and the WINNER is...

Our 2012 Wedding Invitation Giveaway has been such a FUN and exciting event for our team at THE Invitation Parlour. There were seven beautiful love stories that were chosen among many entries, to be posted on our facebook fan page for the final voting process. The vote was casted when someone clicked "like" on the specific story.

The contestants were exuberantly promoting their stories and we hope they had a great experience connecting and engaging with friends, family and supporters.

We hope you all enjoyed reading them as much as we did.


Here are the 3 WINNING stories:

GRAND Prize Winner - Overcoming Obstacles:  
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-overcoming-obstacles/476727382355912


2nd Place Winner - The Valentine's Day Set Up:  
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-the-valentines-day-set-up/476736032355047


3rd Place Winner - Story of Patience: 
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-story-of-patience/476724495689534


To all of our Fans, THANK YOU so much for your participation and support!! We appreciate you so much!! We will be doing more prize giveaways, so stay tuned in!!

2012 Wedding Invitation Contest is ON!

We started actively promoting our 2012 Wedding Invitation Contest back in April. The contest story submission deadline was on June 30th. THANK YOU to everyone that submitted their stories to us!! We received an extraordinary amount of story submissions and were so excited that you shared a little bit of you to us and enjoyed every story that was submitted. It was really tough in deciding which stories would go on to the voting round. We ended up picking 7 stories instead of just 5 since we thought these stories really stood out from the rest. 


These stories are posted on our facebook fan page. In order for your vote to count, you must click on the specific story's notepage and "Like" the story. (Clicking "Like" on your own shared link, will not count because we can't see what's on your facebook timeline or postings. It must be a "Like" on the note page or specific link below.) Voting starts immediately today, July 2, 2012 and will end on July 19, 2012 at 5:00pm, Pacific Standard Time. The three winners will be announced on Friday, July 20, 2012. 


We hope you will enjoy reading them as much as we did. 

Here are the 7 stories in no particular order:

A Christmas to Remember: 
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-a-christmas-to-remember/476731429022174


TARGET My Heart:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-target-my-heart/476737825688201


The Valentine's Day Set Up:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-the-valentines-day-set-up/476736032355047


Story of Patience:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-story-of-patience/476724495689534


The Long Distance:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-the-long-distance/476703399024977


Overcoming Obstacles:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-overcoming-obstacles/476727382355912


The Magical Surprise: 
http://www.facebook.com/notes/invitation-parlour/2012-wedding-invitation-contest-the-magical-surprise/476728982355752


We wish everyone GOOD LUCK and have FUN promoting your stories!!

Sesame Street Party {Jackson's 1st Birthday}

Saturday, April 14th, we celebrated Jackson's First Birthday. Lisa and I have been planning this little soiree for quite sometime and finally it was all put together. You've probably seen Lisa's picture quite a few times on the blog, just because I've designed everything for her wedding, her birth announcements and now her son's first birthday party. It's been quite an honor being a part of this wonderful family's life. And the best part is that I've gained a new friend in Lisa, who loves parties as much as I do :)

So on with the details from the party....

First off, the invitations. We did a bi-folded 5x7 wide folded invitation, that had pictures of Jackson from throughout the year. I think it's always fun to incorporate the pictures from the year, just because babies change so much from the day they are born till they turn one.

To order this Sesame Street invitation, go to our Etsy store at  www.etsy.com we also have 5x7 for sale on the site as well. Or if you are looking for a custom invitation that you don't see on our website, invitationparlour.com or our etsy store, then contact us at info@invitationparlour.com

Dessert Table. We designed the pennant banner & signs and labels to match the invite, for the various delicious dessert Lisa had. Colette's Events, designed the cake, chocolate elmo pops & cake pops....it was soooo cute, and delish!!

Lisa ordered a bunch of cute favors from etsy, including the sesame street frames, Elmo & Cookie monster pails, and the Zoe ponytail headbands. She also got the cute "Jackson" street sign there too.

Both Elmo & Cookie Monster came to the party to join in the fun.

Aww, look at that cute little smile.

Jackson really likes birthday cake :) mmmmm yum, yum, yum!!

Here is Jackson with his dad Nick, who, one is very handy, he made the second "Jackson Street" sign & two, makes the yummiest hamburger sliders!

