Wedding Fonts

In the Summer 2007 New York Wedding Guide, Lisa Hoffman, the creator of Ceci New York, names the 'Ellida' as the most in demand wedding invitation font. According to Hoffman, the 'Ellida' has "that glamorous, over-the-top feel to it, so it could be used on a more modern invitation that wants a hint of embellishment, or it can be used on a classic invite. It has beautiful letter shapes and a nice free-flowing form, and the thick and thin strokes add a lot of character.”

{photos from CeciNY}

We really love this font used sparingly like for the names of the bride & groom in these Ceci designs. However, be careful using fonts with so many swashes and flourishes- Faye and I still laugh about the wedding invitation she received where the font was so flowery that she actually had to call the mother of the bride to ask when and where the wedding would be! You can purchase the 'Ellida' font from MyFonts.com for $49.

{Top: CeciNY for Annie and Nick; Bottom: CeciNY for Lindsay and Ezra}

Surprisingly, the fonts used in Blueprint Magazine (a Martha Stewart publication) are also becoming popular for wedding stationery, especially the 'Fling' font ($39) used on the cover (top row, left & foreground, bottom row, left). Other fonts used in the magazine include Kursivschrift (foreground, bottom row, right) and Missionary (background, bottom row, left & right).

{photos from Flickr}

If you aren't interested in paying for fonts, dafont.com offers thousands of fonts that you can download for free, and many of them work for wedding stationery as well. One that I keep noticing is Fontleroy Brown, and its sister font, Little Lord Fontleroy. Here are some elegant wedding invitations using these fonts:

{Top: CeciNY for Nicole and Benjamin; Bottom: Mantilla by Louella Press}

Martha also used this font on the packaging for these mini-pecan pie favors:

{Left: photo from Martha Stewart Weddings; Right: Enjoy from us!}

Cherries

Jordan from Oh Happy Day recently reminded me of this simple party or wedding favor from Martha Stewart Weddings:

{photo from Martha Stewart}

That picture gave me a cherry craving, but when I saw these pictures from my favorite food blog, La Tartine Gourmande, I was forced to pick up some fresh cherries for myself!

{photos from La Tartine Gourmande}

Her classic cherry clafoutis recipe looks pretty involved, but well worth it. Unfortunately, it calls for 4 cups of cherries, and after my fiance and I got our paws on them last night we definitely don't have enough to try the recipe- guess I'll have to go get more!

{photos from La Tartine Gourmande}

Mexican Paper Flowers

In the June/July issue of Domino, Laura Cramer lists Mexican paper flowers as one of her "10 things that make me happy" and we would add them to our own top 10 lists as well!

{Top: (L) photo from National Park Service, (R) photo from Flickr}

If you are having a destination wedding in Mexico (or if you are lucky enough to be invited to one), this save-the-date by Bird & Banner comes with directions on how to create your own flower using the contents of the invitation!

{photos from Bird & Banner}

Interface Lift

Anyone who sees me working on my computer comments on my wallpapers, and I get them all from Interface Lift. It is a website where people from around the world, both amateur and professional photographers, upload their pictures that you can download for free in any size- widescreen, thumbnail, whatever you need. When I feel like I need a change of scenery in my sad little office with no windows, I browse the most downloaded and the highest rated wallpapers. For a little escape, these are in my current rotation:

{Top: (L) Estontown in the Netherlands, (R) Truk Lagoon, Micronesia;
Bottom: (L) White Houses in Santorini, Greece, (R) St. Maarten Caribbean Harbor}

Destination Weddings

One of my friends is contemplating a destination wedding, but she has no idea where! So while trying to help, I stumbled upon this simple letterpress destination wedding invitation from A Day in May:

{image from A Day in May}

What I like about this invitations is that you can customize it just by changing the stamp design and for $100 they will design a new stamp for your wedding locale. This is a great way to get a customized letterpress invitation without paying the custom price! Here are all the existing destination designs:

{images from A Day in May}

Hopefully you will have nailed down the location before looking at these- I want to go to all of these places now!

Sk*rt us!

Wow- I just got back from running errands and I thought our sitemeter had to be wonky, but it looks people are voting for us on sk*rt and we are now "popular"! Check out sk*rt if you haven't already; it's like Digg but geared more towards women and their interests, the tagline is "just like that friend who always finds the best stuff...only better" and I hope you all will start to consider us like that!

