Otherwise occupied.

 

Most of you know I'm a graphic designer.  Over the course of my 15 years in this profession, I've designed a lot of wedding invitations.  My first client was myself, and man was I demanding!  It was a job I obsessed over and revised countless times.  I downloaded no less than 120 possible fonts to use.  The mere mention of ink colors brought me to tears. (Were my bridesmaids dresses closer to Pantone 453 or 454?)  And trying to convince the printer to cut the tiny 3/4" squares for the ribbon adornments required some high-level negotiating.  It was well before the term was coined, but Bridezilla was definitely present during the whole invitation process.  In the end, though, it turned out quite stunning, if I do say so myself:

 
(The quote around the graphic is a favorite from Walt Whitman:  I give you my love, more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law: Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me?  Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?")

I went on to do invitations for my future brother and sister-in-law, a silvery design all wrapped up in shimmering platinum vellum and a chiffon bow:

And a rustic design for my brother and his wife, whose outdoor fall wedding required a casual look with vellum layered over corrugated kraft, topped with a hand-torn edge and sheer ribbon:

And then word got out and I started doing invitations for complete strangers. Originally, I would only agree to do up to 50 invitations.  Gradually, I caved in to the larger requests and this past week I did my biggest order ever for 130 invitations:

So, yeah, the contents of that box are what's been keeping me busy over the past week.  The hardest part?  Punching the holes at the top of each invite (through 3 layers of cardstock) with my crappy old single hole-punch.  I actually had to recruit Mike to help when my hand starting looking like a gnarly claw and cramped up.

But they are done!  (Can I get a YAHOO!  And possibly some Ben Gay for my achy hand?)  I'm delivering them tonight into the waiting hands of the bride-to-be.  Then the kiddos and I are packing up for a ski trip - hoping to get on the road before the forecasted snow starts rolling in.  I'll be back on Friday, hopefully with some great pics of the alpine adventures!

Have a good one, my friends!