Melissa and her friends are throwing a shower for their friend Nicole, and they gave me a list of what they wanted to see in an invitation:  blue, brown, green, orange, stripes, and ribbon.  And Melissa loves metallic cardstock, so of course we had to incorporate that as well.  What a combo!  How did it all come together?  Check it out:

The double-layered invitation has a printed backing - stripes of blue, brown, green, and orange frame the invitation text.

I added an orange ribbon accent to the invitation panel and a seal with the baby's initials in the middle.

The girls decided that they needed an insert for additional information, so I printed the stripes as a border instead of layering the smaller card.

I paired the invite with a deep blue metallic envelope, and I added a coordinating wrap-around label so the addresses could easily be read by the post office.

I love the whole suite together - very sharp!

These invitations strike a great balance between masculine and feminine – the script font and the satin ribbon soften the impact of the bold, almost nautical colors and lines.  Many thanks to Melissa and the crew for giving me the opportunity to create these sophisticated shower invitations!  I know the party will be a huge success.

Thanks for staying with me through this whole series of baby showers!  I’ve got more that are currently in production and will be blogged later on… and hopefully I’ll be able to share a whole series of birth announcement designs soon!

Jen dreamed up a purple and orange color scheme with a Spanish-inspired flair; ceramic tiles were used as table numbers and as favors that doubled as placecards.  They found Copperhill Catering, an amazing catering team, who created two kinds of paella for dinner, along with tapas and sangria for the cocktail hour and churros and chocolate for dessert.  The guests went wild for Sweet and Saucy Shop’s red velvet and pumpkin cake pops, too!

Check out some of the amazing shots below, provided by Stephanie Williams Photography, and click here to view more pictures in her blog post.

The happy couple - Jen and Chris

The gorgeous crystal bouquet charms were created by Bling Diva Designs.

The ceremony setup had handmade pinwheels lining both sides of the aisle. Whimsical and delightful!

A shot of the tablescape, with the aforementioned silkscreened tiles.

Gorgeous floral centerpieces by Myra at Celebrate Floral - I love the vibrant colors!

Adorable (and delicious!) cake pops by Sweet and Saucy Shop, and a lovely little cake to go with them. Jen bedazzled the cake stand herself; the cake topper is from Bling Diva Designs.

The dance/lounge area required some intense setup - Chris and his parents built this canopy frame and set it up the day before the wedding; I got to hang the lanterns the next morning. It looked positively magical, especially after the sun went down.

The lounge pillows were all custom made by a friend of the family, and each one of them was unique!

I laughed so hard when I saw this picture. Definitely my favorite shot of the day! The smilebooth was provided by Emmycube Photography.

All in all, it was a gorgeous day full of love and happiness.  Jen and Chris, I’m so glad I had the chance to get to know you and be a part of such a beautiful celebration!  And huge thanks are due to the amazing vendors I got to work with:

Venue:  Tesoro Adobe Historic Park in Valencia, CA

Photographer:  Stephanie Williams Photography

Videographer:  Roberto Fonseca

Catering:  Copperhill Catering

Florist:  Celebrate Floral

DJ:  C&J – Carol and Jeff

Dessert:  Sweet and Saucy Shop

Smilebooth:  Emmycube Photography

Cake Toppers & Bling:  Bling Diva Designs

Giant Balloons (not shown):  Me to You Balloons

For this announcement, I took my inspiration from the gorgeous modern nursery that Ramona designed – everything is Texas Burnt Orange and gray, with a circular motif.  Ramona asked for something that was modern, yet classic, and she gave me complete creative freedom with the design.

Here it is!

Isn't he adorable? We had such a hard time choosing just three photos!

A closer look - I love that retro '50s font!

The announcement is a 5.5" square; it's mounted onto a gorgeous matte gray cardstock and paired with an orange square envelope.

The photos of Grayson were taken by the lovely and talented Emmycube Photography.

I’m so excited about this one that I decided to add it to the Etsy store!  It is currently available in four different color combinations – the original orange/gray, of course, and green/gray, blue/gray, and violet/gray.  Each one is mounted to the matte gray cardstock as pictured (because I just love it so much!), and each will be paired with a colored envelope.

Ramona, Nik, and Grayson – thanks so much for the opportunity to create these for you!

My birthday gift to Mom and Dad was this invitation:

The front of the mock vinyl record invitation. I based it on an old Capitol Records design.

The back of the mock vinyl record invitation, with more information and some cutesy clip-art graphics.

I initially made up both sides of this invitation as two separate design ideas because Mom liked the colorful 50’s-themed graphics and I liked the more realistic record.  In the end, I used them both so we could include all of the necessary information.

Mom asked if I could do something with The Hop’s logo, which had a cool-guy bunny rabbit leaning casually up against it.  She wanted me to add a girl bunny next to him.  After a few unsuccessful attempts to Photoshop the low-resolution photo she had of the logo, I finally just drew it by hand, scanned it, and re-worked the file from there.

The invitations were printed on glossy circular labels and affixed to die-cut black linen paper circles for a realistic vinyl record effect.  I used bright orange square envelopes (not pictured; we had to mail out every single one!) and printed address labels for the mailing and the return address.

Want invitations like these?  Purchase a sample from my Etsy store and contact me to customize the text for your order!

After the party, I made up some business cards for my parents to send out in their thank-you notes so people could see the professional photos taken at the party and share their own images.  The best part of that was that I got to reuse that bunny logo!  Here they are:

This was a business-card sized insert that Mom sent out in the thank-you notes.

It was a fun project all around, and the guests seemed to really enjoy the invitations.