I was recently asked to participate in a table/room scape with some of my favorite local vendors. Cindy of Encore Events spearheaded our lovely, vintage, Out of Africa theme with ideas, expertise and product from Botanica Floral Design and Kara of Peter Corvallis Productions. I provided seating cards, place cards and the table # on a darling little plate. As always, a million thanks to Paul of Paul Rich Studio for making my work look so good!
Oh, Etiquette, you funny, funny creature! I've had -and been witness to - so many conversations about the multiple cards needed at a wedding reception, here's a blog post to hopefully help clear things up.
(Photo courtesy of Stewart Harvey Photography. Lettering - monoline flourished formal script)
Let's start with the easy one - place cards are what's set at the place setting where one is required to sit. The place card may also be used to cue a server what entree to serve a guest - suggestions for that are another post for another day :-) Today, here's a place card from one of my most darling brides
Now, how do you get the guest from the door to their place setting? This is where seating cards/table cards/escort cards come into play.
(Photo courtesy of Paul Rich Studio. Lettering - monoline formal script)
These card direct people to their seats. My preference is to call them "seating cards." Some people call them "table cards" but I've had a couple clients confuse them with "table markers."
As for the phrase, "escort cards"... boy howdy, you haven't lived until you've witnessed an elderly stateswoman in the calligraphy world straighten out someone's hash on the subject! Officially & historically, escort cards are what one receive is one were a single woman attending a dinner unescorted. Back in the day, they had to be escorted to the table by a singe gentleman. There would be a little envelope addressed to the woman, let's say "Miss Elizabeth Bennett." Inside there would be a card that said "Your escort is Mr. Darcy."
Today, call them an escort card and I know what you mean. I won't use the phrase in case I slip someday in the presence of a calligraphic doyen and accidently bring their wrath down upon me.
Huh. I used the phrases "boy howdy" and "straighten out someone's hash" in the same post. Apparently I'm channeling my inner Southerner today!
Bye y'all!
Yesterday I handed off items to one of the best mothers-of-the-bride ever. She was SO lovely to work with, I'm sorry to see her go.
The family is Japanese American and that will be honored all throughout the wedding. I don't know how many THOUSANDS of Japanese cranes they folded but they will be all over the place - purple, fuchsia & silver. They'll be hung over the reception tables and scattered about the reception site. The table markers and seating cards had to coordinate!
The tables are named after Japanese garden items - I did the lettering in purple brush and then did a thin fuschia drop shadow. The English translation is underneath in a darker purple in monoline Italic lettering.
I love these seating cards - they serve a dual purpose. The name of the table is on them, of course, and the guests are instructed to leave their cards at their place setting so the server knows which entree to serve (purple=steak, fuschia=chicken, silver=vegetarian, white=children) The cards come from Paper Source, they have a fabulous selection of colors and the paper is a dream with which to work!
I am so excited to be part of the Abernethy Center's Chapel Dream Wedding Giveaway!
Abernethy Center has 2 beautiful gardens and a lovely ballroom - and now they're building a chapel on their beautiful grounds. To celebrate, they're giving away a dream wedding and I'm so happy to be contributing envelope addressing for invitations provided by The Wedding Cottage, and then table markers & place cards for the day of the wedding, which will be coordinated by Champagne Weddings & Events.
To find out how you can enter, go here!
I'm just getting back from a trip to New England where we spent not-enough time visiting family & friends. One of my adventures was to the Crane Museum of Papermaking with my sister & my husband (who must love me a lot because papermaking - not so much with the excitement for the civilians ;-) It was great for me and I appreciate their putting up with me!
Crane & Co. makes beautiful invitations and stationery and I frequently work with their products. It was nice to go to the source. Sorry, other calligraphers, they don't make Letra envelopes on site so there wasn't anyone on which I could take out our collective frustrations.
Crane also has wonderful etiquette information on their website. Their Blue Book is a must!
What not everyone knows is that all Americans work with their products every day as Crane is the exclusive supplier of the paper the U.S. Treasury uses to print money (dammit! no free samples!)
I managed to carry on.
This is the building that houses the musuem. It used to be the rag building, where rags were broken down into pulp for paper. Hence, the paper reference "rag content."
I love this plaque, the lettering is darling!
Here's Zenas Crane himself. Doesn't he look like a New England 19th century party boy?
Of course not, I don't think they existed back then.
Here's one of the cutey-patootey figurines that shows the process of paper making. The entire display was made by Dard Hunter, a prominent paper maker and printer in the 20th century. I have crazy friends who love to make paper and I direct them to The Friends of Dard Hunter to find more crazies like them. I have made handmade paper and it's as back-breaking as this model illustrates. I will happily buy handmade paper and not even blink at the cost.
Oh! If you're a Portlander reading this, the word is "coucher" pronounced "coocher" like our crazy street. It's really a word, that's why I took this particular photo.
And now the word "Vatman" has entered my head and I have the "Batman" tv show theme going through my head.
And now so do you. Mwahahahahahaha.
Oh-so-pretty! Earlier this year I did seating cards for one of Marilyn of Portland Wedding Planner's brides. The cards came from The Wedding Cottage - as did the invitations which had the same cherry blossom floral element. Such a pretty graphic element to tie everything together. The names are in different colors to let the servers know what entree to serve each guest. Big thanks to Artistique Photographie for the beautiful photos!
I'm tickled to be mentioned on Sweet Dreams Wedding & Events blog today! We shared a lovely bride named Tara, her wedding was just GORGEOUS! I'm really happy to have had a small part in it with the seating cards - silver on eggplant - and the table markers, which was love in several languages. You can see the blog post with more incredibly lovely photos here.
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!
Last week, myself, Nadia Ly (owner Creations by Ly and president of the Portland Chapter of Wish Upon a Wedding) and Lisa Martin of Studio del Fiore concocted a table top for the ISES Portland "Art of the Party" tabletop competition. The contest was judged by visiting guests Pauline Parry and Dan Smith of Good Gracious! Events of L.A. I am so tickled to announce our table won "Best Use of Theme"!!
The colors come from the Wish Upon a Wedding log0 (yes, friends, I am not the only one in the world who adores lime/olive/turquoise/teal together :-) The theme of the table was "Blissful Wishes" as that is the theme of the November galas WUW will be hosting all around the country.
And while I'm on that subject, you can get your tickets for the Portland Nov. 18th gala here.
Now for more pictures!
A close up of Lisa's floral, arranged in mercury glass.
The gorgeous linens and table ware chosen by Nadia.
A close up of a personalized menu. I was so glad the inspiration came to me to honor past WUW recipients as the names on the menus, especially since some of them are no longer with us.
And now... the award!!
HUGE thanks to Melissa of Continuum Photography for the incredible photos!!
"I put words on things!"
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