The Green Kangaroo - Unique Wedding Invitations and Stationery

We love the free Wedding Websites on WeddingWire so much that we wanted to be sure to let you know when our new designs hit the site! You can now incorporate TGK’s “Josie,” “Floral Decor,” “Bird & Blossom,” “Sunflower,” “Hydrangea,” and “Fall Leaves” motifs into your own free wedding website to create a fully customized, one-of-a-kind Web presence. Just as with our invitations, each Website motif is available in numerous colors so you can make it your own.

Let us know if you choose a TGK WeddingWire Website design – we’d love to feature you here on our blog!

While obviously we advocate for custom printed save-the-dates, we were thoroughly entertained at the TGK studios last week with bridepop’s collection of “epic” save the date wedding videos.

My favorite is the quirky French couple, but there is a certain je ne sais quoi about the medieval / viking quest-themed movie trailer style video. Oh, it’s impossible to put into words – just check them out here!

Ahhh – there’s so much to look forward to in the new year! To provide some inspiration for this year’s weddings, we wanted to share this list that’s been circulating the Internet of the Top 10 Wedding Trends for 2010! (View the full article here on North Carolina wedding planner Erin McLean’s blog.) We’ll be blogging about some of these trends–and a few others!–in the coming weeks. Let us know what trends you’re seeing as you plan your wedding!

1. Focusing on Basics

10. “Fusion” of Still and Video Photography

We are loving the new Ingroom site designed as an online wedding resource specifically for men. While we are a bit skeptical that any guys we know would proactively seek out this site, this great resource, written from the male perspective, is definitely on the list of things they should read.

From outlining the groom’s traditional wedding duties to articles on proposal ideas and ring purchasing tips, your guy can get an answer to just about any question he’s likely to have. And even if your sweetie won’t navigate away from espn.com long enough to check it out himself, it’s a worthwhile stop for you to get guy-approved ideas to make the wedding a bit more special for him as well.

Drum roll please! TGK designs are now available on OneWed!

We love the trend of creating a unique, personalized website to be your “online concierge” for your guests. Face it, these online tools make it much easier for busy brides to stay connected with friends and family throughout the crazy wedding planning process. Aunt Rosie can check your site for detailed updates on the plans, to triple-check the name of the hotel, and to scan through photos of you and your honey, (and maybe check out pics of the future in-laws!).

These days, brides have tons of choices for FREE wedding websites and TGK just partnered with OneWed, which offers more than 70 unique designs. They also have piles of helpful tools to make the design process super simple for those of us who aren’t techies. The photo above shows the first set to “go live” on their site. You’ll find more TGK-exclusive designs unveiled on OneWed, in the coming weeks. Go check ‘em out, and let us know if you select a TGK-designed site motif. We’d love to feature YOUR wedding Web site in a future blog!

Melissa and Kristen, creating a one-of-a-kind MSW magazine cover at the event’s photo stand.

If you follow The Green Kangaroo on Facebook or Twitter, you already know that our Head Kangaroos, Kristen and Melissa, traveled to New York City earlier this week to attend the 15th anniversary celebration of the venerable Martha Stewart Weddings. K somehow convinced M that they should tear themselves away from the rigors of the TGK studio, all in the name of “industry research and networking” (wink wink!) at New York’s inestimable Plaza Hotel.

It was an exciting chance to rub elbows with some of the most well known names in the wedding biz and there were many celebrity sightings to be sure. But the best part of the evening was surely soaking in the ambiance that only a Martha Stewart event can provide!

Guests were greeted with an impressive display of banners featuring some of the magazine’s most popular covers from over the years. As they ventured through the party, they were serenaded by three different bands ranging from jazz and electric violins to good old rock and roll.

The dessert buffet was like something out of a candy-coated dream! Carrying out the pale pink-and-gold color scheme was a delectable selection of bite-sized snacks including ice cream sandwiches, pink-and-gold candy bars, and even itty-bitty pumpkin donuts! The savory buffet featured miniature grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato bisque cups with pizza dipping straws. K&M loved the inventiveness of the food displays.

Guests had plenty of seating options as the event designers brought in these cushy white sofas and ottomans with matching low tables, supplied by the lovely ladies at Taylor Creative Inc. Bringing in seating beyond standard-issue venue tables and chairs is a fun solution for brides looking to create a hip, modern feel at their reception venue! K&M lounged like VIPs!

If you want to see even more photos of some of the event’s amazing scenes, check out the MSW Bride’s Guide blog and photo gallery.

Circles and Dots Holiday Card in Festive Red

Our October promotion (FREE customized photo holiday cards!) has got us thinking about some of the inspired holiday photo cards we’ve received in the past. Without a doubt, some of our favorite pictures feature couples and families that go beyond the typical “say-cheese” happy-family images and go for something a little more … interesting.

