We love when brides let us help them carry a theme throughout their wedding event. So we had a ball last summer creating a full suite of Coastal Couture inspired wedding stationery for Alyssa and Scott’s seaside gala. A big thank you to Brian Phillips Photography for sharing some of his gorgeous images with us!
The Couture Ava Coastal wedding invitation was the perfect way to set the stage for this upscale coastal wedding.
Alyssa chose to customize the Ribbon Wedding Program to complement the cheerful color scheme.
Even Scott’s boutonniere got the Coastal Couture treatment!
Menus and table numbers were a key element of the reception’s design. This is a great way to get the most out of your wedding day stationery!
The whole event was simply divine! To see even more pictures of this elegant beach wedding, check out the full feature on the Boston Hearts Weddings blog. Congratulations to Alyssa and Scott!
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!)
What fun we had creating a magical suite of wedding stationery for Louanne and Edgar’s fairytale wedding at a castle in the Tuscany region of Italy! Louanne elegantly incorporated their theme of “love and romance” into every aspect of the day.
Since this was a destination wedding, Louanne chose our Audrey pocket style invitation with its three accessory cards – vital components for conveying the many details of the celebration weekend to guests! She selected a chocolate and pink color scheme and modified our very popular Josie motif to achieve the romantic look she was after. We love how well her design choices complement and enhance the overall style and atmosphere of the event!
A sit-down dinner was a key component of the reception, and Louanne wanted the tablescapes to make an impact. She had us create personalized menus that handily doubled as place cards – and lovely keepsakes – for each guest. We also designed table cards to help guests find their spots, with each table named after a different Italian city.
Louanne found innumerable other ways to put her personal stamp on the wedding and tie in her theme, color scheme, and motifs throughout. We love the special detail of this basket tag inviting guests to “Shower the Bride & Groom.”
We were impressed throughout the process that Louanne had found an Italy-based wedding planner to hammer out all of the on-site details. Though she says it was a bit scary not being able to personally select her flowers, site décor, catering menu, and cake, the professionals at Italy Weddings executed everything to perfection! The couple and their guests have memories of dancing under the Tuscan stars that will last a lifetime. Congratulazioni, Louanne and Edgar!
When Katharine and John contacted us about designing invitations for their June wedding at the Princeton University Chapel, they were looking for stationery that would be elegant, yet fun. Though they didn’t have a specific theme in mind, Katharine knew she wanted to incorporate color into whichever design they chose.
The result was this square version of our Cherry Blossom invitation, where the colors Katharine and John selected really set off the names of the bride and groom and draw the eye to the delicate blossom details.
The couple’s style of relaxed sophistication was evident in every element of their beautiful event, though this mantra was put to the ultimate test when a torrential rainstorm began 30 minutes before the ceremony! Taking the unexpected weather in stride, Katharine laughingly recalls fording a 3-foot wide “river” between her limo and the chapel with the help of the driver and a stranger off the street!
Luckily, their good humor carried the day and Katharine and John emerged from the chapel to clearing skies in time for their reception. (Notice the TGK-designed table cards!) The couple elected to name each table after favorite watering holes from the three towns they had both lived in. “Top of the Hill” was a fitting choice for the head table!
Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson!
Special thanks to Maryland-based photographer Anthony Marill.
Even though it’s still sizzling summer outside, inside the TGK studio, we are all about fall! So it’s fitting that this “Real Weddings” features one of our favorite brides from last fall, Stacie Carver. Stacie and Stephen were planning a September wedding in Elmore, Ohio’s gorgeous Schedel Arboretum and Gardens and were searching for wedding stationery that complemented both the autumn season and their champagne/latte color scheme. We worked with Stacie to incorporate our botanical leaf motif into our very popular Claudia pocket invitation design. We also developed a customized map for the invitation and a coordinating program for the ceremony.
We love how well her colors pop against those luscious fall flowers!
Here is Stacie with her sweet husband – don’t you wish you could just pop yourself right there in that idyllic spot for your next photo session?
As an artist herself, Stacie incorporated lots of fun details into her wedding including a photo booth and a caricature artist to capture unique images of guests at the reception. Don’t you love this matted caricature Stacie and Stephen had done of themselves for guests to sign instead of a traditional guest book?
A big thank you to Kanney Photography for permission to use Stacie and Stephen’s wedding photos here in the TGK blog!
We were just discussing a question we have heard a lot lately – is it okay to put “Adult Reception only” on our wedding invitation? Well . . . that depends who you ask. While adult-only receptions are not a new trend, it can still be difficult to ask your guests to leave the little loved ones at home.
Traditionally, the names written on the inner envelope indicate who is invited to the the wedding and reception. For instance, want to invite Aunt Jane and Uncle Arthur, but not your three little cousins (age 2 – 9)? Simply leave their names off the inner envelope. Have you heard stories from your friends that this little trick didn’t work for members of their family, and want to do something more proactive? Something we encourage our brides to do is to use the phrase,
‘Number of adults attending ___’
on the rsvp card. This way, you do not give guests an option to rsvp for children, and it is a much more subtle way than printing ‘Adults Only’ on your wedding invitation.
Unfortunately, for those small number of invitees who probably would ignore your request even if you wrote in giant letters, “Please do not bring Rick, Jr. to the wedding!”, there may not be much more you can do!
I’m a sucker for the cartoon It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and LOVE to watch it every year. (or a few times through out the year!)
