Winter Wedding Inspiration Board

Ideas for a Beautiful and Magical Winter Wedding. 

Add a sprinkle of snowflakes, fluffy furs and warm cocktails by the fire. Shimmering white gowns and icy blue accessories. Want these beautiful things? Check out the winter wonderland here.

Invitations - How to DIY caligriphy on dark envelopes

image from calligraphybycami.com

So I had a slight dilemma. My Wedding colors are Navy and Hot Pink / fuchsia. I could go with the cheap option and do white #10 envelopes with Navy writing. That would be oh-so easy. I'd just feed my envelopes right on through my printer with my pretty calligraphy font of choice. But if you know me, you know I can't do anything the easy way. I wanted navy blue envelopes...it doesn't get much darker than that. So the question remained. How do you get beautifully caligraphered handwriting on a dark blue envelope?

Option 1: Find a calligrapher to write out all my invitations in a white or silver ink and pay about $2/ envelope. So times that by 150 people + all the return envelopes and you have a $600 cost. Yikes!

Option 2: Take up calligraphy classes. Very pricey and time consuming...

Option 3: Labels - yuck. Talk about cheesy and cheap looking.

However there is a solution. You can have your beautiful calligraphy and make people think you paid lots of moolah for handwritten envelopes. How is this possible you ask... tracing.

I know what you're thinking. How can you trace on dark? A light box won't shine through. Ahhh, but you must think differently. I used my printer to print the invitations in black ink on my navy envelopes. Then trace in your pen color of choice.

Here is the envelope with the black printed on blue

My next dilemma, which is something you can't really see right now is the pen. I purchased a silver gel pen that is supposedly fine tip (0.7mm). Well, it's not fine enough for what I'm doing. After purchasing the gel pen, I thought I'd try another option. I then bought a Pen-touch 1.0mm fine point marker in silver. Immediately when I opened it I thought, "who is the jerk calling this thing fine point?". So now I'm on a journey to find the perfect gel pen/marker. I don't care if it writes in silver or white, just that it's thin enough for this application. My next option is that I will try to print a test envelope in my beautiful font bold, rather than regular. Hopefully that will give some leeway in the teeny scrollwork of the font.

If you're asking where to find a lovely font, there are plenty of wonderful fonts out there. Scour dafont.com or where I found mine, fontstock.net. They're free for personal use! There are so many to choose from you're sure to find something you like.  Below is a combo of Beautiful ES & Beautiful Caps ES swash for my caps.  I got them  here.

My trial with the gel pen.  It didn't flow nicely and gave me spots where I needed to go over the text several times

Frustrated in trying to find a perfect pen, I ran across this link which should help me in my pen search.  It's a comparison video of gel pens and gives me hope.  I think I'll be able to find my perfect pen after all.  I'll keep going with the search and let you know how it goes and what works for me.

DIY Sailboat Save the Dates

It took a few revisions and a lot of creativity to get to my final result (left), my cute little sailboats.  This post is all about my process of how I got there and how you can do something similarly cute for your invitations or your save the dates!

Looking for something a little different for my save the dates, I had designed quite a few different  "looks" going on.

The first two were quite simple.  My theme for my wedding is the compass rose, given that this is a nautical wedding by the ocean. 

So, I started with this design(below) , then I deviated to something similarly nautical, which was the ship wheel.

After taking polls everyone seemed to like the ship wheel due to the fact that it was easier for those with poor eyesight to read the text inside the wheel.

As much as I like these little save the dates, I still felt like I wanted something more memorable than this.  I happened to find this post for DIY save the date boats from broadway paper.

As much as I liked these little boats, I ran into a couple of problems.
1.) where the heck do you find lollipop sticks?
2.) I wanted it to be more "boat-looking" than what was pictured

I also noticed an issue when it came time for printing, which I easily solved.

Here are my little boats and how I did them by modification of the DIY project.

