Save the Dates: Indecision and Revision

After all of this work over the last month (and plenty of additional practice as well), I have ONCE AGAIN changed my save the date design plan. Sigh. Revision 5, you taught me a lot. Practice and (attempted) precision have been abundant, but it's time to simplify...

Wedding Update: The Basics are Coming Together!

Hey Friends! Life has been so crazy these past few weeks but I've got a little bit of a break from the craziness and I'm so excited to share our most recent wedding plans with you!

I've got a couple of things are the works currently...

• Our engagement photos are being finalized and turned out so beautifully! I can't wait to share them with you!
• I've booked our sweet day-of coordinator who will help with all of the random odds and ends that I won't want to have to deal with on our big day.
• We are in the process of talking to a prospective caterer.
• And I'm about to write a potential officiant to see if he's available for the day!
• I'm changing my mind YET AGAIN on how I want our save the dates to look. I swear, this is probably the sixth revision... I've gotten lots of practice in the meantime!
• Meanwhile I'm doing plenty of research on photographers and videographers. I've got a few top choices but it's hard to set things in motion when we are still so far away from the big day!

It's so interesting: I've been musing about different possibilities for our big day for such a long time and now that it's finally time to narrow all of these ideas down to just THE one that will be, planning doesn't seem quite as daunting as I was expecting...

That said, I still have a lot of work to do. We are definitely ahead of schedule but with as crazy as life has been lately I know I have to stay super proactive!

Hope y'all are well and I promise to post more as things come up!

The Latest of Lettering: Sending Out Some Snail-Mail Gratitude and Greetings

After our successful engagement photo shoot, I decided to take some time to send out a few thank you notes for people who had helped me over the last few months. I took this opportunity to practice the script I plan to use for our Save the Date envelopes.

I decided to go with something a little more free and modern for the save the dates, since they're not quite as official / "pomp-y" as the invitations. Here's an example:

I haven't decided whether I want the script to be a little more bold, or stay on the lighter side...

I used my staple foiled "Thank You" cards this time. Gotta love that shine!

I've also been getting in a lot of practice lately. I'm trying to teach myself copperplate, but let me tell you it is NOT easy. I usually practice the same phrase over and over again just to try to gain a LITTLE bit of consistency...

After a long, regimented practice session, I usually end up treating myself to some flourishing. Gotta love a sweet, swoop-y tail!

ALSO, I made a simple birthday card for a far-away friend: white ink on silver card.

I had some fun with the envelope too, quick and simple.

AND, in the process of looking for this address, I uncovered an old picture of a card / envelope that I sent last fall. It's amazing, but just from this little shot, I can see how much my pointed-pen calligraphy ("toi toi toi") has improved (not so much with my above block lettering...still much work to do on that!)!

It's been fun to get to practice a little more consistently these days! Still not as often as I'd like, but hey, life is crazy!

All the best! <3

Photoshoot Update!

Finally an update! (sorry y'all, life has been crazy!)

Ben and I had our engagement shoot this past weekend and it couldn't have been better! Our sweet friend, David, made us feel right at home in front of the lens... or at least as much at home as we can be in circumstances that are pretty out of the ordinary. Ben and I kept a stream of absurd conversation the entire time, so I'm sure there will be a lot of shots with me laughing!

The day before our shoot, I went out shopping. I had originally planned to rent a dress, but the cost ended up being too high because by the time our shoot was confirmed it would have required same-day shipping. SO I just took it as an excuse to get a new dress!

I knew I definitely wanted something classic and classy. White, black, pink, or blue were sort of my color ideas: white because bride, black because classic, pink because feminine, or blue because it's the best (in my opinion...plus "something blue"). Here's my original inspiration board that I made for myself for this shoot:

 

After 5 hours of walking around the mall, deliberating, and trying things on, I ended up going with the first dress I'd tried on! It was a perfect mix of classic and unique. Black AND white, and with a nice lace overlay - the type of thing that I love but Ben usually doesn't like, but he really DID in this case! Couldn't pass that up!

Here were my outfits for the day: one fancy, one casual.

We ended up being outside in downtown Nashville for most of it: in a pillared plaza in front of the capitol, on the sidewalk outside the Hermitage Hotel, in an alleyway, and on the pedestrian bridge at the riverfront.

I absolutely can't wait to get them and share them with you all!