Past From Inspiration to Invitation winner Chiara Francolino

The rules are simple, just create an inspiration board using our easy peasy board building tool based on any style/look/theme you’d like to see translated into an invitation design. (Please note, this is a design challenge not a giveaway.) You must tag your board “SD Challenge” to be considered. Sarah will pick one of your boards to turn into a fabulous new invitation and we cannot wait to see what you come up with. We’ll announce the big winner on Friday, November 11th and share the sure-to-be-amazing invitation right here on SMP in January!

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Post tags: Challenge, Contest, From Inspiration to Invitation, Illinois, Inspiration Board, Inspiration to Invitation, Sarah Drake
Post categories: Illinois Weddings

Click here to see the entire image gallery!

From the Bride… We got married September 4, 2010 at our farm in the Adirondacks. The farm has been in my family for over a hundred years and is a special place for me and my husband. It brings together all of our cousins on summer weekends and has made us all so much closer.

Once we decided to get married at the farm, the look and feel of the wedding developed from that. We used the colors of the barns (red and a pale blue) for our invitations. Our wedding weekend included lots of our favorite activities – from hiking to biking, swimming to visiting a goat farm. Matt and I spent all spring and summer working to transform our hay barn into a romantic and beautiful space for our cocktail hour. We brought in fresh cut trees and put up lights from Restoration Hardware.

Fall at the farm is so wonderful because we grow our own apples and make cider using a traditional cider press. We decided to get married in the apple orchard so we used apples as a theme throughout the wedding. They looked beautiful and saved us a lot of money on flowers. We used them at the entrance to the farm in my grandmother’s old fashioned bicycle basket, in cider presses that we had on the property directing people to the cocktail hour and tent and lining the aisle. We also put them in everyone’s gift bags. One of my bridesmaids made a stamp of the farm and we used that as a tag for the gift bags.

When we were cleaning out the barn, we found a lot of wonderful things that we used as decoration. My step dad cleaned and wheeled out an old Model T car that was my uncle Johnny’s. Johnny is no longer with us so it was very meaningful to have his car there. Inside the tent, we used the same colors from the barns for the table cloths, flowers and menu cards. We also had shinny apples and tea lights on all the tables. My friend made the menu cards and table numbers as a gift to us and we ordered simple red frames online to make them look elegant. We brought in branches from our land to tie to the tent poles to give the tent a more natural feeling and collected moss to surround our birch tree looking wedding cake.

Outside of the tent we set up two white, wrought iron benches for people who wanted to go outside and enjoy the evening. We hung mason jars from the trees over the benches and put candles in them to give it a warm feeling. As a guest book, we had an unfinished Adirondack chair and left pens in our theme colors for our guests to sign. My husband is from England so we asked all the ladies to wear hats and the men to wear morning suits. The hats were a big hit and lots of fun. We repainted the posts for horse jumps and placed them around the tent for ladies to put their hats on. My friend Mary used paint leftover from painting our barns to paint signs for the cocktail hour, wedding and after party. Our florist put flowers on the chupa and lined the aisle with rose petals. We lit candles at the beginning of the aisle. My uncle is a rabbi and officiated. We wrote our own vows which were heartfelt but also funny. We served lemonade and sparkling water to guests when they arrived and passed out little bottles of bubbles for guests to blow instead of rice after the ceremony. Two of our best friends sang Irene Cara’s “What a Feeling” as we walked back down the aisle after our ceremony. It was the most wonderful day of my life.

Wedding Photography: Andy Duback / Cinematography: Bradley Clarke / Floral Design: David Michael Schmidt of Renaissance Floral Design / Event Planning: Megan Grabowski / Wedding Ceremony & Reception Location: Brant Lake Farm, Private Residence / Tent Rental: Clifton Park Rental Center / Wedding Invitations: Sesame Letterpress / Save the Date: Ceci New York / Wedding Dress: Angelo Lambrou / Catering: Glen Sanders / Cake: Cuisinne Lucette / Hair & Makeup: Ann-Marie Flores / Programs: Sarah Drake

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Post tags: Andy Duback, Angelo Lambrou, Ann-Maire Flores, Apples, Barn Wedding, Blue, Bradley Clarke, Ceci New York, Clifton Park Rental Center, Cuisinne Lucette, DIY Projects, farm wedding, Glen Sanders, Mason Jars, Outdoor Ceremony, Red, Renaissance Floral Design, Sarah Drake, Sesame Letterpress, Tented Reception, White
Post categories: Casual Elegance, New York Weddings

And from this style-savvy board, Sarah Drake designed an equally fabulous invitation suite that we are so excited to share…

see more of this gorgeous invitation suite here!

