Another Wedding Celebration

Saturday turned out to be a wet and windy day but we still had a wonderful celebration.  Our nephew was actually married during the summer so this was the party without the wedding ceremony.  The newlyweds will be returning to Switzerland (the bride's home) and staying there for the next couple of years. 

We had a late night so I have just a few photos to share for now.  If the weather permits, we'll be doing some apple picking later today.  These baskets of apples and mini pumpkins were the centerpieces at the party.

The lights in the tent and the tiny candles gave a lovely glow.  Everyone had a special glass to take home at the end of the evening.

The cakes were amazing.  My sister-in-law and niece did all of the baking and decorating.

The Groom's cake was a mountain with miniature snowboarders (in honor of their love of the outdoors and winter sports).

The wedding cake was beautifully covered in fondant and decorated with frosting designs and fresh flowers.

With lots of family on hand to help, the slightly leaky tent was fixed, the lights were strung and photos clipped up around the perimeter of the tent and the tables were set and ready for guests. It's great to have a big family when you need help!

 I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!  

When I get back home I have lots of new things to share and I'll also be able to answer your questions about the new products (including the Cricut Expression 2 and StoryBook Creator 4.0) that are available from Creative Memories this Fall.

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Grand Old Hotel (and a few more wedding photos)

When we were in San Francisco for the wedding we stayed at a lovely hotel called "The Palace."  The hotel is over 100 years old with wide hallways, high ceilings and windows that actually open!  I love to take photos of architectural details and often find design inspiration from the patterns in ironwork, carpet, light fixtures, molding and trim.

The hotel is right in the middle of the city - not too far from Union Square.

This is a small piece of the exterior trim - it would make a great border for a scrapbook page.

The main entrance lobby is full of arches and curves.

This enormous bowl of roses was on the center table in the entrance lobby.  I don't know how many dozen roses there are in the bowl - but these were replaced with another variety after a day or two.

The hotel occupies a full block and there is a massive central hallway that runs from one street to the other.  There were two "thrones" in this hallway and many souvenir photos are taken there.

This is the carving at the top of one of the "thrones" - I particularly like the shell shape at the top.

This photo was taken very near the street entrance - you can see how far it is to the opposite side!

There is an enormous painting by Maxfield Parrish called "The Pied Piper" in the hotel bar and restaurant.  The paneling is dark and the ceiling in these rooms is elaborately decorated.

Here is a closer view of the painting.  The colors are so vibrant with a lot of the glowing blue that you see in many of his paintings.

This design in the mosaic tile floor also caught my eye - it would be lovely at the top of a frame design.

The Palm Court is the magnificent centerpiece of the public space.  The ceiling is curved glass and there are many large crystal chandeliers.

The space takes on a different look depending on the time of day and the weather.

 There is a breakfast buffet in this area each morning.  On the Saturday night, when we returned to the hotel from the wedding, this room was closed off for a large wedding reception.

  The lighting at night is very dramatic!

 Even the floor lamps were interesting. 

There is a tiny motif on the horizontal bands that could be used for a design element, possibly for a lace pattern.

Here are a few more photos of the bridal party.  I don't have the "official" photos yet but many of you have been asking to see more photos.  I have another wedding project or two to share as well (another day).

Our weather has turned cool - the season is changing.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

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Rehearsal Dinner Invitations

According to tradition, the family of the groom hosts a dinner the night before the wedding.  There is usually a rehearsal for the wedding the day before the actual ceremony so the dinner is called the "rehearsal dinner."  We had quite a large group for the dinner.  The wedding party and immediate family members added up to 25 and there were also quite a few extended family members who traveled  long distances to join in the wedding celebrations so we ended up with 62 people at our dinner!

I designed the invitations using the Silhouette Studio software and cut the backers with the Silhouette SD machine.  One of the things that I like about this software is the ability to set up the file to print and/or cut various parts of the design.  The screen shot above shows the two pieces of the invitation - only the bold red lines will cut.  The white area with the details was printed on my regular printer directly from the Silhouette Studio program.  I needed to use the Silhouette for this project because the font the bride and groom chose is an Open Type font. (You could do something similar with a Cricut if you were using a font that is comparable to one of the Cricut Cartridges).

