Playing with flowers

I have discovered a new fascination of flowers. I love how a gorgeous posie can brighten up my day (even if it is just a picture).

I recently did a five-week course with Bloom College in Melbourne to learn the basics about flower arranging. It was so much fun and the highlight of my week. Every Tuesday I would learn a few more new skills and come home with a new bunch of flowers to brighten up my living room.

Here are the final creations.

A posie of roses and herbs which smelt AMAZING and a pomander of lemon carnations.
Who would have thought carnations could look so sweet.

A wreath of chrysanthemums, freesias, native Australian flowers and pears. So fresh and spring-like.

I am hoping to learn a few more skills over the next few months helping out my gorgeous friend Kim of LushKa. She is incredibly talented and has done some of the most amazing flowers I have ever seen. Will keep you posted.

Check out my Blooms board on pinterest to see what inspires me.

LOVE xx  

Colour inspiration {midnight blue}

Finding it tricky to decide on a colour palette for your big day?

Get inspired by my colour inspiration palettes. Midnight blue looks just divine with touches of coral, minty green and a splash of gold.

Left to right:

• Pink lemonade with blueberries – love the blueberries on the sticks
• C'est tout – Love, it's everything
• Wedding stationery – how beautiful is the envelope insert!
• Navy blue cake – SURPRISE it's blue!
• Midnight sky with festoon lighting – glorious
• Bunting in navy, green and lace – so pretty with the different fabrics and textures
• Hanging lanterns – hand painted
• Place settings – touch of navy in the ribbon
• Table decorations – love the timber ring
• Buttonholes – how sweet are these!
• Painted mason jars – colourful rustic

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Mel + Todd {Save the date}

Save the dates are such an exciting part of the wedding lead up. When they go out, it means it is all go and there is no turning back!! It's also a great sneak peak into what the day will bring for the guests.

Here is my latest design for Mel and Todd. They decided to do two different versions, one more formal and one with a little bit of cheek. They had a great image of their venue which they wanted to incorporate into the design. Can you tell where it is?

You can see the design I did for Mels 'Be my bridesmaid' here and stay tuned for the invite design coming soon!!

LOVE xx

Ana + Greg {wedding invite}

I am very, very excited to finally blog about this special invite. It has been a long time in the making, but it's finally here!!

After a secret engagement in Japan and then a surprise engagement party (AKA Ana's 30th Birthday), this couple set their date for January 2015 in beautiful Nelson, New Zealand.

I feel very honoured to be a part of the styling of this wedding and cannot wait to celebrate their big day with them! Bring on January!

This is how it arrived.

Ana and Greg are some of the styliest peeps I know and really appreciate clean, crisp design. This is where I got the inspiration for the geometric pattern. Ana's love of stripes also had a helping hand. I can't wait to adapt the design to all the different elements of the day. Watch this space!

Ana is Macedonian so the swing tags have both the Macedonian and English names of all the guests. And this is what it looks like unfolded. Notice the tiny portrait of their Miniature Schnauzer Ralph in the bottom right hand corner. Too cute.

Need stationery designed for your big day? Get in touch.

ENJOY xx

Kate + Evan's big day

The Blushing Teacups first 'real wedding' post!! Hip hip hooray!!

This gorgeous wedding took place in Kate + Evans most favourite Australian spot, Cape Bridgewater. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere on the coast near the Victorian and South Australian border. These two are the most creative DIYers I know. All the details of the wedding was made by them (with a little help from friends and family). They even did the catering!

I designed the invite for this lovely couple in the lead up to their big day. It featured their favourite tree which they then got portraits taken in amongst it's wild branches. I am not even going to try and attempt to describe just how beautiful this wedding is, I will let you see for yourself.

ENJOY xx

A huge Thank you to Kate + Evan for sharing these amazing photos with us. We would love to make this a regular thing, so if you are a bride or vendor that would like to share your photos, please get in touch. 

Photographer | Mile 14 Photography   Bouquets | Hummingbird Blooms   Rest of the flowers | Brides family friend   Stationery | The Blushing Teacup   Dress | Jayson Brunsdon   Rings | Anna Nalder Jewellery   Shoes | nu by neo and Eos   Hair | Gazebo   Makeup | Brides friend Emma   Bridesmaids dresses | Kachel   Grooms party attire | Roger David   Caterer | The bride and groom   Crockery and cutlery | Collected by the bride from op shops and garage sales throughout the Mornington Peninsula   Favours | Homemade chutney made by the bride and groom

Be my maid of honour

Two of our good friends Mel and Todd have just gotten ENGAGED! Whoop!! It is such an exciting time. Let the planning begin.

Mel asked me to design some little cards to send to her maid of honour and bridesmaids. Such a sweet idea. This is what I came up with.

