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Stationery:

Introducing Basic Invite

We have a treat for you lovelies today! Basic Invite is one of the few custom stationery websites that allows customers almost unlimited color options with instant previews online. How AMAZING is that?! Once a design is selected, brides can change the color of each element on the card to over 160 different color options. This gives you the ability to make sure the card is exactly how you want it down to the littlest detail. Be still my heart!! This is what sets Basic Invite apart from almost any other online stationery company!

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As if all these amazing options weren’t enough, Basic Invite offers brides the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation so you can see exactly how it will print along with the paper quality before you ever have to place an order for invitations. Total peace of mind, right?

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Each of their wedding invitations are part of a matching set so a bride can keep the same design on the Save The Date, Wedding Invitations, RSVP, Direction, Reception, Accommodations, Registry, Menu, Program, and Thank You cards.

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We are loving everything about Basic Invite’s service, but don’t take our word for it, check them out now!

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Trend Report:

How to Use a Mood Board

featuring MaeMae & Co.

Today, we are inviting MaeMae & Co. to start the week off for us with a tutorial that we are crazy excited about: “How to use a mood board.” MaeMae is the queen of genius inspiration boards, and she’s getting down and dirty with us on how to utilize that inspiration to help your design process–think wedding design or invitation design–these tips are crazy helpful! Take it away, MaeMae!

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Creating a mood or inspiration board (both digitally and physically) is an important part of our design process at MaeMae & Co. It sets the tone for the entire project, and acts as a guide as we move through designing each element of the project. However, if you’ve never worked with a mood board before, we realize that the concept can be a bit confusing. Next time you work with a creative who is using a mood board (or next time you make one for yourself!), keep these two tips in mind:

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1. It’s all about the feeling: The point of an inspiration board is to create a visual vibe for your project. It is not a place to nail down specifics like exact fonts or images, but rather think of it as creating a world that your brand, website or wedding stationery would live in.

When making a mood board, we focus on defining the color scheme, texture and graphics that best represents the project’s world. Rather than copying those inspirational images exactly, we use them to guide our design choices and find or create similar graphics for your unique project. For example, if we include an photograph of roses and an etched wreath in a mood board – we may combine those two visuals and create a vintage wreath made of roses for the project’s monogram.

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2. But, you won’t get what you don’t see: While an inspiration board is about the vibe of the project, we do follow the visuals closely when designing. For example, if there are blocky fonts paired with a vintage script in a mood board – don’t expect to see modern calligraphy in the first design proof. We always encourage our clients to point out anything in the mood board that they feel is missing. So if they have their heart set on modern calligraphy, we always edit the inspiration board to include an image that represents their request. Similarly, if there is something on the mood board that a client isn’t digging, we’ll remove the image and replace it with one that better reflects their idea.

Check out our mood + method blog series, and follow us on instagram for more inspiration!

Stationery:

The American Wedding Marketplace

featuring the Hearts and Arrows Series

With new designs that roll in each week, we thought we’d take the chance to share a little more of our favorite Modern Wedding Invitation finds from The American Wedding. One thing we love in particular about their website, is the ability to order not only a full stationery suite (including affordable letterpress invitations and pocket wedding invitations), but also full matching sets of every wedding detail you can imagine! For example, here are just a few of the fun things you can nab with the Hearts & Arrows series, such as wine glasses, coasters, napkins, and wedding toasting glasses:

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Also, we often hear about how a bride’s parents want a formal invitation, but the bride wants something more fun and creative.  When you can’t reach a compromise on a design, American Wedding usually suggests that the bride pick out a save-the-date and wedding day stationery that are more her style and to select an invitation that is more indicative of the formality of the event.  They can be different designs completely, but work really beautifully together by using the same paper, ink and font choices throughout. For example, here is a combo of the Laurel Monogram Invitation with the Better Together series.

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The American Wedding is currently offering 40% Off All Wedding Invitations*, Shower and Rehearsal Dinner Invites.  The offer applies to the invitations, not the accessory pieces.  Code: WED40  Offer expires March 9th, 2015.

Stationery:

MaeMae & Co

and her growing cast of characters

Our dearest friend and crazy favorite designer, MaeMae & Co. has been busy introducing new “characters” to their collection of wedding stationery suites and we are so excited to share three of our favorites to you today! Each set of photos includes a snap of the inspiration board that they used for designing each suite, and it’s so fun to see that inspiration come to life! Are you serious? We are in love.

(Side note: how fun that you can always mix and match colors of any suite. So each one takes on a new persona when you dress him/her up in a new wardrobe. I mean….)

First up, meet Beau:

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As if that wasn’t enough, meet Charles:

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And then there was the ever so lovely Beverly:

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Stationery:

Wes Anderson Inspired Stationery

featuring MaeMae Paperie and Beau and Arrow

Our dear friend, and paper contributor, Megan, from MaeMae Paperie, recently put together a stationery suite for a “West Anderson in the desert wearing Missoni” wedding. We had to giggle at that description, but when we saw how the designs turned out–well, we’re not surprised it’s pretty spot on! We’ll let MaeMae take over with her images and tell you more of the story below!

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from MaeMae:

The theme for B&B’s wedding was Wes Anderson in the Desert Wearing Missoni. I mean. Enough said. (Check instagram for Beau and Arrow’s hashtags on that…) Collaborating with Brianna, Buzz, and the fab Beau and Arrow ladies was such a treat. We started with the Maximus suite we created for Martha Stewart Weddings and then added in some personalized details. For the save the date we created a back to school vibe and then carried some of those illustrations into their suite. (see a full photo of the save the date in this post). All of the guest envelopes were addressed with a typewriter to keep it authentic throw back.

We also made these amazing hotel keys for escort cards in a variety of colors (see more colors here). All of the signage was displayed at the wedding in these amazing layered frames over marbled paper. All of the guests were treated in their hotel rooms to these custom wrapped Mast Bro chocolate bars. It was very difficult to make it through the wrapping process without digging into them… To stay cool at the Palm Springs celebration the programs were made into handy little fans.

Thank you, Buzz and Brianna, for being the coolest clients. Wishing you both lots of love!!

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