Rustic Modern Snow White Inspiration Table at the Inspired Bridal Bowl!

Last November I was honored to be asked to participate in the second Inspired Events {San Diego} event, the Inspired Bridal Bowl.  The intimate bridal show at North County Tavern and Bowl was full of hand-picked vendors from throughout San Diego (all members of the Inspired Network went through a rigorous screening process) and, along with my good friend Desiree from Penny Blooms Floral Design, I was able to design the featured showpiece of the event – a modern rustic table inspired by Snow White!

I’d worked with Desiree a few times already at this point, and when we found out that we’d been assigned to create the tablescape together, we were thrilled!  Nothing is better than the synergy created when you’re working with a good friend who also happens to be a creative partner and an excellent match for your creativity.  I can’t say enough for working with someone you feel truly comfortable with, to design something greater than you could alone!

At any rate, we started discussing our ideas and Desiree hit on the modern rustic trend (this show actually took place the day after Alex + Allen’s wedding, but we started planning before Alex hired me – by luck it was a modern rustic weekend!).  We started thinking of moss and pine trees and acorns and…  The table just sort of built itself.  And then I realized that I’d already done a table based on a fairy tale – my Vintage Cinderella table at the Alfred Angelo show last year.  I guess maybe I’ll always be a dreamer at heart?

We were working with an oversized table – a pool table, to be exact (huge thank you to my husband who stood in line at Home Depot for an hour the day of the show to get the large piece of plywood we used to create a flat surface, and then brought it to us in the rain!).  And an oddly-lit room with lots of busyness behind and around the table, since the bowling alley itself has large windows that look out onto the mall.  That said, I think that the photos taken by Stacy and Melissa of Sunday Romance Photography give you a taste of this stunning table.  And we just might have another taste of it coming up in a few months. 😉

Of course Desiree and I worked together on the design.  She also created the gorgeous floral arrangements (including the fantastic birch-wrapped bouquet!!!).  We also got amazing support from our friends at Classy Covers and Calculated Whisk.  We also made a new friend – the incredible Nicole of paper | scissors | print, who provided us with gorgeous stationery!

So without further ado…  The photos by Sunday Romance Photography!!!

First, the whole table.  Desiree and I spent lots and lots of hours searching for just the right pieces (like our mismatched flatware and glasses, and our fantastic “wood” chargers!

And the details…  Like Desiree’s STUNNING birch-wrapped bouquet and the arrangements in hollowed-out pieces of wood:

And the stationery Nicole created for us!  She’s truly an artist, and came up with this amazing design with just the words “modern rustic.” Love her!

Nicki of Calculated Whisk created the cutest little apple cake pops for us!

And the most.incredible.gem-shaped cake balls.  Seriously they were perfect.  Everyone was amazed that they were cake!

More details!  Desiree and I had a fantastic time decking out the table with whimsical elements!  I adore the moss runners and the little moss squirrels and rabbits, as well as the little acorns we scattered like jewels.  🙂

You’d never know that this entire place setting (not including the napkin, generously provided by Classy Covers) cost under $5 to buy.

I’m so happy to finally be able to share these with you!  Next up, more photos from the Inspired Bridal Bowl!

Modern Rustic Snow White Inspiration Table at the Inspired Bridal Bowl Details:

• Design: Events by Elisa and Penny Blooms Floral Design
• Florals: Penny Blooms Floral Design
• Cake Pops/Balls: Calculated Whisk
• Linens: Classy Covers
• Stationery: paper | scissors | print
• Photography: Sunday Romance Photography

E+D Wedding Invitation

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I promised you that I’d be showing you E+D’s wedding invitation in a future post.  I’ll admit that it took me longer than I’d expected, and I wish that I could show you more of it.  I hate blurring things out because you lose some of the effect.  But I understand the lovely E’s request for privacy!

