Compliments of the season!

Christmas has come and we anxiously await the new year 2010. It's truly exciting preparing for a new wedding season.

Want to meet some of Houston finest wedding professionals all under one roof? Then you've got to be at the Houston Bridal Extravaganza. The Bridal Show will be held at the George R Brown Convention Center on
Saturday, January 9th from 10am - 5pm
Sunday, January 10th from 11am - 5pm

Elegant Custom Invitations will be at Booth 1119 - we would love to meet you and talk to you!!!
Tickets can be purchased from the Bridal Extravaganza website or at Randalls stores. You can also purchase tickets at the George R. Brown (but it is cheaper to get the tickets before the show dates)

If you're attending the Show...here are a few tips:
1. Make sure to wear very comfortable shoes. There are lots of aisles and almost everyone wants to walk all aisles to make sure you're not missing anything. I have walked all the aisles myself in the past and I highly recommend it.

2. Bring lots of pre-printed labels with your name, address (if you want), a valid email address and wedding date. You don't want to have to fill out every form at vendors' booths. If you can't print your own labels, they will be available for purchase at the entrances to the show. Also, it helps to create a separate email account just for your wedding planning (just a tip!)

3. Come prepared to book vendors at the show. Many vendors will be giving special discounts to brides that book at the show or within a short period after the show.

4. Do not feel obligated to fill out every form from all the vendors at the show. It's ok to focus mainly on those elements of the wedding you haven't booked yet. You can politely say 'No'. You will get tons of information from the show, anyway, so it helps to only have information from vendors you're truly interested in.

5. It can be helpful to have 2 separate bags where you can put information from the vendors. 1 bag for the vendors you're really interested in and others in the 2nd bag. This will help with sorting through the stack of flyers you receive at the show once you get home.

6. Bring cash for parking and lunch. You'll be hungry and/or thirsty after all that walking! (lol)

6. Most importantly, come with an open mind!

This will probably be my last blog entry for 2009. Here's to a safe, fulfilling and prosperous 2010.

Back to work!

My name is Christiana and I'm a bad blogger (lol)!!! I just noticed how long it's been since my last blog entry. Well, as you may or may not know, we were closed for about a month for a much needed and overdue vacation. It was nice spending time with family after such a long time and I wouldn't have traded the time for the world.

But now it's time to get back to work... phew!!! Well, it's that time of the year again, people getting engaged, brides preparing for their 2010 wedding, bridal shows and the list goes on and on. We'll be at the Houston Bridal Extravaganza again in January. This is one of the largest bridal shows in the country. There'll be lots of wedding vendors, loads of prizes to be won and tons of great ideas for you big day. YOU'VE JUST GOT TO BE THERE.

Come on out to the George R Brown Convention Center and visit us at BOOTH 1119.

Dates and Times:

Saturday January 9, 2010 10am - 5pm

Sunday January 10, 2010 11am - 5pm

I'll leave you with some lovely images

Erica and Vadim's Save the date cards.

Melissa's Tag for her ceremony programs

Photo credit: Melissa Jill Photography

Brandi & Harrison's Pocketfold Invitations

Until next time, enjoy the rest of the week.

I'm Back!!!

Okay, so I've been gone for a minute.... well, more than a minute :)!!! It's been interestingly busy around here to say the least. This wedding season was incredible and we're already excited for next year. Yep, I said it, I'm already looking forward to next year.

There's so much to talked about and display since we've worked with a lot of fabulous brides so far this year. But for now, I'll show just a couple.

First up is Brooke and Dirk. When I met with Brooke several months ago, I have to admit I wasn't too sure what she wanted before the consultation. But as we started working, I got excited about what she was trying to portray with her wedding invitations. And I'm very happy to have worked with her. We popped a "cyber bottle of champagne" when the design phase was over...lol! Brooke wanted her wedding invitations to be very dramatic with swirls so we created these:

Next, is Allison & Correy; Allison is having a destination wedding in Hawaii. So, she decided to go with the invitation styles we did for Stephanie and Brian. They are a pocket fold style invitations. For her ceremony programs, we created beautiful Fan programs using the same designs from the invitations.

Enjoy!

Enclosures

Fan programs (open)

closed programs

We'll be bringing you much more updates. hopefully pretty soon :-). Enjoy the week!!!

