It's FREEZING!!

I know, I know. It's December, and I should expect the weather to be less than desirable but REALLY. It's cold out there! Which only means one thing -- more time to Embellish! Thankfully my brain hasn't frozen, and I am doing some major projects. I have three weddings in May, so I have produced the save-the-dates for those and am working on the invitations now:

Rachel and Wes: Aren't they adorable?!

 

Friends continue to have babies. It really does seem like every time someone calls me, it's to announce a pregnancy or engagement. Such happy times.

New baby Blakely: Beautiful boy

 90th birthday celebration: Congrats!

This past weekend, the mama of this sweet girl asked me to come over and help her out with a major problem. They bought a dollhouse for Grace for Christmas, but the back of it is so bland and boring!! ENTER EMILY! I painted their little family and a tree and some clouds and birds on the back to jazz it up a bit. I'm still waiting on pix from that, but cannot WAIT to upload them when they come in.

Grace playing with my Yoshi:

The holiday decorations in our house are full-force, and I cannot wait to move into a bigger home so I can decorate stair banisters and mantel pieces.

My Christmas will be spent in sunny Tampa this year, but I will be accessible by phone and email throughout the entire holiday season, so feel free to contact me as you please!

Warmly,

Emily

 

November already?!

I love wine! And with that love for wine comes an overwhelming supply of corks! Here are a few perfect-for-fall projects I've done for my own home:

Sweet Samantha Paige turned 1 in August. I cannot believe it! Her mama is one of my dearest friends and is expecting baby girl #2 in March. I cannot wait to start projects for this beautiful new baby's nursery, and I am so excited for Samantha to be a big sis! What a wonderful thing it is to have a little sister. I know first hand :) Here is a little something I put together for Samantha's birthday gift:

Moving along we have the final component to Liz's rose-and-champagne wedding. I loved the theme I came up with for the invites, and I especially loved that Liz wanted the whole thing carried throughout all of her wedding stationary. Beautifully elegant menus:

Jordan's wedding is coming up in just a few weeks! I am so excited for these invitations because they are so different in an unpredictable kind of way. Loooooong and skinny :) The RSVP cards are postcards (good way to save on postage) and fit just perfectly in the envelope. These invites were complete once combined with a direction card and a little piece of purple tissue paper:

And last but not least, here are some paintings I've been working on recently. Such fun to have friends who request to hang your stuff in their house. The horse is for Barb and the children are the very specific (paint kids dancing in the rain with umbrellas) request of Steph. Now I just need to find a children's hospital with a similar request for their coffee room. :)

Thanksgiving and Christmas fun are just around the corner! Bundle up!

Warmly,

Emily

color block?

The incredibly talented Melanie of Melanie Mauer Photography in Lexington, Ky., posted this very useful guide to color coordinating. What an awesome idea she has to find your favorite artwork and use the colors from that! While you're checking it out, be sure to travel all around her site and look at some of the most beautiful wedding/engagement/children photography. Her site just oozes classic beauty. Enjoy!

http://melaniemauer.com/

Warmly,

Emily

awesome autumn

Happy fall!

I hope you are visiting Embellished after a beautiful day like we had today here in DC. Wow. Just gorgeous.

Between attending weddings --

getting to know my brand new (min-pin, pomeranian/poodle) puppy, Yoshi --

And going on a girls cruise with my bff's --

I have been quite busy! BUT I of course always make room for my fabulous clients! And how could I resist when people come to me with sweet requests like these thank you cards --

WEDDING --

BABY SHOWER --

I also found this awesome tutorial from the fabulous Patrice over on www.lemontreecreations.blogspot.com and just had to redo it for myself. The site is incredibly fun with lots of really great ideas. And I mean who wouldn't want a little witch wreath for Halloween?! Love it:

I have a friend's family who is turning their gorgeous Smith Mountain Lake home into a bed & breakfast. It was fun to do a commercial brochure to mix things up a bit:

To leave you with a little preview of what's to come. So far it seems gold/yellow is a really popular color for spring weddings this year. I've been working on quite a few projects with this sunshiny color for the 2011 spring wedding season.

Talk soon!

Warmly,

Emily

Embellishing in my sleep!

Well, it's happened. I've officially started having dreams about the invitations I am working on. I was notified this morning that last night I had to "get the papers that are flying away! The papers I cut today are flying away and I need to get them!" Hahaha! At least my brides will know I am serious about this!

Currently--

JORDAN -- purple/black/white long invites with postcard RSVPs. SOO beautiful, and I cannot wait to post a pic!

WHITNEY -- yellow/black/white photobooth save the dates. The bride says she wants them to be "whimsical." I could not think of a more fun word to describe your wedding!

RACHEL -- Purple wedding everythings for a dear friend's sister. Beth was married in January and now her sister Rachel will be married in May. I am SO excited to work with her sunflower-and-purple theme! I drew up this idea board for her to get started, and I must say -- this is going to be gorgeous and regal!

And of course there are the odds-and-ends projects as well. I have been working on a few paintings for some friends, perfecting my sewing skills, and even putting together some wedding photo albums!

Enjoy these remaining summer days!

