The Literature Wedding Invitation is perfect for a couple getting married in a library, or for the couple who is in love with reading. I love when couples choose to bring their hobbies and loves into their wedding. A wonderful way to personalize your wedding is through your wedding paper starting with the invitation and continuing through wedding day paper such as ceremony programs, menus, escort cards, table numbers. Later this week I will be sharing more literature themed wedding inspiration.
Please note that the statue busts in this invitation can be male and male, or female and female upon request.
Comments Off on Marriage equality finally ruled legal in all states!
by Allison
I’m so excited to share in the happiness of today’s announcement that the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal in every state! There really is nothing more beautiful than the government taking this stand for love and marriage.
In celebration I am posting some beautiful same-sex marriage couple photos along with some same-sex wedding detail inspiration such as the Mr & Mr cake topper (which is also available as Mrs. & Mrs. from the same Etsy seller).
I’m really in love with the same-sex couple photos above. The love is so strong in these photos that it makes my heart melt! I am so happy that same-sex marriage is finally legal in all states.
Comments Off on Rainbow-inspired LGBT Pride wedding
by Allison
Rainbow-inspired LGBT Pride wedding is super fun and joyful! I love that a couple can go all out and incorporate many rainbow ideas into a wedding, or they can pick a bright color (or white) as their dominant color and then add rainbow accents such as a rainbow cake or cascading rainbow flower centerpieces. A white wedding with rainbow accents would be stunning!
This rainbow-inspired LGBT Pride wedding style is perfect for the same-sex couple that is looking for a lighthearted, happy wedding…the kind where the brides (or grooms) are wearing colorful Converse shoes as in the first inspiration photo above.
I also love the rainbow cakes I have been seeing…they vary from a colorful rainbow candy coated cake masterpiece to a white cake with rainbow cake layers inside as a surprise!
Comments Off on Pride Invitation in Celebration of LGBT Pride Month
by Allison
I made this invitation in celebration of National LGBT Pride Month. As a firm believer in same sex marriage equality, I believe that all of my invitations are made to be appropriate and unique to the couple, no matter the gender or sexual orientation. That said, I also wanted to design an invitation that specifically celebrates the Gay Pride movement, so I created this hand-painted watercolor rainbow invitation commemorating LGBT Pride month.
The rainbow art is bright and happy with a nod towards Gay pride which is more subtle than using gender graphics or symbols. I am really proud that I am in the generation where gay couples are receiving equal rights to be legally married. It actually blows my mind how long this government process has taken but it warms my heart every time a new state passes a law in favor of same sex marriages. This invitation is a design of celebration and pride, as well as a small prayer that we as a people will be accepting and welcoming of same sex couples.
What I like about custom favor tags is that you can customize the favors with the tags while leaving the favors classic and more universally liked. I’m not sure who likes those picture frames that say the couple’s names and wedding dates. I’m also a big fan of edible favors because they are cost-effective, can easily tie in a seasonal theme, and as a guest they come after a night of dancing and possibly a couple hours after the cake was served, making it the perfect time for a treat!
Like many couples, my engagement was about 16 months long. It felt like a long time, I’ll be honest, but it did allow me to plan ahead. My wedding was in October, so I was very inspired by the season. In fact, the year before I collected leaves off of one of my favorite trees in the park when the leaves were changing colors and stuffed them amongst the pages of a very large, heavy design book. Miraculously they didn’t crumble throughout the year, and I was able to place one on every one of my guest’s place settings. If you have an autumn wedding that is later in the season you can pick off the leaves right before your wedding, in which case the leaves will probably be more bright than if they hang around for a year. But my wedding fell on a year that the fall foliage held off until November, so I was lucky that I planned ahead.
If you don’t want to be that “interesting” person picking leaves off trees and putting them in a thick book for a year, you can get the same look by having autumn leaves escort cards. I painted these leaves from real ones I picked up around home, so they look very much like the real ones…probably brighter actually! Autumn leaves escort cards are small yet make a big impression to your table settings at your wedding. As one of my recent bride mentioned in a review on WeddingWire, “I didn’t realize how important these little details could be until I saw them with the rest of the decor the day of the wedding.”
Comments Off on Autumn Invitation with Gold Shimmer Accents
by Allison
This beautiful custom autumn invitation with hand-painted gold shimmer accents is an extension of the couple’s custom autumn save-the-date postcard that I featured on Monday’s blog post. One of the fun parts of my job is figuring out how to expand and grow a design from piece to piece such as I did here from the Save-the-Date to Invitation. It is much more fun if wedding paper is similar but not too matchy-matchy.
