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Save The Dates I

June 11th, 2009

Something that has been around for a long time but hasn’t really been as popular as it is today are the “Save The Date” announcements.  Fondly referred to in the wedding world as STDs.  Don’t worry, these are the fun kind of STDs and besides, the p.c. term for the other kind is STIs.  Did I really just put that in a wedding blog?  I digress…

marthastewartstd

[a personal fave from MarthaStewart.com]

Save the dates are a great way to show off your engagement pictures or show off your crafty side and clue family in about the exact date of the wedding.  Don’t worry, even after they’re sent you’ll still get a lot of “do you have a date yet?” and “when is the wedding?!”  At that point you can kindly refer them to the beautiful piece of graphic art that should be prominently displayed on their fridge.  People have done everything from a postcard with either a picture or monogram on it, to magnets, photobooth strips, and even fake plane tickets for destination weddings.

bridessavethedate

[faux plane ticket Save the Dates found at Brides.com]

What is the point of an STD?  They are meant to announce the date of your wedding and give guests accommodation information.  Simply sending a picture of yourselves with a date stamped on it isn’t enough.  The pros suggest you add the following to your announcement: 

Wedding date
Ceremony and reception location
Accommodations/hotel block information
City attractions
Wedding website link
“Formal Invitation to Follow”

 

The “formal invitation to follow” piece is so that people do not mistake the save the date as the actual invitation.  It is also VERY important to remember that etiquette states that anyone that receives a save the date IS invited to the wedding.  It’s in poor taste to send someone an announcement asking them to reserve a date for your wedding then deciding the guest list needs trimming and they didn’t make the cut.  My suggestion is to only send them out to close family members and friends/wedding party that you know most certainly will make the list and really want there.  Otherwise you have a guestlist mess on your hands!

 

arisingimagesstd[ ArisingImages.com]

 My favorite kind of save the dates are ones that use the unique photos your photographer took from the engagement session.  Remember they don’t necessarily have to show your face as long as your names are stated on the announcement.  Sometimes those pictures have the most impact!

magstreetstd

[magnet save the date from MagnetStreet.com]

When making a magnet or something that doesn’t allow all the pertinent information to be on the same item, make a flat or folded card with all the right information and attach the magnet or picture to it. 

If you’re trying to go green ( and by green I mean environmentally and monetarily cutting back) you can always do save the dates via email.  This works great in a tech savvy world, but just know that some traditionalists don’t like it.  You could skip the tree products and the expense of stamps to easily design something like the last two pictures shown above and attach in an email with all the information or you could try to send them out from some of the following websites:

 

Have fun making them and if you have any fun ideas or designs you’d like to share with the world, send them my way and I’ll post them here!

fab.kirsten create, fab.paper, fab.style, save.the.date, to-be-weds, totally you

Mood/Inspiration Boards

December 9th, 2008

Do a Google image search on ‘Indigo and Plum wedding’ and you’ll come up with this picture (among other things) from the ever inspiring Elizabeth Anne Designs Blog:

This collection of photographs paints a picture of what you might imagine in colors and textures for the ‘feel’ of your event. To me this board creates a rich, feminine, modern twist on vintage elegance. Creating a mood or inspiration board is a great way to pull together your ideas to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s so much different then looking at pictures separately and looking strictly at pictures tagged ‘wedding.’ It can be a great way to maintain focus with all your separate ideas as well as learn how to work in new elements that you may not have originally considered for decor.
I’ve been working happily and endlessly to come up with color combos for the newest engaged favorites, and I thought it would be something to share with everyone else! I have Adobe Illustrator that I make them in as well as Adobe Photoshop Elements (not the full version). In the interest of keeping this post under a mile long, I won’t go into great detail about how to use those programs. It should be pretty easy to figure out. Simply open the pictures and place them near each other in some sort of square or rectangle. You can play with layers a little easier in Photoshop so I prefer to use that. Always SAVE your work!* Putting the boards together in a program is easy. The tricky part is putting together something that is moving and meaningful and not just a bunch of pictures of [insert favorite color] stuff. Suit your mood board to your tastes and see where your inspirations take you!
I’m sure I’ll be sharing a lot of the planning process with you from my sis since she’s asked me to help her out (yay!). I’ll show you the indigo and plum combination I made since I’m 99% certain they won’t be using it and no surprises will be ruined… Here is an inspiration board I threw together quickly to give them an idea of this color combo.

{* remember when i said save your work? yeah, that didn’t happen. so it took twice the time for me to make a quick board. not only did i lose my board, i lost all the picture credits with it. so this time around there are no photo credits! SAVE, KIRSTEN, SAVE!}

Sticking with the winter wedding, I tried to focus on rich colors and blending from one shade of plum or indigo to the next. I’ve also thrown in a bit more blue than the other board. I think this could make for a beautiful winter wedding scheme. I won’t spill the secrets on the other schemes they’re choosing from, but I would be thrilled to work with any of them!

fab.kirsten create, fab.style, totally you

Wordle

November 17th, 2008

My friend and client, Anita, shared something from Wordle.net with me and I love all the possibilities!

Go to http://www.wordle.net/ and go to ‘create.’ You can paste your own words in the box given or have a link feed into the box to create a word jumble. Play around with it a little (or a lot!) and you can make something like this:

I’ve jumbled the wedding vows I exchanged with my husband and think this could make a cool card, something worthy of framing, putting in an album, or even get printed on the ever handy canvas bag to carry with you every day. OOh… what about putting lyrics to ‘your’ song with your friend or significant other and making it a CD cover for a CD of your favorite songs together?! Maybe a mug for your parents? It’s all about being creative!

You can play with the colors, fonts, and layouts to tailor your ‘wordle’ to suit you best. Anita shared the ‘wordle’ of her vows with me:

Have fun playing around with the site and enjoy making your creations!

fab.kirsten create, fab.find, totally you