Rustic Yet Pretty Camping Theme Wedding Photo Shoot: Orange County Invitations

I am a huge fan of Jesi Haack Weddings. I love everything she creates, and I mean really creates as in crafts with her own hands, which I can sincerely appreciate. For this design challenge photo shoot, she created the concept of a couple that loves camping, but still wants a pretty wedding. After processing her idea I got to my own creating with the paper goods. It all started with the hiking trail invitation, a theme that's carried throughout the stationery. The menus were paper sleeping bags complete with flannel lining. Jesi created a 'smore station for each guest, so the place card is a skewer with plaid flannel and the guest's name.

I had so much fun creating these pieces and it was such an honor to work with such a talented group of creatives. Thank you so much to Gabriel and Carly Ryan for the beautiful pictures.

The team:

Design/Concept: Jesi Haack

Photography: Gabriel Ryan Photography

Floral Design: JL Designs

Cake: My Sweet and Saucy

Stationery: Yours Truly...Paper and Thread Studio

Bridal Shower Thank You Cards: Orange County Stationery

These sweet folded note cards were created as part of a gift for my best friend's bridal shower. The concept for the wedding is a garden full of cheerful yellow flowers.

Nautical "Wedding" for the Style Lab

It's no secret that I love everything that the Wedding Chicks do. Add in some Chenin Boutwell and Amanda Auer with In the Now Weddings, and it gets even more amazing. Chenin and Amy and Jocey (the wedding chicks themselves) put on a photography workshop a couple of times a year. The photographers in attendance were then able to put their skills to work with a mock wedding that was styled by In the Now Weddings. The concept was Nantucket Nautical and Amanda and all the talented vendors hit it on the head with the design. Rope topiaries, could you ask for more?

We designed the fabric folio invitation, which uses rope to hold the enclosure cards and a modern navy fabric as the cover and invitation backer. The knot was a motif we wanted to keep consistent, so it was used on the invitation, the favor tags, and the menu. We also created branding for the couple, which Amanda cleverly transferred to the coffee sleeves, which serve as additional guest favors. The signs were based on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" British propaganda posters, which I just happen to have taped to my monitor at all times.

For the full post and list of participating vendors, please click here

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, but it was such an honor to be included in this project and to have the one and only Chenin Boutwell photograph my work.

Stitched Love Notes on Style Me Pretty

When the ever-adorable Katie Neal asked me to be a part of a "day-after" photography session for her dear friend, I was of course honored and excited to get to work. The couple have actually been married for several years, but weren't happy with their wedding portraits, so Katie decided to remedy that.

Since there wasn't a tablescape, we had to be a bit creative with our use of paper. I created these simple and sweet stitched love notes and tags that the couple opened and read during the shoot. As I often say, inspiration often comes when I'm at the fabric store. I saw these vintage-inspired hankies and knew I had to use them somehow, so they are the backs of the tags and fit the color palette of navy, purple and light pink perfectly.

And aren't the flowers amazing. So simple, yet I could never do it. Leigh Anne of The Floral Lab rocked it yet again with her floral design talent.

Click here to see the rest of the post over on Style Me Pretty.

An Amazing Talent

My son is almost 2 and one thing I've been wanting to do since his birth is family portraits. Being in the wedding industry, I see so many talented photographers, but when I met Lane Dittoe, I knew he was just something different. First off, he shoots in film. I think that's part of the reason I love the way his photographs look; they're just softer than digital with lots of processing. It also doesn't hurt that he is a super nice guy. Lane, we cannot thank you enough for so beautifully documenting our family. Click here to see the full post from Lane's blog.

My hair and makeup is always a stresser, so Erica from 1011 Makeup, graciously came over to my house to make me up. Talk about sweet. I was so comfortable in her hands and she didn't even seem to mind one bit that a toddler was trying to get into her makeup goodies. She traveled to my house in Fallbrook, and travels all over San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties.

