June Showers

Now that I'm back from the Stationery Show, I'm in a sea of to-do lists (of the wedding variety). But tasks aside, the fun is really beginning to start! This month we'll be taking a trip to Cape Cod with Mr. Bliss' family, I'll be attending my very own bridal shower and then I'm off to the shower of one of my bestest friends. Christa is getting married a few weeks before me in August and let me tell you, there is nothing better than sharing this crazy/wonderful time with a great friend. Our weekly phone calls minimally last an hour now as we dish about all of our details and to-dos. I am so grateful to be sharing this experience with a wonderful friend!

While we're keeping the details of Christa's shower under wraps, all of the guests have received their invitations so I can give you a peek. Since the bride loves to cook (she'd be a terrific fill-in for Giada on the Food Network should she ever choose to retire), we decided to ask each woman to bring a special recipe to share with Christa at the shower.

I found the cutest recipe cards from Etsy seller WinifredStudios.




Then I bought pretty imprintable invitations. I was on a short time frame so imprintables were perfect because I was able to print them at home and have them ready in a few days.



The two pieces paired together perfectly.



I wrapped it all up with a coordinating double-faced satin ribbon and they were ready to go.



Before I left for the stationery show, I made a quick trip to the post office and off the invites went. Now I just hope that guests remember to bring their recipe cards to the shower!

Day 2 from the Stationery Show

Yesterday was a blur of activity.

First, I started out the day bright and early with 2 essential things for stationery show survival: caffeine and flat shoes.

From retailers to the media, the booth was crowded throughout the day. One of the highlights was the visit from the Martha Stewart Weddings team. These stylemakers know their stationery!

Here's a shot of Martha Stewart Weddings Editorial Director Darcy Miller catching up with Crane Brand Director Megan Kuntze.

Wedding magic is definitely in the air at the stationery show, but there's another brand of magic that is also making a big impression at the Crane booth...

(the man behind the magic)

Crane and Disney have partnered to create the Walt Disney Signature line of stationery - paper celebrating Walt's own vision and creative spirit.

From my first movie theatre experience (Snow White) to my first spin on Alice's wild teacups at Disney World at age 4, Disney has provided me with the fondest of childhood memories. Needless to say, it has been a thrill to be involved in the partnership between Crane & Walt Disney.

After the show the Crane Insider and I headed over to the Mandarin Oriental for the official launch party of the Walt Disney Signature stationery collection.

Luisa Huang, Senior Manager of New Business Development for Disney Consumer Products next to the Sleeping Beauty display at the Mandarin

The collection includes stationery, as well as beautiful journals by Eccolo and pens by Monteverde.

It was great fun to meet all partners involved in the project at the launch party. And after a full day inside the Javits Center, we enjoyed quite a view...

Crane's historian Peter Hopkins and me

Stationery Show - Day 1

We had a busy first day at the show with of the biggest names in wedding blogging stopping by the booth to see what was new.

First we had the stylish Vane of Brooklyn Bride, fresh from her inspiring wedding and European honeymoon. We had fun designing correspondence cards featuring her new initials. Here she is with me in front of our kate spade display window. She'll be guest blogging about weddings at design*sponge this week, so be sure to pop over there and check it out.




Next was Anne Chertoff of From From "I Will" to "I Do" , the oh-so-helpful wedding blog on iVillage. Here she is with the Crane Insider choosing colors for her correspondence cards.



Stay tuned for much more later!

Greetings from the National Stationery Show!

I have so much updating to do to the blog! From honeymoon planning to creating invitations for one my best friend's bridal showers - it's been a busy few weeks! But now my focus is on the National Stationery Show, and I'm blogging live from the Javits Center in NYC.

As the National Stationery Show Girls reported on Thursday, the Crane booth was just beginning to be built.



Peter Hopkins captured the walk-through at the booth yesterday.

And today we are ready to go!

Save-the-Date Part II

Once we had the wonderful map from Laura in hand, we had to figure out what to do with it. I considered creating a postcard with the map, but I was afraid the pretty little thing would arrive scarred with stickers and postal bar codes. After consulting the designers at Crane, we decided on a classic z-fold design.

We worked with Laura on the save-the-date text (I love her whimsical calligraphy) and she created an icon for the front of the save-the-date. We then sent all the files to Crane to be printed on 100 percent cotton Museo paper.

A week later, the save-the-dates arrived and we loved the final result.

I wanted to wrap something around the z-fold for presentation, so it was the perfect opportunity to bring in our primary wedding color: butter yellow. Armed with Offray satin ribbon and glue dots, I created simple ribbon wraps for the save-the-date cards.

Ta-da!

I addressed the envelopes (more on that in another post), affixed the pretty boat stamp and they were ready for the Post Office!

*Squee!*

While I was trying to organize the gillions of photos that I took for the "Save the Date Part II" post (sorry for the delay on that!), I was interrupted by a phone call...from my bridal salon...telling me...that MY WEDDING DRESS IS IN!

How am I supposed to get through the rest of the day with visions of silk taffeta dancing in my head?