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.

It's that time of the year again

The Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show is here again and YOU'VE JUST GOT TO BE THERE! Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the show and it is going to be the biggest Bridal Show to date. So, get your walking shoes ready and your luck charms on. In addition to feasting on ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS wedding showcases and meeting with talented vendors like yours truly :), there'll be lots of prizes to win. Even the vendors get to win something this time. (i'm keeping my fingers crossed :))

The Bridal Show will be held at the George R Brown Convention Center on
Saturday, January 10th from 10am - 5pm
Sunday, January 11th from 11am - 5pm

Elegant Custom Invitations will be at Booth 1119 - we would love to meet you and talk to you!!!


Are you coming to 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) 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.

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. Come with an open mind!

Let me finish by giving you a few pictures of our booth from the July Bridal Show.




That's all folks, have a wonderful week!!!

Launch of New Website

Hello all,

I'm uber excited this week... after months of working, learning etc, I finally published the new Elegant Custom Invitations website. This was definitely a labor of love to say the least. I always wanted a flash site but after much looking around to hire someone to build my site, I realized the amount of money being requested was a bit much. Since I built the previous site from scratch, I decided to embark on this journey. Until now, I'd never really used Adobe Flash other than the Flash Player... lol!!! which is totally not the same as the full version of Flash. Needless to say I taught myself Adobe Flash and I'm very proud of the outcome!!! There were a few bumps along the way but it was well worth it and I couldn't be happier.

This is sometimes the feeling I get once we've completed work on invitations and stare at the finished product!!!! I tell you, it's truly fulfilling. Enjoy...

Newlyweds

I'd like to say a big congrats to Kathryn & Derrick who got married on November 1st and Christine and Jorge who got married on November 15th. Happy Married Life to you guys.

Here are some of the stationery for Kathryn & Derrick's ceremony. We tried to keep it really simple with the ceremony/reception stationery since the boxed invitations were over the top...

I hope you all have a wonderful, fulfilling week, we plan to do just that !!!

Christine & Jorge's Wedding

Hello all,
It's been a short while since I last blogged. Between the current projects we're working on, the website redesign, consultations with 2009 brides et al it's been quite busy. But in all I'm very excited at the progress.

First I'd like to say Congratulations to the brides that got married on October 18th, 2008 -
Patricia and Michael
LaNissa and Dietrich
Sandra and Michael

Happy Married Life to you all!

Take a look at some of Sandra and Michael's ceremony stationery. For her table cards, she wanted the tables to be named after several places that meant something special to them. For example, Ciao Trattoria was where they had their first date. They returned to this return where Michael proposed!!! Absolutely Sweet!!!

Menu Cards

Table Cards

Ceremony Programs

Christine & Jorge's Wedding Invitations

I spoke with Christine right before Hurricane Ike hit the gulf coast. I remember we were unsure of the impact Ike would have so we tentatively set up a time to meet the following week. I met with Christine and her fiance, Jorge and they were such a lovely couple. Because the wedding was really close, we had to work mighty fast on the invitations. Good thing was Christine fell in love with the "Vivien and Peter" invitation we had done. I remember she kept starring at the invite just to be sure she still loved it!!

We began work immediately and I'm glad we were able to complete the invites in time for her to mail them to her guests. Enjoy!

SNEAK PEEK OF NEW WEBSITE

As you may know, I've been working on the redesign of the website for some weeks. It has taken longer than I anticipated because of all the other projects we have going on. But I am very very very excited at the progress. I hope to have the new site up before the end of this month (knock on wood!!! :))

Take a peek and let me know what you think. Did I mention that I'm very excited?!!!

Enjoy the week and new month!!!

Boxed Wedding Invitations

Hello all,

I hope you're having a lovely weekend (even though we all wish for longer weekends!) I've been working on a few different projects. One of which is the redesign of the new website. I'm very excited about that! I should be able to show a sneak peek of it later on. It's a lot of work designing it but it's been worth it so far.

Today, I present Kathryn and Derrick's wedding invitations. I met Kathryn back in March (Yes, March!!!) and we clicked from the onset. She has a very vibrant personality and quite funny. She wanted her invitations delivered to her guests in boxes. The theme for her wedding is very warm elegant feel but also formal. She also wanted to incorporate pearls with the invitations since that was also going to be used at the wedding. After working with her over the past months, her invitations have finally gone out to guests and has been receiving rave reviews. Which I always love to hear!!! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Kathryn and Derrick's boxed wedding invitations...

Custom Invitation Tips

Hello all,
This has been an incredible week to say the least. Especially with Hurricane Ike sweeping through the Texas Gulf. Our hearts go out to those who were majorly hit by the hurricane. I was blessed not to have any major damages other than a 3-day power outage and minor fence damage. I also worked really hard to save my tiny tree :) ... it barely made it!!!

Despite the hurricane, we had to work through getting some work done this weekend i.e. Kathryn's boxed invitations and Sarah & Gavin's wedding program and table cards. Her wedding is this weekend and I couldn't just imagine how nervous she was with the weather situation the way it is. But she was very happy that we completed her programs in time for her wedding!!!

Here are a few tips for going custom on wedding invites (courtesy of The Knot Texas Magazine)
Enjoy...

1. Approach the design process as a collaborative effort and with an open mind.

2. Pick you “consultants”. Other than your fiancé, who will weigh in on the decision-making? Try not to bring more than two extra people to your appointments. Avoid design by committee.

3. Make sure the wedding style and taste is well-suited to the designer.

4. Be proactive to get what you want.

5. Know when to say enough is enough. Embellishments may add an elegant touch, but too many could be overkill on an already beautiful invitation.

6. Don’t exhaust all your creativity on the save-the-dates. Remember, you don’t want your other elements, like the invitations, menus and ceremony programs to compete.

That's it for now; enjoy the weekend; we plan to do just that :) !!!