Wordle

I just saw this post at Heaven's Eye Photography blog about Wordle, a website that generates “word clouds” from text that you provide. I entered my blog URL and it came back with the words below... Pretty cool! I'm not surprised that the biggest word (and most commonly used on my blog) is love, or that the word crying is a close second!

Feelin' the love!

What I love most about weddings is when you can FEEL the love between the couple getting married. It's a hard thing to explain, but I think if you've felt it, you know what I'm talking about. This is exactly what we experienced last night at Rachel and Ben's wedding. I think every bridesmaid walking down the aisle cried. The groomsmen were crying. Parents were crying. I was crying. I think John even teared up. But the best moment and strongest feeling of their love was when Rachel walked down the aisle. As she walked, crying, with her parents on either side of her, she looked at Ben and mouthed the words, "I love you." It was the sweetest thing ever... Everyone saw it (I heard several people say "Aww, how sweet!"), but it wasn't meant for everyone to see. Just Ben. It was as if they were the only two people out there, and it was incredible. I am so happy we were able to celebrate their special day and be a part of their love! Check out the pics below, and listen to their song, "The Luckiest" by Bens Fold. Amazing.

The beautiful bride walking with her mom and dad

Standing under the chuppah
(I love that their parents stand with them the whole time)

The amazing view

Ben and his sweet parents

National Girlfriend's Day Invite

Here's another fun invitation I designed for Avenue Five Jewelry. I love designing things for them because they love using bright colors and fun, swirly fonts. They have the best events, too! This time it's to celebrate National Girlfriend's Day, which is August 1st. Last year they had foofy drinks and passed around tiaras for the girls to wear while they shopped (with 40% discounts, hello!) This year there are more fun things in store. So ladies in the Portland area, grab your best friend, mother, sister, grandmother-in-law-- whoever!!-- and head down to Avenue Five for some fun.

Rehearsal Dinner invitation

A friend of a friend contacted me a couple months ago about designing invitations to her brother-in-law's rehearsal dinner that she and her husband are hosting. She told me the dinner would be held at a small restaurant in New York, so I wanted to make sure the invitation wasn't too formal for the event but also not too casual. I checked out the restaurant's website and found a few things to inspire me– the photos of the outdoor courtyard seating and the deep red color on the site definitely stood out in my mind. We went through several design ideas (contact me if you want to see them!) but below was the winning design! It was printed digitally on natural colored cardstock with a matching RSVP postcard.

Heidi & Justin's Invitation

Heidi and Justin received their invitations a couple weeks ago and I'm very happy with the outcome! They chose the Kelli Invitation and added some great, bright colors to make it their own. I love the vines (Heidi's idea!) and thinks it's such a cool way to tie in their venue, a winery! It was great working with these two once again and I wish them nothing but the best.

Vote for me!

I recently submitted a holiday card design to Minted.com's contest and would love you to vote for mine! First place prize is $1000, and they will sell the winning design on their site. Needless to say, I'd love to win :) I sent in two designs and they chose one of them for the contest (not my favorite of the two, but oh well!) There are some amazing designs on there so check it out: www.minted.com/vote. The link to mine is here: http://www.minted.com/design-rating&id=98#.

The chosen design:

This one didn't make the cut (does it look familiar?!):

Paul Potts

If you know me, you know that I'm a crier. When I see things that move me (in a good or bad way), I tear up. A couple weeks ago, I posted a link to a slideshow of a couple on their engagement shoot (when the guy actually proposed during the shoot!), and of course, I cried. Last night I watched re-runs of The Bachelorette with Trista and Ryan, and I cried. Well I re-discovered this video of Paul Potts auditioning for Britain's Got Talent, and what do you know... The tears were flowin'! It's just amazing how everyone expected this guy to suck, and he's just incredible. And he totally won the entire competition. Stuff like this just makes my day :)