most awesome photo booth ever?

yeah. I think so.

created by sasha souza for kristen*’s wedding (via kiss the groom - check out more pics there)

Made with a huge sheet of plywood, covered in wallpaper, with frame holes cut out. Nice added touch of the bride and groom's family photos.

I mean, this is clearly very ambitious, but not totally out of the realm of DIY possibility, right? riiiiiight?

even woodier

love this kraft paper + wood veneer combo (and rounded corners!) from night owl paper goods

woody

ok. still in the invitation abyss. Our moo cards came and they are nicer than I expected. (full post to come...). But as for the invitations, we are still a little stuck. I think we have a general idea of the text and formatting, but need to decide on paper. and, um, order said paper.

Steve and I both have had a thing for wood veneer for awhile, but true to our pattern of "excitement! creative idea formation! no execution!" we haven't ever made anything with wood veneer. I've seen a couple of invites using wood, and I must say I really really like them. Nice, but still a little different. And I think we could print on them with our gocco.*

I love this one, with darker wood and light ink:



via Oh So Beautiful Paper

And here is a super helpful post on where to get supplies and how to work with veneer to make invitations from Paper Crave.

* Paper menagerie seems to have had great success with gocco on veneer, but I wonder if our smaller text might bleed??

more succulents

another succulent bouquet:


from housemartin (via Oh Joy!)

And how cool is this succulent arrangement? I love the floppy dragontail succulents!



(via housemartin - which has some great arrangement examples!)

moo cards

Just spent much much MUCH longer than I intended making moo cards as part of our invitations. We ended up deciding not to include an RSVP postcard or anything like that. We figured everyone invited is an adult, and they can RSVP as they would for any other get together we would host.

But it is a special get together, so we put together little business cards with our contact info and RSVP options. I'll post again when we get them, but I think they are going to look great. Steve's mom had suggested moo cards for our Save the Dates. Since we decided to do the video instead (will be posted soon!!!), we thought the RSVP was a great use for the moo cards.

For the front, we chose photos of our travels together, our succulents, and little drawings we've made over the last 9 years.


Hanoi 2009


Chianti 2006

And... they have a "green" option, with 100% recycled paper and no chlorine.


Valentine's card 2006


Baby Toes succulent 2007


Amsterdam 2005

...so let's look at food!

lobster bake in massachucetts

Even though we already have our caterer finalized, it's still fun to look at more food. Check out this great slideshow from the nytimes of wedding food from around the world.



cracker men with idazibel cheeze in madrid

The accompanying article is actually pretty interesting. It discusses the trend of seemingly causal weddings, including those at home, which actualy cost as much or more than a traditional formal affair (particularly in L.A.).

I haven't really found that to be the case so far in planning our own backyard wedding, which, while not necessarily born out of a financial need, will likely be cheaper than the wedding in Stern Grove we were originally planning.


freshly sliced jambon from madrid

But it is kind of annoying to think that our pre-existing homemade aesthetic is a trend, co-opted by the wealthy in an effort to not appear ostentatious.

The bottom line is that our friends and family will know that isn't who we are...that we aren't some trend-hopping folks making cobblers and grilling in an effort not to appear wealthy (which we decidely are not).


persian kabobs on an 8 foot grill

(if there was a Moby Dick's House of Kabob out here, we would DEFINITELY be doing this)



fava bean puree with burrata crostinis

hitting the wall

I am completely hitting the wall when it comes to invitation ideas. We went with a video save the date (to be posted soon!) so I never really put in the time to create a visual aesthetic for the invites. the inspiration board is helping some, but not as much as I'd like. I love doing things myself, but it is starting to feel like a lot of pressure. And I look at all the great pro invites on other blogs and realize that even though I have my own cool skills, I doubt I'd be able to create invites like those. argh. Anyone other DIY brides feel like that?

I feel silly even complaining, because in the Big Picture, something like this doesn't matter. I do enjoy the act of making things, but I feel like I'm getting down to the wire (with an October wedding) to be creating and sending out invites.

well this was a grumpy post! Sorry about all that! But sometimes it is nice to have some grumpy reality thrown in with all the beautiful flowers, fancy shoes, and pretty pictures. or maybe not...