In this design the intertwined branches on the strong trees of the Save-the-Date design are zoomed into the delicate branches intwining in this loose border around the invitation. These intertwining branches expand and crawl into the edges of the RSVP card. The zooming into the branches is quite fitting from the Save-the-Date to the Invitation as the guest’s get more information about the upcoming wedding. I love how delicate yet strong this design is. I worked with this couple to design their Save-the-Dates at the same time as their Invitation and they were then able to stagger mailing them out.
Both the Save-the-Date postcards and the invitation had the gold watercolor accents added to them so they had a gold shimmer under the light, which I zoomed into for you in the photos above. Gold watercolor accents are a great alternative to gold foil for a couple that is looking to subtly add gold to their organic designs.
Comments Off on Autumn Save-the-Date Postcard with Gold Shimmer
by Allison
Autumn invitations…my favorite! I worked with the bride, Katie, to create her custom Invitation package including their Save-the-Dates. The Autumn Save-the-Date features two trees with intersecting branches which subtly symbolizes the strength of each tree (or person) as they intersect their lives together in marriage. The invitations are an extension of this design and zoom into the branches further…but I will share with you the invitation designs tomorrow!
Katie chose to have her Save-the-Dates as postcards. One little tip I like to give couples who choose to send out postcards is to ask their local post office to hand-cancel their postcards. Many couples choose to do this for their invitations as well, but particularly for a postcard, you’ll want to add that special attention. The reason I push this for postcard in particular is because some of the machinery that pulls the postcards through for metering tends to scuff up the cards. Not every post office does hand-canceling so be sure to inquire ahead of time, and drop off your Save-the-Date postcards or invitation sets during a slow time at the post office.
This couple also decided to have a little gold shimmer added to their designs. This is a great alternative to gold foil. I printed the Save-the-Date postcards and painted shimmery gold watercolor accents to the leaves on the front and back of the design. In the light, these gold accents shimmer beautifully!! Gold is all the rage these days, and it is perfect for autumn weddings, so if gold foil is not in your price range and a little too structured in design for you, consider adding a hand-painted gold shimmer to your order.
Comments Off on Lily Commissioned Watercolor Painting
by Allison
Happy Friday! Today I’m sharing a commissioned watercolor painting of this pretty golden lily plant I created awhile back. I’m pretty surprised I didn’t share this painting earlier…I think it was because this painting was a surprise birthday gift for someone and I didn’t want to spill the beans!
I love the overall warmth of this painting as well as the depth and perspective in the background. This commissioned watercolor painting was created based on a photograph the client took at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Side note…I’m totally that person taking crazy amounts of photos at the Flower Show too!
The weather has turned exceptionally warm and sunny this week in Philadelphia and this painting seems to resonate with that warmth. If you are you interested in purchasing a commissioned watercolor, contact me for more information. Have a wonderful weekend!
Comments Off on A More Intimate Glimpse on Instagram
by Allison
Are you following me on Instagram? If you want to catch a more intimate glimpse of the behind the scenes at Hand-Painted Weddings, then you should definitely follow me on Instagram. I’m spending a lot of time narrowing down my focus on Instagram to include photos and videos that Hand-Painted Weddings followers would enjoy and many of these sneak peeks are exclusively shared on Instagram.
I love connecting with people on Instagram. I would say it is my favorite social media platform, for sure. Also, even though Instagram is mainly a phone app, it just changed their web format, so definitely check it out….spoiler alert  the images are bigger…yay!
Comments Off on Now Offering Watercolor Save-the-Date Magnets
by Allison
Hand-Painted Weddings is now offering watercolor Save-the-Date magnets! Save-the-Date magnets are fantastic because they don’t get lost (well, unless you have a lot of refrigerator magnets). The other fun thing I’ve noticed about Save-the-Date magnets is that they tend to stay on people’s refrigerators long after the wedding because they are pretty and decorative!
It’s party time! As the sun sets in Cartagena, the string lights and the dance floor light up! This poolside Cartagena wedding reception looks like so much fun! I love the little white party dress the bride changed into after her first dance! Super sexy and fun! Here is one final question for the bride looking back on her wedding day…
Allison: “Favorite moment at your wedding?”