It was lucky that both the bride and groom have names that have no letters with center cuts that would drop out.  The only modification I had to make was to add a connecting piece to the ampersand symbol.

This screen shot shows how I edited the ampersand by creating a connection to the center cutout.  This is the same procedure you would use to create a stencil.  The letters are cut with "bridges" to hold in the centers of  letters like "o" and "a."

My original plan was to have the letters cut from the 5 x 7 cardstock and to leave them open so light would shine through.  I was using some heavy Stampin' Up cardstock and I did have a bit of trouble with the cuts - they would look fine from the front but sometimes the paper would peel a bit on the back.  You can see a few of these "fuzzy letters" in the pile of leftovers above.

I decided to add a strip of metallic gold card stock behind the letters so they would have a nice glow.  This cardstock is from Creative Memories and was a favorite of mine but it is no longer available.  I don't have much left so I just placed a one inch strip across the top and then I cut an additional piece of white cardstock at 5 x 7 inches and adhered it to the back to conceal the small strip.  This also gave additional weight to the card.

I planned the top layer to cut at 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches so I could print four on a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.  The words were printed in a dark blue to coordinate with the wedding colors.  I cut the sheets into four after printing with my Zutter DreamKuts machine - this was easier and faster than trying to use a trimmer for all of the cuts.

Once I had cut and printed all of the components, I could assemble the invitations.  Fortunately, I needed to make only about 34 invitations since many were for families with several members invited.

I did go through quite a lot of adhesive!

The 5 x 7 size requires an envelope called an "A7" envelope.  This can be found at Staples or other office supply stores but they are sold in packs of ten and would be less expensive to buy in bulk from an online source.  I chose the 5 x 7 because A2 seemed too small and the half sheet (5 1/2 x 8 1/2) seemed too much like a business mailer.  The Silhouette cut two 5 x 7 cards with the letter cutouts from each sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.

One final detail - when you send special invitations or cards it is nice to choose postage stamps that fit the occasion.  There are always "love" stamps available and the designs change from year to year.  I used these stamps and I was very happy that the color and design were quite compatible with the invitations.

If you live in or near San Francisco, I highly recommend the restaurant "Perbacco" where we held the dinner.  The food was incredibly delicious and the staff very helpful.  The chef even created some special dishes by request to honor the family history on both sides.

I had a good drive home Tuesday and today I will finally be able to get back to my craftroom to work on some new projects.  Dad is doing great and the old apartment is almost cleared out.  It certainly has been a busy few weeks!

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A few more wedding photos

Wednesday turned into a "recovery day" for me.  I think the wedding and the trip to California took more out of me than I realized!  We also have a new (temporary) family member, "Jelly" the cat!  Since the newlyweds won't be able to take their cat to Spain for the year, we will be starting a new experience as cat caretakers.

Jelly did very well on the flight - she was able to travel as a carry-on in this soft carrier bag.  Now we have to help her get acquainted with many new sights and sounds at our house.  So far she seems to prefer the laundry room and likes to hide behind the washer and dryer.  I am sure it will take her a little while to get used to us and to explore all of the new spaces here.  (Any cat care tips and suggestions will be gratefully accepted)!

At the top of this post is a photo of a corner of the ring cushion I made for the wedding.  I incorporated some bits and pieces from my mother's wedding headpiece.  (I wrote about this back in June and you can see that post HERE).  In typical fashion, I was still adding the finishing touches the morning of the wedding.  It was one of those projects that took a long time to figure out but then came together quickly at the last minute!

Here are a few more wedding photos - I will try to edit more and post them soon.  (These are just some candid shots I took while the photographer was taking the formal photos).

 

The flower girl was so sweet and she had the best time holding her ball of flowers.

The bouquets were really beautiful and had unusual combinations of flowers with some succulents and grass loops.

The flowers along the aisle were also lovely.

With a little luck, I'll get over the jet lag and be more productive today.  I hope so since I have more wedding projects to show you and some new cartridges to explore!

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