Holiday cards designed for you!

With the holidays upon us, many of us send out cards, or buy those boxed sets to give out to family and friends. Each year for me, I actually only need three cards to give out for a small holiday brunch with my closest girlfriends. One year, I had bought a boxed set of 14 cards (the smallest number I could find at the time), and I still have 11 cards sitting in the box. Also, you can't re-use holiday cards for the next year to the same people unless you want the "hey, wasn't this the same card you gave me last year?", so those 11 cards will probably just sit there forever.

My solution this year, was to create a holiday card for each of the girls, personalized with their names. I created a simple snowflake design, with a happy holidays greeting underneath. I also embellished each of the snowflakes with a touch of glitter for some sparkle and texture.

If you are interested in creating personalized holiday cards for your friends and family, just email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie

The most gorgeous fruit tart... and envelope liners

One of my passions in life is... well, I want to say paper, and design, and everything stationery, but for this post: I absolutely love fruit tarts. If you give me all of the desserts in the world, I would pick a fruit tart. The fruit tart from Finale is amazing: Fresh fruits with almond frangipane and vanilla Bavarian cream in a sugar dough shell. Yumm!! The reason I'm talking about fruit tarts, is that when I was working on envelope liners for a client's wedding invitations, this dessert was my little break.

Now to those envelope liners (that you can see behind the fruit tart!). These are so popular nowadays, and give any envelope a little extra kick. Wedding invitations that have a unique and beautiful envelope liner really stand out. For this particular client, she really wanted to use something with red and gold, and I found some gorgeous paper at Paper Source! The paper is called Lokta Baroque Flower Bordeaux, and it's actually handmade from a Lokta plant in Nepal. I spent many hours hand cutting these liners, but the end result was stunning. The gold print on the lokta paper just shines in the light.

You can really see the detail of the paper in the last photo. Not only the vibrant colors, but the texture as well! If you have ideas for a fabulous envelope liner, let me know and I will try and find you the perfect paper.

~Emilie

Personalized wedding cards - Cathy and Pedro

For almost all wedding guests, the one thing that they all will do is bring a wedding card. I used to always scour the aisles of my local card store to search for the perfect wedding card, and after reading about 30 different cards, I would usually just settle on a card that says some sort of generic "congratulations" phrase. For $2.99 - $5.99 each time I do this, I never feel like it's really worth the money because it could always be better. So each time a wedding came around the corner, I'd find myself back in that same aisle, reading wedding cards, and just saying... "ehh".

But, what if you actually go through the aisle and find a cute card? The problem is that sometimes, another wedding guest going to the same wedding would also see that same cute card, so the newlyweds get duplicates of the cute card, which doesn't make it that cute anymore. Trust me, this happens.. for my own wedding, I received duplicates of multiple cards!

The solution: personalized wedding cards! For the past three weddings that I've been to, I've designed cards to give to the newlyweds. It would either contain something that is special to them, or have a wedding related element like a hand drawn wedding cake. For Cathy and Pedro's wedding card, I knew that they liked turtles, so I designed cute a pair of "love" turtles with their names attached, and added some texture by hand glittering sections of both of the turtles.


How cute is this card?? I immediately got a response from Cathy after she received the card saying that she loved it.

If you would like to personalize a wedding card for your friends, just email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com! I'll be posting some more cards that I've designed at a later date.

~Emilie

The perfect groomsmen gifts: custom shirts!

Many couples tend to leave the men’s wedding attire decision to the last minute, most often because the most popular option is renting and typically the clothing choices are not that interesting anyway. Usually, the groomsmen (especially those from out of town) are sent on their own to get measured, which can be a little daunting to some. We’ve all heard of the case where a groomsman ends up with an ill-fitting shirt that he has to scramble to replace at the last minute! We have recently come across an option that may intrigue a lot of grooms and their friends. It’s a custom made shirt! 9tailors lets their customers create their own dress shirts, from picking out the shape of the collar, pockets, and cuffs, to selecting one of 35 materials that is just right for you. Your creation is made right on their website and your special order will be ready in 2-6 weeks. Their website even has a video tutorial on how you can take perfect measurements. If you are still unsure and you live in the Boston area, a representative can meet with you to take your measurements and give you style advice. 9tailors also offers monogramming, so you can personalize these shirts as fabulous gifts to the groomsmen, or perhaps a future father-in-law!

