Vintage Love

Last weekend I had the honor of standing up as the matron of honor in my cousin's wedding.  What was even more special about this event was that the reception was in my yard.  For a year I worked closely with my cousin to help plan and create lots of personal and special details to make their wedding day personal, special and fabulous.

Their theme consisted of a mix of rustic elements and vintage elements combined with a lot of though.  Below are some photos of the stationery for this fabulous event:



For the bachelorette party, we wanted to do something different.  We were tired of the same old bachelorette trip to the bar and wanted to do something a little more mature and personal.  We came up with the idea of a "cork and canvas" night - basically a wine night featuring some art projects!  We started our evening at a local winery and had a wine tasting, then went back and drank more wine and painted a large canvas for the bride and groom.  It was tons of fun, personal, unique, and now they have a cool piece of artwork to hang in their house.

When designing the invitations for her party, I wanted to stick with the wedding theme and give them a vintage feel.  And of course, because the party was going to be so cool, the invitations had to be rather fab!  I designed the invitations using a light silver metallic stock and mounted them on ivory stock.  The overall design featured a text heavy design with just a few framing elements to enhance the design.  I was so very happy with the final product and I loved how the coordinated so nicely with the wedding invitations and overall theme.

The invitations for the wedding were not just invitations - they were a work of art!  The invitations were printed on gray cardstock, with gray text and the names of the bride and groom printed in a bluish gray color.  Wrapped around the gray stock was a piece of lace.  The RSVP cards mirrored this look with the ivory stock on top and gray on the bottom.  The overall package was wrapped with rafia and man oh man did it look nice.  As a finishing touch, A personalized return address stamp was used on the envelope and guest addresses were printed on the envelopes:

For the wedding day I created lots of items including programs, menu cards, favor tags, signage and more:

Programs were printed on ivory paper with dark gray ink.  A vintage frame outlined the names of the bridge and groom and I used the same font for their names on the program that I used on the invitations.

The menu cards featured the same vintage frame and gray and blue text.  They were tied with rafia to mimic the invitations.  The invitatins were tucked into the napkins and were placed at each place setting.

The wedding decor was so cool.  Our grandmother had tons of old blue ball mason jars that were used as flower vases.  The vases sat on top of a slice of a walnut log.  The flowers were GORGEOUS.  Emily Ryers of Ryers flowers always does such nice work and this event was no exception.

Ryers flowers created this gorgeous floral arrangement that sat in front of the mailbox that doubled as a card box.  On each side of the mailbox featured a sign with the new address of the bride and groom:

The wedding favors were a DIY project made by the bride.  They were birdseed ornaments that each guest was to take home.  I created the sign that sat just above the favors:

The favors sat in front of a gorgeous vintage trunk and sat in a delicate bird bath - it was such a great way to display them!

Favor tags were created and strung to each favor:

In lieu of a guest book, the bride had small wooden discs that mimiced the look of the stumps that the flowers sat on.  Guests were encouraged to write words of wisdom to the bride and groom.    They then kept these in a basket and plan to display them in their home.  I created the bunting strung to the front of the basket, tied with rafia.

What I loved most was this personal display of family wedding photos.  The table featured photos of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, all in a variety of vintage frames.  I have seen this at several weddings and it is such a nice touch.  Plus, the display adds something personal and beautiful to the wedding decor.

And here is one last photo of the menu cards, I loved them so much!

Overall the wedding was gorgeous.  Guests drank out of mason jars, paper lanterns hung from the trees and twinkled at night.  The weather was perfect, the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome.  All in all it was a perfect day and a perfect memory.  Cheers to Ryan and Trish!