I have a friend who, in her never-successful quest for a “good” family photo with their three year old, opted to send out the holiday card with a picture of her and her husband smiling away and their daughter screaming her head off! Hands down, it was my favorite card of the season.

But even if you don’t have the benefit of an un-cooperative tot, there are still plenty of creative ways to get your Christmas card photo a sure-fire spot at the top of the coffee table heap.

• Background: Friends who moved frequently in the early years of their marriage began a tradition of taking the Christmas photo in front of a recognizable landmark in whichever city they lived at the time. It was a great annual peep into their exotic life in distant locales! If you go this route, be sure to indicate somewhere on the card (or in an accompanying letter) where you are in the photo so your friends get the reference!

• Props: My hubby and I jokingly donned Santa hats in our first Christmas photo as a married couple, and our families loved the whimsy of that simple prop so much that the hats are now a key feature every year. Another successful prop – and an effective announcement tool! – are tiny baby booties to clue your friends in to an impending arrival!

• Wedded Bliss: Of course, since we work with so many brides, we love the idea of including a wedding photo on your first Christmas card. We’ve even seen couples with enough forethought to plan a wedding-day photo standing under a sprig of mistletoe, with Santa hats, and even with an angel halo and devil horns (the old naughty-and-nice).

What will you do to make your holiday card photo memorable?

After featuring our new Preppy Monogram invitation on the blog last week, we started thinking about the questions that crop up when monogramming is considered for wedding stationery. Brides often wonder if it is appropriate (or even bad luck!) to use the new married initial prior to the wedding ceremony. Traditional etiquette considers the use of the bride’s new last name taboo until the vows have been read, but this is one area where we tend to disagree with the traditionalists.

In fact, one of our most frequently requested designs is this watermark monogram, which features a beautiful single initial behind the bolder text of the invite. The use of this design element is quite subtle, yet adds a striking level of sophistication that has made it increasingly popular with brides.

Since the purpose of the wedding is to celebrate the union of the bride and groom, we find it perfectly acceptable to use the couple’s future shared last name as a backdrop to the formal wedding invitation. After all, it IS the groom’s current last name, and the bride’s maiden name will be prominently listed on the invitation as well. We think incorporating the monogram as a design element in the wedding stationery is a lovely way to celebrate the upcoming union!

Of course, if you decide you don’t want to chance a visit from the bad-luck wedding fairies, there are alternative ways to use monogramming! The bride and groom’s first initials can be used alone for pre-wedding printing – and transformed with the addition of the new, shared last name for post-wedding/reception décor. You can check out some of the infinite monogram possibilities here in our monogram style gallery for inspiration – or let us know how you’d like to see your monogram!

Our Facebook fans already know how much we ADORE the Style Me Pretty Web site, which is aptly tagged as “obsessions for brides.” Yes, some of us are obsessed!

And when one of our obsessions takes notice of lil’ ole’ us on their uber-popular bridal blog, we get pretty giddy! You will adore browsing through the photos of this exceptionally elegant wedding at the Biltmore Estate. And yes, we helped Rachel and Dan tie their robin’s egg blue-and-brown color scheme into a to-die-for suite of Josie-themed invitations and table stationery. You can see some gorgeous shots of how they incorporated the stationery as a key décor element – a strategy we naturally adore! Using table stationery within your decoration plans really gives brides a big “bang for the buck” by making items you already have perform double duty. This couple was such a treat to work with – they chose North Carolina for their wedding after all!

Biltmore Wedding Photos courtesy of: Michael Oppenheim Photography

(Special thanks to Barb Bobick for your super sweet comment about TGK on the Style Me Pretty blog!)

Wedding Aces is a fabulous new online community dedicated to – you guessed it! – everything about weddings! It’s made up of some of the best vendors in the industry who provide scads of valuable advice, information, and ideas relating to their particular specialty. TGK’s inimitable owners, Kristen and Melissa, were recently asked to join the team as the “stationery and invitations” Aces, and TGK is supremely honored to be a member of such an elite cadre of wedding professionals! (You can read their introductory entry here. We are so proud!)

One of the coolest features about the site is that brides can write in specific questions to be answered by the Aces themselves and other members of the community. The site is updated constantly with new material from the panel of Aces and it’s super-easy to browse with its simple category-style organization.

We think you’ll love this exceptional resource for wedding planning! Please visit the site and let them know how happy you are to have Kristen and Melissa as contributors. And let us know if you have questions that you’d like to see them answer on the site – or here on the blog!

One of the most popular trends in wedding invitations is the pocket style invitation. A pocket invitation provides an elegant “holder” for the various pieces of stationery that may arrive with a typical wedding invitation. It’s a handy yet lovely way for guests to keep items such as maps, reception information, and response cards neatly together while maintaining the carefully chosen look of your overall invitation design.

