DIY

Sep122010

Cupcakes… Check!

As a follow up to the Help Us Pick Flavors, Please! post, I ordered the cupcakes! As a reminder, we’re having a 6″ cake to use for cake cutting pictures and a few dozen mini cupcakes.

Our 6″ cake will be Red Carpet a la “honey, which was your favorite Retro flavor?” “red [carpet], get that as the cake”

Red Carpet

There will be 3 dozen mini cupcakes as we’re having at most 7 guests. Initially I wanted 4 dozen, but as is, each person will be able to eat or take home 4 minis. But anyhow, we’re having 1 dozen cinnamon toast, 1 dozen pink lemonade, and 1 dozen milk and cookies. I contemplated the final dozen being red carpet, but Kari (one of the FAB owners) said definitely milk and cookies. She sold me with “it has the cutest little cookie on top” – oh yes, tiny cookies make me melt.

Cinnamon Toast	Pink Lemonade	Milk & Cookies
Above pictures are from Retro Bakery‘s website

So picture these all set up on our little cupcake tower. It’s being painted at the moment. I bought a disposable one at Wal-mart and am painting it gold to match our cake topper. And by the way, glossy shine aside, it’s finished!

Aug222010

Busy Week in Review

Hello friends!

There is so much going on these days… and by so much, I mean wedding/ reception DIY projects, uploading listings to my etsy site, revamping my website, tweaking my business cards (and trying to find the money to pay for them), making jewelry, browsing online for jewelry findings, etc etc etc.

So yeah, DIY projects: I’m trying to make jewelry to wear for the wedding, but the beads I have at home are slightly lacking. I’ve been scouring several websites (Beadaholique, Fire Mountain Gems) for new beads, Swarovski pearls, and findings for both my personal jewelry and also for stuff to post to Etsy.

Personal Picture

Also, I’m now contemplating these adorable favors, alligator cookie cutters! Or rather, buying these and making them into favors for Vegas. I am currently obsessed with baking and, well, I am a Gator for life. Perfect, eh? After posting them on Twitter, my friend suggested mini alligator candy molds. That might make it as Miami favors: little chocolates. Although, the be fair, Steve has already said he wants to do M&M’s for the Miami favors.

Image source

I did a test run with the canvas boards I bought. Using BIC-MarkIt markers and drawing right on the untreated (by me) canvas was perfect. It looks like I’ll be taking an 8×10 canvas board with the bag of markers to Vegas. I feel so good knowing that at least this part has been resolved. And since it’s 8×10, it’s easy to frame.. yay!

Personal photo

Right now my Etsy site only has 2 items posted. It will, eventually, have a lot more. I’m kinda bummed that Etsy changed up their site design since now my profile, with a whole lot more information than before, only shows a few lines. Boo!

Wanna see my full profile? I thought so…

Hello and Welcome!

I am a graphic designer and recent bride.

As a designer, I thrive on unique and creative to market my business. I create custom business cards (both standard 3.5″x2″ and square 2″x2″ or 2.25″x2.25″), print and web logos, letterhead, and just about anything else you can dream up.

As a recent bride, I struggled to find the perfect paper products for our wedding and decided to create my own. Our package included announcement cards, reception invitations and RSVP cards, along with Photo upload cards. Check out all the sample images in this shop to get an idea of what I can make for you.

Also, I was never truly satisfied with the necklace, bracelet and earring sets I found online, and so I made my own. I have several individual pieces and sets available for purchase. I use all sorts of materials and can easily get whatever your vision requires.

Along with the paper products, I designed several stamps, cupcake flags, water bottle logos, favor bag logos for iron-on transfers, and much more.

Do you have a specific vision for your wedding or special event?
Does your business need branding or re-branding?
Custom orders are always welcome.

Cheers!
Becca

You’d be intrigued to buy from me, right? What other design products would you want to see posted?

