Favorite Site Tuesdays: Royal Steamline Invitations

Two Ring Circus Invitation

This week's favorite site has me totally excited: Royal Steamline Invitations! The brainchild of a husband and wife team based out of Portland, Royal Steamline is so full of incredible designs that it was hard to choose which ones to feature! I'm not just suggesting you check out the rest on their site, I'm flat out telling you to!

Storybook Invitation

Their designs are clockwork/vintage/gothic/retro, and each one is unique and beautiful. From the layering of images to the font choices, these are perfect for the Steampunk couple, or the tatooed sweeties, or retro rockabillies. Most designs are customizable too, to fit in with wedding color schemes and such.

Avogadro Invitation

Aero Invitation

Port of Call Invitation

10/6 Invitation

They also offer choices in the invitation enclosures, offering trios, duos, and single cards, along with matching save-the-dates and thank you cards and such. And, the prices are totally affordable!

Check out Royal Steamline, especially if you're getting married and having picking your stationer yet. Their work is amazing!

Save the Dates!

I can finally post about this! Yay!!! I had to wait until the first people started to say they had received them, so as not to ruin the surprise;)

Back in May, I did a Save the Date photoshoot with my sister and her fiance. They wanted a funny shoot that encapsulated their personalities: vintage and goofy;) I even put one of my headpieces in A's hair, and he borrowed a friend's '80's style fluffy meringue of a wedding dress. it was a wretchedly hot day for them to be wearing polyester layers, but they got into the spirit and we had a great time. Then the real work began: I had to put together the postcards in PS4. It took me quite a while to get everything just so; there were hundreds of frames to go through and weed out the three best, then they needed to be filtered and edited and all the text had to be laid out. All told, it was a nearly month-long project from shoot to mailbox, but I'm very happy with the results.

What do you think of my sister's Save the Dates, dear readers?

Wedding Show Bonanza!

This weekend saw two wedding shows and some major networking for Seamstress of Avalon!

Indie Wed was Saturday, and I had such a good time! I can't express how special it is to meet and talk with other artists about the amazing things they do; unlike many shows, you aren't talking with a representative of a huge hotel or design company, but the person who actually created the thing you're looking at. There was such a wonderful creative feel in the air, and everything we saw was unique and beautiful.

Tabitha and I both wore Seamstress pieces in our hair and I carried my brand-spanking-new business cards, and every single person who liked what we were wearing got a card. I went through quite a few, and it was pretty cool;)

Best fashion show, hands down. We didn't get a seat, but from our vantage point right on the side of the runway we had a perfect view of every dress. What's even better was that they were all independant designers; no cookie-cutter satin dresses that you've seen a million times.

A shout out to the very adorable Audey dresses, designed by Jess Audey. I wanted to steal every single one, for a picnic in May in the park. Cute prints and delightful colored petticoats.

Oh, Emily Rohm. I have loved your Etsy shop for a while now, but I had no idea just how beautiful your pieces truly were. This in purple for Tabitha's wedding, and I'm all set;)

Dame Couture was absolutely lovely! I wasn't familiar with their work, but I'm checking them out now! And their booth was fantastic too:

Hats, brooches, and vintage-style dresses. Heaven;)

Of course, there was more than just fashion at the show. Stationers, milliners (hello Love, Lulu Mae!), soap and candle-makers, bakeries like the marvelous Tipsy Cake, and even candy companies, as well as a few entirely unique photographers like Vavoom Pinups and a torch singer named Pearls Mahone (isn't that name great?).

I loved the displays that the event planners and floral designers at Delicate Creature and Pollen put out, and they gave us all kinds of ideas. Look at that boutonniere from Pollen! So cute!

Float Paperie definitely had a frontrunner for invitations, and I think Tabitha and A will be giving Andrea a call to set up a consultation soon. Just beautiful.

The Ravenswood Arts Center was one of the stars of the day too, and all around the hall there were classic cars displayed that just begged for a great pinup photo shoot!

We did go to another show on Sunday, the crowded and crazy Luxury Bridal Expo at the Hyatt O'Hare. The highlight? Seeing my favorite dress by Love by Enzoani walk the runway:

It was a great weekend, and I was glad to meet with a lot of talented people and pass out a lot of cards. I hope a few more people stop by the shop!

