getting ready for the circus!

My sister Shayna's circus wedding is fast approaching! In fact, it is on Saturday and it looks like everything is in order!

Shayna's friend Rashmi painted this cute circus poster for her, in the wedding colours of yellow and teal. I helped make them into invitations complete with envelopes, maps, and admit one tickets.

My circus wedding outfit is coming together nicely to...

this is my dress from Fraiche and ribbon from Mokuba

these are my accessories - an over-sized fabric flower from Le Chateau
and feathery fascinator made by my cousin Julia

these are my yellow {and extremely comfy} heels from the Kenneth Cole store in Chicago.

calligraphy: an inky treat

{I meant to post this on Bloomerism today, but I posted it here by mistake! I will leave it here too...happy weekend Bloomers!}
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Growing up, my mom had a friend named Linda who was a calligrapher. We would get birthday cards with the most stunning handwritten addresses on the envelope. And every Christmas Linda would create these incredible, custom-designed, calligraphed and illustrated calendars for her extended family that included important birthdays and occasions. I thought these were the most beautiful things I had ever seen! I begged my mom for a calligraphy set and lessons. I think I was 5 years old at the time and my mom had to remind me that I need to learn to print first...oh yeah...

Well eventually the time came and I got a new calligraphy set and Linda gave me a few wonderful lessons. Finally it was my turn to create a custom calendar for my family! So, at age 10 that is what I set out to do...see above for the result. Haha...I love the whited out 'S' where I tried to write '9'. Not bad for 10 years old though, I guess!

I still love calligraphy, and with everything designed and printed by computer these days, it's so refreshing and beautiful to see elegant handwriting in its inky goodness...a true artform! Check out some of these beauties. I am thinking that I might actually give it a go again and take a calligraphy course. There's no doubt that my mouse-shaped claw of a hand could use some exercise!


Calligraphers from the top:
1. Joelle Bloomer, circa 1987
2. Jenna Hein {wow!}
3. Rebecca Trawick
4. Linea Carta
5. Crystal Kluge
6, 7, 8. Betsy Dunlap

marigold + pewter: an autumn wedding

On Saturday, my 'sister' company, inBloom Events + Design, planned, designed, coordinated, and set up a wedding at the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg. The colours for the wedding were 'marigold and pewter' and after months of planning, choosing a venue, printing invitations, menus, signs, tags, seating cards, wine labels, choosing florals and linens, it was amazing to see all of the colours come alive together. The wedding was truly stunning!

The weather was phenomenal too, and it was sunny and uncharacteristically warm for October. The beautiful bride and groom {in his kilt} got married atop 'Wedding Hill' overlooking a forest of colourful autumn leaves. The venue, which is both rustic and elegant, was decorated with marigolds and oranges and pewter grays - everywhere was a little personal detail, and everything was perfect. Here are some photos taken as we were setting up...we will have some professional photos of the entire affair to share very soon, but in the meantime you can salivate over these.

that's some nice wedding stationery...

I also contribute to my sister company's blog {inBloom Events + Design is literally run by my sisters!} and last week I shared some wedding invitations that I recently created for my friend and new bride Jessica, who just got hitched on the 21st! Jessica had an art deco theme going on for her wedding, with little birdie touches thrown in {she got married at the old Eglinton Grand theatre in Toronto, and used bird cages of all sizes as her centrepieces}. She chose the very elegant 'parisian wallpaper' invitation, and had it customized in deep red and black with little birdies added in to symbolize the bride and groom.

As mentioned before, and I probably will again, I do love a birdie! A matching program was created too, as well as stickers for her takout boxes {picture pending}...voila! A set of wedding stationery as lovely as the bride herself.