When you envision your wedding and you're picking your style, be sure to include your wedding stationery in that game plan. Your invitations are the first glimpse into your ultimate wedding vision. Is your wedding going to be formal? Casual? Country chic? Modern? Your guests see your invites way before they see the location and theme so start telling your extraordinary story right away! A great custom-designed is a great way to show off your couple personality.
One of our Nashville custom designers is Shannon O'Kelley, owner of Southall Eden Paperie. Shannon is a creative force whose work is sure to blow you away. (She designed our fabulous Sex and the City party program, which you will see Thursday. We're still swooning over it!)
Be it modern, classic, pop-art, fun and whimsical Southall Eden Paperie manages to capture the spirit of a couple's wedding vision on paper. I tapped into Shannon's know-how to find out first-hand the wedding invitation trends that are hot now. Here are some of her favorites (and now ours!)...
Earth-friendly papers: Eco-chic is cool, not to mention it fits perfectly with the "Anthropologie-esque" wedding craze. The photos will likely be an invitation on seeded paper that can be planted and grow into wild flowers, an ensemble made of kraft paper that is actually colored instead of just the standard brown, and/or an invitation made out of paper that is made of junk mail.
Wildflower/seeded recycled paper invitations are a wonderful way for your guests to remember your wedding day!
Lovely hues between blue and green: Teal, aqua, turquoise, and all their color wheel neighbors are in demand this season.
A simple teal is complemented by the rich reds, followed by an elegant peacock-inspirecd pocket invitation
Blue's such a beautiful color and every shade it comes in has such a different tone!
Line art: Brides are drawn to invitations with line art because they are elegantly simple and classy, and also because it has the vintage feel that is very popular right now.
So what did you think? Aren't those just so pretty? I love how this last one is printed on paper that looks like bark. It has such a wonderful, subtle pattern to is and I just it! So these are just a few of what Southall Eden does, I hope it's enough to whet your appetite for some great stationery.
If there are any Southall Eden brides out there we would love to see pictures of what you worked together to come up with! As for us, we'll keep bringing these trends and inspirational ideas to you
Gotta love Nashville! Not only is the bridal community amazing, the entire city has shown that we rock!
Many of you have checked out my "help for Nashville flood victims" blog post - shared it with others, offered help, etc. Thanks for helping me spread the word!
Today, I have two additional (and fun) ways that you can help others. Even if you are not interested, please spread the word via email, Twitter or Facebook.
Thanks!
Flood Relief Details
1) Relish "I love Nashville" invitations to benefit Red Cross disaster relief efforts
Relish has designed several, super cute, "love Nashville" stationery, with profits benefitting the Red Cross.
Show your love for Nashville in a stylish yet useful way! Celebrate your Nashville wedding with themed invitations. Not a bride? I am buying thank you cards - you can never have enough tnotes!
For a limited time, you can buy "I love Nashville" wedding invitations and thank you cards. We'll also have these Nashville flood relief thank you cards at our Sex and the City, Girls Night Out party. But, if you love them, purchase Nashville stationery online now.
2) CJ's Off the Square hosts disaster relief gala tonight
The lovely gals at CJ's Off the Square are hosting a "Give Back" Gala tonight from 6 – 9 PM. I'll be there! Details from there are below.
Here’s the scoop: Come to CJ’s Off the Square this Thursday, May 13th anytime between 6-9 pm and bring any item from your gift registry or a Target, Home Depot or Lowe’s gift card and join in the celebration of generosity that is spreading throughout Middle Tennessee. Pretend you are going to a wedding…but instead of bringing a gift for the happy couple, you will be bringing a gift for a family in need who will be very happy to receive these basic household necessities.
Who says re-gifting is tacky? This is an easy way to “gift back” to families who have lost so much. And who really needs three toasters anyway?
Don’t have a gift registry? Bring a gift card! Your gift will mean so much to so many!
Complimentary valet parking will be provided and all of the fabulous food, drinks and décor you have come to expect from CJ’s Off the Square will be ready and waiting. There is no better way to celebrate our 5th Anniversary and the grand opening of our new event pavilion than “gifting” back to the community that is such an important part of what we are. I do hope you can join us for this very special evening and help our community recover. See you Thursday!"
If you've been blessed, here are two small ways to help others. Hope to see you tonight!
I have the best job! Storkie's Special Delivery asked me to take part in a little contest they're having where I, and several other bridal enthusiasts and bloggers were asked to design a bridal shower invitation design and personalize it. I submitted my masterpieces and it was featured on their blog today.