The best part of all is that these custom shirts start at only $60! In addition, all Pink Orchid Weddings clients can receive 10% off your first purchase with 9tailors. To redeem your discount, just mention that you were referred by Pink Orchid Weddings.

Visit http://beta.9tailors.com/ for more details!

Beauty Advice

After my own wedding last September, I am lucky to have become friends with my makeup artist, who has done my makeup for many other occasions ever since then. Elaine is just absolutely fabulous! I thought it would be fun to ask her a few beauty-related questions.

Q: Are there any recent beauty trends you have spotted that would be appropriate for a bride?
A: Instead of being perfectly coiffed and having every line and curve on the face be perfect, try intentionally effortless hair and softly accentuating the features of your cheekbones and lips. Twenty years later when you pick up your wedding album to reminisce, I guaranteed you will not, as some would no doubt do, cringe at their dated and overly made-up pictures.

Q: Is there anything a bride should do (beauty-wise) to prepare for the big day?
A: So, you’ve got the dress, the hair, and make up and you’re breathing a sigh of relief. Do a once over, turn around and see what’s missing. Yes, your derrière is in shape but how about your back? A lot of brides forget that unless they’re going to cover up those blemishes with makeup that could come off onto the groom’s tux when they lean in for that romantic close-up, they should always have a full body exfoliation. And then don’t forget to deep moisturize! Some should really be thinking more in depth about exfoliation a few months in advance and then do the upkeep at home for less money with sea salt and olive oil for that all over glow (caution: have non slip mats and make sure you clean out your tub afterwards...you don’t want a cast at your wedding). Take your vitamins with Omega 3, 6 and 9 so you’ll have that glow from within, along with minimized pores and softer skin.

Q: What's the difference between makeup for a daytime event versus a nighttime reception?
A: If it’s a daytime event, try to go for a less dramatic look that puts the emphasis on looking youthful and awake. For an evening event, go for that sultry, mysterious look by emphasizing on two things only, eyes and cheeks or eyes and lips. Of course most wedding celebration are from day to night, so try a few things with your makeup artist. Examples include adding a dramatic color for eyeliner that you can do yourself during cocktail hour and deepening the lipstick color with a different gloss on top. Think about things you can do to change a look in 15 minutes with or without a makeup artist.

Q: What are the key makeup items that are essential if you want to be camera-ready?
A: Have a bridesmaid carry a wristlet that contains lip stain, lip liner, lipstick, CHAPSTICK, mini blush brush, q-tips, small compact, blush and squares of paper towel. Add a few bobby pins, safety pins, double-sided tape, and eye drops for contact wearers or those with dry eyes to prevent redness.

Q: Have there been any odd requests from brides? Anything you're not willing to do?
A: I personally do not like to alter eyebrows especially on the day of the wedding; I’ve had too many requests regarding shaping the brows. These should have been done at least a month or even two before the wedding, because if you don’t think the shape is right, you still have time to grow it out and fill them in. Just like a haircut, the brows need at least three days time before it looks a little more natural. Try threading if you’re squeamish about waxing!

Here is Elaine hard at work the morning of my wedding (photo by Sun Photographics, edited by Pink Orchid Weddings):

Hope this was helpful! If you’re looking for a makeup artist in the Boston area, definitely contact Elaine at makeupbyelaine@gmail.com.