What you'll need:

• 9x12 construction paper (heavyweight)
• 8" bamboo skewers (I found a bag of 100 for $1.99 at Stop and Shop)
• A printer that can adjust to 9"x12" printing
• a x-acto knife

Instructions

1. On your computer create two triangles from a square that is 4" x 3.75".
2. Copy this shape until you have 6 squares or 12 triangles on your page (this will fit nicely on a 9x12 sheet but you will lose two squares if you are using a 8 1/2 x 11 standard sheet of paper) - this will be your sail.
3. Create a new sheet and again make a square that is 4" x 3.75".  Cut off the top and bottom corners and you should be left with a 6 sided hexagon.
4.  Divide the hexagon in two by placing a cut line horizontally through the shape - this should make two boats.
5. Repeat the hexagon throughout the page so you get 6 hexagons per page or 12 boats.  If you can only print on 8 1/2 x 11 you'll probably only be able to fit at most 10 boats.
6. Print and cut out your sails and boats.
7. Sails require 4 slices from the x-acto.  Two on the top (in photo above the anchor)  and two below (next to the web address in the photo).  Start "sewing" the skewer from the back of the sail as to not hide the text on the front of the sail.
8. The boat portion only requires 3 slices from the x-acto.  The first I placed above the writing "formal invitation to follow".  The next two are on the base of the boat.
9. Trim the wood skewers to the desired length when done.

Tip:  Make sure you slice your cuts long and not close to the edge.  The first one I did was too small and it ripped open the top of the sail!

Holiday Spirit with Signature Drinks

Photo: Food & Wine Magazine

Need some inspiration to make your Holiday Party filled with Christmas Spirits?  Look no further than the classic cocktail. 

Food and Wine Magazine has a great guide to classic and not-so-classic cocktails.  Use it as inspiration for your next Holiday party or your Wedding.  A fun way to add pizazz to your Wedding or event is to supply a signature cocktail.

This can be based on the colors of your Event or Wedding or your Theme.  You can even take a classic drink and re-name it based on your theme.


Need some Fall Inspiration? Check out this Sparkling Pomegranate Punch recipe from Food and Wine.


The Flavors of Fall

The fall brings us some fantastic flavors and ingredients.  Some of your favorite childhood flavors are what make up the best drinks for the holidays.

Experiment with all the colors, textures and scents the fall and winter months bring to create a cocktail that is uniquely your own.

Play with ingredients like Eggnog, Apple Cider and Pomegranate Juice. Experiment with familiar cozy scents like Cinnamon and Nutmeg.

Remember balance is key when making your perfect concoction.  Balance flavors like tart and sweet.  Get the Tart from things like cranberries and sweet from things like cider or pomegranate.

Garnish can be just as fun to add and give guests an idea of what's in the drink.  Tossing some Cranberries, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon sticks or even a wedge of lemon can make your drink look professional and festive.

If your traditional iced drink is not what you're in the mood for, heat it up with some spices and your stovetop or crockpot.  Spiced (and spiked) Apple Cider is always a big hit and tastes like  fall in a cup.  Don't forget your mulling spices for the full effect.

For extra fun, name your drink a festive or cute name for your theme. 

Some Holiday Drink Name ideas are:
Santa's Helper
Rudolph Punch
Christmas in July (something tropical?)
Snowstorm
Tis' the Season cider

Some Wedding Drink Name Ideas are:
Spiced Love
Sweetheart Cider
Cozy Cocktail
Pomegranate Passion

Two new ways to "release" some fun at your wedding or event

Photo from: hatomugisan.tumblr.com

We've all seen birdseed, confetti and bubbles after the ceremony, but for something a bit different and very personalized to your color scheme or logo/ monogram, there are two very exciting options for you.

The first is colored bubbles.  Yes, that's right, the bubbles you've learned to love and associate with your childhood can now be color matched to your wedding.  It's called Zubbles and they're brightly colored bubbles that don't stain!

 Imagine having a bubble machine at your reception with colored bubbles in your color theme, or give guests bubbles to blow after your ceremony!  With Zubbles, you can have a magical event that everyone will remember.

image from: serdaroner.blogspot.com

Want something more personalized?  Then flogo's might be right for you. 

What is a flogo?  It's a floating logo that's produced by using helium, soaps and even dye.  Think of it as a giant "soap cloud". 

Use it to promote your company brand, your wedding monogram or even your event theme.  The company claims their soap clouds are much more eco-friendly than balloons and naturally dissolve in the air.

While a cool idea, flogos will run you quite a bit of money to rent for the day.