Calligraphy from Sara and Caleb's Wedding

Here are pictures of the hand calligraphy I did on the envelopes for Sara's wedding invitations. For privacy reasons these are a bit blurry with some "artistic" angles, but will give you an idea of what my most basic envelop calligraphy looks like.







In addition to the envelopes, I also created a map for guests. This map accompanied directions from the ceremony to the reception. Many of the wedding guests had not been to Cape Cod, so Sara and Caleb wanted to highlight the area and many favorite spots that were referenced throughout the day.

For questions regarding rates and services please feel free to e-mail me at:
calligraphybyshannon@gmail.com

Daily Candy Wedding Guide

Daily Candy provides free e-mail insight on the latest movements in fashion, food, secret nooks, and charming diversions in your city and beyond. They have recently branched out and now have a wedding guide. Here are some of their picks for Washington DC:

K. Rose Cakes
delicious, decadent cakes

Hitched
a cheeky bridal boutique

Julianne Smith
adorable garters for your creative side

Love Life Images
documenting love and life on your special day

Mindy Weiss
a bounty of wedding goodness to browse through and buy

Don't live in DC? Check out Daily Candy's 2008 Complete Fall Wedding Guide for more cities!

Tulle and Toile Tuesday Giveaway

The best ever! This week's giveaway is a homemade apron from Julie at Simple Reflections (also where she sells restored windows that she turns into mirrors). Julie is incredibly talented, especially on the sewing machine and in the kitchen so she knows her aprons!

(click on image to view larger)

The apron for this giveaway is specifically pink for October, but Julie has made a ton of other aprons which you can view in her Picasa Web Album - you should check out her other designs. These make great holiday gifts, bridesmaids gifts, shower giveaways, and I am sure there are many other great uses. Julie can even monogram them for you!

To enter the giveaway: (and there are lots of ways to enter, but please only one comment per person!)

1. You can leave a comment for 1 entry

2. If you post about this giveaway on your blog, you get a 2nd entry, just be sure to let me know and give me the link to you blog in your comment

3. If you add me to your blog roll, and let me know, you will get an additional entry

4. If this is your first time viewing my site, go ahead and enter the contest by leaving a comment etc, but also send me an e-mail calligraphybyshannon@gmail.com and you can get an additional entry

5. If you refer someone to this giveaway, and they let me know that in their comment, you will get an additional entry for each referal! (the possibilities are endless really)

6. If I receive more than 75 comments (but remember only one per person) there will be an additional prize for a 2nd place winner!

So really, you should enter, blog about the contest, and refer people, because you don't want to miss out on this adorable apron!

The Contest Ends Friday at 9:00PM EST...make sure you comment by then!

Psst...did I mention it is machine washable? Because that was music to my ears!

Wedding of the Month: Sneak Peak!

(a bit of the map I drew for their guests!)

This weekend I get to go to the wedding of a dear friend! I shared beautiful sunflower pictures from her bridal shower earlier and soon you will get to see pictures of her wedding! I had the honor of doing quite a bit of calligraphy work for this wedding and hope to get some photos of my work in action! I cannot wait to share this Cape Cod wedding with you next week!

Wedding of the Month: October

Mark and Rebecca celebrated their one year anniversary this month! Here are some photos from their wedding:
Their wedding had a wonderful relaxed Victorian flair, from the deep rich tones of the bridesmaid dresses and flowers (perfect for a fall wedding) to the intricate lace in the brides' dress and her loosely pulled back chignon adorned with flowers. Mark and Rebecca made a beautiful bride and groom and make an even more stunning married couple! Happy Anniversary Mark and Becs!

PS: This wedding was incredible and these photos do not fully do it justice. I may just have to re-feature this wedding if I get my hands on some more photos!!

Get The Bean

You may have noticed that I have added a new button to the column on the right. This button is to a great online coffee shop run by Meaghan, a cervical cancer survivor. What better way to celebrate breast cancer awareness month than to support other cancer survivors with our morning cup of joe?! I encourage you to check out her website and try come of her delicious coffee beans! These make great Christmas presents...and the holidays are right around the corner!

Tulle and Toile Tuesday Giveaway

This week's giveaway is being combined with next week's in order to ensure an extra special giveaway! Keep your eyes peeled for next week's giveaway because it is going to be awesome!

That being said, I didn't want to leave you empty handed so swing over to Preppy Little Dress and enter her mystery giveaway, guaranteed to be preppy!

Winner!

And the winner of the Essie Mademoiselle Nail Polish is Ali!
Send me an e-mail at: CalligraphyByShannon@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can send it out to you! Congratulations!

2nd Anniversary - Part 3

I never imagines that posting about my 2nd Anniversary Celebration would be relevant, but the Home of James Monroe threw me a curve ball so here we are! (You can read about the rest of my anniversary weekend here!)

After a wonderful day spent at Tomas Jefferson's home on Monticello, "little mountain," Mark and I drove down the road to complete our day at the home of Jefferson's good friend, James Monroe - Ash-Lawn Highland. Now when you talk about modest living, this home was tiny! It served as a testament to how small Mrs. Monroe was (some say as short as 4'8") The grounds were beautiful! Here are a few of the photos we were able to capture despite of the rain:

Yes, that top right picture is the aisle of a wedding! Ash-Lawn Highlands is a beautiful property and they host weddings in an effort to raise money to preserve the history of this site! You can find out more about getting married at Ash-Lawn Highlands here. What amazed me was how many beautiful spots on this property could accommodate a ceremony. There is a large flat grassy area under a canopy of trees that would be perfect for an outdoor cocktail hour and lawn games. If you love history and are looking to get married in the Richmond/Charlottesville area of Virginia, I would highly recommend this beautiful site! Between outdoor areas, a pavilion, a barn and the flexibility to rent a tent, you can plan a day to suite your taste and wedding size with little trouble. I was amazed at how great this place would be for a wedding! It would certainly leave your guests with plenty to do and exlplore.

