A look back on 2008...

2008 was my busiest year yet. So busy that I could hardly find the time to blog properly or even post new pictures of the invites I did this year. I finally have the time to do both. With the help of one of my favorite photographers, Alison Bates (www.batesphotographic.com), I am able to show you some of my work from this year. Below are some of the items I did throughout the year. 

Happy Holidays!

Where did 2008 go? I swear the older I get the faster the days, months and years go by. I remember being little and some event I was looking forward to always took forever to get here. Not the same anymore!!

I've had a fantastic year! Only because of all of my great clients that I have worked with this year and in past years. It really has been a great to work with each and every one of you. I'm always so sad when each bride gets married because by that point, they're more like a friend than a customer to me. (It's crazy how it works out because I now see 2 of my brides on a regular basis at the gym!) I'm blessed to be doing what I love for people who are so fantastic. Thank you to each and every one of you for allowing me to be a part of your wedding day. I know how special that day is, and I feel very honored to be a part of each and everyone of them. 

To my past brides/customer - Thank for you all your referrals. It's amazing what word of mouth does for a business. I appreciate each and every one of you.

To my vendor friends - you are the best!! I'm so lucky to have friends in the business like you. It's nice to be able to bounce ideas off of you, talk about situations and help each other out. I appreciate all the help you have given me this year.   

This past year was a bit busier than past years and I've had to rely on friends and family to help me get through the busy season. My mom, step-mother, sister, girlfriends and more importantly my husband have helped me through my busiest year yet. (Yes, there have been several times my hubby has cut ribbons and folded paper for me - it's the cutest thing) Whether it was doing bows, assembling invites, cutting ribbons or filing receipts, I could not have made it without you guys. It's a blessing that I have so much support from my family and friends. 

With looking forward to 2009, I'm excited to be embarking on a whole new adventure. I'm really expanding my horizon with my business and trying new ideas. 2009 will be my 4th year in business. I never dreamed that I would be where I am today. Thank you, to everyone I have worked with in the past and will have the honor to work with in the future, for being apart of making my dream job come true. 

Best of luck to everyone in 2009!

Brand Spankin New Website is up and running!

I'm so excited to finally get the site up and running. It's been a work in process. But the new site, I feel, is much more user friendly. It has loads of galleries to look at and is very clean looking. I'm in love with it. 

Keep checking the galleries as I have 50+ invites and other wedding items to feature. Being so busy this year has but me behind on my picture taking duties. :) I plan on have them up in October some time. 

I've got some other new and exciting things in the works for Color Bar Creative for 2009. So check back often. I'm looking forward to the start of the 09 season. I want to thank all my clients this year for being so great. I've worked with some really fantastic people. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you - you make me love what I do!!

 

I made a Wordle

Yes, you read it correctly -  a wordle. Fresh from the belly of this blog came this wordle. What does your blog have to say? Check out Wordle to find out!

Brand Spankin New Website in the works!

I've been spending my days, nights and weekends working on my new website. It's got a ton of features that I'm excited to share with current and potential customers! (HINT: lots of galleries) So stay tuned. I hope to have it up right after Labor Day and before my birthday (September 4th). That's my goal!

Vendor Rave: Amanda Williams Photography

I've worked with Amanda a couple of times now. I even interviewed her back in 2003 to photography my own wedding. I didn't book her on the soul reason that she was not digital at the time. Well now she is and she's fantastic. I had the pleasure of working with her last week when my family (of 23) hired her to do our family portrait. I had FULL confidence that she would shine and take fantastic pictures. But my family, (who is used to the in studio look) took a little convincing.  Their fears where calmed the minute they met her. She took charge and was so patient with everyone. It takes a really great person to do what she does. She's not only one of the funniest people I know, but her works speaks for itself. Hands down - she ROCKS!

Below are some of the pictures she took of my family and I:

It's been awhile!!

