I’m so excited. Some friends and I have put together a “Pub Walk” in my small town of Lake Oswego. The funny part is, there really are very few bars in town…five I think. I’ve had so much fun putting this together, and the best part for me was creating the map of all of the bars.

I’m planning to print a map out for each of our “walkers” with a list of our fabulous sponsors.

Rather than running these off on my home printer (what a hassle, and last time I did that the ink smeared when it got wet), I’m planning to order postcards online from nextdayflyers.com. They do high quality work, and I can upload my own designs…and have them back within just a few days.

I hope nobody gets lost!

xo, Cardgirl

Take a look at these adorable custom out of town wedding favors created by Woods & Company!

Woods & Company custom designs, creates and delivers wedding gifts, favors and wedding day stationery.

The business was inspired by Sarah Tarantino’s experiences while planning her own wedding.  At Sarah’s wedding, everything from flowers to invitations to out of town gift baskets carried on a San Francisco-Meets-East Coast theme. Her guests loved it all. This is when she realized her talents could be offered to other busy brides.

Sarah has a great eye, and a knack for detail.  Just drop her a line to get the process started, and she’ll take care of the rest!

xo, Cardgirl

Justin Fone Productions did an incredible job of capturing the moments of Megan and Joey on their wedding day. I had the pleasure of designing the stationery suite for Megan and Joey, some of which is highlighted in this video.  Enjoy!

Emarie from A Savvy Event orchestrated this stunning wedding, along with her team of vendors:

Ceremony Venue: St. James Catholic Church
Reception Venue: Mariani Private Estate
Catering: Alex’s Catering
Floral Design: La Fleuriste
Photography: Michelle Walker Photography
Cinematography: Justin Fone Productions
Cake Design: Inticing Creations
Invitations: Cardgirl Invitations

xo, Cardgirl

One of the latest invitation trends (and a favorite of mine) is a hand drawn map.

I discovered map design is not my forte, so I outsource the maps for my clients.  I place the artwork into the invitation suite, and print everything at once to maintain consistency in color, printing, cardstock & style.

I’ve tried out a few designers, and I am in love with Genevieve Walker’s maps.  Genevieve is so talented.  I send her a few key landmarks, some streets I want included, and she has a proof to me within days!

Above is a map she recently created for a client of mine.  I had this map letterpress printed along with the rest of the invitation suite.  Simply exquisite.

To see more of her work, check out her website.  Or I would be happy to share any of the other amazing work Genevieve has done for me.

xo, Cardgirl

I am so thrilled to share that Cardgirl has been featured today on Bergine’s San Francisco page!

Please pass along the good word.  It’s an amazing deal….$35 for a package of thirty-five letterpressed cards and envelopes (for just about any occasion), custom designed for Bergine’s community.

I am so excited for the opportunity to partner with Bergine.  I absolutely love their site, and they have been fantastic to work with.

Thank you Bergine!

xo, Cardgirl

Jennifer Gillespie (Calligraphy by Jennifer) is one of the most talented calligraphers I have come across over my seven years of designing invitations.  Her work is gorgeous and she is an absolute pleasure to work with.  Stay tuned for some upcoming invitations she has hand lettered for my clients…

And to top off the fabulous work, she is now offering free return shipping on all orders booked now through May 15th!

xo, Cardgirl

“Wedding Season” has pretty much come to a close, so…I am excited to finally have a moment to share with you the amazing weddings for which I have had the privilege of producing invitations and stationery.

My first to share, and definitely a favorite, is the wedding of Adrienne and Jake.  Adrienne used vintage buttons throughout the wedding…starting with the invitations.  I had the pleasure of sewing each button onto the invitation folders.  Definitely worth the effort.  They turned out so great.

Adrienne wore every hat available in wedding-planner-land.  She pulled off an incredible, creative, romantic, vintage…and absolutely perfect day.  And did most of it herself.  And Joel Flory, the photographer, absolutely rocked this wedding.  Brilliant photos.  And I hear he did a great job of keeping the bride’s drink full all night!

So, let’s all raise a toast to Adrienne and Jake.  Cheers!

xo, Cardgirl

I thrilled to share with you that Kelly & Nick’s wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book Blog today!

Go ahead, take a peek!

xo, Cardgirl

Seating your guests is a pain in the seat…but it’s a must if you want to maintain order during your fabulous affair.

Take it from me - I learned this the hard way.  When I got married six and a half years ago (I had no idea what I was doing), I decided it was too much trouble to seat my guests.   I thought, oh, they can just figure it out themselves.  Ha.  Not a good idea.  225 people roaming aimlessly for a seat.  Oh, and my new hubby and I along with the maid of honor and best man ended up sitting at a table right next to the buffet.  Nice.

Since you’re going to take on this daunting task of selecting who is going to sit at which table, you may as well have fun with it.  Name the tables after special cities, restaurants, or wines.  And create a lovely display out of the cards themselves.

There are so many creative ways to present the escort cards & table names/numbers.  I have decided to devote this entire week to seating your guests.

Today is Day 1:  Beach Wedding (photo from the Ritzy Bee Blog)

I love this natural, yet clever display of escort cards for a beach or lakeside wedding.  Line your cards up alphabetically in a large dish of sand. This looks gorgeous, and can do wonders for keeping the cards from blowing away in the wind.

This could also be done using dried peas (sounds funny, but looks really cool), colored sand from IKEA, candy (lemon heads are great for a yellow wedding), pebbles…

Take Your Seat.

xo, Cardgirl