From Sarah Drake…

We chose Chiara’s inspiration board for it’s rich beauty and complexity- we could have designed an entire line out of this collection of photos. I could really see a beautiful event emerging here, and could just tell that the photos held a lot of meaning. I think this invitation would work in a variety of rich colors- gold and amber, forest and cream, slate and bronze. We especially love using the pages from an old copy of Don Quixote to line the envelopes and a folded web card, for some dimension. Engraving this would be beautiful to get a hint of metallic ink on the dark paper- can’t wait to print this for a fall bride who loves history and pattern!

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Post tags: Inspiration to Invitation, Invitations, Sarah Drake
Post categories: Inspiration Boards, The Blog, Wedding Invitations & Stationery

Amazing, isn’t it. A HUUUUGE congratulations to Libby and Jim. You guys are so absolutely adorable and I know that if your life together is half as gorgeous as this wedding, you are two very lucky people. We love you!

Photography: Hoffer Photography / Cinematography: Well Spun Weddings / Flowers and Event Design: Beautiful Blooms / Ceremony and Reception Location: John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove / Invitations: Sarah Drake / Dress: The Gallery by Lela Rose / Caterer: Jeffrey Miller Catering / Makeup: Jill Fulop – Face The Occasion / Hair: Natalie Pagano – Hair By Natalie / Bridesmaid Dresses: Bill Levkoff / Music + DJ: Craig Konowal – Circle of Sound DJ’s / Favors: Etsy Vendor – 2 Birds In Love / Watercolor bird table markers: Christina Galagarza – C2G2

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Post tags: 2 Birds in Love, Beautiful Blooms, Bill Levkoff, Birdcages, Birdhouses, Blue, C2G2, Circle of Sound DJ’s, Etsy, Face The Occasion, Garden, Hair By Natalie, Hoffer Photography, Jeffery Miller Catering, John James Audobon Center, Lela Rose, owls, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Sarah Drake, Well Spun Weddings
Post categories: Wedding Cinematography

click here to see the full wedding gallery!

Libby’s wedding is also being featured in The Knot Pennsylvania & Delaware, on stands February 7th!!

Pinch me! We’re on SMP. I have been faithfully devouring Style Me Pretty for 4+ years and couldn’t believe my good fortune when I was asked to become part of the team a little over one year ago. What could be better than planning your very own wedding, while looking at other gorgeous weddings all day long? Not much, I say!

I met the handsome man above in a limo (!) during a mutual friend’s birthday celebration, while attending the University of West Chester, just outside of Philadelphia. After relocating to the Boston area, we entertained the idea of a New England wedding but decided to come home to beautiful Pennsylvania, where so many of our family and friends still live. We instantly fell in love with the John James Audubon Society at Mill Grove as we drove up the long, tree lined drive. This venue exudes Pennsylvania charm and has everything that we were hoping to find. Fieldstone barn (check!), Pavilion with huge fireplace (check!), Classic old estate (check!), Porch with rocking chairs (check!), Owl at the cocktail hour (BIG CHECK!) The owl definitely sealed the deal…

I never anticipated how tough it would be to nail down the overall feel of our wedding, since I see so many wonderful ideas day in and day out! Our “Love Letter” invitations by Sarah Drake set the tone for rustic romance and as the weeks went on, I also found myself incorporating vintage and woodland elements as well. While my mom and I are pros at “hunting and gathering,” we’ll be the first to admit that we sort of lost track of our vision as we got closer to the big day. How were we going to incorporate all of this goodness into one cohesive style? And when I say “goodness” I mean 300+ bud vases, 20+ mason jars, 25 birdcages, an old typewriter, blue/white hankies, family love letters – you name it, we found it.

