Paper crane garlands and boutonnières

From this Colombia wedding at Style Me Pretty:

This would be so easy!

More time consuming but an easy and cheap way to get light bursts of color in.

Popups and papercuts

Probably too much work, but a popup card would be fun, I think. The rest of this black & white wedding photo shoot was a little too stark for me.

(from Style Me Pretty)

This invitation printed on kraft paper with line drawings feels much more comfortable:

(via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

It would be cool to figure out a way to design this kind of invitation so that it would just require being printed on 8.5" x 11" paper, front and back, and then just cut out and assemble together. Maybe two slits on the main section for the extra folding sections to slip into?

This one would also be too complicated, but I love the look of it and that you'd be able to mail it flat but it'd almost be a 3-D work of art when unpacked. I think Dan would object to this on the grounds that it's a bit presumptuous to send out something that would take up so much space when displayed, which is probably fair.

(via Oh So Beautiful Paper) 

More infeasible complexity: papercuts!

(via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

To simplify this one, perhaps I could get my mom to buy some papercut design in bulk in China? That would likely be on red paper, too.

Or perhaps buying papercut invites off of Etsy, like these:

(Papeles Picados in aymujer's Etsy shop, $175 for 25--probably beyond budget)

It probably would be pretty easy to get papercuts of the 'shuang- xi^' character, but if not, it would be nice to include them somewhere in the design, like so:

(by We Heart Paper, via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Why is this symbol important? Quick Chinese culture lesson! (from Chinese Wedding Invitations)

The symbol of "Double Happiness" is something that cannot be missed during a Chinese wedding- whether it may be a traditional one or among those which have a more contemporary set-up.

It is usually printed on the invitation with the use of golden hot stamps. The symbol of Double Happiness is a declaration that the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be will be united. The symbol, which is composed of two standard Chinese characters used to signify "happiness", means that the couple and their families will now be "together".

Each of the characters that denote happiness is written as "hsi" or "xi" in Mandarin. In the case of the Double Happiness sign, the two "XI" characters signify the happiness of the newlywed couple that are about to spend their lives together. Pronounced as "shuang-xi", the sign generally stands for marital happiness. Note that the Double Happiness sign is not used in regular Mandarin writing, but is only observed for marital union invitations and declarations.

Stitched paper goods

I really like the idea of incorporating fabric and stitches into the paper goods somehow, since that gets across my crafty interests pretty well and the texture is interesting, too. I'd probably want to do something that I could do on my machine, with a needle dedicated to just paper projects.

These are probably too complicated, but perhaps some other, simple design that could be programmed into the machine?

(from Stitched, via dooce)

These, on the other hand, are just a simple straight stitch across the top. The 'save the date' is rubber stamped with chalk ink from Paper Source.

(by Alan Valek, via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Previously posted example of invitation with fabric insert here.

Speaking of rubber stamps, seems like this tutorial on making a pennant rubber stamp roller could come in handy.

(via The Storque)

You're The One That I Want

I'm in California for the week for work, and on the Caltrain into San Francisco this morning, 'You're The One That I Want' came up on my iPod and I thought, wouldn't this make a freaking awesome first dance song?

Here is my conversation with Dan over text message:

me: hey if we do a first dance could we do 'you're the one that i want' from grease? it's upbeat and catchy and we won't have awkward minutes of people watching us sway to some slow romantic song
dan: we'll discuss it
me: is that your way of saying 'no this triggers my hassle-causing nontraditional monitor but i am trying to not spoil your fun and shoot down every idea'?
dan: that's one interpretation of my choice of words

Actually Dan was more skeptical of the whole dancing thing at our venue and with our timing/choice of food, but I've seen photos online of people using the lower patio area as a dance floor. I will find a way to make it happen, I want dancing! Perhaps I will appoint Emily and Caitlin to be dance captains in charge of getting people to dance. Maybe that level of responsibility will distract Emily from her nefarious plan to get all my girlfriends to wear dresses of the same color so people think they are all bridesmaids.

Also, as with most ideas, it turns out this isn't nearly as original as I thought it would be. I've also never felt quite right about Sandy's makeover at the end of the film and it all feeds into the 'women must use their sexuality [strike 1] to force men to change [strike 2: men have to be changed] into marriageable material' thing. But, it's still fun and catchy (I couldn't get it out of my head all day today, kept bopping as I walked around SF) and it'd be funny, I think.

The sentiment would be a little bit more solemn for the ceremony, of course, though I think it's probably good to keep some levity in there too. As a life philosophy I try not to take myself too seriously. I really loved this quote posted by A Cupcake Wedding the other day, by David Sarasohn in an article titled, 'A Joint Account That Underwrites Our Marriage':

Being married to someone you respect for being somehow better than you keeps affection alive. That this impressive person chooses you year after year makes you more pleased with yourself, fueling the kind of mutual self-esteem that can get you through decades.

