wedding reception

Hand-Painted Weddings, Real Wedding
Cartagena Wedding Reception
- June 5, 2015
- by Allison
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.

Have a beautiful weekend friends!

Sources: Cartagena Invitation by Hand-Painted Weddings. Photo by Pedraza Producciones.
Announcements, Hand-Painted Weddings, Press
Megan and Mike’s Wedding on The Knot!
- June 1, 2015
- by Allison
So happy to start this first day of June with news that Megan and Mike’s beautiful wedding was featured on the The Knot Real Wedding section this past weekend!

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.

Featured on The Knot. Photographs by Stephanie A. Smith Photography. Paper by Hand-Painted Weddings.
Hand-Painted Weddings, Inspired by
Damask Ombre Wedding Inspiration
- May 28, 2015
- by Allison
The Damask Ombre wedding brings together two unique trends, the bold, high contrast damask pattern and the soft painterly ombre effect. I like finding balance between opposites, and the strong edges of the damask and the soft painterly effect of the ombre really allows for this interesting look.

One idea to incorporate the Damask Ombre look into your wedding is to have your cake design paint a damask pattern on top of a watercolor, ombre painted cake.

Another idea is to use blue and torquoise uplighting around your reception and using damask table linens. I can’t say enough good things about investing in lighting for your reception location, if it is an indoor location. For the money, uplighting makes such an impact for the entire environment (and for your photos) that a centerpiece really can’t beat.

For my wedding which was mostly DIY, my mom and I worked together to sew damask clutches for the bridesmaids. I still see my dear friends using the clutches at our friends’ weddings….it is really fun to see how versatile the damask look is. Also, there are a lot of artists on Etsy who have damask clutches in their shops.

I encourage you to consider this unique take on two wedding design trends, by colliding them together and finding a balance between the two. The Damask Ombre wedding is formal yet dreamy, bold yet soft, and for sure, lovely.

Sources (left to right, top to bottom): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Damask Invitation is now available in the Hand-Painted Weddings Invitation shop.