It's so cool to see what the other girls came up with - SO fun! I didnt even think to change the background. Would have chosen black!
Thanks for bringing me into this contest Storkie!
Storkie's Design Challenge:
How would you personalize the Ring Swing Bride bridal shower invitation?
We asked seven top bridal bloggers to customize one of Storkie’s most popular bridal shower invitations (Ring Swing Bride) in order to showcase how many ways one can personalize an invitation at Storkie.com. From text to layout to graphics (background, skin tone, hair color, and more), creating a unique design on Storkie.com is quick and easy.
Check out the awesome job the bridal bloggers did to personalize Ring Swing Bride, and pop over to their blogs to read their latest posts about everything wedding!
About: Based in Nashville, TN, Ashley developed AshleysBrideGuide.com to serve as a resource for area brides. She found that there just wasn’t one main “database” of the best local vendors, restaurants, boutiques, etc. Today, AshleysBrideGuide.com is THE place on the Web to get an insider’s perspective on Nashville weddings!
How She Personalized: Changed background color, removed the veil, changed the sash color, changed the skin tone, changed the hair color, added 3D bling to the flowers, adjusted text layout.
About: On The Thirty-Something Bride, Louise titles herself as an independent, outgoing, outspoken woman with too many interests and too little time. When she’s not traveling for her job, Louise is based in Nashville, Tennessee. The energetic Thirty-Something Bride blog provides inspiration for brides everywhere where Louise often showcases great images from real weddings, advice on how to survive the big day and great bridal finds.
How She Personalized: changed font color, changed wording, changed font typestyles, completely changed text layout.
I met Natasha at You're Invited's Bridal Bliss. Ironically, she'd just emailed me a few days before to get added to my list of Nashville bridal bloggers. We connected immediately. This girl has one of the best blogs around and is full of personality, style and grace. As I read her blog, I crawled (as a true wedding lover does) to see other blogs on her read list. I stumble across another blog of hers -that showcases her calligraphy. I was in love! Her calligraphy is as bubbly as she. I told Cassandra - you've got to follow up with Nastasha for an ABG blog post. This southern bride is getting married and helping brides at the same time!
Passing the keyboard to Cassandra...
Did you ever doodle in your notebook in middle school and high school and maybe even college? I know I did! I doodled mostly hearts, flowers, and Mrs. Cassandra {insert crush’s last name here}. Did you ever think that it would lead you to your career? Did you ever think you would use that doodling for your wedding? Yeah, me neither.
Lucky for us though, one Nashville bride-to-be is doing this! She has taken her doodling to a whole new level by developing them into calligraphic handwritings. Her name is Natasha, and she is currently in the throws of planning her own wedding as well as designing stunning handwriting that any bride, groom, or guest would drool over in a heartbeat!
(Natasha - Nashville bride to be and calligrapher)
Natasha has two blogs. You can follow her daily adventures in life and wedding planning by reading {and following} A Day in the Life. Her wedding is in June 2011 and will undoubtedly by fabulous. You can also view her business website filled with her gorgeous designs at Tres Chic Ink. Her calligraphy site is recently re-vamped and re-launched and promises great things!
Natasha says: I have always been obsessed with handwriting – starting in elementary school, I was always doodling in class, decorating my folders and notebooks with little pictures and forever writing my name, and then the older I got, I was the person who always paint-penned everything for friends in my sorority, designed t-shirts, started painting quotes, and then started wondering if calligraphy was something I would be good at.
They are beautiful works of art that lovingly adorn envelopes meant for wedding guests. She has a wide array of “fonts,” which are pictured below.
As for the different handwriting styles, I sat down one day and just started practicing with different fonts, classic and modern, as I know a lot of brides have different tastes. Each of my fonts is named after a friend of mine that is special to me, and it corresponds to their personality.
There is the Broadway font...
The Miller font...
The Parks font...
The Peyton font...
and The Tate font.
I hope you have enjoyed meeting Natasha and seeing her modern calligraphy options. This is a great Nashville resource for your wedding!
Gotta love those Wedding Chicks - Jocey & Amy, for providing us with great freebie downloads! I was surfing the web on Friday night for Stationery finds and ran across this great freebie!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I have a September Bride that is going to ♥ the Robin Egg Blue & Espresso brown labels!
At Ashley’s Bride Guide, we’re always on the lookout for innovative and exciting wedding ideas.
Send us your wedding tips, creative ideas, or your own wedding
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