~Fiona

Photos from Sarah and Eric's Wedding by Jaco le Roux

Back in September, we posted a few pictures from the wedding that we coordinated in Maudslay State Park. We finally have the professional pictures from the incredibly talented Jaco le Roux, and they are absolutely amazing. Also, it doesn't hurt that Sarah and Eric look like models in all of their photos. We really enjoyed the day, and here are a few of the wedding details:

All photos by Jaco le Roux.

Don't you just love the "yay" flags and all of the b&w shots? Sarah and Eric, thank you so much for letting Pink Orchid Weddings be part of your special day!

~Emilie

A short and sweet ceremony program

When most people think of wedding ceremony programs, most of the time, you think of a little booklet: words to different songs, a passage of a couple's favorite book, or reading #1 and #2. In longer ceremonies, I think it's great to be able to follow along and figure out what comes next. For me, I always cannot wait until the vows, the "i dos", and the kiss!

My ceremony was about 15-20 minutes long in total, and was officiated by my brother. After I walked down the aisle with my father, my brother struggled through tears at the very beginning of the ceremony, but finally was able to speak after some deep breaths. Now, who would want their guests reading their program through moments like these? I certainly didn't =)

I knew that since it was such a short ceremony, I wanted to put just the bare minimum in my program. It consisted of our names, our wedding party, thank yous, and these seven lines: prelude, procession & entrance of the bride, gathering words, reading, ceremony, pronouncement of marriage, recessional. Since I liked programs that opened like a book, I designed mine to be a book with no pages inside.

It was one bronze metallic cardstock sheet, with two pearl white metallic cardstock pages on the inner section, with a hand glittered cover tag to give it that texture that I love, and a perfect fucshia satin bow. I made enough so every other seat had a program.



The following picture shows the programs laid out on every other chair for the ceremony, taken by Brittany of BKB Photography.



For help with designing your own programs or other wedding stationery, please contact me!

~Emilie

A Simple Moss Ring Box

When thinking of ring pillows, usually you think of white satin or lace, with a little bow on top. Because of no white flowers, no white candles, and no white aisle runners at my wedding, I automatically wasn't thinking of a white ring pillow. I wanted something to go along with the branches and moss elements of the wedding, but didn't want my nephew (the ring bearer) to carry rings on a stick either.

I was walking through the aisles of Michaels when I came across their premade wooden boxes. They have all shapes and sizes, and I found this little wooden box that would fit in both of my nephew's 5 year old hands perfectly... all for only $1.99. Along with some moss, super glue, chocolate satin ribbon, cardstock, a hole puncher, and tape, a ring box was created.

Here was the start to the ring box, with ribbon tied to a piece of punched cardstock that is glued to the bottom of the box. Then moss is gradually added that is held together by some super glue.



In the end, here is a photo of the finished product in the ring bearer's hands, taken by the talented, BKB Photography.

If you would like help with some creating projects for your own wedding, please contact me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie

Elizabeth's Invitations, Cards, and Favors!

Fiona and I are two of the bridesmaids for our friend Elizabeth, who is getting married next weekend at the Westin! She had a whirlwind and fairy tale type of romance with her fiance, Peter, dating for only 6 months before the proposal, and then getting married within a year. I guess what people say is true, when you know, you just know! I had the privilege of designing some of the paper products for her bridal shower and bachelorette party. Below are some of the invitations, cards, and favors from her pre-wedding events.

The bachelorette party invitations had a fun and curly font, with a martini glass to give it some color, rounded corners, and a hand glittered sugar rim. I love it when you can feel some texture on paper. There were two different versions of the bachelorette party invitation, one for the guests, and one for the bride-to-be! We wanted to keep the night's festivities as a surprise, so you'll notice that all of the locations on Elizabeth's invitation are very vague, like "somewhere in Massachusetts", and "dinner at yummy restaurant".





This is a personalized card that I made for Elizabeth. It's a bridal shower of flowers! I outlined the umbrella in some glitter to again give the card some texture and shimmer.