We chose SMP Little Black Book member, Beautiful Blooms in Philadelphia to discuss a plan of attack. With their help and ideas, we were able to incorporate all of our treasures throughout the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception and it just flowed perfectly as our guests moved from one event to the next. My personal favorite was their idea to paint all of our birdhouses blue and hang little vintage bird playing cards inside of them with ribbon, along with lots of flowers. To Maya, Donna and the team at Beautiful Blooms – we cannot thank you enough for your creative, over the top, amazingness!

We also had a lot of help from our family and friends, which showed in everything from the programs, the ceremony music, hand painted table markers, sweet little bird nests with ferns from my mother’s garden, wooden table pedestals, down to the microbrew selection. We are lucky to know so many crafters, musicians and brewers! Speaking of music, one of the highlights of the night was when my adorable father surprised me with a song/toast called, “A Song For My Daughter.” Waterworks! Well Spun Weddings turned this into the sweetest video for us to keep forever.

Photography: Hoffer Photography / Cinematography: Well Spun Weddings / Flowers and Event Design: Beautiful Blooms / Ceremony and Reception Location: John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove / Invitations: Sarah Drake / Dress: The Gallery by Lela Rose / Caterer: Jeffrey Miller Catering / Makeup: Jill Fulop – Face The Occasion / Hair: Natalie Pagano – Hair By Natalie / Bridesmaid Dresses: Bill Levkoff / Music + DJ: Craig Konowal – Circle of Sound DJ’s / Favors: Etsy Vendor – 2 Birds In Love / Watercolor bird table markers: Christina Galagarza – C2G2

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Post tags: 2 Birds in Love, Beautiful Blooms, Bill Levkoff, Birdcages, Birdhouses, Blue, C2G2, Circle of Sound DJ's, Etsy, Face The Occasion, Garden, Hair By Natalie, Hoffer Photography, Jeffery Miller Catering, John James Audobon Center, Lela Rose, owls, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Sarah Drake, Well Spun Weddings
Post categories: Casual Elegance

Beautiful Beachy Inspiration Board by LaurenLoves

Fun, right!?!? The rules are simple, just head on over to the  Style Circle and create an inspiration board based on any style/look/theme you’d like to see translated into an invitation design. (Please note, this is a design challenge not a giveaway.) You must tag your board SD Challenge to be considered. Sarah will pick one of your boards to turn into a fabulous new invitation and we cannot wait to see what you come up with. We’ll announce the big winner on Friday, October 29th and share the sure-to-be-amazing invitation right here on SMP later this fall.

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Post tags: From Inspiration to Invitation, Sarah Drake
Post categories: From Inspiration to Reality, Inspiration Boards, Style Circle, The Blog

click here for the FULL wedding!

From the Bride…

Michael and I are East-Coast transplants, who met on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus commuting to Los Angeles, a rarity in LA since everyone is truly obsessed with their cars.  We’d get on the same bus in the morning; I was on earlier stop than he, so there was always a free seat next to me.  Soon, we became friends, and then eventually, started dating.  The regular bus commuters and drivers were ecstatic when we announced our engagement. Deciding where to get married, in the Northeast where our families still live, or in California, was a hard one to make. Eventually, there were too many factors in favor of a wedding in California to ignore, including my wish to really be involved in the creative process, our church, and the fact that California was “our home” now.

Tom Colicchio’s Craft is a special place to us. Each time we go, we just have the best meal and a superb experience. We love Colicchio’s style of cooking. simple (but not simplistic), hearty, and with attention and love. The meals are served family-style so we loved the thought of our newly-joined families sharing the wedding experience over a fantastic meal. The service is incredible – Anna Morini, the private dining coordinator, and the whole staff truly know what you want/ need before you do. We were the first wedding celebrated at Craft and there was nothing that the Craft Family wouldn’t do to make our day perfect.

One lesson I learned throughout this process was to find vendors you trust and let them do their job. A bride can easily get caught up in trying to sweat the details and in that, you lose the creativity of the professional. For example, when it came time to decide flower arrangements, I met with Craft’s in-house floral designer, Matthew Sawicki. We discussed a color scheme and general ideas about what I’d like (truthfully, it was more what I wouldn’t like). However, I trusted him to use his creativity to design arrangements. I didn’t know even what flowers I would have in my bouquet. The result was centerpieces and arrangements that I could never have dreamed. The same held true for items such as our cake, the cake topper, the calligraphy, our wedding bands, my hair and makeup… state your preference (or what you wouldn’t prefer) and trust the professionals. You’ll have a better time planning your wedding. On the other hand, try to add a little bit of yourself into the wedding. Michael and I ordered personalized wooden cards from Paloma’s Nest and as part of our wedding favor, wrote a note from each of us to a guest. It was important to us that each guest know just how much we were honored that they were there to celebrate this big day with us. Their presence meant so much and we really wanted to communicate that to the guest.

