More Holiday cards!

Here are a few more cards I designed this year! All were printed offset as flat, single-sided cards and were mailed in matching shimmer envelopes.

Company Christmas card

I had to blog about another Christmas card today! I designed this card at KO (my full-time job) and LOVE the way it turned out. We had them letterpressed on seed-embedded paper through Bloomin' Promotions (can't say enough about those folks– they are great!) I got the cards this morning and really wanted to take pictures to post on here, but wasn't sure how they'd turn out. Luckily the tips from this post by Anne Ruthman Photography at Wedding Bee Pro worked great for this! Who knew my camera could take such cool up close shots?

Merry Christmas!

Now that most of our friends and family have gotten our Christmas card, I wanted to post it here! I used one of my favorite background designs for this year's card, and mixed it up by incorporating brown and green, two of my favorite colors and a little less traditional. We sent them off in a dark brown shimmery envelope complete with hand addressing in gold ink. Fun! I designed 4 other cards this year and will post them later in the week once they've been sent out. Although it's too late for Christmas cards, there is still time for Happy New Year (or a generic Happy Holiday) card! Contact me if you are interested.

Erin & Kevin's Wedding Invitations

Last week I delivered wedding invitations to Erin & Kevin and I just have to be honest and say I love the way these turned out! My example below doesn't do the piece justice– I'll get a photo up sometime soon if I can. They were printed on Classic Crest natural linen in a solid, rich black ink. The invitation was glued into a black linen envelofold and the inserts were held together with a black satin ribbon and placed on top. It is a very simple but oh-so-classy looking piece, and I'm so happy with them. The bride and groom are, too!

Alexis & Ed's Save the Dates

Alexis and Ed contacted me a few months ago after they got engaged and asked about custom Save the Dates. They wanted to create two different designs– one for family, and another for friends. After just one round they had chosen a direction for each and were so pleased! Part of the finished product was envelopes with liners that I cut and assembled myself (the liners, not the envelopes). I hadn't done that before for a wedding (just for personal use) and it was so cool! I tried to take pictures of the process but I was alone and they all look ridiculous :) But if you are interested I can tell you how it's done!

Here is the "formal" Save the Date sent to their families. They chose great colors, wouldn't you say? :)

Happy wedding day to Lindsay & Alex!

Lindsay & Alex are getting married today! I had such a great time designing their wedding suite. You may remember their Save the Dates from April that incorporated a tree branch and the letter Y from Alex's (and today, Lindsay's!!) last name. The invitation and enclosures (as well as their program, thank you cards and seating chart, not pictured here) all use this graphic. I'm excited to see what they do at their reception since I've heard they have tied in the tree branch element to their decor! I'll post pictures soon. Congrats you guys, I'm so happy for you!!

Happy Halloween!

I had to post a few of my favorite jack-o-lantern photos. This is the first year I didn't get a pumpkin and carve it but I'm living vicariously through the people who were creative enough to do these! Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone!

Sorta like the one I did in college (below)-- I should've added the beer cans!



Last, but not least!

Happy Blogaversary to Linzmarie Designs!

It's been one year since I started blogging! It's crazy how time flies... Wasn't I JUST at coffee with Kathy talking about starting a blog?! Anyway, it's been a wonderful year and I want to say thank you to all of you who read this :) I'm going to be better about posting my work and other wedding-related things that I love, so keep reading!

xoxo
linzmarie

2008 Holiday Cards!

The holidays are right around the corner and it's definitely not too early to start thinking about your holiday cards! I am working on some new designs that I'll post soon, but in the meantime please contact me if you are interested in custom holiday cards. There are several great online resources to order holiday cards, but there's nothing like one that has been designed especially for you. I have talked to several people who ordered theirs from an online photo gallery last year and ended up getting the same one from other people. It's like showing up at an event wearing the same dress as someone else! At least that's how I think of it :) If you want your card to stand out this year, give me a call! Stay tuned for some new designs, but for now here are a few from last year:

Gorgeous bouquets made of clay!

I read a post on weddingbee.com from Miss Pineapple who blogged about her flowers from her wedding. I saw the photos first and thought "Wow, those are gorgeous." Then I read the post and found out they aren't real-- they are made of clay!! How unbelievably cool is this?! I was SO sad the day after my wedding when the calalillies in my bouquet started to die, and even more when I realized I had gone on my honeymoon and forgot to ask someone to preserve it. I called my mom from Hawaii and she said they were starting to rot (hello, GROSS) but she did save the roses and would dry them for me. Today I'm not exactly sure where that mess of a dried bouquet is, but more than likely it was trashed because that's what it looked like... trash. Here's a pic of it on my wedding day in all it's glory:

Photo by Honeysuckle Photography

Anyway, here are a few photos of the incredibly beautiful clay bouquets made by DK Designs. Check out her Etsy store here and her blog here.

All photos taken from www.dkdesignshawaii.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday, John!

Happy Birthday to my loving husband!! Isn't he so cute?!

