Merry Christmas from Pinkpolka!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Christmas season! We will be closed for the holidays from December 20 - January 3. Thank you to our amazing clients and vendors for a fabulous 2010! We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Christmas Gift Tag Template

For all of you that missed it last year, I wanted to re-post the link to our Christmas download from last year. These DIY gift tags may come in handy as you are feverishly wrap all your presents with only 10 days until Christmas! Click here to access the post.

Relax & Treat Yourself this Holiday Season!

The holidays can be hectic so I decided to share a couple of my favorite recipes (courtesy of Martha Stewart) to help you all relax & treat yourself! Below are the recipe cards for these scrumptious treats! ENJOY!

Mardi Gras Masquarade Christmas Invitation

I am in love with these Christmas party invitations! Not only did the party come with a fun Mardi Gras theme, but also a budget for some spectacular finishing details! This invite is printed on a metallic stock with a custom die-cut, embossing and gold foil. Believe me when I say the picture does not do this piece justice! I also had the opportunity to design a coordinating welcome package which included drink and photo booth tickets along with a raffle ballot.

Real Wedding :: Allison & Alan

Allison came to me to me for non-traditional and fun wedding invitations and reception stationery. The teal and hot pink assemble was so endearing and a blast for me to design! Check out these sweet shots from Just Married Photography taken from Allison & Alan's September wedding! 

Entrance Banner

Table Number - Front

Table Number - Back

Dance Floor Decal

Black is Back!

This last summer black was an extremely popular color for our invitation designs (including my own!). Seeing this trend I thought I would share some of these beautifully bold, black designs!

My Wedding Featured on Style Me Pretty!

I am totally swooning over the fact that my wedding is featured on one of the most prestigious wedding blogs! Since being engaged, I always knew I wanted our wedding to be featured on Style Me Pretty. Like a little girl that dreams of her wedding day, I dreamed of the day my wedding would grace the blog pages of Style Me Pretty along with the extraordinary weddings that exude style and beauty! Without further ado the day is her and I am excited for our family and friends to see all the amazing photos taken by JDS Photography. I am forever grateful to all the amazing vendors who helped create the atmosphere of a wedding worthy of Style Me Pretty, including my trusted Wedding Planner, Jolyn, of Nuance Occasions. To view the full Style Me Pretty feature Click here!

Real Wedding :: Crystal & Gareth

Crystal & Gareth are truly a fun-loving couple that everyone loves. It was apparent how much they are loved by the vast bridal party they had with 8 attendants on each side! I was honored not only to design the invitations and stationery for these two friends, but also attend the wedding celebration on 10.10.10. While at the wedding I snapped some photos of the stationery to share, but can't wait to see the pro photos of the wedding by Objekt Photography. The day ran perfectly thanks to the expertise of Jennifer Bergman Weddings who also was a bridesmaid in the bridal party! Thank you Crystal & Gareth for trusting me with your vision and allowing me to be part of your special day!

Monogram Frame

Monogram used for gobo light

Hardcover guest book

Place cards

Ceremony program

Seating chart

Real Wedding :: Rebecca & Brad

I was delighted to discover the lovely Jen Williams of Jen Williams Photography was the photographer for a mutual client. Below are a couple of Jen's gorgeous images of the dance floor decal and menu I designed for Rebecca & Brad's wedding. The wedding was held at the Oasis Conference Center in August of 2010. Rebecca's sister-in-law decided to surprise her with the dance floor decal I installed on the the day of the wedding without Rebecca knowing. Rebecca & Brad, I hope you enjoyed the surprise and had a fabulous wedding day!

Make sure to check out this gorgeous couple's full set of wedding photos on Jen Williams Photography newly designed website!

R O O Y Couture Fashion Show - An Invitation to all Brides

If you are a bride, you do not want to miss this exclusive fashion show by R O O Y Couture! Come take in the luxurious one-of-kind gowns created right here in Edmonton, Alberta. Owner, Lani, is a talented designer whom I had the pleasure of working with for my wedding gown this year. Pinkpolka Wedding Design is not only sponsoring this fashion show, but myself and my matron of honor will be showing off the unique gowns we had created by R O O Y Couture at the show. Make sure to RSVP early as space is limited. See the below image for details.

2nd Birthday Party Invite

Never mind the cute design I created, this is the cutest 2-year old I have every seen! I might be a little bias since London is my niece! I was happy to create a girly, yet vibrate birthday invite which included the sweetest picture of the birthday girl. I can't wait to celebrate with this little one next month!

