Speaking of future sisters in law, Marget and I hit up my local flea market during her visit to NC last weekend. It was a pretty meager day, but I did come home with one thing – this pair of vintage pin frogs, for $8 total.

Pin frogs, or floral frogs, are meant to be used in the bottom of vases to hold flower stems in place while arranging.

Clockwise from top left: Erin Hearts Court via 100 Layer Cake, A Bryan Photo, and Chad Wadsworth via Camille Styles

We might use them at the wedding, to hold some sort of signage, but right now I’m enjoying using them for a few favorite photographs. The teeth are perfect for holding them upright!

Yes, that is a bonafide senior prom photo :)

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, friends!

[Note: I am offering a downloadable PDF of this invitation in my Etsy store!]

After getting inspired and nailing down a few details, it was time to whip up some invitations for my future sister in law’s bridal shower! After coming across this pin, I knew I had my jumping off point. I played around in Illustrator until I had a design I was happy with, and this is what I came up with!

The fonts I used were Brandon Grotesque (the sans serif) and Baskerville (the italic, the same one used by Kate Spade itself!).

I originally intended for the invitation to be two single-sided pieces of paper held together with a brad of some sort, but as I was formatting everything for printing, I realized it would be better (and cheaper!) to print it double-sided. I used UPrinting for the job and was very pleased with the results. I did have to do some fiddling around with my file to make sure everything was aligned correctly, so don’t be discouraged if you have to do the same! The card size is 4.25×6 inches, on 13 pt uncoated cardstock.

Let me tell you, it’s worth it to have things professionally printed just so you don’t have to cut each piece to size by hand!! With a double-sided project, that was an especial relief.

I jazzed the invitations up a little more by hand-gluing gold sequins to each one. I know that sounds time-consuming, but it really wasn’t! Here’s the side by side comparison:

I ordered raspberry A6 envelopes from Paper Presentation, and was so relieved when they were a perfect color match.

Initially, my thought was to punch a heart-shaped cut-out in the flap of every invite, glue a square of gold glitter paper to peek through, and then line the envelopes to make everything neat. Well, after buying and returning two separate heart punches from the store, neither of which could punch through the glitter paper, I gave up and cut out the hearts by hand. I still think I came pretty close to my inspiration, and I’m happy with how they turned out!

I also ended up sealing the envelopes with two strips of black and white striped washi tape, and I like the graphic pop they lent.

Happily, I had a gold paint pen already in my crafty stash, so once I penned the addresses, these babies were done! Here’s a look at the whole shebang:

What do you think – Kate Spade worthy?

Budget Breakdown:
Printing and shipping of 25 double-sided cards from UPrinting: $22.76
25 A6 envelopes from Paper Presentation: $6.25 (I got free shipping because I ordered several other items at the same time)
One sheet of gold glitter paper from Michaels: $1

The sequins, Elmer’s glue, gold pen, and washi tape were all already in my stash, so I’m not going to include them in my count. For me, then, these pretty packages worked out to $1.36 each – not bad, I’d say!

There is almost nothing I enjoy more than throwing a party for someone I love. I’ll take any excuse, really, but when I actually have a legitimate opportunity to go all out, all the better! This is just one reason why I am delighted to be throwing a bridal shower this spring for my future sister-in-law, John’s sister. Speaking of which, Miss M, this would be your cue to step away from the blog :)

Marget is one of the most stylish people I know, and I think she really embodies the “Kate Spade girl,” if you will. She is quick, and curious, and playful, and strong, indeed! Marget’s sister and I quickly decided the world of “live colorfully” would be a perfect theme for her shower, and my first step was to put together this inspiration board to guide us as we collected and planned.

Details:

Bold red lipsticks by Kate Spade in O Magazine (via Kate Spade), mini strawberry pancakes, stripe-y table setting by Amber Karson Events via Inspired By This (photo by Katie Stoops)

Dahlia, garden rose, and ranunculus centerpiece from D Magazine, pink and red arrangement by McKenzie Powell (photo by Char Beck via Coco + Kelley)

Colorful Kate Spade magazine ad, gray and white polka dot linen photo from Lonny, gold glitter mason jars photo by Paige Newton via The Sweetest Occasion

Check back tomorrow to see the invitations!

