Thursday, December 3, 2009

Back in the swing of things

Phew...it has been a looooong time since I have updated the bloggity-blog. Having a baby really does change ev-er-y-thing!!

So other than baby stuff what have I been up to in my almost five month absence?

Well, to be honest, not much. But, after MUCH introspection and thought and consideration I have decided to continue my business. Because I do love it so much and it is something that fulfills a different part of my life than my family fulfills.

So...it is time to get back in the swing of things. But first, let's backtrack a bit.

I stopped taking clients after mid-May because I wasn't sure if our baby was going to cooperate and I didn't want anyone's projects to have to be affected if he had decided to throw some complications our way earlier than expected.

However, I did design the wedding invitations for my friends and neighbors who were married on August 9 at a beautiful nature reserve near Boston.

Lesley and Alicia both love blueberries...their theme for their wedding was 'We Love Blueberries', so it was only appropriate to create an invitation that combined their love for blueberries, with the natural, laidback aesthetic they were going for in their choice of venue.

I loved working on these invitations for Lesley and Alicia as they really blew any stereotypes I may have had over which of the two of them would actually care about the details totally out of the water. It was so fun getting to really know their personalities as I watched them prepare to be joined in marriage and I was so honored to be a part of their celebration.

So, without further ado, here are the invitations in their glory. I should also point out that these were recently featured over at So You're En-GAY-ged.







Saturday, July 25, 2009

Introducing Garrison Reid

(click to enlarge)

Hey there readers...just wanted to give a quick update to let you know that our son, Garrison Reid, was born into this world naturally on July 8, 2009 at 4:50am weighing 10lbs 5oz and measuring 21.5 inches.

We have been home a bit over two weeks and it has been an amazing time of bonding and getting to know the little guy.

And just to keep this post wedding related...for those of you who remember, my husband and I were married on 09-08-07 and as you can see, Garrison showed up on 07-08-09...needless to say we are tickled over the coincidence...of course that means there is a bit more pressure on child #2 :)


Love to you all,

Miriam

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Newport Wedding Gallery

We are rapidly closing in on our due date around here; a fact that is altogether exciting and overwhelming. It is so hard for me to grasp that in less than a month and as early as next week, we will have a son; real, live, crying, pooping, dozing, needy, tiny, adoring son.

I decided a while back not to take on any more work after mid-May, as my current back-up plan is the kitty and while she is cute, she tends to get fur all over everything she touches and isn’t too great with the fine motor skillz needed to put invitations together or tie little bows. Not to mention her work ethic is lacking.


And while I am taking a bit of a hit on this because our baby is due right at the height of wedding season, I am preparing myself for next year by participating in the Newport Wedding Gallery over the summer.


Here is a bit from the website that explains exactly what the gallery is:

The Newport Wedding Gallery is the first wedding store exclusively for the New England bride-to-be. At The Newport Wedding Gallery brides can review portfolios of in-demand talent and hard to find suppliers. Wedding photographers, bands, florists and caterers among other talent.

All the gallery members have been invited to display their portfolios based on their style, experience.


I am very excited to be a part of this gallery because I really think the opportunity is valuable for my business…but mostly because I recognize how great this is for brides getting married in Newport in the coming year. I only wish I had a resource like this when I was planning my own Newport wedding, as I could have totally used some insight into local vendors and suppliers. As it was, I had to rely on the only resource I really had…the Knot and Google.

Already, the gallery has had some awesome showings. Each month, Nancy, the gallery owner, has a themed wedding display…in April it was all about Seating Charts, in May it was a Lilly Pulitzer table-scape.

Here are some pics from the site to show some of the work I have contributed to (you are encouraged to click on the pics to enlarge them). I plan to take it easy the next few months, but my portfolio and contact cards are all available at the studio for potential clients to check out.


The 'Please Be Seated' Show in May featured various seating charts and table tents.




In June, the theme was Lilly Pulitzer. I contributed the table number (back left), the placecard/drink umbrellas, and the bride/groom chair signs.



Be sure to check out the Newport Wedding Gallery website here as well as the blog! I will be back in touch with the world sometime around September 2009 and taking orders for 2010!!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Housekeeping

It's been a busy day of housekeeping around here...my website had sadly been neglected while life was busy being hectic. Somwhere during all that time the program I use for my gallery stopped working properly, which wasn't noticeable up front, but was making behind the scenes a nightmare.


