Alesia Zorn Calligraphy

Pimp My Warehouse - what a wonderful time!!

Last week, ISES Portland hosted their 3rd annual Pimp My Warehouse which featured the Portlandia rallying cry "Put A Bird On It."  Holy sparrows, we had a great time!!

Before I begin, a million zillion thanks to Andie Petkus for the great photos and fast turnaround - you're just delightful!!

For my part, I did nametags, as seen here.  The were really just blank canvases for guests to put their own bird on it!  (FYI - the fancy, colorful nametags were for the sponsors or guests of the sponsors - it pays to put out ;-)

 

 

 

After people picked up their nametags they headed to the DIY table and the fantastic artists and staff from Paper Zone Jack & Mayzie! 
The poor things didn't even have a chance to finish setting up or change into their staff shirts before the DIY artists-for-a-night descended on the table to play with all the goodies.

 

People loved getting to do their own artwork!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did chalkboard menus for the incredible food provided by Premiere Catering.  "Why Alesia, that doesn't look like any of the lettering styles you've every offered!" you say.  "Damn straight, Skippy," I reply, "in keeping with the whole Portland theme did my interpretation of 'Akbar' - developed from the handwriting of local-boy-made-good, Matt Groening, creator of the comic 'Life in Hell' and 'The Simpsons.'"

 

Don't know that I'll need this script that often but I'm glad I've learned it and have it in my back pocket (so to speak.)

 

 

 

More chalkboard with the REAL star- the food!!

 

 

 

 

 

That's right, my friend, that's a trio of grilled cheese sandwiches.  BRILLIANT!!  The geniuses who thought that bit of cheesy goodness?

 

Mike Peters and Peter Barnett of Premiere Catering. 

 

 

 

It was such a great night - I wonder what we'll do next year?!?

ROAD TRIP!! Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club Bridal Show Saturday, January 29th

 
I'm really looking forward to hitting the road this Saturday with fellow Bridal Lofties August Veils, Paul Rich Studio and Event Cosmetics for The Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club Bridal Show.  I'm suddenly thinking there's a script for a buddy comedy in this little adventure.

We'll be there from noon to three.  I'll be demo'ing calligraphy on these sweet die cuts from Paper Zone on SE Grand Ave in Portland.  Coming from a die cutter, they can be on almost any paper!  We were using them for nametags and food signs at last weekend's event, they'd make sweet seating or place cards.  They were a big hit.  My wheels are spinning with all sorts of things for these cuties.  As always, much love to the PZ crew for sharing!

Come visit us and the gorgeous Pumpkin Ridge!

 

Big thanks to Continuum Photography for the photo from last weekend's event!

 

 

ISES Portland Sasha Souza Meeting Photos!

It's been a crazy busy couple of weeks!  The wedding "season" in Portland isn't exactly what you'd think.  September is almost as, if not more, busy a wedding month than June.  That's partly because the weather here can be dicey in June - Portland received it' average monthly June rainfall within the first three-and-a-half days of the month.  And it's hardly stopped since.  We also haven't seen many days over 70 degrees. 

So the past few months have been busy with a mash of addressing save the dates, addressing invitations, doing table items (markers, escort/place cards, programs, etc.) for the brave souls having their weddings in May and June.  AND I've been attending networking meetings where fortunately I've been gathering CDs from the gracious photographers who take photos of my work and share them. 

As I've said before, I'm a proud member of the board of the Portland chapter of The International Special Events Society (ISES).  Earlier this year we were thrilled to host celebrity event planner Sasha Souza as a speaker for our monthly meeting.  Sasha is promoting her book "Signature Sasha: Magnificent Weddings by Design."  It's some serious eye candy!  Sasha was a wonderful speaker - inspirational, exciting and fun!  If your group is thinking about bringing her in, do it as soon as possible.

I was very excited to have the opportunity to do the programs and name tags for the meeting as well as chalkboard signage.  The icing on the cake was the photographer for the event was David Barss and the gorgeous rentals were from Peter Corvallis Productions - big kudos to them for everything!

 

Calligraphy Going Green & Going Green is Delicious!

I've discussed in other posts what a killer working on menus is - the difficulty isn't the work itself, it's being so focused on the food!  Every once in a great while I get to work on a menu for an event I actually get to attend - this is one of those stories!

This month, our ISES (International Special Events Society) local chapter held our meeting at the gorgeous LEEDS certified Buchan Reception Hall at The First Unitarian Church.  The food was beyond incredible - big thanks to Mark Lopez from Crave Catering (appetizer), Max Popejoy from Celebrate Catering (salad), Grace Pae from Artemis Foods (entrée) and Rob Leon from Phresh Organic Catering (dessert).  Our meeting host Mathew Weber of A Swank Affair was very fun.

For this meeting I provided the name tags and programs.  The name tags and program covers were printed on 100% recycled paper (70% mill pulp, 30% post consumer waste -aka pcw).  The pages of the program were printed on 100% pcw recycled paper.  The programs were tied with hemp twine that I waxed prior to sewing (eco friendly and smells deeeevine.)

For the name tags I tried to feature several eco-friendly mediums - walnut ink, which is either made from walnuts or, the one I use, is made from peat (you know, composting plant life); sumi ink and lapis lazuli paint. 

Big thanks to Dwayne Thomas, president of Hollywood Lighting for this photo as I foolishly forgot my camera. 

Good times!

  I've been having great fun playing with my new pointed pen skills.  Last week I went to a networking event that had a Hawaiian theme so I made my own name tag.  Anyone else having a luau?

Name tags

I created this name tag for Andrea Hoyt of August Veils.  This would be the same woman who transferred my monogram design into the crystal marvel on a bride's veil.  Andrea is one of the nicest people I've met in the wedding business, I'm so happy I could do this for her!

It's gold ink on a sparkly black paper, so dramatic! 

1960s Fun

  My last post mentioning Cindy from Encore Events reminded me of a very fun project I did for her.  Cindy hosted a bridal consultant meeting at the very hip & groovy Jupiter Hotel in Portland, OR

The Jupiter's meeting room ("The Dream Box") has a wall that is floor to ceiling chalk board.  I wrote the featured vendors' names on the wall and left a box of chalk out for the party goers to use throughout the night. 

 

I also did the name tags for the event - I'm happy to report I see people using them at other wedding industry events, that's such a compliment!  It's not every day I get to use fluorescents on black!

 Big thanks to The Sidewalk Studio for the gorgeous photos!