Liliana: “LOL! I think my favorite moment was when ALL jumped to the dancing floor and dance. I was amazed seeing everyone get along so well and in spite of the difference in culture and language, everyone was able to communicate, enjoy and know each other. We felt truly loved that our families and friends came to celebrate with us no matter the distance or the difficulties.”
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of Liliana and Ryan’s Cartagena wedding and are inspired for your destination wedding planning. I loved working with Liliana to create her destination wedding invitations. Check out their custom destination wedding invitation here. And if you missed it earlier this week, check out their wedding day portraits and ceremony here and here.
What I love about Cartagena is the mix of beaches and historical architecture. I’ve never been to Cartagena personally, but it is definitely on my travel bucket list after seeing this beautiful wedding!
Cartagena really lends itself for a perfect destination wedding location with the mix of landscapes (historical town with sandy beaches)! This couple got married on the beach with the most beautiful floral alter. I love the driftwood bench, and all the brightly colored flowers. As you can tell from the photos, the couple is so in love. I love how they are laughing when they are doing the rings!
As you know, there are so many wonderful details involved with weddings. These are the precious opportunities to embed the couple’s personality into the wedding. Here are a few more words from the beautiful bride, Liliana, about her wedding day details.
Allison: “What was your favorite little detail at your wedding?”
Liliana:“Very difficult, eveything was so beautiful. I can’t decide but I think my bouquette is the winner. I felt in love with the colors. I’m all about colorful things.”
Stay tuned tomorrow for the final post about this beautiful wedding…the romantic Cartagena wedding reception.
Today I’m sharing with you some of the gorgeous wedding day portraits taken around the beautiful city of Cartagena. As I said in yesterday’s post, Cartagena has become a popular destination wedding site for the last decade or so. Cartagena is widely recognized as the most romantic city in Colombia, with its mix of historical sites and beautiful beaches.
But I wanted to know what attracted this couple to have a destination wedding in Cartagena so I asked the bride, Liliana, and here is what she had to say:
Allison: What made you choose to do a destination wedding? And why Cartagena?
Liliana: “We decide for a destination wedding for two reasons: one, Ryan and I love to travel. Our love story has been always around travel and knowing different places. We got engaged in Rome, so we wanted to get married in another amazing place. We wanted to celebrate our wedding while traveling and visiting places. In fact, we took off to Machu Picchu (Peru) after our wedding day. Second reason. I’m from Colombia. My family lives in Bogota which is 1 hour flight to Cartagena. So we picked Cartagena because it was going to be a fun trip for everyone. Ryan’s family is from California and Kansas City and my family is from Bogota. It was going to be the first time for them to meet.”
Stay tuned tomorrow for ceremony photos from this lovely Cartagena wedding.
Comments Off on Real Destination Wedding in Cartagena
by Allison
This week you are in for a real treat! I am so excited to share this real destination wedding all the way from Cartagena, Columbia. I had noticed a popularity in Cartagena weddings since this wedding, and have recently learned from someone who is getting married there next February, that it started becoming popular in 2002 when Juan Pablo Montoya, the Formula 1 car driver, who then became a NASCAR driver, had his lavish wedding there. After that, one of Colombia’s ex-president’s sons got married in Cartagena, as well as, the son of the richest man in Colombia. With all that press, of course Cartagena became a popular destination wedding site.
I worked with the couple on their custom wedding invitations based on a photograph of this iconic street in the center of town. Recently, when I received this photo of the couple on their wedding day walking in that same street, I literally beamed with excitement! It is so exciting to see the artwork alive in their wedding photo!
I am a pretty sentimental person, so when the invitations are complete, I often find myself wondering how the wedding came together and how wonderful their big day went. That is why I love posting couple’s wedding photographs! It is just so exciting to see how couple’s Hand-Painted Wedding invitations relate to the big picture of the entire wedding.
Tomorrow I will be sharing more photos from this gorgeous wedding in Cartagena, as well as some words from the beautiful bride, so be sure to keep your eye for it!
Just to reiterate from my previous blog post featuring their lovely wedding, Megan and Mike did such a great job seamlessly incorporating natural and calming elements into their wedding, while still leaving room for fun details like the bride’s green shoes and their travel themed postcard guest book. I’m actually not surprised at all that this wedding is being featured for other couples to be inspired by, because it is quite inspiring. I’m so happy that I could be a part of it and create their custom watercolor invitation set as well as their escort cards.