Another lesson I’d like to pass on to future brides would be to trust your gut. This happened with our photographers, April and Lindsey, of Sweet Monday. They were the first photographers we went met with, and after having spent countless hours meeting with others (photos were extremely important to us), we kept comparing others to them and their exceptional work. It’s OK if you like someone on the first try—don’t think you have to turn over every stone and exhaust every possibility. You may have just lucked-out and found the right vendor on the first try. Trust yourself. Finally, last but not least by any stretch, I’d like to mention Sarah Drake and her team. As someone obsessed (seriously, it may be a condition) with all things paper, I was over the moon when I won the SMP contest. Sarah and her team worked with me to create our monogram, which was enlarged as a poster for our guests to sign at the reception, as well as the cover to our wedding programs. Sarah was creative, patient, prompt and responsive (which is huge), and just lovely to work with. She even made my thank-you cards. I’d recommend her unquestionably to anyone.

Photographers: Sweet Monday / Dress: Priscilla of Boston / Headband and Veil: Justine M Couture / Shoes: Kate Spade / Bridesmaids Dresses: Aria / Hair and Makeup: Luxe Lab / Tuxedos: Men’s Warehouse / Invitations: Lilywillow Paper & Press / Rings: Bostonian Jewelers / Reception Location: Craft / Calligraphy: Kathryn Murray / Flowers: Matthew Sawicki of Datura Designs / Monogram and Ceremony Programs: Sarah Drake Design / Wooden Cards: Paloma’s Nest / Escort Card Holder: Treehouse Wood Designs / Cake Topper: Concarta

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 26 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Aria, Bostonian Jewelers, California Weddings, Concarta, Craft, Datura Designs, Justine M Couture, Kate Spade, Kathryn Murray, Lillywillow Paper & Press, Luxe Lab, Men's Wharehouse, Paloma's Nest, Priscilla of Boston, Santa Monica, Sarah Drake, Sweet Monday, Treehouse Wood Designs
Post categories: All Real Weddings, California Weddings, Los Angeles Weddings, Real Weddings, The Blog, Traditional Elegance

Sarah chose a board that she called Equestrian Elegance and got to work designing an invitation that captured the spirit and style of the winning board. First up, the design that started it all!

And the GORGEOUS invitation (and I mean so gorgeous that I get all giddy…and start wanting to dream up an equestrian themed wedding) that the board inspired…

From Sarah Drake…

After seeing Tonia’s inspiration board, I thought that barn red and white combination were so subtle, like an equestrian inspired invite should be! I didn’t want to be too obviously horse-y!

It’s a booklet invite, which is always a great option for couples who need to add more elements to their invite. So many brides ask me how to neatly place everything in the envelope, which can be a challenge when you have separate reception cards, accommodations, maps… So, a booklet is a nice alternative to loose cards if that is important to a bride. One trick for money-saving is use the folder cover of the booklet as a program cover too. That way the bride isn’t paying for two separate covers if she’s planning on printing programs down the road. We just print double the amount needed, which is so much more cost effective than printing twice!

I also fell for her knitted items, and worked really hard to get the yarn element in the invite, without being too crafty ( I tried knitted, crocheted, then the simple wrap with a bit of a braid seemed to make the most sense, without taking the focus off the invite. I love a monogram, too, so I liked showing a simple type treatment here (again, subtle) within the wreath to tie it all together.

I mean are in you love yet? This is so unbelievably lovely and I seriously hope that it inspires a simple, tailored equestrian wedding design so that we can show it off on SMP! Thank you so much to the fabulously talented Sarah Drake for taking on the From Inspiration to Invitation Challenge. I would call it a ridiculously huge success!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Equestrian, From Inspiration to Invitation, horse, Sarah Drake
Post categories: From Inspiration to Reality, Wedding Invitations & Stationery