Two Paperdolls

One of our favorite stationery design studios is Two Paperdolls. Their wedding stationery incorporates engraving, thermography, lithography, and letterpress techniques with modern color combinations and textures. One of their designs was featured in Martha Stewart Weddings (Fall 2006), and Faye and I both love the simplicity but also their attention to detail:

{photos from Two Paperdolls}

For this wedding in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Two Paperdolls used the iconic LOVE Park symbol and saturated colors like purple, white, and gold. We love the thoughtful details by the florist too, like the green mum ring pillow tied with French vintage ribbon.

{photos from Brides}

For this couple's wedding in Naples, Florida, Two Paperdolls designed beachy cream and sky blue stationery with a recurring palm tree monogram.

{All photos from Two Paperdolls}

Boutonnière Amnesia

Faye and I were so preoccupied with bouquets for me and my bridesmaids that we completely forgot about the groom's flowers! So after our first meeting with the florist, we came home and found these pictures of boutonnières are little bit different and less traditional:

{Top: (L) pink ranunculus from The Knot, (R) red dahlia from The Knot;
Bottom: (L) purple dahlia from Brides, (R) white orchid from Brides}

You can also browse The Knot photo galleries of boutonnières for more options. So the lesson is: don't get so wrapped up in your own details that you forget what your groom will look like at the end of the aisle!

The Most Perfect Wedding Shoe

J.Crew has these Darby suede wedges in Pale Gold back in stock in select sizes. I finally tracked down a pair for my outdoor wedding and am so happy with them: the color is more champagne than gold, the heel height is comfortable (2 3/4"), and the wedge is perfect for outdoor weddings where a traditional heel would sink into the ground. When I brought the shoes in for my fitting, everyone at the bridal shop agreed- they are truly the perfect wedding shoe. If your size is not available online, call a J.Crew Special Occasions Coordinator. They found a pair for me and shipped them overnight the same day from New York so that I could have them for my fitting. Faye and I both are J.Crew customers for life now, their customer service really went above and beyond so give them a chance!

{photo from J.Crew}

Blogging Brides

{photo from Brides}

Aside from the 100% wedding blogs out there (Style Me Pretty, Something Old, Something New, Weddingbee, etc.), there are many bloggers who are either planning a wedding themselves or just post about everything, including weddings. Here are our favorites non-wedding blogs to find wedding inspiration:

• Love Made Visible: weddings
  
• Black Eiffel: weddings
  
• Brown Turtleneck Sweater: I've got a wedding to plan!
  
• EmilyStyle: weddings
  
• Oh Joy!: here comes the bride...
• {frolic!}: For The Bride
• Paper crave: weddings
• A Little Sussy: weddings
  

To those bloggers who are in the midst of planning your own wedding, we can't wait to see more of your ideas and hopefully you'll find some here- if you know of any others (or if you have a blog yourself), please let us know by leaving a comment so we can add it to our daily reads!

Have a great weekend- Faye & Greer

Flowers for Friday

Pretty pink flowers for Friday...

{photos from Brides}

Brown Paper Packages...

...tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things...don't these look delicious?

{Top L: Miette, R: Alice's Tea Cup; Bottom: both photos from La Tartine Gourmande}

Love the idea of little brown paper wrapped cupcakes for a wedding, or just for a Friday! If you want to try some yourself, you can find the recipe for the berry brioche puddings pictured on the bottom row at La Tartine Gourmande- but if you do try them, you must let us know how hard they were to make!

Thinking Green

Just saw this post on the Hostess Blog: the founder of "The Bridal Bar" boutique wrote a special article about thinking green for your wedding or next event.

{photo from Hostess Blog}

This reminded us of the green wedding featured on Brides {via frolic!}. We really liked the soothing colors and the modern feel:

{photos from Brides}

These salvaged glass vases from Anthropologie {via Holly's Plate} would be perfect; the bottles are recycled glass so you can feel good about buying them and we are sure that you will find a way to use them again after your wedding.

