I am one of the lucky few with event planning experience for a spring wedding, fall wedding, and summer elopement — all with the same groom!
I drew the Save the Date on Procreate on my iPad, had them beautifully printed by Montclair Photo in Oakland, CA, used my handy corner rounder, and sent them off with an Elvis stamp.
I learned we needed to have a wedding website up and running before we could mail out Save the Dates since it’s expected that you include your wedding website URL. I learned quickly that the website is the holy grail for information and the resource everyone actually references.
After debating whether or not to build a custom website, we decided Zola was good enough — a mentality I couldn't recommend more in the wedding planning process. Major props to Zola for providing the option to disallow search engine crawlers for a little internet privacy!
Similarly, we purchased a stamp with our address on it to avoid hand-writing the return address over and over.
As with all (successful) projects, you start with a moodboard. We chose The Historic Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach as our venue because we loved it’s old-school swanky aesthetic (and history), and wanted to embrace and build on those already existing design elements with 1950s Beverly Hills vibes. Being able to reference the moodboard time and time again with various vendors ensured we were all speaking the same design language.
For any members of the tribe reading this, did you know you can send your own fabrics to Yarmulkes.com for a custom touch? I selected a tropical vintage pattern by Pierre-Joseph Redouté, not fully realizing at the time that this one seemingly small design decision would set the tone for the full wedding color palette.
Given my lettering background, I knew I wanted to design my own invitations. I had a vision for simple black and white invites, with a pop of color/pattern on the envelope liner as well as on the back of the primary wedding invitation.
After scouring the internet, I was disappointed to find that all downloadable high-res patterns/textures were all so cheesy! I’ve always had a soft spot for William Morris’s patterns and decided to focus my hunt on his work. I wasn’t able to find a print-ready high-res pattern, so I decided to just use one of his for inspiration, and draw it out myself. This way, I had full control over colors, dimensions, and DPI (and could sneak in my engagement ring for a little bit of personalization).
I was asked what font I used for these by the print shop, and have never been more complimented. 😌 The invite, events card, and RSVP are all hand-lettered in full using Procreate on the iPad.
It feels great to be able to recycle designs again and again. I used this logo on a custom rubber stamp, and embossed our powder blue napkins.
I love any excuse to play with Sculpey, and I preferred matching the cake-toppers I made for my sister’s wedding (currently on display in their living room) vs. matching the refinement I applied to every other design aspect of the wedding. I had fun making these. The only difficulty here was hiding the cake toppers from my fiancé so as to not reveal my dress. 🤷
I’ve designed custom bags before, and learned to always use a thick pen when designing bag art, given the textured and difficult material it is printed on.
David and I mourned our lost wedding alongside so many other couples who had planned what would have been a lovely Spring wedding. 😐
We didn’t want to throw in the towel and just cash in our wedding insurance (life milestones should always be celebrated!) but also found the idea of delaying marriage another full year a misalignment in priorities. David’s sister was pregnant and due in the fall, so the soonest we’d be able to delay with her able to attend (newborn in tow) was November 21 — so that’s exactly the date we chose.
November in Virginia Beach is pretty cold, but we figured the warmth in everyone’s hearts after getting through this global pandemic would bring plenty of sunshine and good vibes (right?? right!).
Sidestepping a May wedding to a November wedding meant we needed to make some changes to adjust for the shift in seasonality.
We moved the tent reception to the ballroom, and rethought cuisine, florals, and overall design aesthetic (those beach bags, the yarmulkes...) to be better suited for an event in the fall/winter.
Before I tackled anything, I designed a new moodboard and color palette as my new north star.
By late May it was clear that the threat of Covid wasn’t going anywhere. We recognized nothing would go back to normal and quarantine would very likely still be in affect come November. My mom and I said good riddance to our weekly wedding planning FaceTime sessions.
We eloped in August 2020, a short drive away at Calistoga Ranch in Napa. We planned it all in 3 days. The dress I rush-ordered on Net-a-Porter happened to fit, I did my own hair and makeup, and we did the ceremony on the porch of our hotel room (via zoom so our families could safely be a part of it). The only in-person wedding guest was our lovely photographer Russ Levi.