The Olivia Pocket shown in chocolate and coral ink on champagne shimmer paper.

Pocket invitations are particularly useful for brides who need to provide a good deal of information to their guests. For couples welcoming out of town revelers, providing details on hotel options, weekend itineraries, and driving directions is a critical, yet complicated task. By choosing a pocket invitation, brides can customize multiple accessory cards to convey these particulars neatly and with style – all without sullying the design of the invitation itself.

The Vineyard Audrey Pocket shown in navy and sand ink on ice shimmer paper.

Pocket invitations have also gained popularity because of the uniqueness and lushness of their modern layered look. For brides seeking a departure from traditional wedding stationery standards, the pocket invitation provides a fresh take that can still be customized to match personal styles, from the most conservative to the most contemporary. Those of us in the paper biz love pockets too, probably because they allow us to incorporate more of the beautiful papers we love working with! Pockets allow designers to play with additional elements that contribute to the overall beauty of the invitation suite.

The Floral Decor Claire Pocket shown in black and cherry red on black matte paper.

Here at The Green Kangaroo, pocket invitations continue to rank as one of our most popular styles, and as you can see from the photos, the designs can vary as much as our brides!

Ahhh – Inside Weddings! We lovelovelove this elegant style magazine and have been honored to have our products featured on their pages in the past. But we still get giddy when we find out one of our very own designs (!!!!) has been chosen for a pictorial mention in the pages of one of the top wedding magazines in the country. (Let’s just say Inside Weddings is rather particular about the wedding vendors they recommend.)

The Summer 2009 issue is on newsstands now. It’s worth picking up a copy, but we’ve taken the proud-parent angle of posting “our” page right here on the blog.

Isn’t the Cari invitation stunning in citrus orange and pink?

Yeah, we’re kind of a big deal!

We are developing scads of winter themed wedding invitations in the studio at the moment as brides getting married in December, January, and February finalize their invitation orders. Winter weddings tend to lean toward the sophisticated, elegant side and our brides love working with the cool color schemes and intricate graphic motifs that are the signatures of the season.

This year, one of our most popular winter themed wedding invitations is our new Modern Snowflake from our recently launched Frugal Collection. Shown above in silver and black ink, this design also looks amazing in aqua and even lipstick pink!

Since we’re featuring the Modern Snowflake on the blog this week, as a special gift to our blog readers, we are offering you a FREE sample (a $5 value). All you have to do is leave us a comment below this post by 9/9/09 with a valid email address, and we will contact you to find out where to send your sample Modern Snowflake invitation!

We were intrigued when our Real Wedding bride, Stacie Reidling, told us about the photo booth she rented for their wedding reception. One of our favorite local DJs, Joe Bunn, has pioneered the photo booth concept in the North Carolina region and tells us that his customers have rave reviews. You can personalize the foto strips with the names of the bride and groom or a graphic design. And guests can either keep the full strip or, to create a special keepsake for the newlyweds, the strips can be split in half with one half being pasted into a scrapbook.

We’ve also seen brides adapt the photo booth concept for a more do-it-yourself feel (check out this Wedding Bee blogger’s super informative post on her photo booth). Keep in mind you have to provide your own photographer and equipment (separate from your event photographer) to effectively pull off the concept on your own, which can get expensive quickly. Most brides tend to opt for renting the booths through their deejays or photographers.

Whichever route you choose, providing props, such as wigs, hats, and funny glasses is a definite must to encourage your guests to let loose with these strictly candid pictures. Another great element is a small chalkboard for guests to use to incorporate messages to the bride and groom into the photos.

Every bride I know looks back at her own wedding album wishing there had been more candid pictures and more photos capturing the guests having a good time. Face it, a photographer simply can’t catch everything and everyone! The photo booth idea gives couples a unique glimpse into the moments of the wedding that they might not have been a part of.

(By the way, if you live in the North Carolina area, definitely give Bunn DJ Company a call! We have seen our share of deejays and Joe consistently delivers high energy, fun events … he rocks!)

Photo courtesy of www.bunndjcompany.com. Thanks, Joe!

Red and black wedding invitations have become a popular selection for brides looking for classic elegance with a modern twist. The use of black and red in wedding invitations is also one of our favorite trends as there are a few die-hard UGA and NCSU fans in the TGK family!

Recently, we had a couple select our very popular Josie invitation design for their red and black wedding theme in New Orleans: The traditional floral filigree motif lends itself exceptionally well to unique color combinations. We love how they turned out!

One of the great things about The Green Kangaroo is that we can customize wedding invitations to fit your personal style, including an array of color choices. You can select from our extensive color portfolio to customize any invitation in our Signature Collection of unique wedding invitations – or even have us create a new design just for you! Let us know what color schemes you’d like to see and we might just show a few samples here for your consideration!