It had something to do with 4 different (corporate) clients having summer conferences.

It had a lot to do with these (and these are only the one who’ve been printing and shipped so far! And start thinking of couples for the newest invitations suite- the green leaves in the bottom right):

(Sorry my little Canon camera has decided to take worse quality photos than an cell phone lately… I’m looking into finding a replacement)

And then a lot to do with this:

Shazaam! And thank you again to Modern Toile Photography for taking such lovely photos at my shower.

But with babies come baby things (like the shower invitations and there are more where that came from) and FREEBIES… like anyone need a birth plan? I know- at the top of everyone’s wish list but just in case:

Click on the photo above or here: http://bit.ly/birthplan to get your own.

Without further ado, I bring you my FREE nerdy Valentine’s Day card:

Jeopardy combines some of my favorite things: trivia, competition and yelling at the TV. For those of you who don’t know, Ken Jennings is the guy who won for an entire summer a couple of years ago and Watson is a computer developed by IBM to win at Jeopardy. There is also a third guy who is a Jeopardy champion but I don’t know his name.

Anyway, TA-DA! Click on the image to download the pdf. Print it out and fold like you would an old school homemade card and ENJOY!

We have some family that every time we see them they say “I still haven’t seen the new house…” (we’ve been here for about 2 years now) and we say “Then why don’t you come over! Anytime that’s good for you” (because it would be an hour drive for them) and it goes on and on and on and apparently they want an invitation written in blood, hand delivered on a silver platter. *Deep breaths* So… yeah we’re having a BBQ and I will need to make an invitation. But as I kept thinking about it, who the hell is going to actually MAIL BBQ invitations to their friends? Only people whose alternative is writing invitations in blood.

Today I was thinking it might be fun to have some nicer looking evite images but I went to evite and then remembered how much it sucked and that no little image in the corner will make it better. So I did what anyone would do, got bored and went on facebook whiiiiiiiich obviously made me think that if I was planning an event where I’d need to know RSVPs and the like and wasn’t trying to hide the details from anyone (like last year’s surprise par-tays for Mandy and Jenn) then I’d probably go the facebook route.

So without further ado, I’ve made some little images in case anyone has an event that’s only slightly a big deal coming up. There are still more I’d like to make but the first 3 that came into mind were: pub golf (which I’ve never actually done but Laurie always posts such cute photos from when she does), karaoke (not surprising with Brandy‘s Karaoke 2Kx coming up) and Beer-B-Q (my favorite kind of BBQ).

And, yes, karaoke’s does also say “Look mama! I’m a star!”

Download facebook events pack here. (118 kb)

If you have any other events coming up and you’d like to sway which I do next, leave me a comment.

While I was immersing myself in all things Alice (umm, except the movie, I suppose, because we can’t leave our pup at the moment- stitches, long story) and I came across some illustrations by Katogi Mari and really liked the idea but I wanted the flowers to be made of the suits of cards* and (obviously) there to be room to write so yada yada yada I turned it into an invitation for y’all. And by “yada yada yada”, I mean I’ve spent the last 3 days at my computer drawing drawing drawing.

So. If you download these you need to take the following oath:

I do solemnly swear that I will tell someone who: is engaged, planning on getting engaged, recently married, planning a party, having a baby, moving, or requiring a designer about The Future Mrs. Darcy.

Excellent.

These come 2 to a page and have spaces for you to fill in: “arrive promptly at:” time, “we’re all mad here:” location, “curiouser and couriouser:” for what and any other infomation and “the adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time” for RSVP.

For you very own download here: Alice in Wonderland Invitations #2!

And there’s a slew of more Alice party stuff for you to download here and here.

Also to keep you occupied for 5 minutes of the week I’m gone:

Photo by One Love Photo

I came across this LIBRARY WEDDING on Snippet and Ink in my monthly skim of all wedding blogs and I don’t even need to mention how much I love it, do I? It’s a freakin’ library wedding. I want to store everything in old card catalogs. Make sure to also read Linda’s (the bride) Planning Tips at the end. Linda, you rock, I shall drink a Guinness in your honor next week.

photo by Pam Sattler

Secondly, I came across a color palette on one of my design blogs and how freakin’ lovely?! Also it’s “Color Happy 68″ which means there are 67 other ones for you to peruse.

Images: dried flowers by Elizabeth Messina, long table by Small Masterpiece, calligraphy by Kathryn Murray, floral by Adebond

Lastly, Jane. Austen. [Pretend.] Wedding. Okay so it’s an inspiration post but I was fooled for like 10 seconds and they were good 10 seconds and good inspiration so soak it in kids. I think doilies are a little much but don’t give a crap what I think, it’s your wedding after all.

Go forth. Have a great week and a half. Be 110% Irish tomorrow and pinch people who don’t wear green.

*And yes, I do realize (now) that making a spade into a flower starts edging into the line of phallic but we gotta do what we gotta do and from what I hear, I think Lewis Carroll would have liked it that way. And what a great hen party** invite!

**Have I mentioned that I plan to use the English “hen”/”stag” party instead of “bachelorette”/”bachelor” party? Sounds so much cooler their way.