Mark and I had so much fun looking around this property. Though the house was small, we spend well over 2 hours just hanging out and enjoying the beautiful grounds and gardens.

Our evening was capped off by a wonderful dinner at Basic Necessities in nearby Nellysford, VA. this restraunt has partnered with local farms to ensure that they can provide meals made from local, seasonal, and pesticide-free fresh foods. They also have s how which provides a wide range of wines and cheeses. Mark and I couldn't have had more fun enjoying our meal and parusing the shop! We just wish we could have picked it up and moved it back to DC with us. We loved it! If you are ever near Nellysford, you should definitely plan a visit, or better, a meal.

Tulle and Toile Tuesday Giveaway: Mademoiselle

Today the giveaway (keeping in our Pink October theme) is my absolute favorite nail polish. I literally buy this stuff by the case! Essie Mademoiselle is always perfect! From my wedding day, to special vacations to my at home pedicures, this is the nail polish I turn to again and again. I stock pile it, afraid to ever run out! It is probably one of the best known polish colors from Essie, has won awards, and been mentioned in nearly every bridal magazine I have ever read! This stuff is great and I want to give it to you!

To enter, leave a comment and answer some or all of these questions:
1. Your go to nail color and why?
2. Your go to shoes and why?
3. A hilarious manicure or pedicure story?
- and/or -
4. How did you do your nails (fingers and toes) for your wedding day?

Contest closes at 9pm Thursday!

We have a Winner!

So I copied the comments into a word document, printed it out, cut them all up, folded each one, shook them around in a bag, and pulled out....Sarah!

Congratulations to Sarah of The Wedding Hub!


You have won the Bonnie Marcus Girls Night Out Gift Box!

I am so glad Sarah entered this contest because I had never seen her blog before! It is super chic. Sarah has some great ideas on her blog and lots of go green tips. Check her out!

Sarah, send me an e-mail at: calligraphybyshannon@gmail.com with your address so I can send you your prize!

Elizabeth Anne Designs

This wonderful wedding resource site also has a library and they have included "Calligraphy by Shannon" in their listings! A huge thank you goes out to Elizabeth Anne Designs. I encourage you to head over and peruse their blog and their EAD Library where I am listed under Stationary under Calligraphers. You can also write a review of my services: Write a Vendor Review!


Reminder: Tulle and Toile Tuesday Giveaway - comment on the giveaway post by 9:00 pm Thursday for a chance to win!

Tulle and Toile Tuesday

For the month of October, all Tuesday giveaways will be in someway or another Pink to help raise support and awareness for Breast Cancer. What better way to kick things off than with an adorable note card set from The Bonnie Marcus Collection?

The Rules: All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by Thursday at 9:00 PM. If you want to go a step further, you can post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to my blog to be entered in the contest twice. (just let me know by posting the link to your blog in your comment!) Please only one comment per person!

The Girl's Night Out Gife Box from Bonnie Marcus:
8 note cards & envelopes and acoordinating 100 page journal
All items printed on recycled paper.

Contact Me

Click here to send me an email

calligraphybyshannon {at} gmail {dot} com

Escort Cards vs. Place Cards

What are escort cards anyway? Typically we refer to escort cards as place cards, which is where the confusion begins. Well, these two terms are commonly interchanged. Sometimes they are even refered to as seating cards. With all these terms floating around out there it is sometimes difficult to know what you are really taking about! So here is the scoop:

Place Cards: Indicates the guests table and seat.

Escort Cards: Indicate the guest's table only.

Seating Cards: Another term for place cards. As the name implied this card provides table number and seat.

Escort cards tend to be more commonly used as they allow your wedding guests to chose who they will sit next to at their table. Escort cards are also less time consuming for the couple to be wed. As this is one of the last things you do in preparation for your big day, simplifying this process by using escort cards makes the task of the seating chart much easier which is always a bonus! One quick tip to remember: when wording these cards be sure to include of people you invited as "and Guest" For example, make sure you find out the name of Cousin Joe's girlfriend to use on the place/escort/seating card, even if you sent the invitation as Cousin Joe and Guest. This is a simple act of courtesy that can mean the world you including all of your wedding guests, even those you do not know!

Phew, now that we have that clarified, here are some wonderful fall ideas for these nifty cards, whichever you form choose to use. I love how these ideas incorporate leaves, pumpkins, pinecones, and other fall foliage.

Other ideas: write the names and table numbers on pumpkins and gourds or on ribbons you tie to pinecones. Don't limit yorself to paper!

Reminder: Tulle and Toile Tuesdays - for the month of October all giveaways will be pink!

October: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

While this topic doesn't have much to do with weddings, it has a lot to do with women. Since most of you readers are women, this is an important topic!

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a bit more about one of my sponsors: Bonnie Marcus Press and let you know what they are doing for Breast Cancer Awareness:

EVERY MONTH is Breast Cancer Awareness Month at the Bonnie Marcus Collection, where fashion meets paper!



Although October is officially Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Bonnie Marcus Collection donates a percentage of their sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and other worthy organizations throughout the year to combat this disease. As a woman-owned and woman-run business, they feel incredibly strong about this important cause. Visit Bonnie Marcus today to get some great goods and help combat breast cancer at the same time!


http://www.blogger.com/www.BonnieMarcus.com

For more information you can:
Email: orders@bonniemarcus.com

Or Call: 203-341-0701

Please note: I am in no way required to write about or promote the companies which sponsor my website. I simply write about them because I love their product and support their causes.