Aug172010

August 17 TMW Post

Tweet: our ketubah wording has been finalized! now we need to create a design… oops #wedding

Tweet: ahhhhh our ketubah [text] has arrived! thank you thank you thank you to the lovely & uber talented @swoonoverit!

Way back in November, we started talking about making our own ketubah. If you’ve seen the prices being charged for even a very basic ketubah, you’d understand why. Anyhow, we tossed around the idea of drawing our own for a while and that’s when I contacted my amazingly talented twitter friend and calligrapher, Amanda. She and I went back and forth for several months over the fonts and the text and finally I got a sample. And then I got major goosebumps and chills. Seriously… this thing is REAL! Here’s a totally artsy pic of it, funky enough that you can’t really read it. I’ll save that for the final version. =D

Personal pic

For the uninformed, a ketubah is a Jewish marriage contract. As soon as it is signed by all 5 people, the couple is officially married. A lot of Jewish couples sign their ketubah’s just prior to the actual ceremony, making it more of a formality than anything. Our ketubah is completely in English, which is more common these days. My parents is in half Hebrew, half English.

So there’s your Jewish lesson for the day!

Tweet: Too big? Kinda heavy but I don’t care! 🙂 #weddingflowers http://twitpic.com/2euho8

Tweet: Up close for color accuracy #weddingflowers http://twitpic.com/2euhtf

Personal pictures

This one has orange/ red orchids, white miniature calla lilies, grass “filler” and stephanotis flowers. So basically my bouquet meaning is love, beauty, magnificent beauty, and marital happiness. There’s lots of beauty here apparently.

For the time being, the stems are tightly wrapped with green floral tape. However, mine must be super old since its way less “tape” and way more “green stretchy stuff” and is pinned around the stems. I cannot seem to find the original blue ribbon or sheer star ribbon (no surprise, I’ve moved 3 times since making the mock up) so for now, it’s unwrapped. Unless I buy more ribbon, I’ll likely use the 1″ orange and 5/8″ blue ribbon that I purchased a few months ago. My thinking, to keep the symmetry, is to sew the blue onto the orange and then wrap it. Or, wrap the orange and crisscross the blue around it and tie at the top with the memory lockets.

Aug132010

Flowers and Favors

With t-minus 56 days until we leave for Vegas and 58 days until the wedding, it’s probably time to start working on stuff to take, right? Yeah, me too. This weekend I’m planning on working on my bouquet and the welcome bags… and hopefully embossing all the envelopes for the reception.

Bouquet

This is my initial mock-up thrown together sometime last year and was for the bridesmaids when we were still having a bridal party. Since I purchased enough for 3 bridesmaids and my own, larger bouquet, I have quite a few to work with to make mine a lot fuller. This bouquet is wrapped with a royal blue ribbon then overwrapped with a translucent white ribbon with silver stars. I might switch it up to the orange and blue ribbons. Or even just the blue ribbon and use the orange to hang my memory lockets from. My what?

Personal picture

Guest bags

I am planning on buying 14″x16″ canvas totes from Cheap Totes and using the iron-on transfer paper I already purchased, putting the graphic below onto it to stuff with goodies for our Vegas attendees. Since I don’t have the bags yet… well or a printer for that matter… umm, OK not much I can do with this project.

In the bags, I’m planning on putting aluminum water bottle, deck of cards, candy, chips, gum, aspirin, transportation maps… what else do you suggest?

Actually, do you have a good printer recommendation for me? It needs to have wifi capabilities since I have a very mobile laptop. If I can buy one this weekend, then I’ll be working on printing this stuff.

The bag: source

Personal picture

Jul262010

Canvas “Mosaic” Guestbook Idea

As seen in one of my latest posts, I am trying to think outside of the very popular wedding box. As I was tooling around on one of my favorite craft sites (Save-On-Crafts) for receptions ideas, I had a new idea. Rather than 1 or 2 16×20 canvases for guests to sign, the new idea is a lot of smaller canvases.