As y’all know, we are working with several lovely people on our wedding that are not from the town where we’re getting married. They’re not even located in Connecticut! Tanja is in California, and MacKenzie and Philip and our officiant live in North Carolina. I don’t have any statistics to back me up, but I feel like bringing wedding vendors to you is becoming more and more common. As we all increasingly do research and find vendors online, it’s easy to fall in love with a particular photographer before you even realize where she’s based.

Of course, flying in a vendor isn’t the right choice for everyone, and might even seem a little ridiculous to some. That’s okay, I don’t mind :) If, however, you are hoping to make this work for you, I’ve gathered a few tips over the last few months!

Let’s break this down…

1. Though most vendors charge (either a flat fee or on a cost-by-cost basis) if they need to travel a distance to your wedding, some do not. My friend, photographer Meredith Perdue, is a great example – she is based in Maine, and generally does not charge travel fees for New England weddings. If you haven’t yet fallen in love with a particular vendor, but know you aren’t satisfied with the vendors in your hometown, looking for a vendor whose work you love and who doesn’t charge travel fees could be a great option!

2. Once you’ve hired your vendor and know where they’re based, start doing research! I knew Tanja would be flying out of either SFO or SJC. So almost as soon as we hired her, I set up city-to-city alerts on Airfare Watchdog. This helped me get a feel for the average prices of flights from those cities to mine, so I would know what was a good flight deal and what wasn’t.

3. At around the 8-month out mark, I began checking flight prices through Kayak at least once a week. And then, one day, I saw it: a round-trip cross-country flight for $301. BAM! Done and done. (Note: Make sure you okay the flight’s date and time with your vendor before you book it!)

4. Once you’ve booked the flight, enter the details into another website, Yapta. Yapta will then track the price for you, and alert you if the fare dips below the re-booking fee, for FREE. Then you can call the airline to claim the credit. Bonus: If you book on Jet Blue, you can be refunded for ANY price drop!

5. Okay, you’ve got your vendor in your vicinity, and now you’ve got to get them around town! If you’re getting married in a big city, public transportation will probably do just fine. If, however, you’re out in the boonies, like we are, a rental car will probably be necessary. (Some vendors might be willing to be chauffeured for the weekend, and if you have a willing volunteer, then that could be a cheaper option. But make sure it’s okay with your vendor, and make sure your chauffeur is very responsible – you don’t want your photographer to be late to the church because your cousin didn’t pick them up on time!)

Y’all, rental cars can be EXPENSIVE! I didn’t really realize just how expensive until a few months ago. Thankfully, I found AutoSlash around the same time. This site is amazing!! Book through them to find the best rates (they search for the web to apply every applicable coupon), and then after you book (similar to Yapta), they’ll continually search for offers and codes to lower your rate, and automatically apply any they find. The day after I booked Tanja’s rental, they emailed me to say my rate was now $30 less!

6. They’re there, they can get around town, and now they just need a place to stay. If you’re getting married in your home town, and have lots of eager-to-help family friends with empty guest bedrooms, one option might be to have your vendor stay with one of them. HOWEVER, for this arrangement to work, your vendor has to be 100% on board, and you need to choose your family friend VERY carefully.

If your vendor will be staying in a hotel, my best recommendation is to book EARLY. We booked rooms for Tanja and our officiant just under 12 months out from our wedding, and we got an amazing rate: $84/night on Thursday, and $95/night for Friday and Saturday at a Hilton. By comparison, the same hotel is now charging $169/night for the same room. Most hotels have a 24-hour cancellation policy, anyway, so if you find a better deal a few months later, it’s no trouble to cancel your first reservation!

Whew! I know that’s a lot of information, but I hope you find it helpful! If you’re getting married, have you hired a vendor from outside your state?

P.S. I realized as I was writing this post that these tips don’t just apply to transporting wedding vendors, but to anyone who’s traveling, so enjoy! :)