{L: photo from Anthropologie, R: photo from Brides}

I'm so happy that eco-friendly weddings are starting to be profiled because the wedding industry seems to push a lot of details that can lead to waste. What I love most about this story is their advice for brides: "What I can’t consume, reuse or recycle, I’ll rent."

Other resources:

• Check out the green wedding idea from Abby of Style Me Pretty
• A Soolip green wedding
  
• Portovert: a magazine for "eco-savvy brides & grooms"
• How to throw an eco-friendly wedding (from Brides)
• Splendora Eco-Style
  

Hand-picked oranges

We love the idea of fruit centerpieces, so we wanted to share our favorite orange ideas:

{photos from Brides except for bottom left from Hostess Blog}

The Hostess Blog recently posted about hosting a citrus-themed bridal shower, and we think these ideas are perfect for that or just for everyday using oranges, tangelos, clementines, and kumquats. And the cake by Kate Sullivan of Lovin Sullivan Cakes is perfect!

Nirali Weddings & Saima Says

Just catching up on one my favorite blogs, Love Made Visible, and saw the most amazing pictures from the latest e-issue of Nirali magazine, especially in the wedding photospread "When Mehndi met Mariachi." The whole wedding is stunning owing to the fusion of Indian and Mexican cultures and to the creativity of the event designers at Oh How Charming! event production & design.

{photography by Elizabeth Messina via Nirali Weddings}

Nirali magazine is an online publication for South Asian Americans and Canadians, and the June issue is all about weddings! There are some other wonderful articles in this issue for all brides, including helpful tips from real brides, how to pick a wedding photographer, and a lovely article on wedding invitations featuring designs by Saima Kahn of Saima Says Design. Check out her website- her designs are textile inspired and incorporate pattern and texture to make perfectly colorful and sweet invitations:

{photos from Saima Says Design}

Lovin Sullivan

I know we already did a huge post on how to pick a wedding cake and showed our favorite designs, but we couldn't talk more about cakes without mentioning Kate Sullivan. Her designs are always original, modern, and cheerful drawing on inspiration from Preston Sturges, Andy Warhol, Frieda, and even Pucci prints. Here are our favorite Lovin Sullivan Cake designs:

{1 & 2: photos from Lovin Sullivan; 3: The Knot; 4 & 5: Lovin Sullivan; 6: Brides}

Treasure Hunt

We can't stop talking about this treasure box by India Hicks featured in InStyle magazine recently, which is a huge improvement on potpourri. It would make a great hostess or housewarming gift; we love the little trinkets like the skeleton key and the bronze skull & crossbones- so much better than wood chips and pinecones!

{photo from Crabtree & Evelyn}

And in the spirit of the treasure hunt, wouldn't you be excited to receive this wedding invitation designed by Grapevine Weddings in the mail?

{photos from Grapevine Weddings}

Southern Weddings, continued...

We have already talked about how much we love Southern Weddings by event planner and designer Tara Guerard at Soiree Charleston. Our favorite wedding featured in the book was outdoors on Spring Island in South Carolina, but we didn't have pictures to share until now! We loved the silvery blue ribbons and letterpressed menus and placecards, along with the elegant sterling silver candlesticks and votives. Luckily, pictures of the wedding were also published in Charleston Weddings magazine, so here are some highlights!

{photography by Liz Banfield, via Charleston Weddings}

Map Wedding Invitations

Although many wedding invitations now include custom-designed maps for guests, we love the idea of the map as a general aesthetic for the actual wedding invitation or save-the-date, especially if the wedding is a destination wedding on an island or a lake. We had our hearts set on this idea for my own upcoming wedding, but unfortunately the cost of custom-designed letterpress was not in our budget. But if you can do letterpress and are interested in a unique invitation that you will always love to look back at, here is some inspiration:

{Top row: Bahamas and Cape Cod map invitations by CeciNY; Bottom: Oahu invitation by Rosebud Studios, Mexico map invitation by Dauphine Press}

If, like us, you find these options do not fit in your budget but you need custom maps to include in your invitations, check out OlioStyle- they offer custom-designed maps that you print yourself for only $45.

{image from OlioStyle}

Summer Reading

Just saw Kate Spade's summer reading list and had to share- I have only read Franny & Zooey from their list, but I definitely recommend it!

{image from Kate Spade}

They also have 3 free downloadable wallpaper covers for your books, made from vintage magazine and bookcovers.