Picture a bunch of 6×6, 8×8, and 10×10 canvases, stacks of markers, colored pencils and Sharpies. Each couple or family can take a small chunk of canvas and draw or write us a note on it. I’m debating actually blocking off sections of each canvas, but if they’re not all used, it might look funny.

My initial idea is to hang them all on the little wall in our dining room over the pass-through from the kitchen surrounding our ketubah. Tonight I purchased a pack of 3 8×10 canvases to test with a variety of mediums to see which looks the best, doesn’t bleed or look weird on canvas.

This is absolutely not drawn to scale, but something like this is what I’m picturing:

What do you think?

Jul202010

July 20 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – i totally want to do this for our guest “book” for Miami: http://bit.ly/bsnMGS #wedding (even if i had one for my bat mitzvah…)

Image from BridalBuds

Seriously, how adorable is this idea?! I showed it to Steve and I think he liked it. Seeing as he’s the one that’ll be drawing the tree or whatever design we decide on, I’d hope so. I can’t decide if I want a small one – like 8″ x 8″ – for the handful of Vegas folks and a larger one – 16″ x 20″ or bigger – for the reception. Either way, we have this great huge half wall over the pass through in our kitchen where they would reside perfectly next to our ketubah. We’re looking at over 100 guests in Miami, so either we’ll make 2 of them, or just have a really small design. Another option is a very large mat framing a relatively smallish photo of us. My friend Abby did that and it was too cute. It was maybe 12×16 with a 5×7 totally off-center picture.

And the bat mitzvah thing? Yeah, I totally had a 2′ x 3′ humongous picture for everyone to sign. Mhmm… it’s crammed in a closet somewhere and was never hung up. Hopefully this one will be different.

Tweet: @msrib – just sent a bunch of inquiries for Miami vendors on @weddingwire… now the waiting for replies begins 🙂

I know that we have a quote from a photog whose work makes my little heart pitter patter, but I decided to do my due diligence (use this word all the time at work) and look around a bit, right? So yes, today I emailed about 15 photog’s in the Miami – Ft Lauderdale area this afternoon. Sure, I sent the same email to them all using @WeddingWire‘s fabu contact form, but whatev, it worked. So far, I’ve received 1 email even remotely within our budget. Her images are totally amazing also, but, well… something is lacking. I think it’s the extra’s that K includes.

Photog K is $1100 for 3 hours of photos and a DVD filled with all our edited images. It also includes extra print credit of $150 towards any prints that we print through her.

“Images are usually processed within a 4 to 6 week time period depending on the current backlog and busy season. Once your images are ready, you will be presented with a link to your password-protected online viewing gallery.

High Resolution Files are include a personal printing license. These files are full resolution with no watermarks. Low-resolution, watermarked files are also included for personal perusal of your wedding collection or for sharing images online.”

Photog A is $900 for 3 hours of photos and a DVD filled with all our edited images.

“The above prices include my photography services, editing the photos for you, and putting them onto DVDs for you. I take about 100-200 photos each hour. All the photos I take on your wedding day will be edited for color/brightness/contrast/sharpness/etc, so they are ready to be printed. Then I will send you in the mail all the photos on a DVD (3 copies actually) about 4-6 weeks after your wedding.

Since you are receiving a DVD of very high quality digital negatives of all your wedding photos I do not offer any online viewing galleries, print ordering services, or wedding album design.”

I’m fairly sure if it’s just between these 2 overly talented photogs, it’s kinda a no-brainer. Which would you choose?

