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!