New baby announcement

My good friend D from high school had her second baby in August, and I was thrilled when she asked me to design her baby announcements! I loved what we ended up with last year for her first baby so I knew this one would be a fun project. We tossed around several ideas back and forth until one day she said "You know, I have your Christmas card on my fridge and I love it... Could we make that a baby announcement?" So with a few tweaks here and there, below is what we ended up with for baby Piper. Is she not the cutest?!? Congrats to B & D on their new cutie pie, and to J who is now a big brother! I love you guys.

Avenue Five's 10 Year Anniversary

My lovely clients at Avenue Five Jewelry asked me to design an invitation for their 10 year anniversary coming up next month. They really wanted it to be elegant, but fun and trendy with nice and bright colors. As I've said before, they love to use their logo in fun ways, so they suggested making a cake with it. How fun! Here is the finished product (printed on cardstock with a spot gloss over the cake!)

Vote for me (again)!

I submitted designs to this month's Menu design challenge on Minted.com. I uploaded 4 this time and was happy to see all of them made the cut! So log in and vote for yours truly :) Thanks for your support!!

Simple Garden Flowers

Fresh & Cool

Modern Metropolitan

Damask Garden

Paper fortune cookie favors

I saw this post on Once Wed's blog today and just had to share this awesome project! DIY fortune cookie favors, how cool. These would look so great sitting on top of your napkins at place settings or even in a bowl as part of a centerpiece. Very cool :)





What You'll Need
Decorative or Scrapbook paper (not too thick, similar to a text weight,
not cardstock)
White text weight paper
Double faced tape
A pencil
A round plastic lid to use as a template (approximately four to five
inches in diameter) or a extra large circle craft punch
A pair of scissors
Computer and printer

Directions:

1. Begin by using a plastic lid as a template to trace circles on your
decorative paper. A 12” square piece of paper yields approximately 9
circles. Cut out your circles using your scissors. If you have an
extra large circle craft punch, that works well too. (see figure 1)

2. Fold a circle in half with the pattern side in. Make a crease (at
arrow A) along the folded edge. (see figure 2)

3. Open your circle, and turn it pattern side out.


4. Turn your circle so the crease you made in step 2 is vertical. Fold
the circle in in half horizontally, pattern side out, rounded side down,
Do NOT crease. (see figure 3)

Hold the half circle on the bottom, ( where arrow B points in figure 3)
between your thumb and index finger. Use the index finger from your
other hand to push in the middle of the folded side of the circle at the
crease. (where arrow C points in figure 3).

As you push in, the top corners will start to turn up.

Continue to hold the half circle and use your other hand to pull the
corners in until they nearly meet and form the cookie shape.

If your cookie doesn't want to stay folded, use a tiny piece of double
stick tape to keep the halves together. (at arrow in figure 6)

Compose your fortunes on your computer and print them out on a standard
sheet of printer paper using a nine point font. The fortunes can be a
simple note for the guests such as "We're so fortunate to know you.
Thanks for being here today". Keep the fortunes just a sentence or two
long.

Cut the fortunes into small slips of paper approximately 1/2 inch high by
two to three inches long. (see figure 7)

Tuck the fortune into one of the open ends of the cookie. (see figure 8)

Display in a bowl or on a tray for your guests.

You may struggle with the first one, but after folding a couple of
cookies, you will have it mastered.

What It Costs:
Not much at all ! It works out to be less than 10 cents a cookie.

3 years ago today...

John asked me to be his wife :) It was the most amazing proposal that I still remember as if it were yesterday. After a wonderful dinner at Salty's on the Columbia River, John blindfolded me and took me on a drive. We parked somewhere, and he led me out of the car and into a building. The familiar smell hit me right away and I knew where we were. He took off my blindfold and I found myself standing in the middle of Miss Harrington's classroom at All Saints School, where we had first met as children. I burst into tears at the sight... Candles and rose petals everywhere! It was so beautiful and simply amazing. He sat me down in one of the little kids chairs and played "Wonderful Tonight" on the guitar. After that he pulled me to my feet, declared his love, and got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. It was such an amazing moment that I will never, ever forget!!

In Miss Harrington's classroom after I said yes :)
(Photo taken by our best friend Taki who set up and cleaned everything for us)

Back at our apartment taking lots of pictures of ourselves and my ring!

I also have to mention that this special day in our lives falls on a very sad day in history. Let us all take a moment today to remember those who lost their lives or loved ones seven years ago today. We will never forget 9/11/01.

Super cool wedding planning website

A co-worker of mine emailed me a link to a cool wedding planning website called Muse Weddings. It's a social community of creative people that share wedding experiences, and a place where you can keep all your wedding ideas, tasks, and budgets in order. I played around a little and really like how clean and easy the interface is. Best of all, it's free! It would be cool if it had a guest list feature, but maybe that's something they'll add one day? They have a place to give feedback on the site, so I might throw that in there. What other features do you think a wedding planning tool shoudl include?

Erin & Kevin's Save the Date

I was thrilled when my friend's older brother and his fiancé called me about designing their invitations and Save the Dates! They are such a sweet couple and I knew they'd be great to work with. They have so many great ideas and give really great feedback, which is always nice. So here is their Save the Date! It was printed at my favorite online printer as a postcard.