Warmly,

Emily

time is FLYING

Take a deep breath and pause. Enjoy the moment. It's so hard to do that these days with so much going on and retail stores rushing through the seasons. Independence Day JUST passed and now everyone is back-to-school shopping and gathering crafts for their fall projects. Yikes!

Wedding planning is a process that starts and ends before you know it! I have brides that contact me within a week of the marriage proposal, and while that might seem a bit hasty, it is so necessary sometimes! Invitations are typically sent out 6 weeks to 2 months before the wedding date, and Save the Dates should really not be sent and closer to the date than 6 months. So when you think about it, a year-long engagement is really not a long time at all!

I guess what I'm trying to say is the wedding is one day. The planning for that wedding is 1 year. The marriage is for a lifetime. Forever. Till death. While you're in your most stressful moments, when you feel that nothing is going your way, take a moment to remind yourself of the most incredible adventure you're about to embark on with (hopefully) your best friend. And breathe.

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Lots of projects are in store for Embellished by Emily. I am in preparation for those beautiful late-summer/early fall weddings right now. My favorite part of this upcoming season is the use of bright, vibrant colors. Think sunflowers, squash, watermelon and pumpkins. So beautiful. I don't know what it is about autumn weddings, but they always seem so magical. My parents were married in late September and they're still together 30 years later, so I consider it good luck!

I am also working on a few personal projects, trying to spruce up my house and prepare some birthday gifts for my friend's sweet Samantha's first birthday. My house is in desperate need of curtains (and space, for that matter). I believe a massive "spring" clean is in order :)

Congratulations to my friends who had a beautiful baby boy, Max, on July 12. I hope he LOVES coming home to his outer space nursery! And it looks like I'll be taking a trip back over to their house to replace "Anderson" with "Max" on his rocket ship. Big letters are WAY easier to work with :)

Warmly,

Emily

Fun in the Nursery

Happy Sunday night! Just poking in to post something I've been working on (and finally completed). My friend, Ally, is having a baby boy any day now, and they wanted an outerspace-themed nursery for him. I jumped at the chance to help out. Last summer I did a wall stencil for my friend Laura's baby nursery, and this summer I got to expand that even more and paint an ENTIRE nursery. The parents had a lot of fun ideas in mind, and I hope I did them justice! Enjoy :)

glorious summer!

Hello!
Back from Rome (bye bye gelato and vespas!!) and two weekends of weddings. Finishing up some more weddings and showers before I head to Mexico on July 2 for a week. Jen and Fritz got married at a beautiful lakeside ceremony on June 5. The day was a total reflection of the both of them -- fun and relaxed. I was the "unofficial, official wedding coordinator," and loved every second of it! We ordered the flowers wholesale and had them set to arrive on Friday. They were in perfect condition Saturday for me to put them into beautiful bouquets for the bride/bridesmaids/mothers. Also, we used coordinating hydrangeas for the chairs making up the aisle. I hung paper lanterns with fishing wire and made sure all the people were set to make their entrance at the right time to the right music. Then, when I went to bed that night, I sighed a huge sigh of relief. Fun Fun!


Now, what have I been working on, invitation wise? For starters, we have Alison and Nick's super fun booklet invitation. Seriously. Check out how cool this is:


...and the coolest part? The perforated RSVP postcard:


Moving along, we have Liz and her fiance, Jason. I fell in love with her colors of champagne and rose, so I just went with it! She received them today and loves them! Whew!



In between these, I've constructed a few shower invites:

Put together some save-the-dates:

and helped some people plan some parties:
This weekend I am headed over to a friend's house to help paint her baby's nursery. It's a rocket/alien/outer space theme, and I simply cannot wait! It's going to be awesome. And I promise pictures :)

That's it for now -- gotta stop somewhere. More to come, as usual :)

Warmly,
Emily

...to sum up...

What a CRAZY winter/spring it has been! I have been swamped and am LOVING every second of it!

What makes things even crazier, however, is that I am headed to Rome next week for work to teach Final Cut Pro to our Rome bureau. I am beyond ecstatic, but nervous about the flight. ALSO, this means I am working triple-time to make sure I have all invites to my brides before I'm gone, as I am flying straight to Colorado from Rome for a wedding and won't be back in time to have them shipped for the suggested 2-months-before-the-wedding mail out date.

I am working with the most fun brides right now! They are very open to ideas and suggestions, which allows me to experiment with new ideas. I am doing a BEAUTIFUL pink and champagne pocketfold for one bride and a FABULOUS "booklet" invitation with navy (yay!) and green swirls for another.

Also, I am having my first go around with scalloped program fans, and I love how they're turning out!

The groom requested that I include The Lord's Prayer for those guests who don't know it:

And how cool is this? The invite was printed on plantable seed paper. You plant it, and it grows flowers! How novel! :)

Oh, and can I please take a moment to say how excited I was to find out a friend of a past bridal client FRAMED her invite and gave it to the bride for a gift? I couldn't help but feel honored :)

OK! Thanks for the break! I'm off to address some envelopes for rehearsal dinner invites. It's at a pub in Ireland!

Slan leat anois mo stor!

Emily