Alice in ONE-derland Birthday Party

In late June I had my daughter's First Birthday Party. We hosted it at a park near our home and lucked out on a beautiful day! Of course, being the graphic designer I am I could not have a simple first birthday party, but needed something fun and visually interesting. Alice in ONE-derland was decided, mainly because I've been wanting to throw an Alice in Wonderland party for years and this was probably my only chance to choose the theme for her party, before she has opinions she can vocalize!

The invitation set was very fun for me to design!

It's now for sale on my Etsy Site here.

It was a morning party so getting the space decorated by 11am was not an easy feat. I'd spent months before the party getting everything ready. One of my favorite decorations was the Cheshire Cat grin which I hung in a nearby tree.

 The bottom middle photo here is an Alice doll that my partner Kim's sister made Lily. It's super cute and Lily has tea with Alice nearly daily! 

Ok, possibly I went a little crazy hanging a larger than life photo of my daughter front and center, but she so small in person, I didn't want anyone to forget about her :) 

We set up a little kids play area where they had fun drawing with chalk, playing bubbles and being silly. Lily had so much fun with all her friends.

We lucked out and got to borrow this awesome cupcake tower from a friend of a friend. It was actually already painted with the red dots so it worked out perfect! I made the cupcake toppers that matched the invite set. Kim had given me the Alice in Wonderland tea pot years before and it definitely came in handy! 

 I HAD to make Drink Me signs for all the drinks. This included dragging my husband in to putting custom bottle wraps that I made on three cases of water bottles. They were a big hit though and totally worth it. (my husband may disagree ;) I made little tent folded cards with quotes from Alice in Wonderland that were placed on all the tables.

Of course we had to play croquet! Not sure if anyone actually knew how to play, but it was fun to hit the balls around! And Pin the Grin on the Cheshire Cat which I also made. Unfortunately it's not something I can sell since it's a Disney copyright. Sorry guys :(

 For favors I did various drink containers. Funky straw cups for the kids, water bottles and coffee mugs for the adults, all red and all with the same "Drink Me - Well, out of me" favor tags on them.

It was a wonderful day and party and a great way to celebrate our first year with our wonderful daughter, Lily.

Wedding close to home, yet so far away....

This past August my baby brother, Adam got married in the historic Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida. It was a family effort to pull the event together from all across the country! 

I designed the invitations for them, including a gatefold invitation with belly-band and custom designed monogram.

In Florida in August keeping cool is a top priority. My sister, Melissa, found these great fans in the same blue as the wedding invites. We attached tags with their monogram and wedding date and laid them out so guests could take as one they entered the ballroom before the ceremony.

The cocktails were served outside on the roof-top balcony with a gorgeous view to the Clearwater Bay and on out to the Gulf of Mexico. The Best Man gave his heartfelt speech here, before we all ran back in to the air conditioning!

The historic hotel was recently re-hauled top to bottom. The ballroom was absolutely beautiful, complete with hand-painted gold leafing and crystal chandelier. 

The traditional wedding cake was made by a local bakery. It contained one special layer for Adam & Noa - chocolate peanut butter! Very yummy!

The biggest family project was the Homemade Cookie Bar. My sister and mom spent weeks baking and freezing cookie dough. My sister traveled from Michigan to Florida with a suitcase full of cookie dough and a two year old. God bless her! We spent a day baking at our wonderful friends' home in nearby Oldsmar, FL. It was a great time to catch up with everyone and taste test!

It was a huge hit and the perfect ending to an amazing wedding. Best Wishes to Adam & Noa for a lifetime of happiness together! Love you both! 

Custom Designed Dresses

Being a custom stationery designer I obviously think things that are custom rock. When I heard about custom dress designer Krystal Savanella I thought - what a wonderful thing to translate over to weddings! 

First off, as anyone who has shopped for their wedding dress can tell you, you usually go in to it with the perfect dress in your mind only to find that you either can't find that dress or it looks horrible on your body. A custom dress designer will know exactly what will look amazing on your body and also listen to your personal style and can create any thing you want! 

Secondly, what a great idea for bridesmaids' dresses! Bring your whole bridal party in to Krystal's studio so she can design custom dresses for each girl that coordinate as a whole party. Everyone is happy; your party will look stunning and unique AND it's only a small amount more than you'd pay for bridesmaid's dresses off the rack! How wonderful! 

Krystal's studio is located inVentura, California, just north of LA. Contact her at info@Savanella.com to set up your appointment! 

Fabric Corsages

Another one of my favorite trends in wedding gowns is fabric corsages! I've found them integrated in to so many gown designs out there today - from subtle to over-the-top. Here are a few of my favorites!

Here are some other uses. I love the shoes! Crazy! 

Wouldn't this translate beautifully in to wedding stationery! With custom stationery you can bring details from anywhere directly in to your invitations. Check out Goodies Designs for more ideas! 

Color, Color, Everywhere!

I LOVE color! One place I always thought I would have to for-go my love of color is in a wedding dress. Well, ladies, not any more! A growing trend in wedding gowns, and not just for those second timers, is COLOR!
First you have the blush colors. Chartuese, Champagne, Oatmeal, Baby Blue. And there's a ton more out there I'm sure you can find.

Or for those bold women out there there's BOLD color. I particularly love the use of red here, giving a Spanish flair. In some cultures (Chinese, Indian) red is a traditional wedding gown color. Why not start our own traditions in the West?

Extraordinary Make-Up

I’ve been thinking about Wedding Day Beauty recently and remembered this ‘wonder-woman’ I met in LA named Jill Kirsh. Celebrity color stylist Jill Kirsh is also known as “The Hollywood Guru of Hue.” She started a make-up company, Jill Kirsh Color, that gives you the exact hues that will look phenomenal on you. I’ve seen her simple transformations of people first hand. Her make-up and color direction makes a HUGE different in how you look. I bought her make-up kit years ago and have since tried to find the same hues in other make-up brands, but have never been able to. Nothing ever looks as good as hers! Check out these before and after shots!

Look at how just wearing the right color brightens up this guys face! No make up!

I had a one-on-one consultation with her where she found the exact colors for me, including silver or gold jewelry! This is a great idea and would be a fun thing to do with your bridal party! You can also go right on her website and find your perfect colors yourself just based on your hair color.

She says that everyone can wear every color. It’s all about the shade you choose! One of my favorite things Jill sells is a swatch book that has all the hues that will look perfect on you. I carry that thing in my purse whenever I go shopping and it makes hunting so much easier.

Check out her website: JillKirshColor.com! Her products really will make you look so much better than you already do!

Eco Friendly Goodies

Continuing along the line of the Do It Yourself projects for us Eco (ecological & economical!) conscious brides (and any other people with stationery needs)...

In my own business, Goodies Designs™ we came up with GoodiEvites™ to help both the environment AND our clients pocketbook. Here you can get a completely custom design for a low cost. You can do with the design what you want. If it’s something casual like a backyard bar-be-que or even a Save-The-Date you can send it out in an email as an E-Vite! If it’s for your wedding, or shower or other formal event you can print it out at home!


A great option for your next party!