Pretty papers

I had the camera out photographing my upcoming baby shower invitations (did you see them?) and ended up thumbing through the vase we keep with invitations, thank yous, postcards, programs, etc from our friends & family.  Last year we were sent a couple of really fabulously stylish invitations and today I'm going to share them with you!

I should preface this by saying we had a lot of friends get married last year.  Two of the weddings had a bicycle motif.  Here is Pat & Jenny's invite.  It was really cute.  They also had programs and their thank you cards printed to match.  It really was a treat to recieve!

An obvious favorite from Ms. Sarah.  You saw the invite she designed for me - this one she designed as well! This matched the wedding really well.

Here's the save-the-date from our friends Bunch & Kaitlyn.  Their actual invite was just as cute, but I wasn't able to capture it as well on film (and our copy was really beat up). 

This last one isn't an invite we recieved, but was actually apart of an Event Design Sarah and I just presented to one of our clients for a Retro Rock-n-Roll themed wedding.  We can't take credit for the design at all because it is a free template online actually.  But isn't it cute?

Isn't getting good mail so fun?  That's why I find it so hard to throw away some times!  So if you ever send me something cute, you can feel good knowing that I'm probably going to keep it around for a little while :)

A Coffee House Bridal Shower

WARNING:  LONG post to follow.

 A few weeks ago I hosted a coffee house theme bridal shower at my house.  This was no ordinary bridal shower.  First of all this shower was held in honor of my very bestest friend, Sarah, so it had to be

P-E-R-F-E-C-T.  Which for a party crazed gal like me meant that it had to be over the top fabulous.  Secondly I decided early on that the perfect spot to hold this oen of a kind shower was in my then unfinished, and unsightly, basement.  This meant lots of cleaning, paint (LOTS of paint), and work went into just reworking the space the shower would be held.  I think it is fair to say that the odds were stacked against me.

Luckily I have a fabulous husband to help me with all of my crazy plans. 

Let me begin the shower break down with an explanation of the theme and what I was going for.  Like all of my events I always start with a theme (coffee house), unlike most of my other events I was mainly concerned with having the right space.  I thought that the rest of the details would fall in place.  As far as the space was concerned I wanted to create a cozy, ecletic, slightly off beat space.  I wanted to coordinate the pieces/decor, but not have everything 'match'.  The following is what turned out.

 Sarah and I are HUGE FRIENDS fans from way back. In college we would watch, rewatch, watch, and rewatch FRIENDS on DVD. I'm not sure that there was a single day that went by that we didn't watch or quote FRIENDS. So not only did the idea of a coffee house theme seem perfect for Sarah's bridal shower, but it was not going to be complete without a little Central Perk action. I made this sign from an old window that had been collecting dust in my basement and some paint. I thought it turned out pretty well. I had several offers to take it off of my hands after the shower :) Needless to say it will be staying with me at my house.

 From another old window I had laying around I painted the panes with chalkboard paint and made a menu sign. This was SO easy to do and really added another coffee house element to the shower.

The full menu with a photo of the bride and groom to be. We placed about 12 of the different engagement photos around for the guests to see. I thought it was great for some of the guests who hadn't had a chance to see them.

Coffee & Coffee 'stuff'

For months leading up to the shower I searched thrift stores for brown and teal coffee mugs and serving pieces.

Here is a side shot of one of the food tables with the plates. 

For the favors I boxed up whole bean coffee and placed a teal label on it that had the type of coffee and the fair trade logo. I like to tie bows to everything, it is cutesy and doesn't always go, but it is a habit.  You can see the favors in the background.

There was SOOOOO much food at the shower. I am really not a great baker so I outsourced the menu to the brides sister with the stipulation that I wanted baked goods - lots of baked goods. She delivered and the food was fabulous!

I can't wrap up the photos without a shot of Sarah and I.  What a happy and fun day!

Lastly I want to wrap up this post with 'recipe' for how to throw your own coffee house theme bridal shower.   

• 
  
  This theme is great because anything goes for the most part.  Use a space that is a little off beat that will fill easily with the 'coffee' smell and that is a little on the small side so that it feels busier.
• 
  
  Use a variety of furniture styles.  For this shower I used a mix of upholstered chairs, a small antique love seat, mis matched dining chairs, and a large modern leather ottoman.
• 
  
  Focus on the menu.  make sure and have lots of coffee on hand as well as teas and hot chocolate.  have lots of baked goods around, pies, tarts, muffins, mini muffins, etc. 
• 
  
  Have a color scheme, but keep it loose.  When you go in a coffee shop (not starbucks, but real local coffee shops) they are colorful and full of patterns and designs.  Use your colors enough to tie things together but stay away from being matchy-matchy.  
• 
  
  Make sure and have music in the background.  Nothing kills a small event like dead air space, but a coffee house isn't a place that you're going to hear birds chirping.  
• 
  
  Use a coffee themed favor

 That about wraps up all the details of Sarah's Coffee House Shower.  Thanks for visiting (and sticking with such a LONG blog!)

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Hosting a small event of your own and not sure where to start?  Check out Creative Event Studio!

Heritage Hall Open House

MANY thanks to everyone who came out last night to the Heritage Hall Open House.  It was a really fun event with tons of great people.  Now we may be biased but we thought we totally rocked out the booth situation!  Here are some snap shots of our Creative Event Studio set up:

Like I said, we really rocked our booth.

www.creativeeventstudio.com

Hello blog!

Okay, I admit it, I've totally been slacking on the blogphere lately. I don't have much of a defense except to say that I've been working on some other projects, one of which you'll just have to wait around for the big unveil!

One of the projects that I hope to be able to post about very soon is my basement redo. I'm not finishing my basement, so I am lovingly referring to the project as my finished-unfinished basement. Once this is done it will be a true testament to the power of paint & a shoe string budget!

And since no post would be complete without photos I am going to leave you with a few photos of my sister's wedding from last year since she is celebrating her 1 year wedding anniversary this weekend. They had a simple courthouse wedding, but she was just about the cutest courthouse bride I've ever seen with her blue peep toe shoes. My curly hair husband photographed the wedding.

And in case you hadn't heard I now also have the cutest nephew ever....

Love, Weddings, & Anniversaries

It's not Valentines Day, but it is my 4 year wedding anniversary today. This is us 4 years ago. This is our wedding 4 years ago.
This is us now.

This weekend we went to our good friend Andy's wedding. This is Andy and his new wife, Tara.

This is their wedding:

Tara & Andy had a wonderful (& wonderfully planned) weekend wedding that included a wedding 5K fun run, aerial tours of Cedar Rapids, rehearsal dinner, wedding & reception, and Sunday brunch. Talk about fabulous!