Anyway today I want to chat about what I see as the two paper sides to weddings. I break it down between everything that could possibly come before the wedding and day of wedding stuff. So in the former we have save the dates, invitations, RSVPs, accommodation cards, direction cards, etc. Then on the other side for day of the wedding stuff we have programs, table numbers, menus, labels for favors, and on and on. If you look back in TFMD classic designs like Jim + Pam or Holly + Paul I was trying to make the entire arc at once.

The problem is when you are ordering invitations you obviously can’t know where you’re seating everyone yet so you can’t order both at once. The second problems to that (I have found) is that by the time day of wedding paper enters your realm of thinking you are short on budget and time so things just get thrown together or skipped entirely. Can we PUH-LEASE make a resolution from here on out to never ever ever ever EVAH have clip art on table numbers? Because we don’t have to. My solution to this is to come at this semiDIY. The way I keep the price down is simple- I can sell you the file (ready to go in your hot little hands on the same day) and you print it and trim them down yourself. We meet in the middle of the DIY road. Whether you’ve bought your wedding invites from here or not we can get you hooked up with some great day of wedding pieces. If you bought TFMD invitations for Melanie + Jake and need a program no worries- there actually already is one! And if there wasn’t I can make one! Table numbers, programs, menus, labels for favors, and other various signs you might need (to lead guests a certain way or to tell them how to fill out your guest book) are $25 for the file*. Place cards start at $50 for the file* because it takes long to add each of your 100 or so guests names in!

So let’s not forget about the day of wedding stuff. There’s no reason it can’t coordinate with the rest of your wedding look. I can’t find where the free faux bois table numbers are in the archives so why don’t we post it again since we’re talking about table number, huh? (Colors available [from left to right, top to bottom]: gray, marigold, cherry, moss, skyblue, stained, and raw)

Also remember remember remember:

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH
I will be suspending production of orders from March 15-March 29! You can email me to place an order during this time but I won’t be able to get back to you or print your order until after March 29th.

Buuut since I do love to bribe you all AND since I’ve had a request I’m making another free Alice in Wonderland party invitation so stay tuned.

*I’m not trying to be tricky but these are the starting costs. If you say “I love the Jim + Pam menu”, (I know- it’s so cute- I love that it’s “eat drink and be married” in a more modern way, but I digress), it’s $25. If you say “I love the Holly + Paul table numbers but I want to add photos and short stories to each location mentioned in the table number and by the way we have 40 tables” (which is a good idea, it’s kind of what I made for Jen E.’s wedding, everyone had fun looking at all the photos) then that will be $50.

A big “I hate you and I wish you were a physical entity so I could show you how much I hate you” to my stupid order form which stopped working. And the real kicker is that it pretended to work and said “Thanks for your order and I’ll get back to you shortly to finalize” (or something like that) and then NEVER SENT ME THE EMAIL! Please please please if you sent me something about invitations or anything else and haven’t heard back from me PUH-LEAAAAASE email me at kristenhcox (at) gmail (dot) com.

A GINORMOUS thanks to Monica who contacted letting me know it might not be working in the first place.

So now onto the goods. I’ve had a lot of visitors come to the site to check out the Alice in Wonderland 30th Birthday Party Extravaganza we threw for Jenn back in October. The Lady Ga Ga Valentine’s Day card were loosely based off some of the designs we did for the party so why not complete the circle and actually make some printable invites for an Alice in Wonderland party!

They are print your own, come 3 to a page, and will fit in a standard envelope. You add hands to the clock to note the time and write the other pertinent information below (i.e. date, location, if it’s a surprise party, who’s birthday it might be for, if there’s an RSVP, etc…)

Download your FREE Alice in Wonderland Invitations here!

I’ve also created updated (matching) “eat me”/”drink me” flag which can be downloaded here!

To download them I’m going to lure you to The Future Mrs. Darcy facebook fan page where you can find the links to get the pdfs. And if you want to become a fan once you’re there WONDERFUL! If not, you still have awesome Valentine’s Day cards. If by some chance you have a moral or religious aversion to facebook or an anal retentive IT teams that’s blocked it at work just fill out the contact form on the home page and I’ll let you know where to find them.

Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here! I keep adding more “Alice in Wonderland” stuff since people seems to like it so make sure to click on the “Alice in Wonderland” tag to make sure you get it all! (Like another print out invitation!)

Happy November everyone! As promised starting off today we have some awesome DIY party planning bits. My friend Mandy and I planned an elaborate Alice in Wonderland themed 30th birthday party for our friend, Jenn, a couple of weeks ago in NY and it was so fun and adaptable to other parties (bachelorette, baby shower, wedding shower, birthdays of all ages, etc) that I thought I’d share.

We started off our party with a Mad Hatter Tea (and Champagne) party at her house with some fun (relatively) easy decorations.

The photos aren’t the best quality. I took them with the flash off b/c the flash was blinding but the pom poms were in front of the lights so there were weird color things going on. Brandy helped a bit so now they look a little retro but anyway- long story short here they are:

Alice in Wonderland Party Decorations

Anyway don’t think I’m just rambling on without giving you all the tools to do this yourself!

