Siobhan D.

Nano D.

Victoria B.

Kristen D.

Casey P.

Press – Sweet Kids Birthday Party Ideas on HWTM!

Our summer was filled with gorgeous design, the messiest of painting tables and some amazing collaborations.  Leila of Be Inspired PR is not just the gal who knows people, she is a talented and insightful designer of sorts who know how to assemble a team, inspire good design and style a killer stationery shot in my absence I might add.  Leila brought together a team to create an imaginary 6th Birthday Party and the results are sure to inspire the kid in you!  From richly saturated floral design in shades of red and fuchsia to stripes of all kinds from fabric to paper, the ideas for a sweet kids birthday celebration seen in this shoot are all about summer fun!  Jenn from the insanely popular Hostess with the Mostess blog honored us with a lovely feature recently.

We love the pinstripe linen!  The clean lines of the table design is so refreshing.

From the bountiful blooms to the sweet little man holding blueberries, I simply cannot get enough of this!  Sweet peas, dahlias, peonies, Zinnias and Celosia all on a delicate lace…what could be better?

The Kids Birthday Party hand painted invitation and stationery was a joyful mix of our Signature Watercolor Stripes, custom double Popsicle watercolor and candy illustrations!

For some reason I could not get Sarah McLachlan’s Ice Cream song out of my head when creating this collection, thus this cheeky invitation tag was born.  A bit of aqua twine and a delicate pink polka dot wrap tied up the look.

How sweet are these paper pinwheels?  Thanks again Leila for the pretty paper styling in these shots.  I couldn’t have done it better myself!  Last but not least is the fabulous team.  It was such an honor to work with all of you!

Photography – Becky Hill Photography
Designer – Angel of Love and Splendor
Floral – Kristin of The Treasured Petal
Stationery – Kristy of Momental Designs
Ice Cream Cart – Sweet Lucie’s Organic Ice cream
Bundt Cakes – Nothing Bundt Cakes
Panton Chairs – CORT
Linens & Pillows – La Tavola
Hair Flowers and Accessories: Petal and Thorn

Renewal in PA Part III – The Favors, Cake and Stationery

For the next installment of our Renewal in PA posts, I am sharing more today about our candy favors, Sylvia Weinstock Cake and the stationery by yours truly!  Have a look at previous posts here and here to catch up on all the detail!

A big part of our vow renewal planning process involved collecting. Some of my fondest memories in planning grew from the many trips we took as a family hunting down depression style glassware, old  sour cream glasses and linens to use throughout the celebration.  My Nana had a good sized collection of vintage sour cream glasses from years past that she would actually use day to day.  I remember fondly drinking from the brightly colored glasses adorned with bold blooms and intricate patterns.  I found the prices to be reasonable, most often at about $1.00 per glass and thought they would make the perfect favor for our guests.  We chose classic root beer barrels, caramel creams and white  nougat candies as the sweet filling for each glass.   Strips of graphic wallpaper (the same used on our photobooth backdrop) secured the candy in each glass.  A small tag printed on our signature watercolor effect paper was fastened with the cutest yellow and white baker’s twine from Bake It Pretty!  Betsy Dunlap created a digital version of our names and as you will see, we took full advantage of her artistry throughout the event.

Perhaps the single most exciting part of the vow renewal planning was designing my cake with the fabulous Sylvia Weinstock!  Based on my watercolor sketches from trips to Utah and a watercolor painting inspired by Sylvia’s iconic sugar peonies, this masterpiece came together just as I had envisioned.  Curious to see the original sketch , read about our first meeting or perhaps the story behind the design?  My beloved Clara French cake pedestal was the perfect home for Sylvia’s creation.  Each of these stands is hand glazed to lovely imperfection.  What I mean specifically is that each creation is one of a kind with the glaze dripping differently on each piece.  A huge thank you to the team at Clara French for taking my very last minute request!

The stationery for the event was admittedly simple.  Without too much fuss, each piece was mindfully crafted to capture the color, texture and mood of the celebration.  Gold shimmer stocks, Betsy’s lovely text, black velvet detailing and punchy dahlia blooms all combined to create a pretty palette of hand painted paper goods.  Our menu was served in stations with some passed goodies.  Each guest menu was painted using various shades of orange watercolor flooded together.  Touches of gold shimmer ink were placed into each petal when wet creating an explosion of color when dry.

Each table featured this fun card wrapped with a vintage hanky and black velvet ribbon.  Fun facts about The Cottage, information about the evening’s events and an open invitationt to explore the 3 floors of the old structure were all included.

Remember our Zane Gray altered book invitations?

Thanks again to Daniel for all the gorgeous photos.  The next and final post is all about our photobooth!