Random: Norman Rockwell Painting

The Marriage License (1955) - Norman Rockwell

The Marriage License (2010) - Mike and Sharon

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Wedding Design - Childhood Inspiration

I had known from the beginning, this was going to be my favourite part of the whole preparation for this wedding - the invitation design (Well, of course, it would be!). There was no doubt it was going to be something quirky, ultra cool and lounge-y.

My inspiration came from the things that were a big part of my childhood: My father's collection of comic books from his younger days and the music we'd hear coming from the stereo in his study room: Playing the tunes from musical artists like Andy Williams, Connie Francis, Vic Damone and Mel Tormé to name a few.

Mike and I had spent an afternoon at a Starbucks downtown with our laptops (one of our afternoons sans "Our child" - aka: the pup) and I was listening to  Andy Williams et al when the idea came to me. It was something that I felt was a fun reflection of Mike and me.

Mike, who is always so supportive and confident in my ideas and designs (Thanks, sweetheart!), was still pleasantly surprised when I showed him the rough draft.

The turnaround time was fast. It only took one printed rough  proof, some minor adjustments and it was a couple of evenings with my bestest folding, gluing, cutting and drinking lots of wine putting together these invitations. The things girls talk about when they're slightly happy off of wine... definitely not suitable for sober ears. But then again, that's always been me and Carina (That will have to be for another post... AND another blog! HA!)

Here's Carina after she happily discovered the cornering tool. I "LET" her corner away all 4 corners of the 120 (x2) inserts. Let's see... that's...960 corners!!! She twisted my rubber arm.

The invitations have been sent so now we wait...

The exciting part is receiving the responses in the mail. Mike and I are like kids on Christmas morning. Just this past week I was upset when I got to the mailbox and discovered he had already gone to pick up the mail.

We are so touched by the little sentiments written at the bottom of the RSVP postcard from our guests.

We can't wait to see all of you! xoxo

More to come on my website (Launch date May 20, 2010) 

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Wedding Design to Baby Shower Design: Tabitha

Last year, I was contacted by a lovely, lovely bride-to-be from Ottawa, Ontario about designing her invitations. The idea for her invites came from her quick synopsis of where she met her husband-to-be: English class

She told me he was a Shakespeare buff and they wanted to incorporate this quote from As You Like It into the design:

No sooner met but they looked; No sooner looked but they loved; No sooner loved but they sighed; No sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason; No sooner knew the reason but they sought the remedy; And in these degrees have they made a pair of stairs to marriage.
~William Shakespeare, As You Like It (Act V, Scene II)~

I loved this bride already.

I'm not a huge fan of old Billy S (my sister is), but it reminds me so much of my dear grandmother who was an English Literature teacher at Fairfield Methodist School in Singapore that I felt a personal attachment to this design.

The bride was organized and knew what she wanted, but she also trusted me to design based on our email correspondence.

Fast forward to April 2010: A friend of hers sends me an email to request BABY SHOWER invitations for the previously mentioned lovely bride-to-be. I was, of course, thrilled to design for the next exciting step in their lives. Congratulations Tabitha and Amir!

More to come on my website (Launch date May 20, 2010)

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An unfortunate fortunate accident. RIP MacBook, bonjour MacBook Pro.

Have you ever looked back at a situation and thought you could've done something different to prevent the negative outcome? 

I have.

Last week I thought I would sit quietly at the dining table with a tasty mug of English Breakfast tea while I worked on a few client projects. I was home alone and the pup was not bothering me to play with him. He was, in fact, napping under the table on his back draped across my feet. What a perfect evening... or so I thought.

I was thinking to myself that I would back-up my laptop as soon as I finished this part of the illustration on this project as I hadn't done so in a few days because God forbid anything should happen to these projects.

Talk about foreshadowing.

I took the teaspoon out of the mug and dripped a few drops of tea on the table. I stood up to get a paper towel to wipe, but as luck would have it, my hip decided it would do the bump with the table and in slow motion, I saw the content of my mug swirl and rock.

At this point, my heart was in my throat as I reached out to stop the tilting mug. The life of my MacBook flashed before me and before I could let out a gasp, the mug tipped over and... SPLASH.

The single sheet of paper towel at this point would have been no use. 

I did what any designer whose hard work had just gone to waste would do. I cried.

I brought my laptop to the Apple store and the fella at the Genius Bar pointed out the damage to the motherboard caused by the heat and the sugar in my tea and quoted me the price for the part. 

$900 (sans labour). And this is IF everything else hadn't been damaged by my delicious drink.

I nearly vomitted. 

I made the decision to buy a new MacBook as I needed it to complete my pending projects.

I also made sure I contacted my clients who were expecting drafts and proofs on the weekend to let them know that I hit a little snag. They were all understanding (Thank you!).

Three things I learned from this experience: 

1. NO FOOD OR DRINKS around the laptop.
2. If the beginning of a night seems perfect, it probably won't be, seconds after you have that thought. 
3. If you ever think that you will do something later, DON'T. Do it right then and there.

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