There are so many great ways to ask your besties to be a part of your day. I loved the way I was asked to be bridesmaid for my friend Tamara. I was in Melbourne and she was in Auckland, so she asked me over skype. She held up about 8 A4 pages, one after the other. She had written/drawn a little story (including a picture of a bee for 'be') to ask me. It was awesome!!!

Would love to hear how you asked your bridesmaids to be a part of your day. Or any creative ways you have been asked to be a bridesmaid.

Get in touch if you need any wedding stationery designed, I would love to help.

LOVE xx

Logo design: Bread and Sniff it

In between designing wedding invites I also like to do a bit of branding work. Here is one I have finished recently.

Bread and Sniff it is a blog about food for the everyday cook. It is written by two of my very good friends Mel and Zen.

The girls had a clear vision of what they wanted their logo to look like. I enjoyed developing the freehand-style font. I hadn't really done much of this before, so it was fun to get all creative with it. It would work perfectly for wedding stationery too, especially as it is hand crafted and unique to every couple.

Mel, Zen and I threw around a few different ideas for the graphics and we finally settled on these gorgeous little hand drawn illustrations by Kelly J Sorenson. They worked perfectly with the organic forms of the letters.

The Blushing Teacup featured on Bread and Sniff it last year. Mel interviewed me about all my favourite foods and my love of tea. Then she cooked up my most favourite dessert, Sticky Banana pudding with toffee sauce and blogged about it. The best winter warmer in town. I have made it a couple of times lately when we have gone round to friends houses for dinner. It gets a thumbs up all round.

If you are ever in a pickle for some cooking inspiration, head on over to Bread and Sniff it and see what these lovely ladies have been brewing.

LOVE xx

Stationery design

Designing wedding stationery is a great passion of mine. It's really important to me when creating an invite for a couple, that the design truly reflects them and gives a sneak peak as to what their day is going to be like.

I was anxious about creating my own stationery for our wedding back in December 2013. I had so many ideas, had seen so many amazing invites and just didn't know if I was going to be able to make up my mind. But, surprisingly, it all come together quickly. The key was I knew the client (Me and Mark), I knew what we liked and what means the most to us. This is my strategy for creating the perfect invite. 

I began with the Save the dates.

Then came the best part, the invite.

We got these printed on a tea towel, a great keepsake
for our guests. Photo by Jill Andrews Photography.

Followed by the extra info booklet.

We also sent these out as a PDF attached to an email.
Photo by Jill Andrews Photography.

Details from the save the dates and invites were carried through to the Big Day. At the ceremony we had cocktails served in cream bottles with little swing tags draped around the neck.

Coral spotted straws complemented the swing tags and even the cocktail colours
were in theme too. Photo by Jill Andrews Photography.

At the reception we used the hall message board to welcome our guests.

Our silhouettes were a design element that we used throughout the day. I was
inspired by a tiny ink portrait of a woman we worked for in the UK. It is
amazing how a simple outline can look exactly like us!

The place names and the menu cards were incorporated into one card.

These napkins are available for hire. Get in touch.

And finally, when it was all over and done, the Thank you cards. I created a concertina showcasing some of our favourite shots (by Jill Andrews) from Our Big Day. A link to the short video we created was at the bottom of the spot where we wrote our messages of thanks.

 

If your big day is coming up, and you want some fabulous invites that represent the two of you, please get in touch.

LOVE xx

A well dressed table

I love, love, love, mix and match. So for our wedding I came up with an idea of having the napkins all different colours and patterns using vintage fabrics. The old school chairs, crisp white tablecloths, colourful napkins and fabulous flowers was the perfect mix to bring alive the old Colyton Hall.

Photography | Jill Andrews Photography

I folded the napkins into a pocket, then slipped the menu card in which had the guests name at the top. This sat on top of a vintage cake plate (to be used for dessert) with the knife and fork tied together with string on top.

Napkins | The Blushing Teacup, Vintage cake plates | Urban Charm,
Photography | Jill Andrews Photography

These napkins are available for hire. If you want to add a pop of colour to your day, please get in touch. There is 120 (46cm x 46cm) available in about 20 different fabrics.

Photography | Jill Andrews Photography

I love designing stationery for weddings and events. Menu cards are just another way to incorporate the design from your invites into your day. Please get in touch if you would like a quote.

Have your cake and eat it too

The cake is just one of the many highlights of a wedding. Especially when it tastes as good as this one did!

Cake | Janine Kasik, Flowers | LushKa, Crocheted tablecloth | The Blushing Teacup,
Tree stump cake stand | The Blushing Teacup, Photography | Jill Andrews Photography

One of Marks second mothers, Janine, made the carrot cake with cream cheese icing. Swoon. Janine is the most amazing cake decorator and her creations are stunning.

The flowers that graced the cake were done by the amazingly incredible Kim McMillan of LushKa. These beauties speak for themselves.

