image{s} of the week

The lilies are blooming again, filling the backyard with their heavy sweet fragrance. Well, heavy as far as floral scents go.

Living in a house long enough to see the same flowers bloom each year is a good way to keep time in check. Last year, when they started to grow, I had no idea that our garden had lilies and was fascinated by them because they were taller than I am. Maybe even taller than Chris but I'd have to verify that for you. 

The hydrangeas are also looking gorgeous right now. This is the first hydrangea plant I've been able to keep alive. After a stint of bad luck with them in Austin, I finally broke down and bought another last spring. We've had our share of disagreements this year - It hated being next to the shed, then fussed about being next to the ferns. It almost died there actually. As a last resort I moved it to the bench near the porch and it's loving' life there.    

Hope you all have a relaxing weekend.

WedWed - Wedding Wednesday {23}

The invitations went out last Friday! I still have a few remaining, but the vast majority are out there in the world. Hooray! 

When I began my initial invitation sketches, Chris expressed to me that all he really, really wanted was a conifer tree on our invites. I set out to make that happen. Using my WedWed invitation inspiration post, I created a conifer tree in Adobe Illustrator that I then repeated, scaled and flipped in order to create variation in the forest. From there, I turned to my wedding palette for color choice and to my new favorite font Strange Love for the typography. My goal was to have our invitations feel handmade, light-hearted, and welcoming. We chose to keep the invitation suite simple: the invite itself, an RSVP postcard, and a business card with the wedding website URL for more details. 

Here's a close-up of the invitation itself:   

Before the invitations went out, we had to create the website. Every couple has things they like to do together; some couples read books, ride bikes, and travel. In addition to traveling and cooking with one another, Chris and I enjoy designing together. Things like websites are perfect for us to work on as a team. I generate the wireframes, meaning that I set up what I think is a good layout for the website based on what the two of us discuss. Then, once we've agreed on the wireframes,  I create the graphics such as the headers, images, and illustrations. From there Chris does the hard stuff - he actually builds it and makes it function properly. He worked extremely hard on this website - even writing all the content while I was at my fabulous bachelorette party - and I am very thankful. 

Here are some screen shots of the site:

Good work Chris!!

In the end I would say that, while at times stressful, creating our own invites was certainly the way to go and it's my hope that they were well received.  

They look like R's to me

I often thought about the "In Perfect Cursive" scene from Billy Madison as I addressed the wedding invites (shown above). 

In sum, the scene begins with Billy drawing an inappropriate picture in class when his teacher, Veronica Vaughn, asks him to write baseball terminology in cursive on the blackboard. After writing "dugout" and "bunt" in perfect cursive, Veronica throws Billy a curve ball (pun intended) by asking him to write the name Rizzuto. Billy confidently writes the R and the i, but when he gets to the lowercase z, he just squiggles through it.

"Rirruto?" Veronica asks.

"Those are z's," Billy retorts.

"They look like r's to me," she says. 

Getting through our guest list occurred in much the same manner. I'd squint at my computer screen at the next guest on my list, scanning both the names and the address. "Oh, another Roby or Schuchard. That's easy to write." I'd think  to myself. When I'd get to someone whose name wasn't as familiar to write, I'd think, "Oh well, they live in Iowa or, say, Nebraska. This one should be easy enough." Because I wrote out state names in their entirety, I thought that states such as Massachusetts might throw off my cursive. "Massachusetts has nothing on me," I told myself as I wrote the ss's a bit sideways. "That looks pretty good!."

Then I came to the name Fr. Al Krzyzopolski and stared at it for over a minute. "I can't even pronounce that," I reasoned. "How am I supposed to write it with my calligraphy pen?" 

That's when I thought of Billy Madison and how my z's really just looked like r's. It's okay, the invites are all addressed and ready to mail. 

Well, after we lick the envelopes closed and wash down the glue taste down with a glass of wine!

WedWed - Wedding Wednesday {22}

It's been way too long since I've done a WedWed post! If it makes you feel any better, I've thought about it. I've even felt guilty about not doing it too! (haha) One night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I thought about WedWed and how I was looking forward to doing a post the following morning. I couldn't wait! Then, I realized that it was actually Wednesday night and that Thursday was, in fact, only a few minutes away. Who can keep track of what day it is anyhow? 

I've been addressing invitations this week and as soon as they are out I promise I'll share pictures. My calligraphy leaves a bit to be desired but I'm hoping guests will enjoy receiving their invites regardless of an ink drip here and there. 

I best get back to my coffee and calligraphy because I must have these invites in the mail before I leave for my bachelorette party(!) in San Francisco on Friday morning! Good times are ahead.