Client Wedding featured in Southern Weddings Blog

I just love all of the creative weddings that our alternative guestbooks are a part of. Its especially exciting when they recognized by such a wonderful publication as Southern Weddings! This sweet bride was married this spring in Charleston in a beautiful and perfectly southern seersucker wedding gown. Oh and she also used our classic twisted oak guestbook fingerprint tree to commemorate the special day. Enjoy a few highlights here and hop on over to her feature in Southern Weddings for the full dish. http://iloveswmag.com/2013/08/21/seersucker-and-pink-wedding-by-pasha-belma/

What a dress!

On THE Dress: Before we went dress shopping, my mother bought several wedding magazines and passed them on to me. I found an amazing dress in Southern Weddings: The Libertine by Ian Stuart. I called my mom as soon as I saw it and told her I had found my dress. She asked me to describe it and said, “When I saw that dress, I knew it was the one for you.” I called several stores trying to locate a sample in blue and we went to see it a few days later. Since I had chosen such a distinctive dress, I decided to keep it a secret from everyone except my parents until the big day. On the morning of our wedding, I had the photographer and videographer capture my bridesmaids’ reactions to my dress.

I love the idea of an Adventure Book for your marriage, what a sweet way to join bucket lists, and create a life of complete adventure. How well this would go with our Up! inspired guestbook thumbprint balloons as well!

 

Did you decide to do a “first look”? Why or why not? We decided to stick with tradition and not do a first look. I am glad we made that decision because my favorite part of our wedding video is seeing my 6’8” husband stand on his tiptoes trying to see me above the crowd before I walked down the aisle.

Reception details:

The finished guestbook fingerprint tree in our beloved twisted oak design by BDT Handmade. https://www.etsy.com/shop/bleudetoi/search?search_query=twisted+oak&order=date_desc&view_type=gallery&ref=shop_search

For more details, visit Southern Weddings Blog.

House a Home

Every now and then we get a sweet request to turn someone's new home into a floating house. I love this idea. Now, it does not work for every house (example a rambling ranch house, huge mansion or home too covered by treed to get a good picture of it aren't good material for this concept). This is a great idea for a housewarming party or a wedding where the couple has bought a new home or are having their wedding at a unique architectural venue. Here is a shot from someone's wedding we were sent today. Love it. When its all filled in, the balloon will make it fly!

Their wedding reception was held at the Historic Blaisdell Manor.
Contact us about crafting a custom drawing of a special building for you too!

Steamin' right along

Back in April we had the pleasure of attending, and working on, the lovely wedding of Claire & Eddie in Savannah, GA. It was a peachy keen affair and so unique to the couple. Check out their wedding, featured today on Grey Likes Weddings.

Their ceremony was in a picture-perfect, charming country chapel surrounded by spanish moss, while the reception was in a bona-fide train museum (a perfect setting given the groom is an engineer). For this special couple we developed a train themed guestbook to match the setting. This carefully crafted drawing is complete with a steam engine, hopper, passenger car (with their pets in the windows), and caboose.

Each of the guests left their fingerprints (or thumbprints) above in smoky shades of grey and blue to look like the puffs of steam coming from the engine. Now it hangs proudly in their home as a memory of that special day.


We were so happy with how it turned out that weve decided to offer the unique designs for a variety of your most special, train loving events.



My nephew, who turns 3 this month, is obsessed with thomas the train (and anything train related) and will have a smaller version of the personalized fingerprint steam engine at his super fun birthday party.

This product is the perfect special touch to a birthday party for your favorite train loving toddler. We can personalize markings on the side of the train to commemorate the special celebration. The train shown below has the year but you could also add something like "____ turns 3" or "Conductor ______" in addition to whatever text you like below.

Shown here with fingerprints in stormy-sky blue, weathered wood blue and frayed burlap brown. Pumice stone grey and antique paper tan would also be great (shown on the wedding train above). For the wedding train, we added the love birds to the top of the caboose, for a sweet added touch (not shown above)

Get on the train and get your today! Request the steam engine only design for smaller parties (15-30 guests on a 11x14" size x-small or 30-70 guests on a 15x20" size small paper) or the full train with three cars for larger parties (up to 200 guests). 

Available at our etsy shop today!

For more pics of Claire and Eddie's beautiful day visit Jade + Matthew Take Pictures.

Claire & Eddie's wedding vendors: Photographers: Jade + Matthew Take Pictures // Ceremony: Whitefield Chapel at the Bethesda Home for Boys // Reception: The Roundhouse Railroad Museum // Bride’s dress: from an antique clothing store in California // Florist: Garden on the Square // Paper Goods: The Nimbus Factory(the bride’s design boutique) // Desserts made by the bride’s dad // Bride’s jewelry: Modern Pixie // Guestbook: Bleu De Toi // Groomsmen Ties: 8 Commander (the bride’s brother) // Lighting: K& H

Katie & Matt's wedding featured in Wisconsin Bride Magazine

We received word yesterday that the wedding of one of our lovely clients was featured in Wisconsin Bride Magazine, both in print and web! It was a phenomenal event with the ceremony at Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum and reception at Bacchus Restaurant in Milwaukee. I love the aged architectural details and views of the lake at the reception and the stunning greenhouse room at the reception. Katie ordered a guestbook thumbprint balloon drawing in our original house design.  I looks great!