The bridal shower favors were heart shaped luggage tags. Before, they were packaged in a clear plastic heart box, with the insert showing a small form like Name, Address, etc. By request of the bride to make it look a little more lively, I removed the plastic heart box, tied a pink ribbon diagonally through the velvet black packaging, and created a new insert for the luggage tag. Elizabeth liked the quote "love is in the air", so I added that on the top, along with a little airplane icon. I also added the names of the bride and groom, and the bridal shower date with some flourishes.

Before picture:



and after!!



It was a lot of fun to work on all of these paper products. If you need custom invitations or a personalized card made, just email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com

~Emilie

Sarah & Eric's Wedding - Maudslay State Park

This past Saturday, Fiona and I were the DOCs (day of coordinators) to Sarah and Eric's wedding in Newburyport, MA. Their wedding was very unqiue, with yellow pedicabs, a ceremony in Maudslay State Park's gorgeous vegetable garden, and a DIY photobooth with lots of costumes and props. We had a great time coordinating the ceremony, setting up the reception, and making sure everyone had everything that they needed. Sarah and Eric were the picture perfect bride and groom, but you'll have to wait for the professional photos from Jaco Le Roux to see them! For now, we'll give you a peek of some of the wedding details:

The reception setup, centerpieces, handmade signs, and a birdcage cardholder.



A chocolate fountain, precious family photos, more gorgeous flower centerpieces, and a fabulous custom getaway car.

We were so incredibly happy to have been a part of Sarah and Eric's wedding. If you or anyone you know is looking for a day of coordinator, please contact us at info@pinkorchidweddings.com

~Emilie

The Website is Live!!

We're excited to announce that our website is LIVE!! Check it out at: http://www.pinkorchidweddings.com/



~Emilie

Not the Typical Dress Experience

I’m sure ALL brides say this, but I love my wedding dress. It was quite an experience getting it to be ready for my wedding day.

One of my bridesmaids works as a buyer at the bargain heaven Filene’s Basement. You know where this is going. Yes, Filene’s Basement is most famous for having an annual “Running of the Brides” sale where thousands of designer dresses are put on sale at a fraction of a cost. The frenzy of the event makes the local news every year. You see people dressed up in team gear sitting on piles of dresses, hoarding them as bargaining chips. Luckily, I did not have to participate in the craziness because my dear friend gave me special admittance to the event the NIGHT before. There were many rules and the biggest obstacle was that the early preview was limited to ONE hour and you can only bring 2 people with you (one of which is the employee). So, I decided to bring my mom along with the bridesmaid.

In the madness of one hour, I estimated that I tried on more than 20 dresses in the couture section, marked at $699 (others were on sale for $499 and $299!). It came down to two dresses in the end. One was a Henry Roth traditional A-line gown that my mom and BM fawned over. It had delicate embroidery at the bust and matching details at the hemline of the long train. The other was a Carmela Sutera silk and lace gown with long chiffon pieces at the back of the dress. It was body hugging and romantic, and the neckline was different from any other dress I tried on that night. I felt a connection with it. The problem was that it was literally 6-8 sizes too big and we only had a vague idea of what it would look like when I had 5 clips down the back of the dress. Obviously, my “team” pushed for the Henry Roth dress, but when the last call came to purchase a dress, I decided to go against the "crowd" favorite and got the Carmela Sutera gown!

I had to get the dress altered 4 times, by two different tailors. The first one did a good job with bringing the gown down to my size, but was not great on the detailed fit. The second tailor worked her magic and made the gown fit perfectly!! She even added in very subtle beading on the lace at the top of the dress. The cost of tailoring ended up close to $500, which pushed the gown total to over $1200 after taxes. I still saved a ton because my gown was actually still featured on theknot.com as a current season dress with $$$$ denoted upon it (which means original cost can be well over $3000!). The end result was better than I imagined it, so in my opinion, my risk of getting a dress at a non-traditional store paid off! The photos below of the dress were taken by Sun Photographics.





~Fiona

If you need a Boston area dress tailor, leave us a comment!

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