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.

Happy Friday everyone!

I’ve been posting a lot of links and photos (like Leann and Michael’s striking typographic Lois + Clark invitations in black and persimmon above) to The Future Mrs. Darcy facebook page lately so I thought I’d do a little round up for those of you who don’t use facebook a lot (or can’t because of work– boo!)

Crafty Cake Toppers via 100 Layer Cake

How to Make Scratch Off Lottery Tickets — would be great for favors or figuring out who gets centerpieces. Who am I kidding? This is great for EVERYTHING.

Gold Heart Mini Sparklers via Mighty Goods

Have a great weekend!

Yes, I’ve crazied out their names and locations so no one can crash. But I REALLY love their colors. Also another first with them was a classed-up google map. Right before we were ready to print Nicole sent me a screenshot of google maps and asked if we could print that up and list accommodations info. A quick lesson about printing for the world at large: do not expect things printed from the internet to look good. Screen resolution is 72 dpi (dots per inch) and printing resolution is 300 dpi so you need a lot more dots to get good print quality. A way around this though is if you take a really large screen shot then proportionally shrink it in Photoshop (please don’t try this in Word or anything, just writing that makes my heart hurt and it won’t work!) so you’ll have enough dots to print well. But then we still had a very obvious google map in a sea of gorgeous purples and sea blue/greens so I changed the colors around so it fit a little nicer in the whole package.

It’s kind of like a happy medium between custom maps and no maps at all.

I think any professional can relate to the fact that creating something for yourself is roughly a bajillion times harder than creating something for someone else. I think there were 27 widely different versions of my invitations before I settled on the design you all know. I loved my wedding invitations but what I REALLY loved about them were the backing for the RSVP which was an abstraction of my married name (“Cox”) to look like a scroll with our initials between them repeated as a pattern, the fact that each piece was a different size so it stacked nicely and the envelopments envelope we used (photos here and AHH they changed The Knot around and all my photos are gone! Boo!) but people don’t want my name on the back of their pieces and envelopments was an extra cost so that doesn’t really translate to the Elizabeth + Darcy on the site. And even though I still do like them as they were… I think they needed some spice to hang with the rest of the group.

So I added handdrawn (does it still count when I hand drew it on the computer) swirls that were featured in a previous life of the website, angled it a bit  which gives it a little more of a hand written feel and a smidge of wine label (perhaps) vibe, used slightly less formal fonts for the non-name parts, and changed the color scheme up to better accommodate the fact I feel most people have 2 wedding colors. Oh and I added more swashes to be even more grand!

There you have it: Elizabeth + Darcy Redux: 2011 style.

Edited to add: Here’s a detail shot too!

This is one of those times.

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot vintage bus signs lately and just want to make a fun “vintage or since they’re back in style is it modern?” type invitation. So voila!

I chose Penny Lane and Russell from Almost Famous because vintage bus signs just seem kind of rock and roll like they’d come from a tour bus or something. And because I like the name “Penny Lane”. It can be yours right now for (as always) $5 an invitation set right here. In case you can’t read it under “name(s)” on the RSVP are “song request #1″ and “song request #2″! What a great idea for a rock and roll wedding!

Speaking of– a giant thank you to the Off Beat Bride post “Wedding Invitation Wording That Won’t Make You Barf” for the invitation wording and the song requests idea on the RSVP. Stop me if I’m a broken record but if there are any wording edits you’d like for any of the invitations just let me know when you order your printed sample or free pdf.

So today we have: Adam + Eve and Allie + Noah!

Shall we stop and reflect for a moment how much I love that still from The Notebook? Indeed, drink it in.

And stay tuned for Bogey + Bacall and Bonnie + Clyde next (Ariel + Eric already have one)!

*I know I probably said I’d never use “STD” for “Save the Date” but I got to make my* “glitter is the herpes of the craft world” joke today.

**Fine, it’s Dimitri Martin’s joke.

I’m not sure why but table numbers have been roaming around in my head lately. A strange thing to be roaming in one’s head for sure but I also had a long dream about drinking orange juice last night so I take what I can get. And it seems some of you out there might be on the same wavelength (table numbers not OJ) because I was just contacted about making some custom lovely table numbers with a Harry Potter twist. I’m so excited to get started on them.

But it got me thinking that, aside from the FREE! DIY woodgrain table numbers, I’m not sure if I’ve really shown the invitation suite extras from the original suites. There are a lot.

Like did you know that Allie + Noah has an available directions card, menu (which I love love love the teacup), place card and table number?! Unless you’ve been squinting close to the screen trying to catch them in the background of the product shot, you probably haven’t. And if you have, no need to squint (it’s bad for you anyway)– just ask. Geez.

Bogey + Bacall ceremony programs, accommodations card, menu, table number and placecards.

Elizabeth + Darcy ceremony programs, accommodations card, directions card, table numbers, placecards, and menu. (There’s also a map [because Elizabeth and Darcy were my invitations] but it still has all my wedding info on it so it’s not shown)

Holly + Paul save the date, menu (which reads Tipple & Nosh and has drinks after the diamond cuts, Marquise, Cushion, and Asscher and buffet stations named Princess and Emerald– I got really into that one!), map (Manhattan maps are my favorite– all those straight lines), table numbers and placecards.

Jim + Pam directions, menu, table numbers and place cards.

Sandy + Danny accommodation/events combo card, menu, table number and place card.

Sloane + Ferris save the date, map, table number (the Seurat painting- it says it small on the bottom- no art degree required), and place card.

Whew! That’s quite the list.

So remember last week how I asked for 50s couples? Well, here is the invitation and I have a happy little poll for you to let me know which you like best or to write in what YOU think is best!

First things first, the invitation (with Jen and Marc’s info in it for the time being- Happy Anniversary guys! They had a Memorial Day weekend wedding… like forever ago)

So kind of 50s, kind of Vegas, I think– what about you:

And yes- it’s a diamond! You can either have a normal square envelope, although wouldn’t something like this be even cooler if you had a little extra moola?

In other news, I’m hoping to revamp the website now that the couples list has gotten super long. I may make another handy dandy little survey to see what y’all like and don’t like about the current site but if you want to get started letting me know, just leave me a comment!

So let me shut up and just show you:

FRED AND GINGER!

What is that I hear? Are you all making up words that combine retro, fabulous, glamorous, fun, art deco and wedding invitations? Retroglamfabfundeco invites indeed.

And I was so super excited about that that I made some Lois and Clark RSVPs to match the long lost invitations so check that one off the list!

And remember waaaay back when when we were trying to name that winter wonderland invitation? I’m sticking with Jovie and Buddy from The Elf for now since everyone seems to hear The Elf and think “Baby, It’s Cold Outisde” which, as we all remember, was the inspiration for the invite so BOOM! BAM! DONE!

And the cherry on top? They’ve all been added to the “Love Stories” section so they have their larger image and you can easily bookmark them AND they’ve all been added to Etsy which is my go-to place for you to buy samples.