Here are the “Eat Me”/”Drink Me” straws and toothpicks: download.
[Print out on desired paper, cut into strips and fold around straws or toothpicks, glue shut and trim a "v" shape into ends]

Here is the “Happy 30th Birthday” garland: download.
[The colors are named on top but you can choose any 3 colors you like. I alternated red, white, pink, white which is why it looks like it's not in order. If you would like different text, Martha has you covered.]

Again the Pom-Pom instructions are here.

And lastly, I found the email I sent to Mandy after some Alice in Wonderland research:

Here are other links that I’ve amassed although most of them just have touches of things i like
http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-decor-alice-in-wonderland
(obviously this is a little too complex for what we can do but i like the kind of mismatched craziness of it all)

http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-weddings-cherry-harvest-table
(i like the flags for the “eat me” and “drink me”)

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/10/real-parties-chic-colorful-birthday/#more-8072
(i like the flags and the bright colors. it seems a little too pretty though for alice in wonderland)

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/09/free-printables-cirque-du-bebe-pink/
(I like the concept of the feathers- maybe not the execution. I can see what Michael’s Craft store has to offer)

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/party-hats
(probably more work than I’m willing to do but i’m throw it all out there)

http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/08/tea-party-shower.html
(the more i see it the more i think lots of big things hanging from the ceiling are a good easy thing)

http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2008/04/party-hats-101.html
(more hats and ceiling hanging stuff)

Other Alice in Wonderland elements:
cards/suits (queen of hearts, jack of spades, etc)
flamingos
cheshire cat
tweedledee and tweedledum
white rabbit
dodos
mushrooms (fake ones for decorations?)
jaberwoky
doormouse

If you fall down the rabbit hole for your next party make sure and send us some photos! Oh, and remember to use the flash unless your a super cool photographer (apparently I was acting out of my pay grade!)

Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here!

They have a nice blog and you can buy issues online (both digital $11.95 AUD [$8.68 USD] or printed $14.95 [$10.86]) if you don’t feel like jetting around the world for a magazine but what I thought was best was they have a big ole free downloads section!

They’re most idea for bridal shower (other various pre-wedding shindigs) and favors which is great because I feel like those are aspects of the wedding where you stop and think “Wait, THERE’S MORE PLANNING?!!?”

I’m liking this new theme at the moment so I’m off to find more across the pond (or WAY across) inspiration!

Self, that is a lovely idea! But what to give away? A quick ponder up to the heavens:

Oh right! Those fois bois* table numbers I’ve been meaning to make because I love the Martha Stewart Macy*s brochure with the fois bois cover I got while I was planning my wedding 3 years ago and finally decided that would be a good idea for table numbers and wrote it on my chalkboard ceilings to remind myself over three months ago but hadn’t done anything with until my new custom bride mentioned her wedding was going to take place under an oak tree and found some lovely fois bois making it so much easier for me to make actual table numbers today!

Whew.

I made 7 different colors all with table numbers 1-12 (and named them increasingly silly names): [row 1] gray, marigold, red, [row 2] moss, sky blue, stained and [row 3] raw. Click each of the color names above to download your very own copy. The files are all about 14MB so they may take a couple of minutes to download. NEW SMALLER FILES AVAILABLE HERE!

(sample page of “Raw”)
If you still need more:

• Subway is giving out free cookies,
• PF Chang’s is offering a 15% discount on your meal tonight,
• buy a coffee at Dunkin Donuts today and get a free donut,
• Walgreens is offering 15 free 4×6 prints (enter coupon code TAXDAY at W Photo check out on April 15, 2008 only),
• board games are 10% off today at Troll and Toad,
• McCormick amp; Schmick’s is offering diners a $10.40 certificate for future use and there’ll be $15 to $20 entrees discounted to $10.40,
• MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream and Treatery will give away single-scoop servings to customers at 200 stores,
• Cinnabon will give out Tax Day Bites, free bite-size cinnamon rolls usually known as Classic Bites (from 5 to 8 p.m.),
• T.G.I. Friday’s will give Wednesday customers $5 Bonus Bites gift cards for food and beverage purchases of $15 to $25 and $10 cards for those who spend more than $25 as well as members of the 1,000-outlet chain’s frequent-customer program also will get double points,
• (for those West Coast readers) Taco Del Mar will run a promotion: “Taxes Suck. Tacos Don’t.” People can register at the Taco Del Mar website for an e-mailed coupon for a free tax day taco,
• and I BET that California Tortilla is giving away SOMETHING but, alas, I’m no longer in DC so I don’t know.

ENJOY! And it would be so very lovely if you send pictures of the table numbers if you use them.

*Edited at a much later date to add: I took french for 7 years and now am having a panic attack that “fois bois” is incorrect and it should be “faux bois” which seems to make more sense but google is showing both as viable. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. Merci!

**Edited WAY later: I’m going with the “faux bois” from now on. Don’t know how the other one got to much popularity but literally it’s “faux bois”