Kim and Daniel {Real Wedding}

On February 5th, 2012 Kim and Daniel were married, at the San Diego Marina aboard a yacht. They kept the wedding small and intimate, with only about 30 guests, but the details for the wedding were not overlooked, and everything was elegant and beautifully done. 

Kim's wedding colors were tiffany blue, silver and off white. We chose to print the invitations on a shimmery pearl-like paper to give it that extra elegant touch. Other items she had were custom address labels, place cards, menus and thank you cards. You can order this Classic Peonies Design at www.invitationparlour.com, call us at 951-241-0417 or email at info@invitationparlour.com for any questions.

Some of the other details Kim had, that I loved, were the cute bow ties on the favor boxes and the cute flower pins that were placed on the lady's place cards, made by Pink Clouds Designs

Here's some more details and pictures from the wedding. Photos were taken by Eric Kieu Photography

Congratulations Kim and Daniel, may your life together be filled with love and happiness!!

2 simple words: LOVE life

Through the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, these are the two simple words that often get taken for granted. They are two simple words that have so much impact on us. I put emphasis on "LOVE" because we can spread it out as much as we want to. The word "life" has less emphasis because we are one body of life in this vast world we live in. LOVE life. 


The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind for me. It started first, with me suffering from a bad case of vertigo, which many of you who have suffered from it for the first time, knows how it feels and what a bad sensation it is. It's basically feeling sea sick, nausea, dizzy and being helpless. I was miserable. Secondly, I get upsetting news of my friends losing their jobs. I know that I'm not the only one struggling. Everybody's got their struggles and issues.  However, just think, how do you deal with it? How do you cope with your daily struggles? How do you deal with new challenges? 


These things happen to all of us and is a part of our life. They happen because we all need reminders of how small and fragile we are.  We need to be reminded that there are many things that happen to us that are out of our control. We need to be reminded that no matter what happens, we need to love the life that we have. We only have this small one. And, although we have this one small life, we need to spread the LOVE that we can give, as far reaching as we want it to be. 


These are good reminders that I often see:  
Work as if it was your first day.
Forgive as soon as possible.
Love without boundaries.
Laugh without control
and never stop smiling.


With Valentine's Day coming up, make it a point to tell anyone you care about that you love them and appreciate them. Make it fun and send out Valentine's cards to family and friends. Show everyone that you LOVE life and LOVE that they are in your life. 


Here is a cute card Seanny and I put together for all of you. Just click on the image, print, cut out the 4 cards, and distribute. You'll make someone's day for sure!! :)

I am reminded everyday of how life is so short and seeing my kids grow up so fast is the biggest reminder of them all! I LOVE my kids. I LOVE my husband. I LOVE my family. I LOVE my friends. L O V E l i f e. 

I'll leave you with this song by Orianthi called "Courage":
Take all my vicious words
And turn them into something good
Take all my preconceptions
And let the truth be understood
Take all my prized possessions
Leave only what I need
It's not how many times you've been knocked down
It's how many times you get back up

L O V E l i f e ~ Justina

New Paper Available!!

We have recently decided to offer 2 additional paper types for you to print your invitations on. In the past this option would be open to custom orders, but we decided to make it easier and just have it as an option on the website. The smooth matte paper will always still be available, but now, for only an extra $0.50 each, your invites can be printed on a shimmery pearlescent paper or a textured art paper. It definitely gives your invite an extra upscale look without breaking the budget. This option is open to all the invitations in the invitation flavors section, www.invitationparlour.com. Check them out now, and contact us if you have any questions. 951-241-0417 or info@invitationparlour.com.

*If you would like to see the paper, just email us, and we'll mail you a paper swatch.

** Paper option can also be available for our other products, just contact us.

Thank you. Happy Planning!! :)

smooth white matte

pearlescent shimmery paper

textured art paper

951-241-0417

info@invitationparlour.com

www.invitationparlour.com

Custom Valentines Day Cards - Order Now!!

Hi everyone, Happy 2012!! We are excited to bring you new and better things to Invitation Parlour this year and first off, we are introducing customized Valentine Cards, you can send to your loved ones and/or pass them out at your kid's school parties. We are offering 2 designs, Bee Mine and Toad-ally Loveable.

