July Wedding Board

Image credits: shoes dress necklace beach flowers ribbon cakes

Here's what's happening at the July wedding, super casual dress with beach mats laid out as seating and parasols (bought in Chinatown for around $3 each) and beach balls (yet to be found) strewn about. I'll be carrying some paper flowers I've been making, I'll post about it later. The beach is Point Dume in Malibu. I'll be using some of those 'deep ocean' ribbons to tie my bouquet and painting some flourishes on the parasols to add a little something. Then we go to Duke's in Malibu for lunch and we'll have some bundt cakes for dessert.

Easy casual wedding for about 20 guests. Helpful hint: you don't need a beach permit until you get over 50 guests, have a tent larger than 10x10, have amplified sound, catering or rentals. So as long as you stick with the KISS method, beach weddings are a snap.

July wedding invites

Here's what our casual beach wedding invite looks like. It's just a flat card with some info on the back sent in a sky blue envelope. The photo was edited by me using this technique, and the flourish came from here. I printed it on some textured ivory-ish paper. Paper and envelopes are size A6 from PaperSource. And then I used the awesome new love stamp.

Save The Date How-To

Update: The embossing smears a bit during postage, so best to use this technique on something in an envelope. You live and you learn.

Find a fabulous photo of the two of you, cut out all background and then simplify in Photoshop using the stamp filter (duh). Mess with the settings, until you get it just so and then save as a .jpg or .pdf or whatever type of file your stampmaker wants. Take it to the stampmaker, I used ACE sign and stamp in Los Angeles, because it was on my way home from work. There are plenty of online companies for this. Send it off to be made, but just make sure the size of the stamp is correct for your save the date layout.

Get your layouts done in Photoshop or whatever program you feel comfortable in. Keep the top right corner clear for a stamp, only the address can go on the right side and the bottom of the postage side needs to be kept fairly clear or use light colors, for that barcode thing that gets put on during mailing. This is the link to a company that makes postcards, but it shows the guidelines. http://www.expresscopy.com/support/postcardspec.phtml Be sure to keep the layers for easy editing and address changes. Find some fun fonts at http://www.dafont.com/.

Print all the fronts and backs (meticulously changing the address each time). Then it's time for stamping.

I used watermark (clear) ink and rustique weather vane embossing powder on the chartreuse postcard size paper. I stamped thrice for a more graphic effect. Sprinkle the powder, flick off and save the excess. I did about 15 at a time. Then get out the heat gun and set all of the powder. I bought all of the supplies at Paper Source.




Find some 28 cent stamps and send them off.

Starting off with Inspiration

The wedding will be quite the crafty affair, since I've been crafting all my life. There will be lots of Kraft paper with various stamping and printing effects, tons of fabric and some great ribbons. My Mother is a fabulous seamstress and will be using the lace from my Grandmothers wedding dress (my Mom also wore it.) It's from 1951 is entirely made out of lace and has an 11' cathedral train, I'm thinking I'll be able to harvest enough lace to cover my entire dress in it and still leave some for the other granddaughters.

Since I'm trained as an architect, I have a love for certain kinds of paper. Mainly trace paper, there is plain white and then there is butter paper, doesn't that name just sound delicious. It's a yellow hued trace paper that I'll be using along with the plain white to make flowers, invite belly bands and hopefully, a few other things also.

I also love Kraft paper and chipboard, I know it sounds odd, but if you glue together a bunch of layers of chipboard and then saw it and sand it like a block of wood it smells so good. It smells like the burnt wood of a winter fire.

If I could think of a nice way to incorporate basswood, I would, but I haven't found the right method for that yet.

Since I was raised by quilters and the wedding is in Texas, we'll probably have a bunch of quilts from Momma Moonbeam's vast collection strewn about the outdoor portion of our venue. There are wrought iron cafe tables and a gazebo outback, so hopefully people will wander out there.

In keeping with that downhome feel there will be a dessert bar with some homemade tasties and others bought from the local bakery, Haby's.

Here's a look at my pin-up board.