I've been SO busy this year that this blog has not received the attention it deserves! I'm in the process of designing a brand new website that features tons of pictures of all my past projects. I've been really lucky to be able to work with some really great brides this year! I hope to have everything up and running by October. Hang in there with me. :) 

Brad and Erica's Cool Colors

I met with Brad and Erica back in January. I did Erica's sister's wedding invitations last year so we had to do something completely different. They came to me with awesome colors! Fuchsia, orange and white - put all together, they look so pretty. They wanted to incorporate as much color without breaking the bank. They fell in love with the folded card look so we started with a metallic folded white card and accented the main invite with metallic fuchsia and orange. The main invite itself was printed on a matte white paper. The band is made with orange metallic paper with a satin fuchsia ribbon running through the middle. They choose to not use a reception card to cut costs since there ceremony and reception were at the same site. I designed a monogram for them to use on the front of their invite and it uses the fuchsia as well to coordinate everything together.  Another option that Brad and Erica choose to save money was to assemble the invites themselves. This saves money and is fun for those who have crafty friends and family who are willing to help. The one thing I loved about working with them is that they really worked together on this invite. I got emails from both of Erica and Brad throughout the process, which was really fun.

Kristine and Charles

I met with Kristine and Charles and 5 minutes later I was laughing. They are a great couple and Charles has a interesting vocabulary to describe his happiness. When we first met, they fell in love with a folded card invitation. Kristine said they had already research pocketfolds, but they were out of her budget. I convinced her to let me quote out both styles so she can see the difference in price.  Their colors started off being Bronze and a nice medium blue. Well 24 hours later she emailed me and said Charles (her fiance) fell in love with Bronze and Fuchsia. That's my kind of guy! So we redid all the paper work and in the end Kristine got her pocketfolds that she wanted - in her budget. They provided a monogram to start and I molded it a bit better to fit the invite. They decided to use alternating paper colors for their insert cards. Put all together, it was a stunning piece. They went over so well, Kristine just emailed me and needs 20 more!

Marcy's Kentucky Derby Shower

I met with Marcy for wedding invitations, it seems years ago.  Since she lives in Kentucky she was able to meet during the holidays when she was home. Her mom joined us on her initial consultation. After speaking about all the ideas about wedding invitations, Marcy's mom, Carol, emailed me and wanted to speak about shower items for Marcy's shower. She was so much fun to work with - she has great taste and great planning skills. 

Marcy and Derek are big Kentucky Derby fans. So Carol choose that as a theme. After that the creative juices were flowing. Carol decided that she wanted to ask all the women invited wear a hat in the spirit of the Kentucky Derby. With that decided, the graphic for the invite was born. We used colors that are similar to Marcy's wedding colors, purple, and used the hat graphic on almost everything so it all coordinated well. We did a matching Thank You Card and Favor Tag that will be attached to little Derby chocolates. 

Carol kept the shower theme as a surprise from Marcy until she mailed an invitation to her. The next day I got an email from Marcy and Carol. Marcy loved them and Carol said the women she invited were just raving about them. Thanks Carol for being open to my ideas - you were a lot of fun! 

Lots of posts to come soon!

I've been very busy lately and I've got tons of pictures to post soon! So come back soon to see what I've been up to. 

A Present to me!

Happy early Spring to me! After months of going back and forth, I just ordered a brand new MacBook Pro. I'm so excited to start using it! I spend so much time on the computer every day, I can't imagine spending more. But with this new toy, I just might have to. :)

Looking for Day of Make-up and Hair?

Then I would recommend Bridal Beauty on Location. I just finished up working with Sylvia Farmer on parts of her website. She is awesome to work with. The idea of having hair and make-up come to you on your wedding day is such a relaxing idea. When I met with her originally, I crossed paths with a bride who just had her trial done and she looked stunning. From working with Sylvia, I know she is the type to go above and beyond for you to make things just perfect. From viewing her portfolio, it's just proof that she does. Take a look at her updated site (www.bridalbeautydetroit.com) and if you're interested, shoot her an email (bridalbeauty@comcast.net). She's very quick to respond!

Lauren and Frank's Save-the-Date

Lauren is so awesome to work with! I first started working with her last year on her sister's Bachelorette party invite. We just clicked! Since then she finalized her colors and we worked together to create a stylish Save-the-Date. 