Before I get to the pretty photos, I want to share the love that she sent me about my last post:

OMG, Elisa!  What a super, super sweet feature!  Such kind, generous, happy, warm thoughts and words — thank you so much!!!  And, thank you so much for getting us and what we were going for — and for helping making it happen!  And, you made it look easy and no stress, how do you do that?  I miss collaborating, talking and thinking with you!  You were always so receptive and supportive of all the crazy ideas from the start, being excited with me about the million cute and creative ideas out there, and talking me through just about all of them.  At the end, the day was so much more than I could ask for — all I could be was happy and overwhelmed.  :o)

E + D, every time I see the photos from your wedding I end up with a big dopey smile on my face.  You guys rock!

And now on to the pretty things!

E wanted a very handmade look to her wedding invitations, so she asked her friend R to make a papercut background for us to use!

R worked magic with her scissors and her scanner, and sent me this.  Seriously, isn’t it gorgeous?

She even cut out E+D’s names and “hung” them from the banner between the two trees, but obviously that’s been blurred.

The only thing was – construction paper is a different size and shape than invitations.   So I worked with E for about 8 hours, playing with drafts and sending ideas back and forth from San Diego to Los Angeles (thank goodness for the internet!).  It was a marathon session, since E+D weren’t sure until a few days before whether they were actually going to send out paper invitations, and wanted to get them sent out a month in advance of the big day.  But I’m really really proud of what we came up with.

I know it might not mean a lot to anyone who’s not a computer design nerd.  But the original invitation background was made from construction paper.  Working with it digitally involved painstakingly cutting out pieces of the original invitation and blending colors (since construction paper has natural variations).  And since we changed the aspect ratio (landscape to portrait) entirely, I found I needed to create some pieces of the picture that weren’t there, including lower tree trunks, grass, and flowers.  I conjured up tiny shadows to mimic a scanned construction paper page.  In addition (and I know it’s hard to see in the photo), I worked with E to find a font that looked like it, too, was cut from paper.  I also created a reply card and a map to match, taking little elements of the invitation and recoloring and editing them in the style of the original.  This was a true labor of love, but when it was done it was truly beautiful.

But the gorgeousness didn’t stop there.  You’ve already seen the front cover of E+D’s program, but in case you need a reminder, here’s the photo taken by Heidi Ryder:

This photo isn’t nearly as gorgeous (since I took it), but here’s the cute bird detail we added to the back of the kraft paper program (we wanted it to look like they were stamped, the look we went for on the front too):

And inside was a beautiful “medallion” that R designed.  This art was used on the COOLHAUS wrappers too!  Photo by Heidi Ryder (yes, sorry, I blurred out names too).

And R came through during the reception too, creating the gorgeous custom guestbook to match (photo by Heidi Ryder):

Of course I had to get in on the act, adding birds to my chalk welcome sign (photo by Heidi Ryder):

E had tons and tons of ideas.  And I love how we were able to in tie many of them – even ones that didn’t seem to go together – using a single motif!  The handmade birds really made the details of this gorgeous wedding!

Inspiration: Rustic Birds

Okay, I promise you I am doing something other than making pretty inspiration boards all the time.  But right now I can’t quite share any of the other projects I’ve been working on.  Plus, I get inspired by the strangest things, so sometimes boards like this can’t help but get made.

I actually was working on a completely different concept when I saw the ring bearer nest and just HAD to work on this.  It’s a board for a rustic, woodsy wedding with bird accents.  In fact, it’s funny – I actually couldn’t find a lot of the photos I wanted, so you’ll just have to imagine  little birds in the bouquet (neither of the bouquets is quite right either but they’re close) and guest tables that have elements of both the guest table and sweet table in the board (but with a large rustic wooden table instead of the moss tablecloth), and a banner that says “love” or the couples’ names on bird shapes in shades of brown and green.  I also was thinking that the wedding party itself would probably be dressed in a rich brown, like (but not exactly) this dress from Nordstrom:

Anyway, I can see this being a very fun, relaxed, outdoor wedding, with fairy lights in the trees, birdseed instead of rice, and lots of pretty natural elements!

Rustic Birds Wedding Inspiration Board - Events by Elisa

Photo credits (clockwise from left): Gardensidestudio’s Flickr Stream, Sparkle and Hay, Luvs2Create2’s Etsy Shop, Artfire, Dearjes’ Etsy Shop, House Martin, The Knot,  Green Wedding Shoes, The Knot, Once Wed, Nordstrom, Artfire.