The tree stump is part of a fallen Totara tree off my farm. When I told Dad about the idea I had for the cake stand, he instantly knew where to get it from. It is very rustic with the mossy bits growing up the sides, there is a bit of charred wood from a fire and the rich colour of the timber is just beautiful. These are available for hire (3 available). They are 40cm (15inches) in diameter and about 20cm tall.

The Totara stumps can be used for anything. We displayed our vintage
drink dispensers filled with tasty cocktails on them (Urban Charm).
Photo by Jill Andrews Photography

The cream vintage tablecloth is also available for hire. It's square (145x145cm) with a doiley-style crochet pattern. It has a simple 2cm trim around the edge. This will make any table look gorgeous. We covered up our old camping table and used this to sign the register as well as to present the cake.

If you are interested in any of these items to compliment your big day, please get in touch.

Original wedding gift

This weekend we got back our first framed wedding portrait. And it looks fantastic.

Our lovely friends Ana and Greg gave us a voucher for our wedding from On Stone. We uploaded one of our favourite photos taken by Jill Andrews Photography to the website. From here they printed the image on stone, put a wooden frame around it and voilà, an amazing, unique way to present a moment from our Big Day. It looks so good sitting on our mantlepiece.

LOVE xx

Tamara + Mike

I have just returned from New Zealand after two weeks of weddings. Amazing. Best excuse to go home for a holiday if I ever heard one. One was my beautiful best friend Tamara and her now-husband Mike's big day.

I had the honour of being Tamara's matron of honour as well as designing their wedding stationery. Tamara is a curator at Sanderson Contemporary Art Gallery in Auckland and art is a big part of her life. Amazing works cover the walls of her and Mike's home and she wanted to include this in their invites. Since high school she has been obsessed with the Renaissance, so it was fitting to have two paintings from the era as the main feature. The design of the invites continued through with the rest of the stationery.

The day was a true tribute to the happy couple. Tamara who is mad on fashion had not only one fabulous dress, but two!!! And Mike who is a musician had ensured the day was filled with music which included 4 different bands playing throughout the day. The favours were these cute ceramic ornaments (see top right in the photo above) which Tamara had been collecting over the last 12 months. Mine was a little lamb. Love it.

I wish Tamara + Mike all the happiness in the world and look forward to the next chapter of their life together.

If you are after a designer for your wedding stationery, or any other events, please get in touch.

LOVE xx

Gorgeous branding in Colyton

I may be a dairyfarmers daughter, but I am not the hugest fan of milk. I know ... it's weird. But I could not help myself buying two bottles of milk from a new business that's opened in my home village, Colyton, New Zealand. 

Arran farms sells A2 milk pretty much straight from the cow. You cannot get any fresher than that. 

The branding is brilliant. I love it. I am a sucker for fabulous packaging and these little gems are awesome! You buy the bottles from a vending machine and then you fill them yourself with fresh creamy A2 milk. Imagine that on you weetbix in the morning. 

Maybe I should just man up and get on board the milk train. If you are ever in the best part of NZ (Taonui Road, Colyton) I highly recommend you drop in. 

xx

Tea towels as art

I have ticked off another post-wedding to-do. Framed our tea towel. And it looks FAB!!

I was at the Supergraph art fair a couple of weeks ago and spied at the Frankie exhibit some tea towels that had been framed in a really unique way. So enquired about them and was introduced to WILMA framing.

Got in touch and voilà our beautiful tea towel is now a piece of art.

If you need any framing done, I couldn't recommend WILMA enough. The frame is made of Tasmanian Oak with a two-tone finish. So it looks white when looking straight at it, but you see the natural timber from the side. Gorgeous.

xx

Kate + Evan

I had the privilege of designing this wedding invite for Kate + Evan. They tie the knot in just a few weeks. I cannot wait to see photos of this wedding as I know it will be amazing!! Both of them are so clever and creative. Their home is filled with treasures they have found, then spruced up with a bit of DIY, and the result, a masterpiece.

You may remember a post from a few years ago when we had a girlie weekend at Kate + Evan's home on the peninsula. Kate is the queen of op-shopping and garage sale hunting and I just know their wedding styling will be to-die-for.

The photo is of Kate + Evan's favourite tree from the area where they will get married. I added a bit of a vintage look to it to encapture their love of all things pre-loved.

My obsession for weddings has not let up after Our Big Day. I love designing invites, so if you are after a designer for yours, please get in touch. 

Our Big Day

We got married!!!!!

It was the best day and so nice to share it with all our wonderful family and lovely friends. The ceremony was at home in the garden where I grew up overlooking our dairy farm. Then followed by the reception at the local Colyton Hall. Here I played at pre-school, acted in drama productions, learnt knots at Keas and Cubs and partied at my 21st.  So it made sense to celebrate the best day of our lives in this fabulous old country hall. AMAZING!

 Here is a short video from Our Big Day.
ENJOY xx