And here is big sister Addy hanging out with Elmo

Here is Jackson with his mama, Lisa!

And here is my son, Aidan, who was one of the guests, dancing to the music :)

Vendor Credits:

Cake & desserts: Colette's Events
Invitation & Party stationary: www.etsy.com
Photos: www.mycreativevision.com
Party Favors, hats/headbands, Sesame Street Sign: www.etsy.com

2012 Wedding Invitation Giveaway

Win FREE Wedding Invitations!

(Up to a $500 value at www.invitationparlour.com)

Entering to WIN is easy! Submit a story to info@invitationparlour.com about how you and your fiancé met, the proposal or what you think makes your relationship unique. The top 5 stories will be selected, then posted on Invitation Parlour’s Facebook fan page for the voting process. The story that gets the most votes will WIN a Grand Prize valued up to $500!

Grand Prize Winner:

Up to 100 wedding invitation sets, which include a
5x7 invitation, RSVP card, enclosure card,
printed on textured art cardstock and 2 white envelopes.

Second Prize Winner:

$100 gift card to www.invitationparlour.com

Third Prize Winner:

$50 gift card to www.invitationparlour.com


Qualified stories will be accepted between June 1, 2012 and June 30, 2012. Voting will begin on July 1, 2012, and the winner will be determined on July 15, 2012.

Voting Process:
We will post 5 stories on our facebook fan page, www.facebook.com/invitationparlour09. In order for fans to vote on your story, you must help us promote our page by asking them to check out or “like” our fan page. Participants must agree to let us use your name and share photos of our invitations in promotions, on our Facebook page, in our blog and/or website.

Valid for weddings between November 1, 2012 – December 31, 2013. Designs must be selected from the Invitation Parlour website, www.invitationparlour.com. Not valid on custom designs. Additional add-ons will be charged separately. No purchase necessary.


Contact Invitation Parlour at info@invitationparlour.com for details.


To see more selection of designs go to www.invitationparlour.com

To updated information on contest go to  www.facebook.com/invitationparlour09

Lisa and Nick {Real Wedding}

I met Lisa about 2 years ago when she started planning her wedding. It's funny, because I actually interviewed with her for a job through Apple One. I didn't get that graphic design job, but she remembered my portfolio and contacted me when she got engaged. Ever since then, we have become good friends, and I have had so much fun designing and photographing all the events in her life. 

So we started with the design of the Save the Dates, which actually was the precurser to the invitations. 

Lisa wanted the invitation to somehow incorporate the colors, pink & brown, butterflies and also somehow include her future stepdaughter. She really liked my passport invitations, so then I came up with the idea of doing a storybook invitation, which told the love story of Lisa and Nick, and it would be told by Addison...she would be the author. So that is why the Save the Dates ended up being bookmarkers. 

Lisa also decided to order the custom address labels to match the invitations. I definitely recommend doing cute labels for your invitation's  envelopes if you decide not to use a calligrapher. It just puts a smile on your face when you get an envelope in the mail with a cute label. If you are on a budget, you could always get cute colored labels to match your invites, or even add your initials or a logo to them, so that they are a little extra special. Or of course you could always have us design them for you, and that way you don't even have to address any of your envelopes yourself :)

There was one more thing we decided to incorporate into the rest of the design of the wedding. Lisa told me that she was hiring Elvis to be at her Wedding. It was something that was special for her mom, since she was a huge Elvis fan, and they always joked that Elvis would walk her down the aisle. In fact, Lisa's full name, is Lisa Marie. So when we were trying to come up for ideas of what her favors would be, we decided it should be Teddy Grahams, and on the labels we had the line "I just wanna be your Teddy Bear"

For the rest of the designs we basically used a combination of the colors, butterflies, some Elvis influenced things, the storybook figures, and I also designed a custom monogram for Lisa to use to order other items such as custom unity candles, aisle runners etc. The monogram was also used throughout the designs so everything was unified by the logo as well as the colors.

This was an extremely custom and personal wedding. It really gave the guests an idea of what the couple's personality was like, yet doing it in a very elegant way. Check out the rest of the designs from the wedding.

And here are some pictures of the couple by Creative Vision.