Bridal Extravaganza Discount

Hello!
I hope you had a great weekend! Ours was pretty eventful. We had a great time this past weekend at the Houston's Bridal Extravaganza meeting previous brides and new brides with their families. We are extending our Bridal Show discount to everyone (even those who weren't able to attend :-))
Please see below. HURRY!!!! This offer expires on February 28, 2012.

Contact us today to schedule your complimentary consultation. Send an email to info@myelegant-invitations.com or online at http://elegantcustom.genbook.com.

Bridal Shows in January

Happy New Year!!!
2012 is gearing up to be such an amazing year; im super excited!!!

BRIDAL EXTRAVAGANZA
It's Bridal Shows and Open House season.
First up is The Bridal Extravaganza Show. The show will take place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston on:
Saturday January 7, 2010 10am - 5pm
Sunday January 8, 2010 11am - 5pm

Elegant Custom Invitations will be at BOOTH 1645. Please be sure to stop by; we'd love to see you!
For additional information, purchase tickets and to register for free giveaways, you may visit their website.


I DO BRIDAL SOIRÉE
Next is the Weddings in Houston Magazine I Do Bridal Soirée. This is a luxury event taking place at the Intercontinental Hotel in the Galleria, Houston on:
Sunday January 15, 2010 1pm - 5pm

Please be sure to stop by our booth; we'd love to see you!
For additional information and to purchase tickets, please visit their website.


HELPFUL TIPS
As always, here are a few tips to help you prepare to attend
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 write 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)

7. Most importantly, come with an open mind!

ELEGANT CUSTOM INVITATIONS IS 5!!!!! Plus Special offer

I'm so excited and feel so blessed; ELEGANT CUSTOM INVITATIONS IS 5!!!!! WOOHOO!!!
This company was birthed from my love for beautiful paper, typography and gorgeous stationery. A while after the company started, I made the tough decision to quit corporate America and embark on this amazing journey fulltime. Even though it was a scary decision at the time, I'm glad I took the risk to do something I LOVE AND ENJOY DOING; I have never looked back!
Over the past years, we have had the pleasure of working with many fabulous brides, celebrants and of course, awesome wedding professionals. We have grown, learnt so much (and still learning) and come a long way in a short while. I thank God for the beautiful brides/colleagues/friends who keep challenging us each year and for His many blessings in this industry. I look forward to many more creative and fulfilling years ahead!!!

In celebration of our 5th year anniversary, we have a special offer for you....


Offer applies only to new custom invitation clients who make a deposit and sign an agreement between now and December 31, 2011. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Discount applies only to invitations of $500 or more. Not valid for use on existing custom invitation projects or for other stationery like ceremony programs, tablecards, escort cards. Please contact us at info@myelegant-invitations.com or (713)408-9407 for more details.

November Weddings!

The holidays are here!!! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday with friends, families and loved ones. We have a few of our clients getting married this weekend; congratulations to them - Cindy & James, Priscilla & John, Nina & Teinbo and Gisele & Beto. We wish you guys a happy married life.

I have very exciting news to share but we'd have to wait till December for it :). Please stay tuned.


Priscilla and John Pocket Cards
I met with Priscilla and her Mom several months ago for Priscilla's destination wedding. She loved the idea of Layered Flatcard with a Satin Ribbon but she also wanted to have a pocket for her enclosures. So, I came up with the idea of incorporating a pocketcard while maintaining the original look of the Layered Flatcard. And of course, I always love the look of Black and Red. Priscilla & John were married this weekend in Puerto Rico.

Below is the Front and Back of the invitations. The pocket is on the back to keep the enclosure cards together.



Nancy and KC Wedding Invitations
When I met Nancy & KC, it was pretty close to the target date for sending out their invitations. So we had to work fairly quickly through the design and production phases. She's a pretty laid back bride and was very easy to work with. I particularly love the colors and damask look of Nancy & KC's wedding invitations. The couple were married last weekend at the fabulous Bell Tower on 34th. Her invitation was Folded Card with a Satin Ribbon embellishment.

Front of the Invitation


Inside the Invitation



Nina and Teinbo Catalog Invitations
One of the biggest compliments our clients give us is referrals. I have worked with almost all the weddings in this family and was pleased to receive a phonecall from the Groom's sister requesting invitations for her brother's wedding. I'd worked on 2 of her other brother's weddings in the past year and a half. I received the phonecall less than 2 months to the wedding date. Due to the time constraints, especially since the wedding was taking place in Nigeria, I advised it best to choose an invitation from our Catalogs. I recommended a few options and they trusted my judgement without even seeing the invitations. Below is the invitation chosen. This is from the Carlson Craft catalog. I always tell clients who choose to go the catalog route, be open minded and think about ways to customize the invitations to make it your own. This invitation comes with Black Ribbon but you can always buy your own ribbon and tie. You can view the original invitation here. As always our Carlson Craft Catalog invitations are on a 10% discount.



Cindy and James Wedding Invitations
You may remember my post on the making of Cindy & James' wedding invitations here. In addition to the invitations, we also created the Wedding Reception Seating Chart. Seating Charts are used in place of escort cards. It shows the guest what table they are to be seated at the Reception.

Trifold with Satin Ribbon and Rhinestone accents


The Seating Chart


We're off to another crazy week ahead. Do enjoy the rest of the Holiday shopping weekend!

Erin & Peter Pocket Invitations and Boarding Pass Save the dates

Hello Friends!
I hope you had a great weekend! This is an exciting month for us as we prepare for the holidays. But moreso as we prepare for the 2012 Wedding Season (phew!)
Below are some invitations we created some months ago....enjoy

Erin and Peter
Erin was one of those brides that knew what she wanted; which made the process easy. She was also an easy going bride and oh, her mom is so sweet. When they came by the week of the wedding to pick up the ceremony programs, her mom said to me, "you were one of the easiest vendors we've had to work with during this process" That always makes my heart melt :)! Anyways, Erin and Peter were married a couple of weekends ago and the fabulous Bell Tower on 34th. Her color scheme was Black and Red (love those colors btw!)

