Christmas fun!

Two more days of school before Christmas break and I'm going a little crazy... but I think I'll make it! Today I spent the day making Oreo balls for some of my colleagues at school. I brought Oreo balls to the staff holiday luncheon and everyone loved them so much I thought I'd make them some more. 
I took some extra time to make them as cute as I could with some gift tags, chinese takeout boxes, and paper bags. Take a look!

I found these cute downloadable gift tags at PaperCrave.

A close-up of the goodies inside the boxes!

Mmmmm! Merry Christmas!

Ellen & Jay video

As I've already mentioned, I got to help Ellen out with all kinds of things... save-the-dates, invitations, AMAZING programs, and place cards. When she sent me the link to this teaser that her videographer did, I was so excited to see my work in it several times! The video is great... check it out.

Enjoy!

Lisa's got part 1 of Ellen's photos up on her blog... with a nice little link to me :) How could you not love her?

Kim & Ben

Kim and Ben just had their first baby on Wednesday. In honor of them, I am posting pictures of their invitations that I did 3 years ago! Their invitations were the first I ever did. We printed these on my inkjet printer and assembled them in my dorm room. Kim was my first friend to get married and the first to have a baby :)


Kim LOVES purple... can you tell? 

Kim and Ben's thumbprints make the heart. Cute, right? Their wedding was at Kim's parents' house in Virginia. Spending the week with my roomies and the Church family was one of my favorite weeks ever. VAbeach!

Thanks Kim and Ben for helping me start my dream! 

Audrey & Josh

Back in the day ... my friend Audrey married her sweetie Josh. I worked with her on her invitations for the wedding and her shower. I also got to be a bridesmaid :)
I recommended Lisa to Aud, and Audrey's beautiful wedding was the first time I met Lisa! The whole thing is a very interesting story... ask me about it sometime!


The shower invitations ...

Her wedding invitations were in a pretty black linen paper folder, with their names on the front and a band holding the RSVP and reception cards on the back. 
                  front                                     inside                                     back

Aud had a super fun wedding and reception. Thanks friend!

Ellen: bridal shower and bachelorette party

My college roomie's best friend from home, Ellen, asked me to do all her wedding stationery, from save-the-dates to place cards. I had so much fun working with Ellen, and I'll post photos of her gorgeous things whenever I get them from Lisa Hessel (great choice, Ellen!). Ellen's wonderful sister, Katie, asked me to design the shower and bachelorette party invitations. I had so much fun with these!


Shower invitations that displayed the fall theme. 

The bachelorette party invitations showed how much Ellen loves DANCING! 

Thanks Ellen and Katie!

Kelly & Jason: programs

Another BFF and roomie from college, Kelly, got married last summer. I got to help out with the programs, "calligraph" the envelopes, and read some verses at the wedding. Kelly's sweet mother cried when she saw the programs! 

I think I'll stick to design. I'm not much of a photographer . . . 
Kelly's programs were the inspiration for Elizabeth's programs. Who wouldn't love those beautiful satin bows? 

Chelsea & Kevin

This summer I got to do the invitations for one of my best friends ever! She's the other half of raCHELsea and I love her so much. I was honored to do her save-the-dates, invitations, programs, favors, and thank-yous. Her theme was so bright and fun, just like her. The wedding was gorgeous and ridiculously fun!
The invitations. She chose a lot of color and a long style. Beautiful!

I loved the wording on the reply postcards. 

Chelsea's programs. It was an outdoor wedding so we assembled them like fans. 

She included a sweet note in memory of her Dad. 

Finally, we did postcard thank-yous with a photo from the wedding. The ceremony was at the this cross behind the K-Life house where they met and fell in love :), and this is the spot where Kevin proposed. 

Thanks Chels for letting me be so involved with your day! 

Elizabeth & Jacob

My good friends Jakes and Elizabeth got married this summer. They also had photos by Lisa Hessel - incredible! Elizabeth and her mom made sure that every little detail followed the pink and brown swirlie theme. Because they set an invitation out on the welcoming table, Lisa was able to take some photos of it with the rings. Love it!

I love the satin ribbon Elizabeth used to tie the cute little booklet programs. 

Thanks again, Lisa!

Where to start?

I wanted to add photos to my blog in chronological order from my first designs to my most recent designs. Unfortunately I don't have nice photos of my earliest stuff yet, so I'm going to go ahead and add things as I get photos of them (not in order of when I actually made them). 

I cannot, however, think of a better way to start my blog than by posting pictures taken by the amazing Lisa Hessel. She is my absolute favorite photographer and I have had the privilege of designing invitations and/or programs in three weddings she has photographed. I basically tell everyone I know about her, so it's no coincidence that we've done some of the same weddings. I hope this pattern will continue! 

A special thank-you to Lisa for making me a CD of these files so I could post them :)

Jessie's scroll programs - in a fancy basket just as I envisioned them! I had some help from my BFF Maria Casaleggi with these programs. We're a great team!

A close-up of the program and the rings. How fantastic is Lisa? And how adorable is Jessie for choosing this quote?

i do invitations. designs by rachel.

Yep. I'm starting a blog.