Book Theme Baby Shower Invitations

For 4 years we lived in a 1930s beach bungalow. It was where we started our family, where we made lifelong friends, and where I discovered my love for vintage details. Looking back, the house and yard were way too small, but one of the main reasons we fell in love with the house and eventually bought it were the original details: hex tiles in the bathroom, glass knobs, and who doesn't love a floor furnace (just kidding about that one) Well, I miss those little hex tiles and so decided to bring them back for their design debut on these baby shower invitations.

New Business Card Design

Confession: at the last wedding industry event I attended, I conveniently forgot my business cards in the car. Truth be told, I was embarrassed by them. I liked the design, but the paper quality was not quite my style. I even upgraded the paper to "high quality", but I guess this online print company's high quality and my idea of high quality paper differ greatly. I corner rounded them and tried to stitch on them, but they just were never anything I was proud of. So, I finally had my local printer print a trial run on 100% cotton 110lb thick cardstock, and I'm pretty much in love. Of course I had to add a little decorative stitching to the bottom edge.

A Great Cause and A Great Deal

Are you considering custom invitations from Paper and Thread Studio? If so, and you'd like to get a great deal and have 100% of that money go towards a local woman in need, head on over to REVOweddings. This organization was started by a few San Diego wedding vendors who got together to help one of their own who is battling cancer. This is a matter dear to my own heart and family, so I jumped at the chance to donate my services. Up for bid is a custom wedding invitation suite, which includes 100 sets of invitations, response cards and envelopes. The value is placed at $600 and the opening bid is only $200. There aren't any bids so far, and I'm really looking forward to working with the winning bidder. (Note: The listing says 50 invitations, but it should read 100.)

Orfila Vineyards Bridal Fair

I was recently honored with an invitation to display Paper and Thread's pieces at Orfila Vineyard's first Bridal Fair. The initial challenge of the event was the display. We had to get a little creative, call in for reinforcements, and nurse a couple blisters from the hours spent making paper flowers. It all turned out great and we received a ton of compliments on our display. It was a little windy, so you can't see both of my "As seen on" signs. My sweet father had the idea of making little signs that showed how my invitations were featured on Style Me Pretty and The Wedding Chicks. Hanging those signs gave me a little feeling of "wow, I'm kind of making it."

If I were planning my wedding, this would have been an event worth attending for sure. What better way to chat with wedding vendors than with a beautiful vineyard setting and a glass of wine in your hand. It was truly a lovely day and made me love what I do even more. Chatting with engaged couples, brides, and mothers of the brides about their ideas for their day reignited the enthusiasm I have for the wedding industry. A huge special thanks to my assistant for the day; Marissa, you rock and I'm so lucky to have you as a friend.

Enjoying the gifts

(Image by MKP Images)

I just wanted to reflect for a minute about one of my ever-present goals. It is to focus on the present and whatever act I'm doing at the moment, do it well and with intention. For me this means reading a book with my toddler without also checking my phone, or having one client's designs rule my computer screen without any internet windows open. It also is what led to my decision to leave my career in teaching to focus on this stationery business. Whatever I do, I really like to do well, and when I was designing invitations, teaching high schoolers, and being a mom and wife, I realized I wasn't able to excel in any of them because I was doing too many things. This was all inspired by a post on The Zen of Doing that I found through Sage Wedding Pros that quoted the zen proverb:

"When walking walk; when eating, eat."

If you are a wedding vendor, I highly recommend the Sage Wedding Pros blog. Sometimes I swear she can see my desk or thoughts because the posts are so spot-on.

Pinch Me, I'm on Style Me Pretty

This morning I woke up to the news that a photo shoot I worked on with Summer of Grey Likes Weddings was featured on Style Me Pretty. To even say those words is beyond amazing to me. I've admired so many of the stationers whose pieces are on this inspirational website, and to be among them, well, let's just say I teared up a little this morning.