It always makes me laugh – especially the part when Sally threatens to sue Linus because she realizes that she has missed tricks-or-treats. Love is so complicated . . . Speaking of love, Halloween is definitely a surprise day to get engaged. Check out this Halloween engagement video on YouTube.
My favorite idea for a Halloween engagement was found on The Knot:
“This past Halloween, a bunch of friends got together for a barbecue at our friend’s house. Toward the end of the night, they told us we were going to have a pumpkin carving contest, boys against girls. Once we were done carving them, my friend told us to go stand at the end of the driveway to see the pumpkins. When the pumpkins lit up, they read: ‘Will U Marry Me.’ Right then Craig got on his knee and proposed. All I really remember saying was, ‘I’m getting engaged in an Afro wig!’ It was great!”
—Alaryce, Overland Park, KS
The Knot also has some great Stylish Ideas for a Halloween wedding if you are considering it . . .
Haven’t watched The Great Pumpkin? You can order a copy at Amazon.com. Happy Halloween!!
We are so excited to bring our first “real wedding” to the TGK blog! Though we LOVE stationery and feel that the wedding invitation is truly a “sneak peek” of your upcoming event, we know that pulling off that much dreamed about wedding day is an orchestration of a variety of wedding professionals.
We always feel very privileged when brides share photos of their big day, and our very first featured couple is Beth Borkon and David Potts. They had a great vision for their wedding – and it turned out beautifully! The colors they chose were Tiffany blue and black with hints of pink which made a great combination. Everything from the wedding invitations…
to the cake…
(designed by Sweet Memories Bakery)
to the place cards…
coordinated perfectly! The couple was married at Hillyer Memorial Christian Church in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Both the bride and groom are graduates of North Carolina State University and held their reception at The State Club – which was a perfect choice!
We worked with Beth to create a custom dot motif. A combination of tiffany blue and black inks were used along with a complimentary font set; which gave the invitations a modern twist.
We were excited when Beth came to us again to design wedding day stationery that would carry on the theme of the invites. The resulting designs are some of our favorites! In fact, we now use a spin-off of Beth’s ceremony program we created for Beth and David as one of our anchor program designs!
In addition to the ceremony programs, we also created matching place cards, table cards, and menus to tie in with the beautifully decorated reception venue.
We appreciate Beth sending photos of her wedding! Neil Boyd Photography did a wonderful job of capturing every detail – we feel like we were there! It was great to work with such a creative couple – that’s what makes working at The Green Kangaroo so enjoyable! Best wishes to Mr. And Mrs. Potts!!
Among the wonderful things that come with the summer and fall season – sunshine, bbqs, and vacations – there comes the popularity of weddings at wineries. And I couldn’t be happier!
There is something very romantic about getting married at a winery – not to mention the wonderful abundance of wine that accompanies the event. I was fortunate enough to attend a good friend’s wedding last weekend at Castoro Cellers, a winery in Paso Robles, California and it was everything a wedding in wine country should be. Beautiful vineyard at sunset, delicious pairings with cheese-filled appetizers and a relaxed, rustic atmosphere.
Of course, in the midst of all the wine tasting, I was on the look out for the wedding stationery – programs, menus, place cards, etc. Her invitation was so beautiful (designed by a friend of ours Ilana Dashe who currently works privately on custom invitation designs) that I knew the rest of her paper would be equally spectacular. Her invitation and custom wine monogram was contemporary, yet still held vintage qualities that are perfect for vineyard weddings – such as a cork paper band with a richly-textured deep red pocket. Since they are a very fun and casual couple, they opted for some personality in their invitation by using a mad-libs style reply postcard – which they featured at the wedding as part of their guest book!
The couple also loves music, so it was no surprise that they gave away personalized CD’s as their wedding favors. Instead of using the typical plastic CD cases or printed paper CD jackets, they got creative and incorporated their favor with their program – one side held the CD and the other held their program booklet – complete with the vineyard motif and held together by the cork paper band.
They also carried their monogram and vineyard theme through to the placecards, which were held in wine corks and arranged on a wine barrel.
This wedding was a blast – and I now have a couple bottles of wine to remember it…
One of our favorite local wedding magazines, Southern Bride and Groom, recently featured the wedding of Mary Craven Hines and Christopher Burney Dawkins. The wedding was held at Duke Chapel in Durham, North Carolina. We were asked to incorporate a beautiful sketch of the Duke Chapel – see below.
On occasion, we do have brides ask us to incorporate college logos and images into their wedding stationery. We always explain to them that most of these images belong to the school, so we need permission to reproduce them. If you are looking to use an image from your college days, make sure that you have written permission before asking the company you are working with to incorporate these types of images.
Here’s a headline for you: Extreme weather wrecks havoc on June weddings! I had some friends visit last weekend who live in Las Vegas. They were here for a wedding (which took place at Duke Gardens) and thought the North Carolina weather would be a refreshing break from the Vegas heat – unfortunately that wasn’t the case. One of my friends told me that the she was really self conscious because it was so hot she had sweat running down her back AND legs – until she noticed she wasn’t the only one in this boat!
Speaking of boats, another friend traveled to Indiana for a wedding – where it rained torrentially. One bridesmaid had to wade through waist deep water to get out of her house and into the car, and the bride had to pick up flowers from Wal-Mart at the last minute because the florist never arrived. Hopefully for the rest of you June brides, the extreme weather will soon come to an end!
