The Blog

Letterpress Printing Our Wedding Invitations – Part I

Although it has been quiet here on our Wedding Blog, things have been in full swing with wedding planning for us. The latest project we are getting checked off our list is our wedding invitations! I have been diligently sketching, designing, re-designing, agonizing over fonts, pixels, paper and researching like crazy. Tomorrow is the day I get to go pick up our invitations. After quite the process of everything involved, saying I am excited is completely underrated. I have been dreaming of our invitations for weeks now, and am so anxious to hold them in my hands!

After giving a lot of thought on the invitations, knowing I wanted to do them myself, and wanting them to be something I am really proud of as a designer, I decided I wanted to do letterpress. I have been collecting images of inspiring images of invitation suites, or other stations pieces, to gather my mind around what I wanted to do. Some of my favorite sites and blogs for finding these are Oh So Beautiful Paper, Moglea, Maemae Paperie, 100 Layer Cake, Style Me Pretty, Typography Served, Lovely Stationary, For Print Only, and The Dieline. That is only to name a few!

Before even thinking about the final design though, I started doing my research on how I could do letterpress on my own. I found that there was a kit I could use with the Big Shot Die-Cut Machine that my mom already owns so went ahead and bought the kit to try it out. Also in my research, I found that it was rather a simple process to get my own plates made, and started the reading up on all the available documentation on Boxcar Press. They also sent me a sample plate to see how it would work in the material we would need. In addition to the plates, I knew I needed to do my research on paper.

Boxcar Press Sample Polymer Plate

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Wedding Makeup Trial

Last Saturday, before Bob’s birthday celebration, I went to have my makeup trail done for the wedding. After lots of researching I found Kelsey Zabawa. Our photographer, Laura Murray,had recommended her, and after Jess said she was going to do a trial with her, I thought I would arrange it on the same day. I had a picture of exactly what I wanted, something natural, but more done up than my everyday, and she perfected it!

I am just so thrilled about how gorgeous it turned out and how well it lasted through the entire day, I wanted to share, just a little peek (just disregard how cheesy the selfie in the bathroom is!)

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Bob’s 27th Birthday

Once a year, for just about a month, Bob and I are the same age…and it is glorious!  In year’s past I have gone all out for his birthday, to show him just how much I love and appreciate him. Things have included a Beach Party at A-Basin, a brewery limo tour that ended with a surprise party with dozens of his friends and family members, and an Urban Beer hunt downtown last year. Now that he has been on a whiskey kick the past 6 months or so, I thought it would only be appropriate to take him on a distillery tour, so to Stranahan’s we went! I kept it a secret from Bob up until the day of. He knew we were having a “party” of sorts, but didn’t know the details, or where we were going. I had made the tour reservations about a month in advance (it is a popular tour) and dinner reservations immediately following at the attached restaurant, The Rackhouse Pub.  There were ten of us, and we toured the facility with the very knowledgeable tour guide, then went into the tasting room to learn how to appreciate the taste (something I have yet to acquire.) It was a nice low-key afternoon with some of our best friends, and know Bob appreciated it all!

Stranahans Whiskey Distillery Tour

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Spring Fling Cake Recipe

 

Spring Fling Cake

Spring is the start of birthday season for our family, starting with Dad’s and Rebecca’s in March, followed by David’s and Bob’s in April, then finally mine and Mom’s in May, before the summer season of birthdays. With Bob’s birthday coming this Friday, I was in a bit of a baking mode, especially with the warm and sunny weather before this current snow storm. My baking adventures started on Friday night with baking an Atlantic Coast Pie, after hearing the All Things Considered article on Thursday evening that had me and Bob both craving it. Saturday the baking continued with the Spring Fling cake and bonus cupcakes for Jess’s birthday celebration and our family get together Sunday night.

The Spring Fling cake is a bit of a spring tradition for us, and although I don’t remember when I actually started getting a piece from The Market each season, when I found the recipe in The Denver Post online archive three years ago, I have been making a cake ever since. Of course it is a quicker and easier process to go down to The Market in Larimer Square, but there is a bit more satisfaction when taking that first bite after baking the cake from scratch. So enjoy the Spring Fling Cake recipe!

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Marbled Easter Eggs

Easter this year was a little different for us, with Rebecca being in Sweden, and David and Sarah on vacation to visit her. Bob and I went to my parents’ house, where we were joined with Grandma Peg, Aunt Diane, Uncle Bill, Brandon and Tyler, and our surprise visitor, Andy Schell! It was a nice low key get together, with lots of food and wine, and managed to get everyone together to do a massive Skype call with the family abroad!

Easter Brunch at the Garner House 2013

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