She wanted something fun, but still very classy and elegant. With her colors being fuchsia, black and white. I used a fuchsia metallic paper with a ripped edge and black and white satin ribbon. The white satin ribbon laid on top of the black satin ribbon and was tied in a knot. 

The envelopes where printed using the same fonts and matching colors - including the fuchsia pink used to highlight the guests name.

It's usually the bride and I who really work together to design something, but Frank was there for most of our meetings and really wanted "something really nice". I was happy to get an email from Lauren after I dropped her save-the-date's off to her... "Just wanted to let you know that Frank LOVED them!" 

Jody and Nickie's Baby Shower Invite

I grew up with Jody (the father-to-be). So when his mom called me to do his baby shower invites, it was a blast from the past. I was so happy to learn that he and his wife were expecting their first bundle of joy - a baby girl!

 

Nickie loves dragonflies and I believe that is what she is using a theme for their little girl's room. So with that said I designed a simple, panel invite with a playful dragonfly graphic. Jody's mom wanted to make sure the invite was not flimsy (she had ordered their wedding shower invitations from somewhere and was unhappy with the paper stock quality). So the invite was printed onto a white metallic paper and then attached to a thick, pink, metallic cardstock. The dragonfly graphic was printed onto the metallic pink envelopes to pull the invite together. 

When I dropped them off, she was so excited because they were perfect. It was nice to work with her and to see her again - it had been years! It's funny how things work - I am working with her AGAIN because her other son is having a baby and she's throwing yet another shower!

Babies, babies everywhere

I think something is in the water because I have done so many baby shower invites in the last few months - it's crazy.

Val is my aerobics instructor and I see her about 5 times a week. When she asked me to do her daughter-in-law's baby shower invites I was so excited. Her daughter-in-law and son, Casey and Rick, live in New York and she wanted to surprise them with custom baby shower invites. Val told me that Casey was born to plan. She is a very modern and detailed person so the challenge was on.

 

They know that the baby is a girl so we started with a couple different shades of pink and added some yellow to brighten it up. The bottom of the invite was designed with a stripe pattern and I adorned the top with bow of satin and sheer pink ribbon with a diaper pin going through it. I even wrote a custom riddle to go along with the diaper pin theme. The main invite was printed onto white metallic cardstock to add an extra girlie sparkle. The envelope was printed using the same strip pattern to pull the invite together. 

When I saw Val after she sent them out - I was excited to hear that Casey LOVED them!!!

Jill and Jay's Save-the-Date

Close up of the card. They took those pictures themselves. How creative are they!

Jill is a very simple, modern bride. Her wedding colors are blue and brown. She came to me with the intention of doing a magnet for a save-the-date. She liked the idea of including a picture of her and her fiance on it.  When we discussed paper options and she saw the brown paper with the light polka dots - she had to have it. So from there, we added a photo strip of with a little tag hanging off a knot with their names and date. A matching blue envelope with custom printed addresses helped perfect her save-the-date.

Thelmina's Classy Vegas Wedding

When I met with Thelmina she was so excited to get married in Vegas. But she wanted nothing to do with the Vegas look. She wanted very classy, yet simple and in teal and browns. She liked the idea of a bow, but not across the top or side - so we put it on an angle. With some tweaking here is what the finished product looks like. We did a matching Respose and Itinerary Card. The Itinerary card includes some playful graphics to make the invite a bit more fun. 

Congrats Thelmina - thanks for being open to being a bit different!

Recent Web Work...

I've been working with Amanda Williams for some time. (I even met with her years ago when I was planning my wedding.)  She is a fantastic photographer who was in desperate need of a website revamp.  So we recreated her site to focus on her wonderful images.  It was SO hard picking the select images that are featured on the site.  She has tons of images that are just breathtaking. 

Take a look at her site and let me know what you think.  If you are looking to book a fantastic photographer, check her out. 

My blog is up and running

Yeah! I'm excited to start sharing all of my most recent work with you.  This is the fastest and easiest way to get my current information out to you.  I'll be updating all the time so check back often.