happy new year!

i can't believe 2008 is upon us already. for all you brides getting married in '08, you know what this means-- you are getting married THIS year!! i'm looking forward to working with the amazing couples i have met already and can't wait to post some of the great designs i've been working on with my brides and grooms. if you are getting married this summer, or know of anyone who is still looking for invitations, call me! i have lots of availability to design for weddings this year.

i hope 2008 brings nothing but the best for all of you!

xoxo linz

christmas postcards

i've been keeping busy over the past few weeks designing christmas cards, one of my favorite projects for my all-time favorite holiday! seriously, christmas makes me so happy. so of course anything that has to do with it makes me happy, too! i discovered an amazing and inexpensive online printer that does a great job at a low price, which is always nice to find! my goal is to have a line of templates designed by next year's holiday season so you can choose a background and personalize it by adding your own photograph and text. of course i will ALWAYS take custom orders, but i know not everyone wants to spend a ton of money this time of year! so keep me in mind next year when it's time to think about sending out those holiday cards. feel free to contact me if you'd like a sample of a printed piece. check out my favorites below.

our christmas postcard!

i kept steve's postcard plain and simple... as you'll see, the picture says it all!

katie and spencer chose the first design, but i loved all these and had to show them!

ugly christmas sweater parties!

we went to the first (of three!) sweater parties last night. it was so much fun! my good friend deidra from high school and her husband were the hosts. they had a few activities planned and really did such a good job planning the party. john and i had on tacky sweatshirts, but most of their guests went all out! we're talking long plaid skirts, thick cords, sweater vests, and of course, the "mom" jeans! it was such a fun night and we're so thankful to have such good friends.

ugly sweaters!

john, the christmas tree!

me and my friend's baby. isn't he the cutest?!

lauren & jesse's wedding

john and i went to our last wedding in 2007 on saturday (i think it was our 8th wedding of the year...) lauren, the younger sister of my dear friend leslie, was such a gorgeous bride! she and her now-husband jesse were married at the cathedral in nw portland, and had their reception at the acadian ballroom (which just so happens to be the same place we had our reception!) the ceremony was beautiful and so perfect for this awesome couple! it was so fun watching them up at the altar because they just looked so comfortable and IN LOVE. the reception was awesome, and the ballroom looked so great. i loved their centerpieces (the tall grassy pieces were a great idea!) and their cake was SO delicious! they had a few different flavors of cake-- including my all-time favorite, pumpkin. it was such a great night and we are so thankful they invited us to witness their love on such a big day. congrats you two!!

ceremony at the cathedral

one of the tables at the acadian ballroom

loved the cake!

very simple but classy centerpieces

the newlyweds!

lauren's beautiful dress

john and leslie (the maid of honor)

me and leslie

family wedding in texas

my family and i flew to texas this past weekend for my cousin's wedding... WOW what a trip! we had the best time! my whole family was able to attend which was so incredible. my brother recently joined the coast guard, and was at boot camp in new jersey until last friday. my parents flew out there to see him graduate, and then flew back with him to texas that evening. it worked out so perfectly that he was able to join us!

the ceremony was beautiful, and my cousin kristina looked so gorgeous. her grandmother gave her a beautiful mantilla style wedding veil that i fell in love with (see the picture below!) the reception was held at an italian restaurant nearby and was so much fun! the music was great, the food incredible, and the live band at the end of the night was the perfect touch! thanks to kristina and her husband justin for hosting such an amazing event. we love you guys!

aunt lois and uncle george with kristina, the beautiful bride!

love the mantilla!

the stenstrom and zogas family!

bride and groom's first dance

client comments

eileen and her fiancé tim were my very first clients when i started this business, and they also happened to be my first long-distance job! eileen called me from her home in california after her aunt showed her an invitation i designed for my best friend's cousin last november. i knew within the first few minutes of our conversation that we would get along fabulously! she was so excited to be getting married and i could just tell how special her relationship with tim was. i wanted their invitations to be perfect for them, and in the end they were just that (see the eileen invitation in my pdf). lucky for me, eileen also referred two of her engaged friends who hired me shortly after (check out the jennifer and kelli invitations!) eillen and tim, thank you for being such wonderful clients!!

read her sweet letter of recommendation below:

* * * * *

Lindsay-

I have been meaning to write and officially Thank You. We are so happy we found you to work with for our wedding. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you and we could not have been happier with the final product of our invitations, programs, and thank you notes. The quality of printing, paper, and overall look was amazing!

