Month: March 2015

  • Real Wedding: Megan and Mike’s Unique Bucket List Themed Wedding

    Real Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. SmithHand-Painted-Weddings_StephanieSmith_wedding_2

    Real Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. SmithReal Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. Smith

    Real Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. SmithReal Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. SmithReal Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. Smith

    Real Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. Smith

    Real Wedding: Megan and Mike - Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photos by Stephanie A. Smith

    I am so excited to share a glimpse of Megan and Mike’s gorgeous wedding at the Phoenixville Foundry, right outside of Philadelphia. This wedding is chockfull of inspiration and pretty, little details that I’m sure you will find inspiring if you are planning your wedding.

    Megan and I went to college together and were sorority sisters, so I was lucky enough to be a guest at Megan and Mike’s beautiful wedding, as well as create their invitations and escort cards.

    Megan is a yogi (girl after my own heart), health coach, and the blogger behind Simple.Savvy.Self, so a natural, organic look flowed throughout their wedding. The couple also incorporated a unique bucket list theme to their wedding because of their engagement story. Mike proposed to Megan as they planned their bucket lists, and of course, romantically spending their lives together was top of their lists. The bucket with M&M for their initials adorned their invitations.

    As avid travelers (they went to Cape Town, South Africa for their honeymoon!!), travel locations were very much on their bucket list, and intermingled in the details of their wedding. I love love love how they found this vintage map mural to take a wedding photo in front of! To keep with the theme, they also had travel postcards and a suitcase at their guest book station, so that guests could write little tips on each postcard and place it in the suitcase.

    Megan is also one of my more fashionable friends, and I can’t get enough of how beautiful her dress and super fun green shoes were!

    Photos by Stephanie A. Smith. Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings.

  • Featured on Hatch.co International Women’s Day!

    Photos by Shari DeAngelo. Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.Hand-Painted Weddings on Hatch.co Hand-Painted Weddings on Hatch.co

    I am very excited to announce that Hand-Painted Weddings was chosen as one of 7 up-and-coming female creatives celebrating International Women’s Day on Hatch.co! It was such an honor to be chosen for this feature. For those of you that don’t know, Hatch.co was founded by a woman, Anastasia Leng, who left her job at Google to create a “a marketplace for unique made-to-order products created by a community of handpicked professional designers and makers.” Hatch is similar to Etsy but much more refined because an artist needs to qualify to sell products on this site.

    Anastasia contacted me directly to see if I’d be interested in celebrating International Women’s Day by creating an interpretation of the Hatch logo. The only stipulation was to keep the tipi intact. I was like, of course!!

    I have to say that this project was one of those projects that I had a breakthrough (ah-ha moment) around midnight the day before it was due, and I was so happy with the creation that I could barely fall asleep and was still glowing with excitement for days after! After I sent the artwork to Hatch, I received a response that the team gasped when they saw it! Have I mentioned that I love my job!

    I had another ah-ha moment when I was digging into the inspiration of this logo interpretation, and why it resonated so strongly with me. I am copying the blurb that is beside the logo below for readability:

    “I am an artist and a businesswoman. I find my peace in my daily yoga practice, while I find my energy every day in the gloriously energetic city of Philadelphia. I find that this balance between opposites is where I like to create and be. It is also how I paint; I have chosen watercolors as the perfect medium for Hand-Painted Weddings because while it is loose and flows, I bring an distinct attention to detail in my paintings, creating that sexy balance between the two in my work.

    The design is inspired by my favorite flower, the pansy. I love how the pansy is delicate yet bold in its colors. The bold watercolor flower painting is juxtaposed with the sexy, metallic gold diagonals of the Hatch logo, creating an intriguing balance between explosion and structure. As businesswomen, we strike many balances in our lives, and I wanted to express that strength and power in this logo in celebration of Female Creative Business Owners.”

    I feel like I found my voice in explaining my process, which is so personal that it is hard to distinguish and put into words. I’m sure other creatives feel similarly; it is really hard to explain your creativity as an artist (where it comes from, what drives it). It makes interviews and “About” pages challenging. After yoga one day, when my head is the most clear, I realized it… I have struggled explaining who I am because I don’t really fit into a box. I am a balance of opposites (sometimes teetering), but once I saw it, I noticed the idea seemed to flow through many aspects of my life from the way I paint, to the way I work, to the way I am. I’ve got to tell you, it was a revelation.

  • Real Wedding: Jess and Kevin at PAFA

    Real Wedding. Easel watercolor escort cards by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.Real Wedding. Posted on Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.Real Wedding. Posted on Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.

    Real Wedding. Easel watercolor escort cards by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events. Real Wedding. Posted on Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.Real Wedding. Posted on Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.

    Real Wedding. Posted on Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Shari Angelo. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.

    I love working with couples on their reception day paper needs because it gives me the opportunity to get involved with all of the fun, little details of their wedding day. I worked with Jess and Kevin on their escort cards and menu cards, who got married at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA).

    Both the menu cards and the escort cards featured this beautiful, soft purple watercolor wash I painted to match the uplighting at their reception. The escort cards were so much fun; they were inspired by the easel escort cards Truly You Events and I did at the styled shoot last year. I was so excited to see how the escort card easels came out for this gorgeous real wedding. They are the perfect compliment to an art gallery wedding!

    Photos by Shari DeAngelo. Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings. Wedding planning by Truly You Events.