Escort Charts: MSPaint to Reality...

For our escort table, I thought that the placecards that I had blogged about earlier would suffice as being both the escort card to show people where they were sitting, and also the place card to denote what meal each person was eating. Guests would just have to pick up their card from the escort table and place it in front of them at the guest table. But, I had been notified three weeks before the wedding that my venue, Veronique, actually requires two sets of these cards to ensure a flawless meal service, just in case the guests lose the cards or put them in their pocket.

So, as I was brainstorming on MSPaint (because it was the only thing available on my husband's laptop!) in the airport waiting to go to Philadelphia for another friend's wedding, I was thinking... how will this work? I didn't want to have two sets of cards, because people might take the escort cards and put them on the table, so there will be two sets of cards at each place settings. So I decided that they had to be escort charts, where people would just look up their name and table number. The pearl white metallic card stock on a crimson red backing seemed appropriate, but how am I supposed to display these charts and make them stand up? The answer: branches of course! I wanted to make a frame out of branches, and have the charts hanging from the branches by fuchia ribbon or embroidery floss.

I kept the MSPaint drawing that I did in the airport, and here is the inspiration. Notice the green spray paint function at the bottom to represent a moss covered table =)



Now, to turn these into reality. I ended up making three charts total with about 50 names and table numbers on each. Another trip to my in-law's house for their trees, a huge pair of clippers, and a ton of brown yarn later, I had my escort chart frames! I decided to attach the charts to the frames at four points instead of just two, so it would display at an angle to the guests, and not just hang straight up and down. I also added a letter range in the upper right hand corner to make it easier for guests to find their names. Below is a picture of the escort charts at my wedding, with a moss covered table, taken by our wonderful photographer, Brittany of BKB Photography.



These came out EXACTLY how I wanted them too! I absolutely love it when ideas just work.

Pink Orchid Weddings is here to help you plan your own wedding, and help you make your own ideas come to fruition. Email us at info@pinkorchidweddings.com!

~Emilie

Wooden Card Box - Stained and Mossed?

Another one of my wedding projects was the card box. This was an item of the wedding where I didn't really know what I wanted until I saw bits and pieces while walking through the aisles of the arts and crafts store, Michaels. The main theme of the wedding was lots of branches, orchids, and moss, for an earthy feel with pink flowers everywhere. So in one aisle I passed by these great little storage chests that opened on top, in another aisle, passed by the block letters, and in another aisle, passed by the moss. I love it when I can visualize a great idea. I almost hear a "ding ding ding!" go off in my head, and I was so excited to start!

A dark wood stain for our intials, a light wood stain for the chest and then varying darker stains added to give it a distressed look, moss in strategic places, and 4 tubes of superglue later... the wooden card box is complete! Pictures (click to enlarge) are located below:








If you would like help with ideas for creative projects for your own wedding, email us at info@pinkorchidweddings.com!

~Emilie

a little thing called placecards

Pink Orchid Weddings specializes in Day of Coordination, but this of course doesn't mean that we just flawlessly execute someone else's plans, we also love creating our own details!

As many of you know, I recently got married in June 2008, and I thought... what better way to start my first blog posting than to highlight one of my many many wedding projects! It's a little thing called placecards. I knew I wanted to have pearl white cardstock mounted on crimson red cardstock, forming a little tent card.

Then the fun stuff first started with the issue of: How can I work on these without knowing the table assignments yet? The table number must be separate for me to get a head start. Will it be a sticker on the inside of the card? Will it be handwritten on the inside of the card? Ohh yes, I've got it. Let's hand-write the table number in white ink on 3/8" strips of hand-cut bronze cardstock, hole punch the table number and attach it to the placecard with fuschia embroidery floss! Next question, how is it actually going to be attached? Will I just hole punch the crimson red cardstock and thread it through? Nope.. The credit goes to my husband for this answer: one night he says "Emilie, why don't you put branches on the placecards?" yes, why not??

That weekend, we drove back to my in-law's house to cut twigs and small branches from the trees on their property. We debated on going to Boston Commons to try to find twigs, but thought that might be a bad idea. So back to the placecards.. six holes were punched into the placecard to tie the branch down to the top of each placecard with fuchia embroidery floss in a criss-cross pattern. Then once we finalized the table assignments, the table tag was then tied onto the branch. Project complete! Below are some detailed pictures of the placecards (click to enlarge).



I really love how these turned out! If you're interested in projects like this for your own wedding, feel free to email us at info@pinkorchidweddings.com.

~Emilie

Introduction!

Hi everyone! Emilie and I are starting a joint venture called Pink Orchid Weddings. Basically, after planning our own individual weddings (and helping each other out in the process), we felt that we would make a great team in helping other people out on their big day. We plan to focus on day of coordination. This means, we'll be there to help the couple out with various details such as producing their wedding day timeline, confirming details with their vendors, arranging the favors, and directing the ushers. We plan to be there from set-up to tear down. We find that a lot of engaged couples are very organized throughout the planning process, but then have trouble finding someone to take care of all the little details during the actual day. So here we are!! We already set up a menu of services and are working with clients (and potential clients).

This is our Blush Package (click to enlarge photo):

The most current project we have on hand is our website. We hope to have it launched in a few weeks!

If you are interested in our services, please e-mail us at info@pinkorchidweddings.com!

~Fiona