As you may know, my talents are creative and not necessarily technologically minded.

But after a lot of gnashing of teeth and a few moments of considering quitting the whole process, I was able to update the sofware and we are back in business.


Take a moment to go check out the new pictures in the galleries on both the LimoncelloINVITES and LimoncelloBABY pages of my website.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Newest invitation suite; The Rachel

Just finished a beautiful invitation suite that I absolutely adore; probably because it appeals to the coastal girl in me :)

Rachel and Chris are getting married in September in Maine and asked me to help them create an invitation that was informal yet still special and that incorporated the rustic and inspiring feel of the coast of Maine.

To accomplish this, we created a graphic from a picture of a lighthouse near where the wedding is being held and then incorporated it into a larger design.

I just love the laid-back, coastal feel of these invites and I truly loved working on them for Rachel and Chris!

Below: the invitation suite as it appears out of the envelope:

The full suite (note to protect the wedding, the date and venue have been edited out):

The two panel invitation:

and matching RSVP card:

Detail on the RSVP card:


Detail on the invitation:

Monday, March 23, 2009

So You're EnGAYged!!


Recently, I was introduced to a new wedding planning resource for same-sex and allied couples: So You're EnGAYged!. Here is a blurb from the website to help you get more acquainted with them:

So You’re EnGAYged seeks to match same-sex and allied couples with wedding vendors who actively support LGBT rights and freedoms, including, but not limited to, same-sex marriage. By highlighting voices from within the LGBT community, So You’re EnGAYged further works to build a community that can dispense advice, recommendations, and support to couples in the wedding-planning process. As the wedding industry has grown larger and more ubiquitous, we hope to serve as a reference for those who seek vendors whose business practices align with deeply held values.

I, for one, am tremendously excited by this new resource as many of my LGBTQ friends have expressed their frustration that until now, there hasn't been an online community available to them that specifically addresses their needs. As a vendor, I am glad to be listed where I know that will not be filtered or edited to fit guidelines that I don't believe in, and on the other hand I can also trust that my business practices and values will not be exploited.

I am honored to be a listed vendor on the site and have added a link to the site to my sidebar for further reference. Many congratulations to Kelly from Two Brides for the successful start of So You're EnGAYged!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Still baby booming!

Weeeee hooooooo! We have another baby announcement!!

This was a fun announcement to work on because it was for my brother-in-law and his wife. She's a pretty laid-back, low-key kind of person, so she requested that we not do anything too frilly; regardless of whether their baby was a girl or boy. So I designed this simple announcement with the picture printed directly on the piece to help keep the design sleek and classic.





To dress up the envelopes, we carried the design over and printed them with my handy-dandy Epson RX395...this printer is amazing because it is one of the few left that feeds from the rear, making printing on specialty-sized papers super easy.

Unfortunately, I don't have plans to include envelope printing in my repertoire since it requires my using my ink-jet printer and for clients, I just don't want to risk them getting wet in the mail. But it was fun to see what some of the options are. This would be a great option to send to a client as a PDF and have them take the risk of printing them out.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Baby boom!

We're still on a baby kick over here.

A good friend of mine had a beautiful baby girl on January 31. In preparation for her arrival, we created the beautiful and informative baby booklet with all sorts of valuable tidbits on everything from directions to the hospital, to the cell phone policy, to a phone chain, to where you can find food in the area.

This project was really fun to work on and the colors are all completely customizable. The books were intended to be sent to the appropriate people in advance, but baby Brave decided she wanted to join in on the fun early so they were passed out at the hospital.















What a great, personal way to get all the important information disseminated to the correct parties!
Congrats to the Brave family on your beautiful baby girl!!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Baby boom!

Things have been pretty busy around here and crazy enough not all of it has been invitation related! Rather there seems to be a bit of a baby boom going on.

I am excited to show you the announcement I had the privilege of making for close family friends of ours. I love the design because it is fun and quirky yet still has the added addition of the ribbon embellishment and double mounted photograph to give it a true hand-made aesthetic. I also love that this design can very easily be modified for baby boy news too.