It was such an honor to work with the visionary stylist, Summer Watkins. She sent interior design inspiration images and just trusted me to do something fun with the paper. We then came together on the day of the shoot and it was truly amazing to see her vision come to life. The florals from The Vines Leaf were stunning. Then when I saw the pictures from T&H Photography, I was even more impressed. Please click here to see the rest of the post.

The Process

I'm picky. I'm a picky eater and drinker. My coffee has to be hot, so I spend the better part of my morning in front of the microwave reheating it. I order tacos without lettuce and cheeseburgers just the meat, cheese, and bun. I'm also picky in the sense that I like to pick things, and I sometimes get carried away in the calmness that comes from these repetitive actions. Next time you're stressed, try picking weeds :)

This translates to my stationery pieces when I have to apply adhesive to 4 sides of 300 pages and perfectly place each one of its mounting, and I still find myself enjoying what I'm doing. I thought it would be fun to share the behind the scenes process of an average-sized order. These save the date luggage tags are for the grand opening celebration of an airport in Florida.


1) Print and cut all pieces.

2) Adhere the fronts and backs of each tag. Each card is then trimmed and the top corners are cut.

3) Measure center, punch holes, insert and set grommet.

4) Cut suede cording to size and thread through each grommet.

5) Final product with all its subtle picky details :)

Baby and Toddler Fair

Moms, if you live in the area of North County San Diego, you must check out Babies in Bloom. (Funny side note: I originally discovered this store after my sweet dog chewed my breast pump parts and I needed emergency replacements) They carry organic and all-natural products for babies and toddlers and have really great gift items.

This Saturday, the 20th, they are celebrating their business birthday. To celebrate, they're having a vendor fair from 10-1, a raffle to raise money for the Tri-City NICU, and a concert from Hullabaloo at 1pm. Come on by and say hello to the Paper and Thread table; we even have some cute goodies to give away.

Goings On

Just a little snippet of what's on the production table.

Photo Shoot Sneak Preview

Last week, Paper and Thread had the opportunity to create the paper goodies for a Wedding Chicks photo shoot. The adorable and talented pair of Carter and Cook took the design lead and style the entire shoot based on Jessica Claire's vision of buttons and the color yellow. We had one meeting where C&C shared their inspiration board and then we all went away and created our pieces. A couple of weeks later, we met up and it all just fit together perfectly. I can't wait to share the rest of the shoot, but for now, here's one of Jessica's shots from the day.

a few of my favorite things

It's nice to know such a talented floral designer as Leigh Anne with The Floral Lab. After a day spent in the sun and car, her creation still looks lovely in my home. This was only part of her floral display for a recent photo shoot for The Wedding Chicks, shot by Jessica Claire, an amazing photographer. Her blog has a sneak peak of the day and includes a Paper and Thread piece.

My other favorite thing, my growing milk glass collection.

Inspiration

To narrow down the inspiration behind Paper and Thread to one blog post was way more difficult than I imagined, but turned out to be a nice break from the evening's corner rounding and invitation assembly. I have Victoria at SF Girl By Day to thank for the brains behind Blog it Forward. Basically each day 9 scheduled bloggers post and link to the next blogger. This time around the topic is "what inspires you".

I feel blessed to be among some very creative minds and encourage you to check out the blogging chain. The previous post was from Papers & Packages and tomorrow's will be Paris Hotel Boutique.

(bathroom image via decorpad)

1...my surroundings. While my bathroom doesn't look anything like that, a girl can dream, right? And why not create some paper goods based on those design elements. Where I live and create also plays into the design process. The bottom image is the view from my studio and where I often find myself looking during design pauses. And of course, my family is the biggest inspiration and most important surrounding.

(images via amazon and Read Simple)
2...magazines. While I do frequently visit wedding and design blogs, there's nothing better than buying a magazine that catches your eye and flipping through real pages. I especially love the way Surfer's Journal uses color on their covers.

(fabrics from Hart's Fabric in Santa Cruz, CA and online)

3...fabric. The colors, the texture, the whimsy...there's really nothing more to say other than when I see fabric it makes me want to use it in creative ways.