Relative Designs

Wedding Invitations: Kristine & Matt

Lara — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:43:30 +0000

I was honored to be asked to work on the wedding invitations for my friends & recent newlyweds Kristine & Matt. Kristine & I have been friends for years. I still remember jumping on the trampoline in her backyard, talking about boys and giggling like it was yesterday. Wow how time flies.

What I love the most about Kristine & Matt is their love & appreciation for each other. They go together & compliment one another like a married couple should. I am so honored to have been a part of their special day.

We have spent the last several months brainstorming ideas & coming up with inspiration for their wedding invitations. Kristine fell in the love with the door display that would be located in the background during their ceremony the second she saw it. She wanted to include this door design in some way. I took the design of the door along with their wedding colors to come up with a design that I thought really suite them & their style.

Image by the bride Kristine

This is the design that we came up with based on the door design. Hope you enjoy!

I am so thrilled for them and wish them nothing but happiness for the future. Love you Kristine & Matt! Thank you again for allowing me to be a part of your special day.

BTW— Stay tuned b/c Kristine & Matt’s wedding program fans will be posted soon!

30th Birthday Party Invitations : Brad

Lara — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:27:17 +0000

There is nothing I love more than to work with a client that is truly thrilled about invitations & party details just as much as I am! It was such a pleasure to work with Shawna & she made the process such a breeze. She planned an amazing party for her husband’s 30th birthday located at the Wiedemann Hill Mansion with 70 people attending. It’s a gorgeous mansion built in 1894. It’s adorned with intricate wood, crown molding & gorgeous gold details. I took those details as the inspiration for the invitations & favor items.

BTW, Shawna is such a genius! For the party favors, she purchased BBQ sauce from her close friends that make their own homemade sauce. Shawna supplied me with a list of “30 ways to use BBQ sauce” which I designed cards & favor tags. Shawna attached the Favor Cards to the outside of the gift bags so that each couple left with their very own homemade BBQ sauce. Such a special gift for the guests and such a wonderful gesture for Shawna to include her friends’ BBQ sauce. I am sure a wonderful time was had by all.

Shawna had these kind words to say, “You may quote me in saying that of all the events that I have been apart of, you are by far the best vendor I have ever worked with. Your creativity is genious and I thank you for making the invitations for this party set the tone for what was a truly magical night for my husband.”

I hope to work with Shawna again in the future! She was wonderful!!

Invitation set includes: Invitation, belly band & mailing envelope

Invitation set

Close up of the wording

Guest Favor set includes: Favor card, belly band with tag

Favor Set

Favor Card

Invitation & Favor Card

Photo taken by Shawna

Isn’t this cake beautiful?! It looks delicious!

Photo taken by Shawna

30th Birthday Party Invitations : Mollie

Lara — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:15:05 +0000

I recently received a custom order for an invitation in honor of Miss Mollie from New York City. I worked with her friend Erica, that was hosting the party, to come up with a party invitation inspired by where the party was taking place. Take a look at the photos of the restaurant Beauty & Essex that helped to inspire me to develop this invite. I wish I would have had time to stop in while I was visiting NYC two weeks ago! The restaurant looks amazing!

image property of Beauty & Essex www.beautyandessex.com

Here is the design that I came up with inspired by the restaurant. Hope you enjoy!

Mollie's 30th Birthday Invite

My favorite part is the "30"

Packed up & ready to be mailed!

It’s important to put thought into a gift even when it’s off their registry.

Lara — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:00:29 +0000

Admit it. You love it when couples register at a local store for their weddings (the couples can admit that they love it too). Its great because this is your opportunity to just pick something right off a list & you know that they will love it since after all, they registered for it. My problem with this is, where is the personality & the thoughtfulness put into this? Not really there, right? So how do you give a gift off their registry that you know they want & still feel like you haven’t taken the easy way out?

I’ll give you a little secret about what I do. I usually find out as soon as I can where the couple is registered & start doing my homework. So they registered for a pizza roller, cheese grater & an oven mitt. Take this idea up a notch. Why not buy all those items they need but also include something personal? Remember that time Kristine mentioned that she loved your homemade pizza sauce?* Package your pizza sauce up along with the recipe. It’s something the couple can both enjoy & will love. Not to mention appreciate the fact that you remembered how much they loved that pizza sauce.

This in fact was my exact experience with a bridal shower gift. Check out the photos of the gift my husband & I gave to the happy couple. A whole pizza making ensemble. Most of which was right off their registry.

Gift giving does not have to be bland when it comes to shopping for something off a couple’s registry. You just need to be inventive & know the couple you’re shopping for. For more suggestions on gift giving from registries, I’d be happy to give them. Shoot me an email at Lara@relativedesigns.com. Happy shopping! :)

*Note: The pizza sauce is in fact my mother-in-laws recipe & it’s FABULOUS!

Bridesmaiding: Help for a damsel in this dress!

Lara — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:53:40 +0000

THIS IS FOR ALL YOU BRIDESMAIDS OUT THERE!

