. I hate having my photo taken, but they made us feel like there wasn't a camera in sight. We traipsed around in the woods, climbed hills, got bit by mosquitos and dodged a skunk and all along they were so patient. Especially with our high strung dog, who doesn't listen to anyone once he is outdoors!

When it came time to pick our photos, we went to their studio in Ann Arbor. First of all, I have to say that their studio is so cool! Loved the way it was decorated! Lucite chairs and Flor carpet squares. Best part of all is the giant screen that drops down so that you can view all of your photos on a movie screen. We had about 35 to 40 images to chose from and if I could I would buy them all. They were all great, but luckily they were able to help us narrow it down.

So, if you are in need of any photography, you have to check them out. Please, please, please visit their website and blog to see their work. So worth it. Enough of my blathering. Here are some pictures from our session that she posted on her facebook site.