Relive Your Childhood With These Save The Dates...

... The thing I love about Save the Dates is that they are really a chance to do something really cool. It can fit right in with your wedding theme or it can be something completely different. It can show your guests your personality, your sense of humor. It's a chance to "let your hair down" and get creative!

... My best friend is getting married in September and when she asked me to do her Save the Dates I was more than honored. She sent me an idea she had in mind and together we developed it! I have to say, when she sent me the images for me to use, I nearly fell off my chair laughing!

... Jamie and her fiance Russ* decided use the Save the Dates to laugh at themselves a bit. They wanted to incorporate pictures of themselves from junior high. We used these photos on the outside, with a nice photo of the two of them from their engagement session on the inside. A fun theme of "then and now" made these Save the Dates such a great project to do.

... Since Jamie's wedding colors are navy blue and green, I used a pocket enclosure in color Night from Paper Source as the base for this project. I layered their paisley decorative paper on top of that and then added on the images and text. Jamie wanted to include hotel information for her guests, so I created a card insert for the pocket enclosure. The fonts used in this project are Honey Script paired with American Typewriter.

... What a fun project to complete! Here are some images of the final product!

* And no, Jamie is NOT marrying Fred Savage circa Wonder Years, but he could've been a stunt double!

...Welcome Katy Joan!

... This past October, my husband and I welcomed a beautiful little girl (who is sleeping in my arms as I type this), Katherine Joan, named after my maternal grandmother and my husband's maternal grandmother. We call her Katy, and she is the love of our lives!

... Of course, we sent out baby announcements, and of course, I had to make them myself. My husband called me crazy and told me that with all the distractions that a baby creates, going to an online service to do our announcements would be perfectly acceptable. I, however, just didn't want to do that! I wanted something all our own, totally personal and unique. I actually began working on the announcements in the few weeks before she was born! I figured out the design and assembled all parts that I could before our little one arrived. Once she was born, it was just a matter of selecting the perfect picture and inserting all the important information!

... All of the materials for this project are from Paper Source. Since we did not know if our baby was going to be a boy or a girl, I went with a gender neutral theme. Her nursery has a under-the-sea theme, so I used Paper Source's octopus theme decorative paper for the envelope liners and I chose the rest of the colors based on that. I paired that with their orange polka dot paper set on chartreuse enclosures. The enclosures are tied with a curry colored ribbon. The envelope is also Paper Source color curry. The fonts used are Ecolier for the script paired with Chaparral Pro. The font color is shades of the curry color found on the envelopes.

... This project was a lot of fun to complete, and really fun to send out to all our friends and family. My husband wasn't wrong, it WAS a challenge to get them finished up and sent out while adjusting to a new schedule of 3am feedings, diaper changes and trying to get some sleep, but it was definitely worth it to have such a special, hand-made announcement as a keepsake for Katy's baby book.

... Although having a baby is a lot of work and making your own announcements might seem like too much to do, these were super simple in design and easy to assemble!

Bay Bella Debut!...

...Today the Best of the Bay issues of Bride 9 and Mocha Bride hit the stands today! Pick up a copy and check out Woods&Company's photo shoot!

...Bay Bella...

... Woods&Company recently had the honor of being a part of Bay Bella publishing's Bridal Best of the Bay competition. 

... Bay Bella is a local Bay Area publishing company that puts out the bridal publications Bride 9 and Mocha Bride. This year, they put on a competition called the "Bridal Best of the Bay", featuring invitation, hair, make-up, event, cake, and favor vendors from the 9 counties in the Bay Area.

... The first part of the competition was on the county level. Nine vendors from each category competed to earn a spot in the final "all county" competition, where the vendor represented their county amongst the eight other counties in the Bay Area.

... Woods&Company was asked to be a part of the competition representing the favor vendors. Woods&Company competed with eight other favor vendors in San Francisco county to be represented at the final "all county" competition.

... Excitingly, Woods&Company won the county level! We were chosen as the favor vendor from San Francisco county to go to the "all county" competition.

... So, on November 18th, Woods&Company represented San Francisco county at Bay Bella's Gala Awards Event that took place at the Regency here in San Francisco. It was a great time with some very talented Bay Area wedding vendors, as well as some celebrities of the wedding industry presenting the awards. While Woods&Company was not awarded the Best of the Bay, it was an honor to be selected and to win the Best of San Francisco County award. 

... As a county winner, Woods&Company will have a feature in the winter issues of both Bride 9 and Mocha Bride.

... For more information about the event, go to http://www.baybellapublishing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=186&Itemid=247

... And here are some photos of our table at the competition. I am hoping to have some more professional photos to display in the future.

...The Knot Northern California...

... Woods&Company is delighted to have been mentioned in the Fall/Winter issue of The Knot Northern California.

... See page 30 for our mention and lots of other great wedding planning suggestions thanks to contributions by local wedding planners Alison Hotchkiss, Angela Nelson (Lulu Events), and Amy Nichols.

... Thanks for the "shout out" Amy! Much appreciated!

...and she WAS a happy camper!

... over the summer, I posted a project that I completed for a former camper of mine who was getting married. I posted a few pictures of the samples that I did for her, and that I had on hand. However, what I was really hoping for was that she would send me some of the pictures from her actual wedding.

... and so she did! She just got her proofs back from her photographer, and forwarded them along to me!  As you remember, I did her escort cards, table names, menus, favors, and tags for her welcome bags. So check them out!

Display of Escort Cards

Table Names, All Places the Bride and Groom have been together

I made tags for their Welcome Bags (bag tags, tags for the snacks and water, list of weekend events, and a list of  the things to do in the area)

... A Sweet Addition to Woods&Company...

... Well, life has been quite busy these days, my husband Jeff and I just last week welcomed with great love and excitement our first child into the world! Baby Katherine was born last Friday and we are totally in love with her! So, you'll forgive me if I have been a little pre-occupied lately! The past few weeks have been taken over first by my "nesting" instinct and the urge to REST, and then the arrival of Katy and now life amongst feedings, changings, and lots and lots of holding and staring at our little girl with awe!

... However, I don't want to leave you without any good Woods&Company "stuff", so I am including some pictures of a project I did right before the baby arrived. I created some welcome bags for a wedding here in San Francisco at the end of September.

... Roy and Danielle got married at the St. Francis hotel in San Francisco on September 25, 2010.  They contacted me about creating some welcome bags for their guests who were staying at the St. Francis and a few other hotels in the Union Square area. They had seen my travel case welcome gift box in the Spring/Summer issue of Brides Northern California, and wanted to do something similar.

... We wound up using the same graphics for their gifts as I used in the travel case, but designed the gifts in simple white bags and used the fonts from their wedding invitations. The red color was also one of their wedding colors.

... We included in these bags two water bottles with custom made labels, a packet of tissues, some Ghiradelli chocolates, a packet of pretzels, a packet of gum, some ibuprofin (essential in post-party recovery!), maps of San Francisco, and custom designed welcome letters to the guests, a weekend itinerary for the guests, and Roy and Danielle's favorite things to do in San Francisco.

... The pictures shown below were actually the mock up photos that I did while designing the gifts, I am getting all set to photograph the actual bags with all the contents to post online.

... I love the simplicity of these gifts, and I hope the guests felt most welcomed!

... Congratulations to you, Roy and Danielle! I hope you are enjoying your new life as husband and wife!