I recently came across this blog/website and thought I would share it with all of you bridesmaids looking for ideas, tips, advice & definitely laughs. Being a bridesmaid can be a stressful role especially with all of the duties/responsibilities that come pouring in the second you say “I do” (to being a bridesmaid of course). Finally there is a blog/website out there to help all of us along as we try our very best to make the wedding day (& all the days leading to) special for our little bride-to-be.

What I like most about this blog is that it’s so relaxed & full of laughs that I found myself cracking up & much more at ease knowing that the role doesn’t have to be so stressful. The creator Rachel Rosenthal believes that “real women are bridesmaids too”. She says that, “The few bridesmaid resources that are out there seem to be for the high maintenance lady and proved completely unhelpful when trying to plan for her laid-back and down-to-earth girlfriends”. I would have to wholeheartedly agree. I have spent countless hours trying to research duties, creative party ideas, etc. & would often give up feeling frustrated with the information that’s out there.

Go check out bridesmaiding.com & your little bride-to-be will be thanking you for over & over.

Introducing: the NEW studio space

Lara — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 21:04:06 +0000

I most certainly have left you hanging when it comes to the new studio space. But let’s be honest, a girl’s gotta get her things just right before snapping & posting pictures anywhere ;)

We officially moved in last month & it’s been great so far! Love the area I’m in and I’m enjoying getting more acquainted with Columbus & the businesses here. I am sharing the studio space with a few other small businesses & have been enjoying the company. Please check out the studio space below, comment & let me know what you think of it! Then– COME VISIT! :)

Bachelorette Party Invitations : Allison

Lara — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:47:59 +0000

These stylish invitations are cute and girly and perfect for a classy bachelorette party. Don’t you think?

Allison is a classy Texan lady so we wanted an invitation that described her personality. This invitation is a good spin on what everyone is traditionally used to with bachelorette invitations. Everyone has different personalities so isn’t it great that we can capture that in an invitation? We think so. We hope you enjoy. :)

Mountains : Vacation & Work

Lara — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:17:04 +0000

My husband and I just got back from a vacation that we took to Breckinridge Colorado last week. We stayed with a good friend from college (we miss you Nick!) who lives literally within a short walk of the ski lift. It was a nice get-a-way where we were able to enjoy some snowboarding, sightseeing and a break from everything.

Now that it’s over, I didn’t realize that we would be leaving the mountains of Colorado to arrive back to Columbus to find more mountains…

…mountains of work that is ;) Bit of a stretch? Yeah, you’re probably right, haha.

But regardless, we have lots on our to-do list. Among some of the items on my work to-do list is a huge item… MOVING! Woo hoo! We have begun moving into our new building and cannot wait to share pictures with you very soon! We have some serious shopping to do to spruce up my area (it’s quite sad looking currently) but as soon as we have it just right, I’ll share with all of you the photos of our new “home”.

Until next time, I’ll leave you with a photo from our vacation…

Josh’s 30th : surprise birthday party

Lara — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:04:11 +0000

Over the weekend, we celebrated one of my best friend’s husband’s 30th birthday. Except it was a total surprise to him! Meredith (Josh’s wife) and I worked on this project for a couple of months, brainstorming the possibilities. Meredith booked the party at Brew’s Cafe in Granville, Ohio. It has a great atmosphere and great food (make sure you get the Turkey Bacon Cheddar Melt — to die for!) and they had a live band playing there for everyone to enjoy.

When we started working on the details of the invitation, we decided to create a logo for Josh’s birthday. However, we wanted it to resemble a beer logo since Brew’s has hundreds of different types of beer, imported & domestic. We also created the invitation to be a self-mailer so there would be no envelope required to mail his invitations out. We sealed the mailer off with a wrap address label.

I had a blast working on this invitation and all of the little details of the party. We had just the right amount of details to make it fun without it feeling like a 2 year old’s birthday (although, I’m not sure how many 2 year olds have beer themed parties, hmmmm, disturbing thought, haha).

BTW… Bob Evans couldn’t make it to the party. He had a business to run or something?? ;)

After we had the invitations out into the mail, we then decided to have coasters made as the guest party favors. We also created cupcake inserts with the logo to be placed into each of the cupcakes. Then Meredith asked if we could have a poster created that everyone could sign while at the party. What a great idea! She is going to have it framed and hang it in Josh’s “man cave” (aka garage) at their home. Really a great idea so that whenever Josh sees his poster he will be reminded of his party & how many people care and love him :) Awww! :)

Here are a few pictures from the party… it was a great time and Josh had a great time too! ;)

Oh so beautiful : BHLDN Wedding line

Lara — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:45:39 +0000

The count down begins { 10 days } for Anthropologie’s new wedding line BHLDN unveiling on February 14th. Awe– Valentine’s Day, how fitting <3

There isn’t much to see just yet on their site but definitely enough to get anyone excited! Can’t contain your excitement & want to know more? Check out their news release for more details.