Rustic Bridal Shower... Yes Please!!

We always love a challenge, and being someone who loves the outdoors, I always love it when I get to create something earthy and organic with an elegant flair. Our client, Jennifer, came to us because she said our designs were the most creative she found out there!! We love to hear that, and love her for the wonderful compliment! (and she was just amazing to work with) Jennifer is also the best friend of Mother of the Bride. She has know the bride her whole life, and wants to host the shower of the bride's dreams. She explained to me, that the theme was rustic, natural and organic and she wanted something unique and earthy that would WOW the guests and still have an elegant flair!

My inspiration started with materials. What could i use that was earthy and different, and would still be elegant enough for a bridal shower. I started brainstorming and decided mixing metallic and linen paper with some rough texture would do the trick.. Enter... Muslin!! 

The invitation came in hand stamped Muslin Bag, and mailed in a Brown Kraft Envelope. We had a custom rubber stamp made, with the graphic and then hand stamped the muslin bags with brown ink.  Client loved the Muslin Bags so much, she purchased extras to use them as favor bags during the event!

 Project was printed on Ivory Linen, and is closed with a chocolate brown satin ribbon belly band with a champagne metallic accent piece. The contrast of Muslin, Metallic and Linen papers, and satin ribbon really created a unique rustic and stylish feeling. 

Love this pattern detail on this linen paper. The texture, just makes you want to touch it!  Anyone who follows me, or knows me, will tell you. "I have a paper problem!" I love a nice tactile piece of paper or texture!

Table for Ten - New, Intimate, Niche Networking!

Eblast invitation by The 2u Collection

(all photography is courtesy of Liga Photography)

As many of you know, I not only work a lot with Lisa Stoner and Abby Liga, but they are both also very close friends of mine. The three of us have spent many a lunch, happy hour and dinner, discussing and brainstorming small morsel ideas, and we nurture them into BIG GIANT IDEAS!  Table for Ten is one of those ideas! So before I give you all the fun insight into our fun event. Let me first give you a little background of how it was born!


Quote from Lisa Stoner:

"A few months ago, I decided I'd had enough.  It was a week that had three local wedding industry networking events scheduled, and as much as I love my industry peers, it was getting to be too much.  I mean, I have a family…! ;)"

On the drive home with Jeffrey (Stoner), I commented that what I really enjoyed at those events was finally getting to spend a few minutes in conversation and getting to know someone I'd been wanting to meet, but with hundreds of people in attendance, those moments rarely presented themselves.  In that moment, inspiration struck.

I spent the next few days putting together an idea that seemed radical in its simplicity – I presented the idea to my friends Abby Liga and Amy Morelli – two like-minded industry friends who shared my sense of style – and asked if they thought it was a viable idea.

Table for Ten is born! (watch this charming video by Jeffrey Stoner Video)

We created a comfortable, intimate niche networking evening to get to know our fellow wedding professionals. What makes them tick? What inspires them? 

A crazy, rainy first attempt, but our first "Table for Ten" was incredible!  We've gotten such favorable feedback from our guests, and we plan to continue!  Check it out!

The three of us Hostess' acting silly and trying to take our own photo!
Lisa Stoner, Amy Morelli, Abby Liga

Our beautiful tablescape...before the rain!

Amy Morelli opening some wine so the festivities can begin!

Details of the Evening. Wonderful Appetizers by Abby Liga. Amazing Disco Balls and Chocolate Covered strawberries by Ronnie Renaud of RW Chocolate Fountain Rentals, and of course some Paper Accents (place cards) by yours truly here at The 2u Collection!

Jeffrey Stoner screams WHY.... as the sprinkles start!

The sprinkles turn to DOWNPOUR...

All of our guests are gracious and wonderful.. Thank goodness we had color caps on hand! (Thanks Marjorie!) They made for a fun photo op!
back row, l to r: Lisa Stoner, Gina Ricci Ward and Tali Gallo of Solutions Bridal, Lee Forrest of Lee Forrest Design, Marjorie Robinson
front row, l to r: Amy Morelli, Ronnie Renaud of RW Chocolate Fountain Rentals, and Kristin Hubbard Wilson of DJ Rocks!

Plan B: indian style slumber party vibe in the office of E-Events and Liga Photography!

Kristin and Lisa sporting "glitter glaze" from the Amazing Disco Balls provided by Ronnie!

Hope you enjoyed this recap! Stay Tuned, our next one will be toward end of summer, and we'll have a new group of fun guests to get to know!

This weekend we look forward to the Kramer Bar Mitzvah!

There is a misconception that we only provide stationary for weddings but we also do a wide range of other social events. Any social event over twenty-five people is in need of invitations, place cards, menu cards and so on.  Today, I want to share with you one of my recent projects. I've been working on developing the Bar-mitzvah invitations you see above since February. The Bar Mitzvah will take place this Saturday!

We did something very unique for this event by developing e-blasts invitation accompaniments. The client opted to send both Save the Date's and Menu Preference Card's via email to their guests. This was a great way to save both time and money. Guests were able to get the Save the Date almost immediately after the planning of the event was underway and by having an electronic Menu Preference Card the client did not have to rush to have their menu tasting by a certain day. 


For this type of event I think it was a great way to make use of email while still making the email accompaniments something that correlated with the rest of the printed invitations. 

As you can see there were several elements that went into the formal invitation. We used natural white linen paper, navy matte finish envelopes, a pewter grey mailing label to complement and navy blue grosgrain ribbon to finish the look. The response card was actually part of the original invitation and guests were asked to fill it out, tear at the perferated edges and return. By having a built in response card we were able to save the client money by printing just one piece verses a separate card. In addition to the invitation, there was a separate brunch invitation that was only given to certain guests that were family of the hosts. This is an additional service we are able to do for you when you select to have us mail your invites for you. 

More pieces to come as I continue to work on this project and develop the escort cards and table numbers.