The Dress Shopping Begins...

Time is ticking away and I realized that I can no longer put off the dreaded dress shopping!

Today I sniffed around the bridal boutique in Columbia, MD and I found a dress that really peaked my interest----on another bride! I took down the designer name and style and I would like to come back and try it on with a family member.

On another note, I scheduled a meeting with my Aunt this Friday at the stationary store she works at, The Pleasure of Your Company, to get some ideas for the invites and other print work.

Invitation Inspiration

A few months ago, I stumbled across this neat blog, Oh So Beautiful Paper, that has some great invite/stationary design ideas. It's a great resource for type and layout, and event themes too. The young woman who runs the blog is a D.C. area newlywed with a passion for paper. Check it out!

The Wedding Invitation Design Begins!

Okay, so I finally got myself back on the wedding planning horse after a couple of months break, and I am now focusing on my wedding invitation design. I'm in Adobe Illustrator right now vectorizing a mum.

I knew from the get go that I wanted to design all of the print work for the wedding. That means the invites, response postcards (yes, postcards--saves money on envelopes and makes it easier for guests to send back), menus, place cards, and programs. This will not only save money on design labor costs associated with buying invites, but showcase a little of my creativity.

I will test-run a few items with Kinkos' printing, and if their quality runs short, I'll use a more professional printer. I've had luck with the Kinkos at Towson Town Center, in Towson, MD. They printed all my work for my graphics design class, and it turned out nice. Another option is gotprint.com. They did a great, and inexpensive job on my business cards. The only issue with gotprint is the quality of paper they have. At least with Kinkos I can provide my own Neenah or other brand of paper. We'll see.... My aunt is a consultant at The Pleasure of Your Company stationary store in Baltimore, so I know she will be helpful with advice and we can perhaps go with the printing services they use, if needed.

During my planning overload back in spring, I managed to tuck away several pictures from stationary and wedding invite websites of invites with images, typefaces (fonts), and layouts that appealed to me and matched the theme/mood of the wedding.

The natural thing to do was go with a green fuji/spider mum theme because of my wedding flowers, so I will stick with that for now. We'll keep all of the print work unified with the same floral image and typeface.

Starting with the invites, I'll vectorize about 3 mums, and then do 3 different invite layouts, each with a different mum. I'll try different typefaces, etc, and see which one looks best. From there, the other print work will flow slightly smoother, since I'll be able to transfer the same layout/image over.

I just have to remember the golden rule: KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Famed Baltimore Wedding Photographer Dies Tragically

Arthur deRoaldes Remanjon wedding photographer -- baltimoresun.com

More Here

Arthur Remanjon died in a motorcycle accident on Wednesday, September 3, 2009. I gasped at work when I read this article that I accidently stumbled upon. My heart goes out to his family, co-workers and clients. This guy is very well-known in Maryland. I knew about him well before our engagement just from seeing his photos in local papers and magazines. He is so talented. I actually spoke with him on the phone to get a quote, during my photographer search. He was far out of our price range, which makes sense. I wonder what will happen to his business? I am guessing his team of photographers will take over his upcoming events.

This is such a tragedy.