Real Wedding - Danielle & Chris

This past June Danielle & Chris had a whimsical fairytale wedding, that came together beautifully! Danielle admits she had to use Pinkpolka Wedding Design for her stationery simply because our name had her favorite color in it.... PINK!! I had such a lovely time working with Danielle to not only create her Cinderella inspired invitations, but also the variety of reception stationery that accompanied it. I was so impressed with Danielle's consideration of every little detail in the wedding decor that was executed by Jennifer Bergman Weddings on the day of. Especially impressive was the extensive and elaborate candy table...yum! Below are some fabulous photographs of their reception stationery taken by Shandro Photo.

Beautifully considered candy table with 3 customs framed signs

"How sweet of you to join us" framed sign

"Please help yourselves" self-standing table sign

Table names which used famous and celebrity couples

Menu

Favor tag

Die-cut butterfly place cards

Gift opening invitation

Ceremony programs

Custom hard-cover guest book

Seating Chart with gorgeous tassel, crystal and wood details that the bride created herself!

Erin & Rob Sneak Peak

I created reception stationery for Erin & Rob's eco-friendly wedding, which was held in early September and was coordinated by Julianne of A Modern Proposal Event Planning. I got a sneak peak at the favor stickers and can't wait to see the other amazing shots taken by Erik Hornung. You can see the full post of Erin & Rob's bridal and formal photos on Erik's blog.

My Wedding Invitation!

For my wedding I created bold graphics in a black, white and yellow color palette. I was inspired by deco Palm Springs interiors and my favorite designer, Jonathan Alder. I challenged myself to create a simple package that was compact and tidy. My solution was a custom die-cut pocket which, from the front, appeared as a standard 5"x7" postcard style invite, but had a pocket on the back which housed the rsvp insert and reply envelope.

All pieces were printed on Classic Crest's duplex in solar white and epic black. To create a subtle black on black pattern on the back of the invite and rsvp insert I printed a double hit of black using a UV printer, which gave the effect of gloss foil. While majority of the printed invitation and rsvp were black and white I decided to make a bold statement by using a bright yellow outer envelope, complete with a 4bar reply envelope.

Instead of using a monogram I decided to use the word "LOVE" as our wedding logo which was applied through out the reception stationery. Keep checking back, as I will reveal more of the unique reception stationery details I created!

Get Creative with Guestbooks!

With all the customization happening now in weddings there is no exception to the guest book. I find a lot of couples are deciding to prompt guest to respond with more than just "name" and "message". By using unique page layouts in custom hard-cover guest books or using wish cards with a specific question guests are required to dig a little deeper for meaningful messages. See below for some examples of recent guest books pages and wish cards.

Custom page layout from a hard-cover guest book, including photo insert

Single guest book page on 8.5"x11" sheet of paper

 Custom wish card

Custom wish card

Travel Packages for Destination Weddings

One of my clients this year had a destination wedding in Mexico. The groom was from Mexico, but all of the brides guest were traveling from Edmonton. They decided to add a very special touch and create a travel folder with useful information for all of the guests coming from Canada. The thought and planning involved in this package was spectacular and if I was a guest at this wedding I would have felt pretty special. Since the groom was an "insider" on the culture they provided the travelers with useful Spanish translations, along with Mexico traveling tips. They had also arranged numerous activities aside from the wedding which were included in the wedding week itinerary. The bride kept one side of the folder for the inserts I designed and then put a pocket on the other side so they could put in brochures from the hotel for other activities that were available! Genius! I loved getting to work on such a unique project!

A Twist on the Pocket-fold Invite

As a graphic designer, I am always trying to figure out how I can create new formats for invitations. The pocket-fold invitation is a traditional format sold in virtually every stationery store. Trying to be different, I generally steer away from this type of invitation. It also bothered me that I was unable to print on these pre-formatted pocket-folds, which made me feel completely limited when creating a design! I do however like the fact that a pocket can keep multiple pieces of information together in a tidy package. So voila.. I created my own version of the pocket. I created this custom die-cut that can be used with any graphic artwork. Having the invite on the front and the pocket directly attached to the back also uses less paper than the traditional tri-fold pocket invitation.

DIY Cake Decorating

I had to share this super cool product line I came accross the other day. It's called Duff and it's a cake decorating line by Duff Goldman who is a baker and food artist. He founded and owns Baltimore's Charm City Cakes bakery, and stars in the hit Food Network show, Ace of Cakes. Duff's work has been featured on Food Network Challenge, Iron Chef America, Oprah, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and more. The product line has everything from baking essentials to prepackaged fondant and my particular favorite, cake tattoos! See some of the exciting images below or visit the website: at www.duff.com

Cake tattoo in animal print!

My favorite - sprinkles! And how chic is black, white and silver!

 

Prepackaged fondant for those of us incapable of making it!