{image from Kate Spade}

This is my favorite- I love the yellow rose on the vintage Vogue cover:

{image from Kate Spade}

While all of Kate's recommendations look classic and interesting, I can't take anything too serious (or anything hardback) when I'm being a bum or traveling, so if you are looking for just some fluff reading for the beach, the pool, or the plane, I have enjoyed these three books by Emily Giffin that are now all available in paperback (I got mine at Costco for under $8 each)...

{image from Emily Giffin}

Read Something Borrowed first, then Something Blue, then Baby Proof. They are definitely fun and quick reads, which is perfect when you are lazing about this summer. Enjoy!

White Bouquets

I know they sound boring because we used to think so too. At first, Faye and I both gravitated towards the most colorful, vibrant bouquets; we would just sift through our wedding books and Martha Stewart Weddings issues, oohing and ahhing over every bright bouquet we could find. But after a few months of planning, we found ourselves getting bored and, as with almost everything else wedding-related (invitations, cakes, menus), we started to realize that simple and elegant didn't have to mean boring and plain. Since then, we found some pictures of really beautiful white bouquets that we wanted to share:

{Clockwise: ranunculus bouquet from The Knot, anemone bouquet from Artfool, peony bouquet by Artfool via The Knot, hydrangea & rose bouquet from The Knot}

Here are some slightly leafier varieties:

{photos from Brides}

Camp Lanterns

Love this picture (via A Little Sussy):

{photos from Brides}

Obviously the dress is just beautiful, but the lanterns are pretty too! We spotted these camp lanterns while out shopping over the weekend in the window display of Pottery Barn Kids of all places:

{photo from Pottery Barn Kids}

They can be plugged into an outlet inside or they can run on batteries outside. We love the way Colin Cowie decorated this reception by hanging silver lanterns from the trees:

{photos from Brides}

I thought the red lanterns might look a little too much like boy scout camp, but then we saw these reception pictures! The red lanterns and white dahlias in red pails look so crisp for a garden wedding reception, and they look more sophisticated wedding than wilderness retreat:

{photos from Artfool}

Crawling the walls

Checking in quickly this Sunday morning to share these letterpressed bugs by Porridge Press on Etsy- they would be beautiful framed together on the wall of an office or study room, or they could be fun for a little boy's room...

{photos from Porridge Papers}

The Bee's Knees Lanterns

Faye and I loved these hanging chinese lanterns in the Winter 2007 issue of Martha Stewart Weddings (although they are easier to see in the magazine!):

{photo from Martha Stewart Weddings}

They listed Dean & Deluca in the resource section, but of course when I called they had no idea what I was talking about and forwarded me to different stores all over New York City. So after about an hour of that, I gave up on my beautiful chinese lanterns. Then a few weeks later, Mackenzie blogged about these lanterns from Graham & Green:

{photo from Graham & Green, via Something Old, Something New}

I was really excited until I realized that this company was based out of the UK and, with the exchange rate, even the smallest lantern was $24.72, so I gave up again. But I am happy to say that today I found these "the bee's knees" lanterns at Anthropologie AND they are only $15 each- look how pretty!

{L: photo from The Knot; R: photo from Anthropologie}

Pearl River Mart online also sells similar wire lanterns for $19.50 each.

Summer Colors

Paper Dolls Design recently predicted six summer color palettes by drawing inspiration from J. Crew dresses and their own wedding invitation line. I like all of them, but these are our top three:

{Palette 1: Playa strapless dress by J.Crew, Provence by Paper Dolls Design;
Palette 5: Sarah keyhole silk faille dress by J.Crew, The Biltmore invitation by Paper Dolls Design;
Palette 6: Marybeth dress by J.Crew, Sophie invitation by Paper Dolls Design}
{images from Paper Dolls Design}

The colors they put together here look subtle and modern- we love the idea of bringing colors in through invitations and bridesmaids' dresses, but don't forget to tie them into other elements like your cake, flowers, and in little details throughout. That is what we love about all of Tara Guerard's weddings- she weaves color into subtle elements that may seem insignificant but when taken together make a huge impact. Here are some of our favorite color details by Tara at Soiree Charleston:

{Top: photos from The Knot; Bottom: photos from Brides}