Next up on the baby announcement list is my brother and sister-in-law (who is coincidentally the sister of the mom in the above announcement). They are due tomorrow, so we are all anxiously awaiting meeting the little guy or girl.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Sweet!!


Jennifer over at Sin Desserts has just started a new blog highlighting pictures of cakes her company has made, stories from the bakery, info on running a small company and maybe even some recipies.

Jennifer was the creator of our most amazingly delicious Chocolate Bourbon wedding cake that was served at our wedding in September of 2007. It. was. PHENOMENAL!!! Seriously. Unreal. And I like me some cake...this cake rocked more than I can possibly even describe. So there.



Anyway, check out her new blog at My Life of Sin and just TRY not to drool all over you keyboard!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Room and Board

I tend to get stuck when designing rooms in our house because while I LOVE all things traditional, I tend to have a touch of modern in me. However, I also tend to talk myself out of the a-touch-modern look because it seems so scary and beyond my reach; especially when trying to work with what we've already got. So I relegate myself to looking at other people's pretty, modern spaces and deem myself unworthy of ever achieving something that melds both traditional and modern together in a cool, sophisticated yet whimsical way.

But, now we have a blank slate to work with. The nursery. No previously owned furniture brought from apartments we had years ago or handed down from the family. Nope, while we may end up getting pieces that are used, because who are we kidding here, it just makes sense to do so, we have the advantage of figuring out what we want first and then trying to find pieces to fit the bill.

While this may seem incredibly exciting, I have actually found it a bit overwhelming. Until now.

One secret I like to give to my clients when I meet with them is to picture their events and come up with an inspiration board to help them define their event to anyone who lives outside their brain. I find it really helps people to focus on the overall aesthetic and feel that they want their event to achieve. This makes it much easier for me to design something that achieves the same vision and is able to evoke the right emotional response from the whoever receives the invitation.

So I figured maybe I would start my own inspiration board for the nursery and I am proud to say that it worked! Without any further ado...here is the inspiration for our nursery:




The room in the background is actually the room we are using for the nursery and it has been painted in a light espresso color. We have already purchased a dresser in dark espresso and hope to find a used crib in dark espresso as well.

I found the crib bedding set at Land of Nod but didn't like the skirt so I will switch it out with one I found on sale at Restoration Hardware Baby and Child...which is also where I found the Roman Shade and the light fixture.

The carpeting is really fun. A few months ago I saw a special on the Martha Stewart show where they were talking about FLOR, the carpet tiles that adhere to themselves and are completely customizable. I LOVED the color palate and it turns out that all the carpeting in Martha's collection is on sale. I plan on making the rug cream in the middle with a border of small squares of the other colors.

So there you go. By making an inspiration board, I was able to mix and match and edit what did and did not fit my aesthetic and in the end, I think I have come up with something that really does mix modern and traditional pretty cohesively. And the best part is that none of it looks overwhelmingly 'baby' but rather whimsical and inspiring.

Friday, January 9, 2009

New year, new post

I can't believe I haven't posted in such a long time. I do have an excellent excuse! But first...

  • Quietly, I celebrated LimoncelloSTYLE's 1st birthday on December 7. To be honest, I kind of forgot about it, but I am super excited about having 'made it' a whole year. I am incredibly grateful for all of the wonderful clients I have had this year who have helped me to build my business. Here's to another great year!

And then...

  • Well, we're pregnant. Yup...gonna have a baby. Crazy, I know. And scary and overwhelming and exciting and joyous.

    I am still not completely sure how I am going to handle the transition from business owner with lots of time to business owner with a baby and no time at all...but for now the short plan is to work up until a month before my due date (July 10) and then take things (slowly) from there...probably coming back to the business sometime in September.

    This means that I will be limiting my orders through Spring and early Summer, but if you are getting married after then and would like to consider having your paper products done, very. early. than contact me and we can look into fitting you into the schedule.

So that's the new year's news. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are experiencing only the best from '09!

--Miriam

PS - I have decided to forgoe the only-typing-in-lowercase-letters thing this year. I know it looks more design-y, but it's a pain in the ass to keep up with and frankly drives me nuts.