Check out a few images of their big day below. Photography by Erica Rose

The reception was a brunch. Such a fun alternative to the traditional dinner reception.

Gown: Melissa Sweet | Shoes: Kate Spade | Hair & Makeup: Janice Well Spa at the Pfister Hotel | Bridesmaid Dresses: David’s Bridal | Tuxedos: Jos. A Bank | Cake: Simma’s Bakery| Flowers: daffodil*parker | Invitations: Wedding Paper Divas | Bird House Card Holder:Door County Woodworks | Thumbprint Guest Book: Bleudetoi | Harpist: Amanda Basich | Videographer: One Fine Day | Day-of Coordinator: Laura Ursin from Brides on a Budget

True Woodcuts in action

We love seeing photos from events that have used our products. One that we think is great are our artisan True Woodcut prints. Here are a few from a wedding that used one of the True Woodcuts at their event in October.

Getting the whole family into it:)

The finished product.

 Congrats to Amber and Andy!

Briar + Jason's geek chic wedding

Featured on 100 Layer Wedding Cake:

Briar and Jason are a super cute couple that decided to have their wedding at the place they fell in love, MIT. That’s why their ceremony was held at the MIT Chapel, a mid-Century architectural masterpiece. The pops of lavender aside sage succulents, the surprise hint of blue tulle underneath Briar’s dress, to the scientific beakers used as vases – these two make geek chic one of 100 Layer Wedding Cake's new favorite looks of 2012. The talented Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio captured both their nuptials and their engagement session.

From Briar: We both went to MIT (me for undergrad, he for grad school), so we held the ceremony at the MIT Chapel, a mid-Century architectural masterpiece (designed by Eero Saarinen in 1955). We liked the intimate space, and fact that the chapel is right in the heart of MIT’s campus. We asked a close friend to marry us because he’s known both of us for the entirety of our relationship together, and because we knew he’d bring in elements to the text of the ceremony that would have been missing otherwise, such as anecdotes about Ryan Gosling cupcakes.

Briar and Jason had guests make their mark at the reception by leaving their prints on the tandem bike guestbook balloon. We love the color combo! (shown with chipped sapphire, dusty concord and broken china)

Love the succulents and lavender in glass jars at each table, grouped together by regular vases and scientific equipment. Erlenmeyer flasks were made into terrariums, beakers were turned into desertscapes, and fiddleheads and seasonal flowers added to the mix everywhere.

Congratulations Briar + Jason!

Photography: Fat Orange Cat Studio / Ceremony venue: MIT Chapel / Reception venue: Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center / Flowers: Floral Design by Laura Jean / Invitations: letterpress printed and assembled by Briar (bride) / Catering: East Coast Grill / Cupcakes: Sweet Cupcakes / Cake: homemade / Bride’s dress: Oleg Cassini for David’s Bridal / Jewelry: Kendra Scott / Groom’s attire: custom made at the Andover Shop, cufflinks from Etsy.com / Guestbook balloon drawing: Bleu de Toi Handmade

Client Wedding with Handmade Paper Flowers

Via Green Wedding Shoes

Renata + Jess's stunning engagement photos were featured on Green Wedding Shoes (our fav wedding blog) last year… They were recently featured again with their beautiful handmade wedding photographed by the super talented Studio Castillero. Check out some of the beautiful details... including our original guestbook thumbprint balloon inspired by "UP!"
Congrats to Nata + Jess and thanks for sharing your beautiful day with us, via GWS!


From the Bride: Our ceremony was super intimate – about 30 of our closest family and friends. Because we try and spend as much time outside as possible, the botanical garden was an ideal setting for us. My friend, Keoki played us down the aisle (an acoustic version of one of my favorite Dashboard Confessional songs) and our friend Chad was the perfect officiant. My favorite DIY projects for the ceremony were the giant paper flowers I made – the bouquets were made from crepe and tissue paper; the wedding arch was made of cardstock. Because the ceremony site was so simple, I wanted to contrast that with the graphic appeal of bright, oversized flowers.





One of my favorite touches, besides the fingerprint balloon in an art gallery, are these amazing handmade paper flowers. What a stunning statement, and so affordable!




“Til Death Do Us Party” was the theme of the evening and around 100+ people. We thought an art gallery/museum would best suit our tastes and I was so lucky to find San Diego Art Institute. They don’t normally advertise as a wedding space so there was a bit of legwork to find it, but so glad I did! The gallery had a ton of great art already and we opted out of a sit-down dinner, which meant I didn’t have to do much with the decor (though there was no shortage of things to do!). It took us 5 hours to prep the reception space before the wedding…I definitely had no idea how much work it’d actually be.









Visit the full blog post at GWS for more photos
vendors:
photography: Studio Castillero // dress: Brides By Demetrios // hairpiece: Twigs and Honey // bridesmaid dresses: Coralie Beatrix // groom’s suit: Banana Republic Outlet // groom’s tie: Good Heavens // ring book: Conduit Press // ceremony: San Diego Botanic Garden // reception: San Diego Art Institute // lights, audio, dj: RED Audio // cupcakes: Have Cake! // food: Heather Aaker
// guestbook thumbprint balloon design: Bleu de Toi