Wedding daydreams . . .

Susanne Neville Seattle Dress in Peacock

I suppose it's sort of inevitable that, after looking at so many wedding sites for my sister, I should start daydreaming about what I would choose for my wedding. The best part? No budget required for daydreaming; I can pick whatever I like! I think in terms of color I'd go with peacock blue, and the Susanne Neville dress above would make a lovely bridesmaid.

I love this spring table setting from Martha Stewart Weddings. Centerpieces should never impede conversation, and the delicate dogwood branches are perfect for that. Simple and elegant.

Martha Stewart Weddings

I am so having a sweet table at my wedding;) I love the idea of doing a sweet bar with little scoops and bags for favors with a tag that says your names. Bulk candy companies will often sell many colors in their candies, making it easy to match your wedding theme. And, think how cute and elegant to have a sweet table full of monochromatic sweets!

Matthew Christopher Lalique

My dress fetish right now is this beautiful Matthew Christopher gown, Lalique. The petals on the back look like a peacock tail to me, and I love the tulle peeking out at the bottom. I saw it first in the Knot magazine, and fell in love;)

Mantilla - Cathedral Length Veil - White or Ivory

With that, I would wear a beautiful cathedral length creation from Rohm.

Mum's the word Fascinator

And, since you can't wear a cathedral-length veil for dancing, I'd love a fabulous fascinator for the reception;) This one is from Liaison's Etsy Shop.

The wedding cake would have to follow the peacock theme, of course! I found this beautiful example here:OzCake's Flickr Photostream. Apparently the above cake won them first place, and I can see why!

Finally the invites would have to be fun and unique; too often lately I've seen nothing but the blandest, most boring invitations coming in the mail! My one rule: no boring!!! This is a custom set from Paper+Cup, and I just love how it makes you feel like you're going on a trip;)

Yeah, I know; silly to plan something while you're still single. I guess I just have weddings on the brain lately, and I can't help it . . .

Final Etsy Week Feature: Eva Paul

Is it really the final post for Etsy Week? This has been a great week; I've loved connecting with all these incredible artisans, getting the word out about what they do, and discovering new artists along the way. Fear not; I will continue posting sites I love in the future, just not in such a format;)

My final favorite is Eva Paul Design and Photography, created by the husband and wife design team of Nic and Kirsten. I have featured stationers before; it's no secret that I love beautifully designed paper and invitations. They can be so expensive, though! A letterpress invitation can cost as much as $20 per invite, and that doesn't include all the stuff you're supposed to send with it, like response cards, maps, little envelopes, etc. When a wedding costs an average $20,000, who can afford to drop $2,000 of it on invitations?

Enter Eva Paul. For ridiculously reasonable prices they offer chic and amazing invites, customizable for your event, of course, and you will have that extra bit left over in your budget to splurge on bridesmaid's gifts (hint, hint, Tab!;)

I love how mod and elegant these are, and they really are unique amoung the designs I've seen lately:

These are nontraditional and incredibly fabulous; just because you're getting an inexpensive wedding invitation, that doesn't mean it has to look like you went to Office Depot for card stock and printed it on your printer. Check out Eva Paul, especially if you're looking to tie the knot soon; I know I'll be sending my sister over there when she's ready to get her invites!

Favorite Site Tuesdays!

In effort to get some structure in my posts, I'm naming Tuesdays the Official Day for Site Recommendations! (small trumpet toots in the background)

My inaugural post is for one of my favorite letterpress invitation sites: Dauphine Press . If you're puzzled about what letterpress invitations are, and why so many people think they're such hot shit, here's a quick primer:

-Letterpress is a technique used for several centuries, involving a printing press that prints using plates with raised designs to produce the characters and images on the page. Modern letterpress usually uses some form of old press in combination with new techniques for creating custom printing plates from whatever art and text you want for your invitations. It's laborious but the results are beautiful; think of letterpress versus laser printing as the difference between an original Degas and a poster print of one.

The folks over at Dauphine Press create beautiful custom invites; I'm not in the market for any at the moment, but I discovered them a few years ago when I started looking around at wedding ideas. Now that my sister is starting to plan hers, I'm scanning sites once again . . .

They also do calling cards and stationary! Check them out if you're looking for lovely and amazing invites for your next event;)