Sorry about the blacked out parts! I want to respect their privacy :)

Review me at Wedding Wire

I recently joined Wedding Wire (thanks to Shawn at Event Team Northwest for the suggestion!)  It's a really cool site that I am still discovering all the great things about it, but love the "Review Me" section.  The link is below, so if you've worked with me, send a review my way!  I know I've had lots of requests for this lately (ok, only two!) but I'm trying to grow my business and getting reviews is such a great way to do this.  Thanks in advance for all your help!!

Review Linzmarie Designs at WeddingWire

Bridal Shower Invitation

I delivered this bridal shower invitation last week to my client's sister who is hosting her bridal shower. It's very simple with just two colors (the bride and groom's wedding colors, actually!) and one of my new favorite fonts, Albemarle. I love this idea to include a recipe card for guests to bring with them!

My first review!

My client from Paths to Our Past wrote an amazing review of me on the Elizabeth Anne Designs site today! She said such wonderful things and I am so grateful for such a stellar review. I've worked with her on a few projects and have had such a good time, so it's awesome to know she feels the same way :) Thanks, Stacey!!

Aqua & Poppy color combo!

Check out this post on Snippet & Ink today-- my favorite colors!! This is exactly what I was going for when I changed the colors of my logo a few months ago. I absolutely love this color combination.

2 years ago today...

I married the love of my life! It's insane to believe that we have been married for 2 years now. TWO YEARS! It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun :) To all of our friends and family who were involved in our special day, we love you guys. You are such important people to us, and I will always cherish our wedding day and your involvement in it.

Johnny, I love you so much and am so incredibly happy I married you :) Thank you for all that you do for me! Here's to many many many more years!

Honeysuckle Photography

Review me!

Another wonderful feature has been added to Elizabeth Anne Designs Library! They just added a link for Vendor Reviews. Check it out here and if you are one of my wonderful clients, feel free to write something wonderful about Yours Truly :)

Linzmarie Designs featured on the EAD Library

A few days ago, I heard about the Elizabeth Anne Designs Library and drooled over all the amazing and creative wedding vendors they have listed. After looking through a ton of great links, I wondered what it would take to get my name on their list of stationers. Apparently all I needed to do was ask! I sent them the link to my blog and the next morning I had an email saying my name was on the list! It's so cool to see Linzmarie Designs included in a list of amazingly talented designers. Check out the library for some amazing vendors, ideas and inspiration. Thanks EAD!!!

There I am!

I Heart Vera Wang

If I had the money to buy a Vera Wang wedding gown when I was dress shopping for my wedding, I SOOOO would've bought one. I love her style and think all of her wedding gowns are just too cool. This new gown from her 2009 spring collection is simply TO DIE FOR and is my absolute favorite. It is so simple and elegant, and seems like it would be great for any body type. I love everything about it and just had to share!

Super-cool vintage lace onesie!

Even though I'm not pregnant or planning on being pregnant anytime soon, I love looking at baby clothes. Most of the time I'm thinking of my friends who have babies or are going to have babies, but sometimes I'm thinking of myself and a future kiddo :) However, when I saw this post on Cool Mom Picks about Etsy seller Lou and Lee's vintage lace onesie, I almost fell out of my chair. This would be THE PERFECT gift for my friend D who is due with her baby girl in early September. She loves funky things and I knew this would be so perfect for her baby! I don't know when I'll give it to her, maybe after the baby arrives? Her shower is next weekend but my friend Stacey and I are giving her this awesome baby wrap/sling called the Moby Wrap (in orange, of course). So maybe I'll save this awesome onesie for another time, we'll see. Oh and if you're worried about D reading this and spoiling surprises, don't worry, I've already spilled the beans. I showed her the Etsy post and she asked me how to get her hands on one, and I had to say "Um, well, uh, just don't buy it, ok?!" I'm so bad at keeping fun things like this secret!

Photo courtesy Etsy seller louandlee

Wordle

I just saw this post at Heaven's Eye Photography blog about Wordle, a website that generates “word clouds” from text that you provide. I entered my blog URL and it came back with the words below... Pretty cool! I'm not surprised that the biggest word (and most commonly used on my blog) is love, or that the word crying is a close second!

Feelin' the love!

What I love most about weddings is when you can FEEL the love between the couple getting married. It's a hard thing to explain, but I think if you've felt it, you know what I'm talking about. This is exactly what we experienced last night at Rachel and Ben's wedding. I think every bridesmaid walking down the aisle cried. The groomsmen were crying. Parents were crying. I was crying. I think John even teared up. But the best moment and strongest feeling of their love was when Rachel walked down the aisle. As she walked, crying, with her parents on either side of her, she looked at Ben and mouthed the words, "I love you." It was the sweetest thing ever... Everyone saw it (I heard several people say "Aww, how sweet!"), but it wasn't meant for everyone to see. Just Ben. It was as if they were the only two people out there, and it was incredible. I am so happy we were able to celebrate their special day and be a part of their love! Check out the pics below, and listen to their song, "The Luckiest" by Bens Fold. Amazing.

The beautiful bride walking with her mom and dad

Standing under the chuppah
(I love that their parents stand with them the whole time)

The amazing view

Ben and his sweet parents