Design w/Chon: Baby Shower I

These past months have been jammed with several baby showers. Two of my close girlfriends are pregnant, and they are both due one day apart from each other. So these past weeks have been quite eventful for me since I was one of several hosts to help organize their showers. I had lots of fun designing their baby shower invites since I tried not to do the typical gender, specific baby shower invite with baby powder blues for a boy and light pinks for a girl. Plus, all these showers were co-ed, and I wanted it to appeal to everyone.

In this first shower, I went with a colorful palette that leaned to be more feminine with the hot magenta hue since my friend was having a baby girl. And for her custom invite, I used this fun baby rhyme that we once heard as children – (insert a girl's name) and (insert a boy's name) sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, First comes love , Then comes marriage, Then comes (insert a girl's name) with a baby carriage. Obviously, I modified the rhyme to be more fitting for the invite.

(Invitation designed by Chon}

Then for the actual party, I took the color and graphics from the invite to continue the theme for the decor of the shower. Of course, I had to make a custom baby shower sign for the parents-to-be that matched. :)

For table centerpieces, we got hot magenta pink tulips, and I arranged them in my white vases leftover from my wedding reception. For a touch of orange, I tied polk-a-dot ribbon bows. Also, we had two larger white vases filled with magenta pink and yellow-orange roses.

For the shower favors for all the guests, we had a candy bar filled with orange gummies, chocolate swizzle sticks, white & pink mint candies and pink lemonade gumballs that fit perfectly with the decor. I purchased four apothecary jars and hand decorated them all with a variety of polka-a-dot ribbons and made a custom sign saying "sweet favors for sweet people."

And I can't forget the delectable and beautiful 3-tiered shower cake designed and made by my friend's co-worker, Precious. She did an awesome job pulling in the colors from the invite and the custom baby carriage cake topper made it extra sweet!

And here are a few snapshots of myself with my prego friend, Manisha, and the rest of the party hosts. Everyone did a great job pulling it all together, and the parents-to-be were loving it all.

VOTE for my coffee table wedding book!

Does anybody want to help me win a book design contest? If so, it will only take a few seconds, click here and sign in and vote for my coffee table wedding book that I designed on Blurb.com. The great photos, however, I have to give credit to my wedding photographer, Marcin Harla, and our hotel wedding venue, Hotel Baker.

It's a contest of course, and it would be so awesome if I could win. The prize can help me pursue my business further. You do have until Nov. 9th to vote, but just do it today before you forget. If this at all convinces you, I will be out of a job by the end of the year thanks to the economy. But no worries, I will land on my two feet just fine, but do vote. :) Thank you everyone who supports me.

Our Wedding Thank You Cards

For our wedding "thank you" cards, I had custom cards printed from Moo.com. I uploaded one of our professional wedding pics from our wedding. Of course before I did that, I retouched the photo so we looked flawless. I had to get rid of the bags developing under my eyes from the week of late nights and early mornings preparing for our wedding. :)

We got so many compliments from the card due to the photography and since I hand wrote over 80 personalized thank you notes. We don't get enough personal letters or handwritten cards these days. By taking that extra step to personalize it, I think it makes it so much more special for people. I know I enjoy it when I receive a personal note.

My Wedding Design & Decor: Part V

In all the previous blog posts for the design and decor of my wedding, these gorgeous images were beautifully captured by our wedding photographer, Marcin Harla. My husband and I couldn't have been any happier with the way our wedding photography turned out. Marcin did an excellent job, and he was a pleasure to work with.

Before I even went with Marcin Harla, I looked at and researched every photographer possible in the Midwest region. Thanks to the Wedding Photojournalist Association, I was able to find him. My requirements for the photographer was definitely the photojournalistic style, but I also knew I wanted something much more. With Marcin, it was his editorial eye which appealed to me, and his use of natural and artificial light in his work was truly outstanding. And of course, he caught those candid moments between my husband and I that make you smile inside.

(©2009 Marcin Harla Photography}