A 30th Anniversary Celebration at Brasserie JO

Sometimes you hear of huge 50th birthday celebrations, and many times it's the spouse that ends up planning a lavish event for family and friends. But, when is the last time you heard of a couple's children throwing them an anniversary party? Pretty rare, right? When Fiona (yes, Pink Orchid's very own wedding coordinator!) told me that she and her sister wanted to throw their parents a 30th Anniversary Party, I thought it was the sweetest thing, and wanted to help in any way possible. After visiting a lot of venues and perusing through dozens of menus, Fiona decided that Brasserie JO would be the perfect spot for a dinner celebration with her parents' closest friends.

Guests were able to choose from a delicious menu of three appetizers, two salads, four entrées, and three desserts. I created invitations, menu cards, and place cards for the event, and there were welcome toasts, and lots of memories shared about Johnny and Carol throughout the night. Each guest also received a favor of two kinds of Tea Forté packaged in a little clear box, tied with a silver satin ribbon bow.

Everyone had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to be able to participate in such a great event!

~Emilie

Paisley Place Cards + Marriage Quotes

I can't believe it's been a few weeks since my last post! It's been crazy busy with non-stop weddings for Pink Orchid recently, and on top of it all, I had to squeeze in a trip out of the country because I was a bridesmaid in my friend Amy's wedding just this past Saturday! The wedding was held at the Four Seasons Resort in Whistler, Canada, and my goodness, that hotel is gorgeous. The spa, the rooms, the service, the food.. everything was phenomenal, and I really enjoyed my four days there, along with a few days in Vancouver beforehand.

Here are some photos of Vancouver, and the top of Whistler Mountain, where there was still lots of snow!

I designed a few pieces of wedding stationery for Amy, including her programs, place cards, and table numbers, and other than that, I tried to stick to the bridesmaid role as best I could. But, who am I kidding, right? The coordinator side of me kicked in throughout the rehearsal and wedding, but in a much smaller scale because of the help of the hotel staff and four other amazing bridesmaids. Thankfully, I was still able to enjoy the wedding!

Her stationery included a paisley design, and the colors matched all of the bridesmaids dresses perfectly. The place cards were attached on little Crate&Barrel memo clips, which guests were able to take home as a favor. Guest names were printed on the front, and a marriage quote was on the back. There were ten total quotes so every guest at each table had a different one. They weren't your typical lovey-dovey marriage quotes. Let me know if you have a favorite!

“What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they're on the same side.” – Anonymous

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage." – Lao Tzu

"An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her." – Agatha Christie

"People stay in love because they’re intrigued, or because of chemistry, kindnesses, and even luck. But part of it has got to be forgiveness and gratefulness!" – Anonymous

“The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they're right if you love to eat with them all of the time.” – Julia Child

“Marriage is a three ring circus: engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffering.” – Woody Allen

"You don't marry someone you can live with - you marry the person who you cannot live without." – Anonymous

“Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.” – Albert Einstein

Amy and Eugene, it was so fun to celebrate the weekend with you, and I wish you both the very best!!

~Emilie

Escort Card Booklet Favors with Quotes

When is the last time you opened up a little book and read quotes from George and Martha Washington? Well, the guests at Allison and Aaron's wedding a couple of weeks ago took home a little square booklet of quotes as their favor, and they also doubled as escort cards for the wedding.

The inside pages included six quotes from George and Martha Washington, and the last page had the bride and groom's favorite love quote by Lisa Hoffman: "Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important."

The pages had their monogram across the top, and were tied together to the metallic lavender cardstock cover with silver double faced satin ribbon. The cover was personalized with the name of each guest, along with their assigned table, which were all named after presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Madison, and Hancock.

I never knew George Washington was so sweet! This was a fun project to create, and was a hit at their wedding!

~Emilie

Place Card Luggage Tag Favors at L'Espalier

I had the pleasure of creating some stationery items for Pin and Vincent's wedding last year. I made programs for their ceremony at The Harvard Memorial Church, and heart-shaped luggage tag place cards that doubled as favors for their reception at L'Espalier. They wanted to personalize the luggage tag with their own message and with the names of their guests. A pair of champagne glasses was their main design element, along with the words "Love Lots, Laugh Often, Eat Well". The tags were packaged with scarlet satin ribbon tied in a simple knot.

Their wedding is featured today on Beantown Bride, which is a fabulous resource for Boston area brides. Of the photos posted, one is of the personalized luggage tags in the middle of each place setting. I love how the red ribbon color in the tags matches the flowers perfectly. The centerpieces were created by one of my favorite florists, The Tangled Web. To view more details from Pin and Vincent's wedding, check out the article here!

photo from Beantown Bride

If you are interested in these personalized luggage tags as a favor or place card for your wedding, please contact me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.com!

~Emilie

Beautiful place cards: Origami cranes

One of my most recent projects was to create place cards out of origami cranes. These place cards were set at each table to designate specific guest seating, and to let servers know which meal to give to each guest.

• Pink crane = Salmon.
• Green crane = Chicken.
• Blue crane= Vegetarian.
• Orange crane = Kid's Meal.

Many people forget that they have to have some way to let the servers know of the meal choices before they get their place cards created or ordered, so in the end, a little colored sticker dot might be added to the place card. Most of the time though, that sticker dot looks out of place, or just doesn't really flow with the original design of the place card.

Because of this, I thought that these colorful cranes were great because they added some pops of color to the table, and they also signified meal choices without the sticker dot! They were made out of Japanese origami paper, and had gorgeous designs in each color. Then, each guest name was personalized to a name tag made out of white pearlescent metallic cardstock, and attached to each crane.

Aren't these the cutest things ever? The bonus with the last photo, is that the crane keeps its shape well and can fly around the room if you hold it by the tag =)

If you would like to have place cards like these for your next event, just email me at info@pinkorchiddesigns.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