There are some fabulous things I think your future clients should know about working with you. You are dependable, responsible, and creative. You got proofs, changes, samples, ideas, etc sent to us so quickly. Even though we live in different states, it was so easy to see how the invitations, programs, and thank you notes were developing through the PDF emails you sent us and the samples we got in the mail. We loved the choices that began the quest for our wedding invitation design. You were so helpful in getting the final design of the invitation done the way we wanted. Working with you was one of the easiest parts of the wedding planning.

It was so much fun to get to know you and I am so excited to see your business grow! I am happy to answer any questions or share my experience with anyone that is thinking about working with you. I will recommend you to anyone I know, who is getting married or knows somebody that is getting married

Thanks again!

Eileen

P.S. I am honored to have an invitation named after me!

check out some amazing wedding vendors!

i added a new sidebar with links to a few amazing vendors i've gotten to know. my husband and i hired honeysuckle photography for our wedding, and we couldn't imagine having better photos! maggie and josh (owners) were incredible to work with on our wedding day, and truly captured our love on camera. i was so lucky to work with them again this past summer when my best friend hired them for her wedding! her pictures are amazing-- check out "katie and spencer" under the slideshows at honey-photo.com. my wedding pictures aren't online anymore, but i'd be happy to email you a few of my favorites if you want to see!

we also booked shawn from event team northwest as our wedding dj, but lucky for us he was WAY more than just the average dj! he was our wedding director, and ran the whole reception. he helped things move along so smoothly, and kept our guests excited and entertained the entire night. there was never a dull moment thanks to him! he was organized and on top of every detail, something i very much appreciated!

the third vendor listed from our wedding is focal point digital media. those guys were fantastic! dan and ryan did such an incredible job of filming our wedding, and we watch our dvd all the time. i know a lot of people don't figure videographers into their wedding budget, but i'm here to tell you that you need to! we were very lucky to have amazing photographs as well, but there is something about a video that is just as important. being able to see our families and friends in action, and hearing our grandparent's voices and watching our bridal party give amazing toasts... all those things we hold so dear and love to experience over and over again. check them out and add them to your budget-- you will be so glad you did!

xoxo linz

introducing my line of invitations!

after working with so many amazing brides this summer, i have named my invitations after them! download the pdf to view my line of invitations (and check out the few below). this is just a small sampling of what i'm capable of, so if you see something you love or want to see more, please contact me! linzmariedesigns@gmail.com, or 971.645.9155.

welcome!

welcome to my blog! i've wanted to do this for awhile, and luckily today i was inspired to just do it! i wanted to wait until i had designed my new identity (which is done for the most part), or a website up and running (which is still slowing coming together), or this and that... too many excuses i guess. instead of thinking about it too much, how about i just start writing? so, here i am! thanks to kathy from heaven's eye photography for suggesting i do this :) i was introduced to her through my friend deidra, and had the pleasure of meeting her and her ADORABLE son today for coffee. kathy took a few amazing photos of deidra's newborn son last month that i used in his baby announcement (see below), and after seeing her work online i knew i needed to meet her in person! i love getting to know other artists and hearing why they do the things they do... kathy definitely has a passion and amazing talent for photography, and our coffee date left me totally inspired. it just got me thinking about what i do, and how excited i am for all that is ahead... both at my day job (packaging design) and with my freelance work (wedding invites and baby announcements!) i love what i do, and am really blessed to have the opportunity to do it. i'm also so lucky to have the support from my loved ones! john, my amazing husband of 1 year, 3 months and 1 day, was so wonderful this summer as i began my wedding invitation business. he was so patient on the evenings and weekends that i locked myself in my office to get work done, and always offered the oh-so-important back rub after i had been sitting hunched over my desk for too many hours! the best was coming home one day from work and seeing half of the mcdaniel/nahas wedding programs assembled! we're talking 350 fan programs, 5 steps to assemble each one... LOTS of time to even just do half. i wanted to cry, it was just the sweetest thing. and he did such a great job, too, so that made it even better! he's now my official assistant :) so, stay tuned for more entries, samples of my work, and just random blabbing about life and how great it is! xoxo linz marie