Love Shoot + Printable Valentines

This post is sponsored by Scratch Weddings, the fabulous team of marquee-level DJs turning weddings into dance parties nationwide!

Happy Monday everyone! We hope you are having a great start to your week, and to make a sunny Monday just a smidge brighter, we have a beautiful free printable save the date from The Lovely Dept. to share!  The beautiful watercolor wreath is a lovely touch for any spring or summer wedding, and I just adore the light and airy green and yellow color palette.

What better time to do a little love shoot than Valentine’s Day!  Leanne and Gordon are an absolutely precious couple, and this whimsical and quirky Valentine’s engagement session in snowy Chicago suits them to a T.  Their little table for two featured raspberry tarts, blooms in the palette of kisses, romantic ribbon and adorable cross stitch messages of love.  Thanks to my lovely friends Jessie from Simply Jessie Photography and Kelly from Fleur for sharing!

After successfully completing our wedding invitations, I knew that I could do the remainder of the wedding stationery myself. I designed, printed, and assembled the rest of our wedding stationery using the same process as I did with our invitations. I created ceremony programs, menus, escort cards, place cards, table signs, table numbers, stickers, out of town boxes, and our rehearsal dinner invitations.

Hooray for engagement shoots with pets—and we’re especially partial to pups! Kris and Lauren’s lakeside photos in Dallas are the perfect family photos. Their two beautiful babies joined them to celebrate their engagement, and we just love the laid-back, playful photos from Matt and Ivy Photography!

We love giving updated uses to simple techniques, and these splatter-painted notecards from Rebekah J. Murray fit the bill!

Escort cards are one of the first things your guests will see as they enter the reception, so why not create something unique and memorable for when your friends and family arrive? We absolutely love these escort cards with their natural botanical touches like cotton, seeded eucalyptus, lavender, and silver brunia, and are thrilled to welcome Suzy Rohan of Lily Red Studio to share the how-to!

Valentine’s Day celebrations don’t always have to be filled with red hearts and streamers. This full-of-love and incredibly sweet shoot styled by Belovely Events uses vintage furniture and clothing and natural elements instead! Love love love the gorgeous furniture from Maggpie Vintage Rentals and the hanging flower garlands! Once you’ve seen these gorgeous photos by Carina and Amanda of Love Me Do Photography, be sure to check out the beautiful video of the shoot created by Tree of Life Films as well!

I have the cutest DIY tutorial to share with you today!  My friends Kelly Marie from Fleur and Suzy from Lily Red Studio are stopping by to share a fabulous DIY billy ball escort card box how-to with us.  Designed by Tiffany of Chicago’s Soiree Events, this sweet display is so easy and cute, and easily adaptable to any event!

I love edible wedding and party favors, and Kelly Maron – mastermind behind Paper Stories and the hip Chicago bridal show Indie Wed – has stopped by EAD today to share her quick and easy how-to for S’mores on a Stick!  And even better, she has created three adorable printable tags for these goodies in two color palettes.  Print either the “Love on a Stick” or “Yum! Yum! Yum!” tags on sheets of label paper, and wrap around the S’more stick, or print the “Gimme S’more!” tag on cardstock, punch a hole, and attach to your S’more with decorative twine.  Voila – easy peasy S’mores favors!  Thanks Kelly for sharing!

This morning’s Pancakes & Honey Breakfast shoot featured several handmade wedding projects, and the team of Suzy from Lily Red Studio, Kelly Marie from Fleur, and Jaclyn Simpson Photography have been kind enough to share their DIY secrets with us! They created several projects – click on the links below to jump to the instructions for your favorite:

As I previously posted, our invitations went out last month and we have been receiving a steady stream of RSVP cards. As I was going through the pictures of the assembly process, it makes it look easy. Trust me, it was very intense and not the easiest invitations I have put together! (This is my fifth set of invites designing and assembling) If only I had pictures of the week long prepwork before this day (and yes, it was the entire day!). In the week or so before finishing the invites, my mom stamped the wax seals, I cut and folded strips of paper, printed all the items, struggled with the printer and getting letterpress paper to go through it (I just loved the texture of that paper though!) and mounting the invite to the blue shimmer paper and then to the gold enclosures. Oh yes, and then remounting everything with super glue to be sure it would stay. I think there was something about the dry Arizona air that made the photo mounting squares not work so well this go-around.

I am so excited to finally be sharing picture of our wedding invitations with all of you. They went out a couple weeks ago and we have already received over 20 RSVP cards! I designed, printed and assembled them myself and my fiance drew the flower flourish at the top. My mom, moh and junior bridesmaid all helped with the assembly (which took an entire week!). These are the most intense invitations I have ever made and both Mike and I are so proud of them.

A few key points from this engagement session in Dallas. First, the bride looks like Kate from Lost. Second, the groom is the best friend of the photographer. Three, the couple looks completely in love and comfortable with each other. Fourth, there are props of bananas and tomatoes. I hope you enjoy! Photography by Ryan Ray Photography.

I fancy myself a fairly crafty person, but I’m also a fairly busy person, so I didn’t figure on incorporating a lot of DIY projects into my wedding preparations. Making table numbers and creating a guest book in Blurb with our engagement photos were definitely the easiest things I did myself. But the bigger projects I took on – our save-the-dates, invitations and favors – saved us a lot of money and went a long way toward personalizing our big day, which is what DIY is all about, isn’t it?

I adore this southern vintage bridal inspiration shoot from a group of Dallas wedding vendors led by Catie Ronquillo Photography and Lauren Kelly Events!  There is a beautiful array of found objects in each scene, and the delicate Southern bridal looks and vintage accessories are a perfect juxtaposition.

Understatement of the year: I feel like I spent a lot of time planning this wedding. But the end result? A day filled not only with people that we love but details that I loved as well!

Our invitations are officially out and RSVPs have already started coming in! My mom, bridesmaid Julie, and I created the whole thing by ourselves so it was definitely a labor of love. Here’s a look at the final package!

I’m not sure why, but I adore wedding programs. Perhaps it’s because I’m a paper lover at heart, or maybe because you guys get SO creative with them? I spotted these DIY tri-fold programs from Harrison and Elizabeth’s wedding on La Belle Bride and thought they were too pretty not to share.  I love the rich colors and the mix of papers and fonts!

What do you get when you mix a casual summer wedding with a gorgeous view of downtown? An urban rooftop picnic of course!