Dan does, in fact, make me want to be a better person, and a good chunk of my love for him is that he loves me. He is a fundamentally good person, and he chooses me. So I must not be too bad, too. The sentiment of 'you're the one that I want' turns out to be quite romantic after all, I think.

A link for my own future reference: various sample ceremonies at A Cupcake Wedding to peruse.

Wishpot

Friends, I have arrived as a wedding blogger: I received my first targeted email today! Kayli at Wishpot emailed me (well, addressed to 'A Jersey Hootenanny Wedding', anyway) to let me know that she loved this blog and would like to invite me to become a 'wedding expert' on their site...which basically sounds to me exactly like creating a registry there so they can sell advertising to target the engaged, but what do I know.

I probably shouldn't be so snarky, as Kayli probably sends out tons of these emails a day and it's probably a pretty boring job, and I was slightly excited to see it. And I've heard of Wishpot before so they're not scammy, I think. Amazon.com seems to have a decent Universal Wish List feature though so maybe we'll use that instead.

And now, for at least a little bit of pretty, here's a relatively simple (though possibly time-consuming) way to dress up the chairs for the ceremony using colored ribbons:

(from Style Me Pretty)

Hmm, I thought I had saved and posted another back-of-the-chair decoration that was just a long strip of fabric tied into a big bow, but I don't seem to have it in the archives. I think I like these straight lines better, though, as they're not overly girly.

Watermelon tap.

I don't care what the negative comments say, this project is made of WIN. If I had to make a list of limited (the horror! I love food!) foods I had to eat for the rest of my life, watermelon would definitely be near the top of that list.

instructions at evite

During senior year, we made a vodka watermelon with watermelon-flavored vodka. Our enthusiasm for the idea of the project outweighed our enthusiasm for the result by far, but this project seems to have a high likelihood for success.

As with all projects that would need to be made very close in time to the event, though, this probably needs to be farmed out to someone. Hmm, maybe my dad would be up for it...I can't decide if he thinks this would be an interesting enough challenge to go at it or if it would go on the long list of 'bonkers things my family has asked me to do.'

Interesting paper details

These were made by first digitally printing the woodgrain image and then letterpressing the text. Mmm letterpress texture...

(Jefferson + Sarah at Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Stitched printed fabric insert with a tearaway RSVP postcard:

(by Studio on Fire via Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Teeny envelope on a postcard:

({un}veiled vows via a desert fete)

Scalloped edge and ribbon-tied programs:

(Tasha and DW Gibson at Oh So Beautiful Paper)

Typewriter guestbook

(Jessica + Matt at the haystack needle)

Save that date!

Today, I mailed in our first for-real wedding expenditures--the deposit/application fee to hold June 18th, 2011 as the date of our wedding at the Mountain Lakes House. It's $500 now and then we'll get a formal contract in January 2011 with payments of the rest of the site rental fee due in installments from then on.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't decided whether I want to do some cool save-the-dates or just do an email announcement, but one idea I like for save-the-dates is to buy vintage postcards of your location and print out the information (date, location, wedding website) onto adhesive labels.

Typewriter invitations

I just discovered the Oh So Beautiful Paper blog a couple days ago and am actively stopping myself from pouring over its archives any more than I already have. I've restrained myself to those that incorporate typewritten letters into the invitations for now (Dan has a typewriter at his mom's and has been instructed to bring it back next time he drops by there):

(Kathleen and Jeremy)

I like the juxtaposition of fancy title font on classy paper with kraft paper envelopes

(more info)

I wonder if I could cajole Molly or Emily to do a painting of us?

(Mike and Emma)

And one more example of typewriter on vellum, from the haystack needle:

Tree branch arbor

We'll have to visit the Mountain Lakes House again to figure out how we'd want the outdoor version of the ceremony to be set up on the lawn. There may be  a large tree that we could center it around, but I also like this tree branch arbor made from found wood:

(from Style Me Pretty)

The texture allows it to be dressed very simply with just some light fabric.

We wouldn't have a chuppah since we aren't Jewish, but I do like the birch poles:

(from A Practical Wedding)

On the other hand, when we visited Prallsville Mills, Brillman's Rental Barn showed us a book of sample setups of the venue. There was one photo of a pair of bright blue vintage doors that Sue said the couple's florist had hooked them up that I also quite liked for the color and the offbeat-ness.

Cupcakes in teacups

Every couple of days I waver on whether I should keep Style Me Pretty in my Google Reader, because sometimes it makes me feel like I'm overdosing on unattainable imagery, especially since they feature a lot of photo shoots and not just real weddings. Then, they will go ahead and post something like these cupcakes in teacups:

(photos by Red Bliss)