Jul062010

July 6 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – how many professional photographers do i have on my feed… debating if i want pro pics for our uber casual wedding reception

I’ve been seriously debating this issue. Our big DAY will have plenty of coverage as included in the package by Scenic Las Vegas Weddings. As will 2 days later thanks to the amazing photo shoot we won with the amazingly talented Emeric Photography

In a series of responses from photographer and non-photographer friends, I was convinced that yes, we DO need a pro photog at the reception. As one friend pointed out, the party, with all our family and friends, will look like drunken party pics especially compared to our pro pics for everything else. So now, I need to figure out a budget for the January shindig and see how much cash we have to spend on pictures. I have a friend that I would love so much to use, but I just don’t know if we can afford her. Luckily she said she has a friends and family discount. She is one of those truly amazing photog’s with crazy high ratings on WeddingWire. I am in love with her work. Le sigh.

Tweet: msrib – as open as i’ve been w/all my dress choices, i think i’m gonna keep the final selection a secret until the pics are posted. maybe #weddingwednesday

I did end up purchasing the gown last Monday. I was in and out of David’s Bridal in about 45 minutes with my newest dress in hand. They had the size and color I wanted to try on. To be fair, I did wander around to check on other floor length gowns and tried on one other. Little Miss Indecisive is no longer so! The dress is in my closet. My mom said she like it a lot better than the last all lace one. I don’t have any pictures of myself in it as I was having major undergarment issues. Plus the straps are a bit big so I need to have then fixed before I’ll post any pictures. I suppose in this case, third time really in a charm!

Tweet: msrib – Hello mini future Mr & Mrs Fletcher! #caketopper http://twitpic.com/21eohx

And I leave you with a bit of creativity… all I need to do is spray on the varnish and we’re done!

Jun222010

June 22 TMW Post

Tweet: Today is my parent’s 39th wedding anniversary.. in 39 years & 3.75 months, we’ll be celebrating ours too! 😉

There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. 39 years. That is a loooooong time! In those 39 years years they’ve owned 3 houses, raised 3 children, and owned hundreds of exotic birds and probably about a hundred dogs. Not to mention the odd creatures like goats, tortoises, koi, iguanas, and whatever else they’ve had. While we’re not going for the animal part, having 3 kids after 39 years is something I’d love to emulate. Even if there’s only 1 perfect kid – me, of course! 😉

Tweet: wedding ring mailed yesterday, remake payment just made… now to wait 8 horribly long weeks to get it back. going from 7.5 to 9 #justincase

My beautiful ring finally got mailed back. And what’s better, it was received 2 days later. Before I could even check the tracking, I got an email from the jeweler saying” it arrived, he’d use my old stone and crate the new one… and as a reminder, the current waiting time was 8 weeks.” Le sigh. 8 weeks until I have my precious back in my hands. The timing is pretty dead on since the wedding is just shy of 4 months away.

Tweet: The result of careful counting & lots of painful hot glue injuries: http://twitpic.com/1x510b

Tweet: All I need now are the pillars. #cupcaketower http://twitpic.com/1x6ag8

Tweet: Mini us! Now to hook to the base & varnish the whole thing #caketopper http://twitpic.com/1xannv

That’s right, I finally got some wedding DIY done… or at least seriously worked on. The cupcake bases are complete and I just need the towers. The cake topper is done and I just need to varnish them. We have normal varnish from the kitchen cabinets, but I’m thinking that it wayyyyy too thick. All the sites I was referring to used spray varnish. Too bad a bottle of spray varnish is about 10x what I need and costs like $8. Can’t they just sell a tiny bottle for me?

Tweet: Embossed envelopes… It’s a start! #wedding http://twitpic.com/1yki33

I am actually please with how these turned out. All the stamps I purchased and carefully planned and showed to people… they won’t work for embossing. I tried. All the text runs together. I guess that means everything else will just get stamped onto the envelopes. I did start that part… the stamping onto the envelopes. Our snazzy and complete fab return address stamp got stamped onto all 100 RSVP envelopes over the weekend. Only a handful were either too light, ink missing, or something else unusable. Not too shabby!

And I leave you with this, from Monday…
Tweet: 111 days until 101010! (cc @brokebride2be!)

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