Front of Bee Mine

 Back

Front of Toad-ally Loveable

 Back

Both designs are available for purchase now at: www.invitationparlour.com for $31.25/pack of 25 ($1.25 each). They are 5.5" wide x 4" high and are printed on smooth matte cardstock. White envelopes are included.

PDF/JPG file downloads are also available. (please email us at info@invitationparlour.com for this option) It's $15 each file and they will come as a 4x6 file so you can print them at any photo lab. (It will only include the front design, envelopes are not included with the digital file option.)

*Artwork provided by www.nitwitcollections.com (license #33615)

Holiday Cards Sale!

Christmas will be here before you know it. So you better start thinking about ordering those Holiday Cards. They are available for sale at www.InvitationParlour.com use the code HOLIDAY2011 and get 10% off your order.

*This deal is for a limited time only.

Thank you so much! Hope to hear from you soon :)

Snowflakes

Gingerbread Love

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Holiday Grid

Snow Friends

(The cards above were designed using the graphics from www.nitwitcollections.com license #33615)

Baroque Christmas

Cupcake Snowman

Fun Dots

Gingerbread Family

( if you want to add extra ginger people to the card, just let us know)

Happy Owl-idays!

Holiday Floral

Peppermint Stripes

Santa Buckle

Jolly Snowman

Aidan's Circus Train Party - 1st Birthday!

I still can't believe a year has past, and my little boy, Aidan, is now 1 years old. It seemed like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital and our whole world had changed.

We decided to celebrate big and throw him a circus party, since I've always wanted a circus party, but then I found a train you could rent at trainpartyexpress.com, and it evolved into a Circus Train Party extravaganza!

Of couse as you already know, it all begins with the invitations. It was printed on both sides and even included a train ticket you could tear off. Artwork was from Nitwit Collections (license #33615) 

To order this Circus Train Invitation, go to our website www.invitationparlour.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

My friend had made me onesies for each month, which was great because then we would remember to take pictures every month for a year. I used the pictures for the invitations and had them at the party as well. 

Custom address labels are a must with my invitations & cards....presentation starts with the envelope. As I always say, it's not necessary...but it surely does look cute!

And here is the centerpiece of the party...the circus treats table, it was loaded with different candies, candy apples, cotton candy and animal cookies. There was also mini cupcakes & a yummy chocolate cake from A Piece of Cake.

Here's all the details from the treats table. I decided to decorate the cake myself so that the cake would match the party, there was mini bunting flags and a circus train on there, that I cut on my sillouette. The mini cupcakes were bought from Walmart (I was so lucky the colors matched) I bought cute little clear gable boxes and put animal cookies in there and they had labels saying, "Aidan's Circus Animals" The polka dot background was wrapping paper I found at Paper Source and all the popcorn containers I found at the Dollar Tree store (that place is a like a treasure chest for finding random things you need for parties)

This display was my prize counter for the carnival games we had in our backyard. We had a raffle for bigger prizes, but everyone is a winner at this party and all the kids got to choose from yo-yo's, clown bouncy balls, train bubbles/whistle and circus ducks.

I found the vintage circus train toy on ebay, and when it arrived, I was so happy to see how big it was, which gave me the idea to fill it with lollipops. We didn't have a real clown, but the 3' clown balloon was floating around greeting people. I think the signs were great addition, we had a train stop sign, signs for the games, even a sign for the "snack bar" where guests filled up on hot dogs, pizza and nachos.

Here is the train that started all this party madness. Funny thing is that when I booked it I was afraid it would be like a boring tram ride, but when I saw it and rode on it the first time, I felt like a kid. There was music playing like the rides at Disneyland, and it actually went pretty fast (definitely put your seat belt on). The conductor was wonderful & everyone had an awesome time on it...even the adults :)

I found the cute little clown costume on Zulily. I was so happy when it arrived the day before the party.

See the rest of the pictures on the slideshow...click here.

Vendor Credits:

Invitations, matching stationary & signs: www.invitationparlour.com 

Party Styling:  www.mycreativevision.com

Photography: www.mycreativevision.com

Train Rental & Popcorn Machine: trainpartyexpress.com

Red striped treat bags: Skyler's Party (at etsy)

Vintage Circus Train: www.ebay.com

Prizes/Favors: www.orientaltrading.com

Balloons: www.laballoons.com

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.