Colourful Californians

I designed these wedding invites for a rad couple based in California last year.  The bride wanted colour and something really representative of them as a couple.  They got married in a field of wildflowers in October. Swoon!!!

Wedding season

Charlie & Tom's wedding invite set, included sticker seals for the envelopes.  April 6 2014
I've updated my website with lots of wedding stationery I've done over the past year or two.

Better together

So I'm getting married this weekend, which means I'm switching off the internet for a few days and enjoying real life.

It's been a very stressful few months but I'm finally starting to really look forward to it.

So young!

You see, I wasn't ever that fussed about having a wedding...

Or getting married, for that matter...

But when we got engaged and I realised that someone wanted to marry ME... well that's a pretty nice thing.  And I realised that I just wanted to be married, and wanted to skip the wedding part.

This is my all time favourite photo of us. 

But once we'd set the date and committed to the wedding so many tiny little decisions presented themselves every day.  It's been like a second job, managing this crazy beast.  And it's not just black and white because people are involved.  And feelings.  And stress isn't just black or white either, it evolves into anxiety and in my case, a bit of depression.  It's been a journey, let me tell you.  And our wedding is a 'small' one... I can't imagine what it's like to organise anything bigger than 50 guests, or family less helpful or kind or loving than mine.

It's been a learning experience in having a 'vision' at the start of a project and learning that when humans are involved, things aren't going to turn out how your imagined but that what really matters is the people, not the vision. It's been a learning experience in having a support network for when you think you're ok but you're not ok.

But over the past few days when I've told various people I've run into that I'm getting married at the weekend and they ask am I nervous... I can't think of what to answer.  I'll take nervous any day! Heck, I've been through a lot of stress these past few months - enough to send me running to the doctors! And nervous is lovely in comparison!

So yea, I feel a giddy lovely nervousness.  I get to put on a pretty dress and have my makeup done and I get to see my handsome man all dressed up smart! I get to have all of my best people in one room together, and see them interacting.  I have spent the whole day on the phone to people today - that's more than I can say for a lot of the last year.

I've kept a lot of the wedding planning secret - mainly because until now everything has felt a bit - not fully done- and I'm just not THAT into the whole weddingness.

But I thought I'd share some photos of the Save The Dates I designed for us to send to our guests back in August.

It's all starting to feel real... and as I start to get a little nervous I can smile and think that all the hard work is finally paying off.  Goodness, I am excited!

Wedding season

Wedding season is upon us, yes? Despite the fact facebook has figured out I'm recently engaged so is showing me featured ads of tacky bridesmaid dress companies and bridalwear, my newsfeed is positively clogged up with profile pictures of shiny diamond rings and status updates about planning hen dos.

In my own wedding-planning whirlwind I'm doing my best to sidestep anything quote unquote "too weddingy."  But as it's a pretty big deal and I'm planning on getting married just the once, it's nice to put a little thought into the little things.  So as I was recently on the lookout for a couple bridesmaid gifts, I thought I would do a blogpost of ideas for weddingy-gifts from my etsy shop and from other etsy shops. Because there's just too many illustrations of champagne glasses in the world.


1.  Stationery

If it's you that's getting married, you'll most likely need to let people know.  Let people know when the gig is.  Let them know how to get there.  Let them know they need to save the date.  Let them know where to sit, what's for dinner, let them know they need to sign your guestbook.  You'll need to let them know you think they're ace and you couldn't have made this thing happen without them.  You'll need to let them know how much you love the awesome vase that they brought for you as a gift.

Get someone nice to design all this stuff - it's important.  Also, if you know someone that's getting married who doesn't know anything about how to make shit look good, offer to sort their stationery as a gift.  I can work with you to create invites, tea towels, menus, thank you cards... nice stuff for someone's big day.

Don't buy that rubbishy stuff from those rubbishy companies, it just looks bad. Plus, Holy Guacamole you could have wedding stationery like this. 

2.  Something little to give

Sometimes you need to give something a little something to say thank you or you're ace or let's remember this forever.  I make these "I'm yours, you're mine" mini-people which are good as a wedding gift for the couple-to-be, or as a wedding gift for you and your man-to-be.  Have mini versions of each other to keep in each others pockets.

Or... why not get miniature versions of the bride and groom, and give them to your guests?

3.  An unfamiliar pendant

Jade. Jade is special.  Pink jade encourages love, wealth and protection. Like all jade, it symbolises wisdom, justice, compassion, modesty and courage.   Rhodonite is a stone of compassion, an emotional balancer that clears away emotional wounds and scars from the past, and that nurtures love.  It stimulates, clears and activates the heart.  Rhodonite grounds energy, balances yin-yang, and aids in achieving one’s highest potential.  These beautiful pendants are from etsy seller AnUnfamiliarRing  Your bridesmaids might need something special.  You also might need a pretty pendant to wear on your special day.  Make sure you've got the right stone to keep you emotionally balanced and clear-headed. I know I'll need as much of that as I can get. 

4.  You guys got engaged. YES!
Flowers are awesome.  I swear every time I get flowers it feels like the first time I've ever gotten flowers.  They don't get old.

But they do die, gosh darn it.  How's about a custom illustration of flowers? A custom illustration of the newly-engaged's home? A custom illustration of the lovely couple? You can have them printed on paper or even made up as a pillow.  Now that's a pretty awesome gift.

This house portrait I did recently for a lady in North Hollywood, she bought it as a gift for her husband's birthday.  "I gave my husband the illustration last night and he loved it!!! His birthday is today but I made him open it at midnight because I was dying to give it to him."


5.  If in doubt, vases are still awesome.

We have received a lot of invitations over the past few years that contain a very presumptuous note stating that instead of gifts, the bride and groom request money towards a honeymoon - or worse yet - money without even any explanation of where it will be spent.  Call me old fashioned but we won't be including anything of the sort in our invitations.  I cringe! 


If people want to give us gifts, that's awesome! But we're getting married to be married.  That's it, dudes.  Gifts? That's a bonus.  An awesome vase? Nice!!! We'll always remember you when we look at it. (Awesome vase above from Esther Griffith's etsy)  If it's hideous, we might keep it in the cellar when you're not around.  But we'd much rather you just came to our wedding, that's the main thing.  And if you want to buy us a dope gift, get us something you've picked out.  But we don't take cheques.  

So...

First wedding instalment over.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Currently we're trying to juggle Autumn dates and locations and registrars.  I've looked at a few dresses and admittedly laid in bed at night thinking about food and flowers and stuff.  However, with an early October marathon to train for and focus on, I think I have eradicated the sliver of hope my mother held out of me being the conventional bride she was hoping for!!!  

Wedding planning? psh. I have a PB to smash.  

Wedding Stationery

Earlier this year I designed some wedding stationery for a couple who got married in the Yorkshire Dales. They were lovely to work with. Here are some quick photos of the menus, thank-you cards, seating chart and placecards I created. I also did a sign that said 'please sign our guestbook' but I forgot to photo it!
You can see more of my wedding invitation/stationery designs on my website.

Update from down under

I'm sat in my apartment in Australia trying to get the better of a stinking cold! Here's a quick update on things I've not had time to tell you about recently...

I designed some wedding invites for two loved-up hippies:

Had a clearout of my studio and got some new shelves so it's easier to get more of this done:

Some custom orders, including these cutey lovebirds with kitty ears:

I have more to show you soon! In the meantime...pass the giant bottle of water and more panadol! :(