The invitations were Pocketstyle


We accented them with a satin ribbon to bring in some color


The enclosures - showing off the beautiful raised print


The Ceremony Programs were Layered Style accented with a Satin Ribbon as well.



Brooke and Jeff (Save the date booklets)
Brooke and Jeff are such a sweet couple. I love it when couples attend consultations together and you can totally see the chemistry between them. They are friends with one of our past clients. Because they're having a Tropical themed Destination Wedding in Hawaii next year, Brooke wanted the Save the dates to mimic the old boarding pass booklets. Without further ado, here's what we came up with. [and the couple loved them!]

The cover of the booklet with the hibiscus flowers


We had 4 insert pages for the Travel Information, Hotel Accommodation and Schedule of Events.




Sarah's Sweet 16
Sarah's mom lives in New York so the design process was done mostly via email and telephone. She was throwing a Peacock Themed Sweet 16 for her daughter and wanted a Peacock feather to be incorporated into the invitations. The celebration took place last weekend in New York.

The invitation was a Layered Flatcard with a Satin Ribbon and Peacock feather accent


The peacock feather was also incorporated into the print on the Response cards



That's all for now... I hope you have a safe and productive week ahead!

Kelley & DuJuan Silk Pad Wedding Invitations and more

Hello Everyone!
Happy New Month!!!! It's unbelievable that we're already in November. I've been a little behind on blogging as October was an incredibly busy month.
I'd wanted to blog about these invitations since we produced them back in June. I met Kelley and her lovely mom several times at different places. First we met at the January Bridal Extravaganza, then we met again at the Bell Tower Open House in February. Afterwards she came in with her mom. I didn't hear back from her for a bit and we met again at the Houston Bride's Evening of Bridal Luxury in March. Kelley was very specific on what she wanted. She wanted to make a statement with her wedding invitations. And she wanted the silk pads. I totally love her wedding invitations. Kelley and DuJuan were married last weekend at the oh-so-gorgeous Bell Tower on 34th. Enjoy...

The Silk Pads with the Pearl Brooches


The Silk Pads with the Pearl Brooches


The Silk Pads were placed neatly into Box mailers


The RSVP cards


Box Mailers all ready to go!



Tekara and Chris
Tekara and Chris were guests of one of my past clients - The Agrawals. She received the wedding invitation and totally fell in love with it. So she requested the stationer's information from the Agrawals and contacted us for a consultation. Tekara has to be one of my sweetest brides till date. The couple were wed in a private ceremony in Hawaii. A week after the ceremony, they hosted a wedding reception in Amarillo, Texas. Below is the stationery we created for their big day.

Gatefold Style Invitations


Inside the invitations


Layered Flatcard Tablecards


Tent Escort Cards with Brown and Crystal rhinestones indicating the guests meal choice.


Single Panel Signature Drinks card. Tekara chose to place these in frames


Folded Thank you notes with the couple's monogram



Julia and Michael Stationery
I blogged about the Wedding Invitations and accessories we created for Julia & Michael's wedding. You can view the post here.

The couple had a Fiesta themed wedding celebration after their honeymoon. So we created a custom patterned backing for the invitations.


For Julia's Thank you note, she wanted to carry on the layering style from her other stationery. So we added a copper backing to the Flatcard. We created a married monogram for the couple. All items were completed in Raised print.



Amber and Daniel
I met with Amber, Daniel and Amber's Parents very early in the year (probably January). She was having a wedding on the Yacht and she wanted to incorporate a textured cardstock to her invitations. We came up with the idea of also incorporating the yacht watermark on the invitations as well. The bride loved the invitations and we were happy with the outcome as well. Amber and Daniel were married on October 1st in League City, Texas.

Folded Card with Textured backing



That's all folks! Enjoy the rest of the week...

Do you really custom make these?! (The making of a Custom Invitation)

Hi Everyone,
Hope you're having a great weekend!
I always get asked if we really make the custom invitations by hand and the answer is "Yes". For our custom invitations, we begin the process with the design (which is done in-house), before moving into production (also done in-house).

A while ago, a friend and colleague of mine suggested I write a blog on producing custom invitations. Due to the craziness of the wedding season, the last thing I had time for was taking pictures before, during and after production. There just isn't time to do that. As we were about to begin producing the invitations below, I remembered his suggestion and made a conscious effort to take pictures each step of the way. This is actually a fairly simple production line. There are more intricate/time consuming steps for other invitation styles. I hope to do another post shortly on another style.

So, here's a little behind-the-scenes look at our production. Every custom invitation process begins with the design/proofing phase. Below are the design proofs (not shown are the invitation & rsvp envelopes because they have our client's address:)) This invitation is a bit unique because it was done in 2 languages - Vietnamese and English. In addition, the American Invitation wording etiquette and order names are slightly different.

All the cardstock (Invitation layers, RSVP cards, Reception cards and Front Tabs)have been "raised" printed, cut and ready to begin.


The ribbon is then cut and ready to be "blinged up"


The first phase is to embellish the invitation layers with the ribbon and Rhinestone accents


The cut ribbon strips are embellished


The embellished ribbon is mounted onto the invitations


Cindy chose a z-card style invitation. The invitation layers are then mounted onto the Z-cards


The Reception cards are mounted onto the inner flap of the Z-card


Finally, the front tabs are attached to the front of the Z-cards


Voila! Completed Invitations!


Hope you enjoyed the post. Do have a lovely weekend!