New Invitation Designs

Megan and Chilobe

I met Megan originally at the July Bridal Extravaganza. I met with her a 2nd time with her wedding planner, Samantha Darr of Soiree Bliss. I must say I was a bit nervous meeting with Samantha, because she’s up there with the top Wedding Planners in Houston . We worked for a several months to create her fabulous wedding invitations. The inspiration was from Lauren and Dave’s wedding invitation. It features a Side Pocket Fold with a Vellum belly band. The print method used was Thermography (raised ink). Enjoy…

ARIELLE’s 18th BIRTHDAY
I met Arielle and her parents at the January Bridal Extravaganza. They fell in love with the Deji & Aleydis style invitation. Once we had our consultation after the show, we pretty much knew what the layout was. We just need to decide on the colors and design. The invitation features a Gate Fold accented with Satin Ribbon and Swarovski Crystal. We used the flat print method for the invites. Enjoy…

DEJI & ALEYDIS
I met with Deji and Aleydis the week following Hurricane Ike. Aleydis loved the invitations she saw in the online gallery with Rhinestones etc. So, she knew she wanted to incorporate that into the invitations somehow. Using their wedding colors of Red and Gold, we created this gorgeous invitation ensemble. Because the wedding is in Puerto Rico , where the couple lives and they have family from different cultures, they wanted half of the invitations in English and the other half in Spanish. The invitation features a Gate Fold accented with Satin Ribbon and Swarovski Crystals. We used the flat print method for the invites. Enjoy…

More to come in the coming week. Enjoy the rest of the week!

Our Professional Pictures by Bedazzled Photography

Hello again,
The wedding season is definitely here! Hence, I haven’t been able to update the blog as often as I should. Feb and March have been especially tasking in working on May Weddings. There seem to be a whole lot of May weddings this year.

First, I’d like to thank everyone who voted for us in the KRPC Local 2’s best of Houston . We were in the top 5 best in the Wedding Invitations Category! WOOHOO!!!!!

A couple of months ago, I received an email from Ayesha at Bedazzled Photography to take some pictures of our invitations. I was superexcited. I’ve always admired Ayesha’s artistic eye in photography and love her crisp, vibrant and clean shots. Like I told her, she’s one of the few photographers I have on my favorites list; so I was definitely stoked. However, because of the craziness of the wedding season, it took a while to ship the invitations to New York but we finally did it! Here are some pictures… there’s more in our online gallery. You can check out Ayesha’s work on her website http://www.bedazzledphotography.com/ and her blog www.bedazzledphotography.com/blog

Photo credit: Bedazzled Photography

I’m excited to blog about this next invitation set because they’re one of our boxed invitation ensembles. I met with Tonya and her mom at the July Bridal Extravaganza. Tonya initially wanted the silk boxes but those where a little too much than she wanted to pay so I showed her the box mailers and how elegant those could be also. The inspiration for her invitations came from “Kathryn and Derrick’s" invitation style. Most guests thought they got a gift when they received their invitations!

Here’s are the pics:

Inside of the box

Ready to be mailed!

Laura and Troy
I absolutely love Laura and Troy ’s wedding invitations. They’re simple yet very elegant. The invitation is a Multi Layer Flat Card accented with satin ribbon and rhinestone accent with a lined enveloped. I must say that Laura was a joy to work with and I couldn’t be happier with how the invitations turned out.
Enjoy…

Dave and Lauren
This process was a bit unique for me because it was the first time I worked primarily with the Groom on custom invitations. I must tell you the process went a lot faster :) but the invitations turned out gorgeous nonetheless. The invitation is a pocket style invitation with a translucent belly band wrapped around the pocket fold. The print method used was Thermography (raised ink)

There's more to come but I've got to get back to work. Check back soon for more updates.

Have a wonderful week!

20% off Catalog Invitations

No, I didn’t abandon the blog!
Yes, we’re still alive!

It’s been quite busy around here to say the least. After the bridal extravaganza in Jan, we’ve pretty much been swamped. (that’s a good thing J)
I have some pretty invitations that we’ve worked on that I’ve not been able to blog about. I’ll be blogging on some today and others as the month goes along. March for us is going to be even busier in getting ready for the May and June weddings.

I’m glad to announce to you that we now carry the Something Different Catalog invitations from Carlson Craft. We’re offering a 20% off discount on the catalog invitations. If you’re looking for something not too custom yet different, this is a way to go. Plus you can enjoy the 20% off discount. Click here to browse the collection.

To order, please send an email to info@myelegant-invitations.com. Please provide the Item Number and we'll send you a form to fill out.

Thank you!

We've been nominated as one of Houston's Best!

Hello all,
We're getting into the wedding season in full swing. After the Bridal Extravaganza Show, I must say we've been quite busy. More updates and pictures to come on our newest projects.
In the meantime, I got an email last week that Elegant Custom Invitations has been nominated as one of Houston's best by the local news channel KPRC Local 2. (WOW!!!) Very exciting. But I need your votes. Please click on the link below to vote for Elegant Custom Invitations.
http://kprc.cityvoter.com/elegant-custom-invitations/biz/158375

Thank you for your continued support.

Have a wonderful week

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We're finally in 2009!!! Happy New Year.
This is going to be a very exciting year... I can already feel it :) 2008 was very fulfilling for us here at Elegant Custom Invitations. We thank all of our wonderful bride clients who made that all possible.
We've already started working on several projects for 2009 brides as we enter another wedding season. With that said, it just hit me today that the Bridal Extravaganza Show is next weekend (yikes!).

Come out next Saturday and Sunday to the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Our Booth is 1119
Time: Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm
Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm
For more details, visit the Bridal Extravaganza Show website.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!
Have a wonderful week.