What I've Been Up To Lately

I've been knee-deep in a few projects, making it tough to post more often.  I wanted to share the few things I've been working on the past couple weeks, and hopefully this week I'll also have another "I Love You, California" post for y'all.  I have a few in the hopper, who knew there were so many amazing things to do with your babes, toddlers and chilluns in the Bay Area?

First, I've been working on a website and branding for my parents, the beekeepers at River Road Honey Farm.  They started out in 2005 with just a few hives, and 7 years later it's a whole operation!  I love simple, clean and charming websites, so this was a really fun one to be working on.  It's not done yet, I'm hoping it will wrap up this week.

I've also been working on a wedding album for my dear friend Sara.  She got married in Hawaii in April, and I've been creating a super special album for her.  I love wedding albums, don't you?  It brings back memories of looking through my grandparents album and thinking about how young and chic they were.  I know many people forgo the album these days, but to me it's a tangible and beautiful artifact of your wedding day to share for generations.

This is my favorite page from the album.  The bride is seriously cool and a indie music lover.  She is genuine, funny and unique, and I wanted to create something that reflected her personality.  I create all my albums without templates, using only the photos and story of the day to inspire an album that is absolutely personal.  For this layout, I was inspired by an album that won WPPI’s Wedding Album of the Year in 2012.  The photographer Jerry Ghoinis said about it "I thought I would take a risk and create a polaroid collage creating a sense of movement in each spread. It makes a 2D image almost appear 3D. It was like creating a puzzle from the inside out with no knowledge of the final image."  Amazing.  This page is a collage created from five different images of their sky lantern send off.  It was the most fun I've had on a project recently, I felt like I was in the zone creatively speaking and so thrilled about the final result.  I LOVE a good puzzle!

Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately.  Hope your weekend was as motivating as mine was.  Happy Monday everyone!

Project: My Sister's Wedding

My dear big sister Martina got married last September to the love of her life (yay!)  Nosy, bossy sister that I am, I pushed and prodded my sister to do this or that for her wedding exactly my way. Sometimes I won, sometimes she resisted and I'm so glad she did.  The wedding was gorgeous, and a compromise of our two different styles.  It was our first time working on a large project together, and I'm so so so thrilled it was such a success.

As a wedding present, I designed and printed her wedding invitations. Later I also edited her wedding video, and made her wedding album (below.)  Suffice to say I was knee-deep in her wedding for quite some time! This was my first time designing an entire wedding suite solo and I love how it came out. Her only request was to use navy, and I wanted to incorporate at least one of the colors from her very colorful mood board to bring it to life without looking too wild.  I included custom maps for the rehearsal dinner invitation and for the wedding details insert, and screen printed the return envelopes with my gocco.  The invitation suite was the perfect representation of Martina and Gurkan, and their subtly industrial, 20's vintage, and modern special day. 

I remember my girlfriends telling me how important your wedding photos are when I was planning my wedding, how it's "all that's left" after your big day.  I thought it was silly to think that, you have your memories!  But now a few years later I realize they were right, it's those pictures that bring back the special memories when I look through my wedding album.  I was so excited to put together an album of memories for Martina and Gurkan to cherish.  The book is 15 layouts for a total of 30 press printed lay flat pages mounted on thick cardstock.  The cover is premium black leather, so soft and totally classic.  It was hard to send it on to her, I flipped through the pages a dozen times. She was a real stunner in that dress, wasn't she?

The whole project was really amazing and I'm sad it's over.  On to other projects!

(all pictures of wedding invitations and wedding album by me, photography for Martina's wedding by the incredibly talented Liana Elizabeth Photography)