Ross Oscar Knight Bridal Show Booth

Last week I had the pleasure of assisting Ross Oscar Knight with his booth at the International Bridal Show.
I helped Ross decide on his booth decor and also provided the flower arrangements.
I discovered that Ross has quite a knack for decor - I may need to consult with him on my next wedding design!Loved the cute cupcake logo flags from Sweet Pockets

Moving!

Posting will be light this week as I take time to move into my new studio in the Midtown West district of Atlanta. I'm so excited to finally have a place to call home with all my fellow vendors in StudioWed. The studio space has tons of character with tall loft ceilings, sealed concrete floors, and exposed brick walls. For interior colors I'm using black and white furniture with blue accents. I'll be sure to post pictures once we move in!

2009 NotWedding

The NotWedding is back! This is one event not to be missed and will be held on Sunday April 5 at The W Hotel Buckhead (in Atlanta). It will be styled by Joy Thigpen (who styled the wedding on the cover of the current Southern Weddings Magazine), planned by Ashley Baber, photographed by the amazing Our Labor of Love and will feature invitations from Verde Paperie, accessories from Oh My Deer!, flowers from Amy Osaba and cakes from Chocolate Pink Cafe.
Check out the updated website and tons of new surprises... one of which being that they will be giving away an entirely FREE real wedding to one lucky couple. They are currently accepting applications in hopes of finding the perfect couple to give this to (a couple who is okay getting married on short notice at a wedding someone else planned for them :). They will receive a FREE wedding on May 31 of this year that will include everything: venue + catering, photography, wedding dress + other attire, cake, flowers, invites... everything, all donated by the amazing vendors from The NotWedding expo. The wedding will be featured in the summer issue of Weddings Unveiled magazine. They are looking to find three finalists in the next few weeks and then ask the bridal community to vote on a winner, who we will then announce at the big NotWedding expo in April.

Down-Home Welcome Bags With An Uptown Flair

Welcome bags are always a nice touch for out of town guests. And you can use them to incorporate items from the local area or your home town. Today I am pleased to have Karen Sullen of Georgia Gifts 4 Less join us today to share some ideas for Atlanta welcome bags.

Creating Down-Home Welcome Bags With An Uptown Flair

Nowadays, most people who live in Atlanta aren’t actually from Atlanta. So, when they decide to get married in our great city, many of their guests travel from out of town. Whether it will be their first visit to Georgia or they seem to know it like the back of their hand, showing them a little Southern Hospitality is easy when your welcome gift bags have a touch of Georgia. Here are some gifts and souvenirs that can help keep Georgia on their mind!

Chocolate Peaches are a sweet symbol of the Peach State! Smooth milk chocolate shaped like a peach, who wouldn’t want to take a bite? Available in two sizes, the mini peaches are perfect for welcome bags or to scatter along the table. The larger size is boxed with a customizable tag, making it a unique wedding favor for your guests.

Because Atlanta is a sassy, sultry city with a sound all its own, add something to the welcome bag that reflects its signature style, like an instrumental Atlanta Jazz CD.

An eclectic collection of jazz and blues, it will have them longing to return for a bit of the Atlanta nightlife or they can reflect on the memories while enjoying the soothing sounds.

No bag would be complete without some Atlanta souvenirs as the finishing touch. From magnets and mugs to pens and photo frames, these useful items will help them remember your special day.

Including some delicious Georgia gourmet foods is always a nice touch. But, to truly add an extra flair to your welcome bags, transform these gift ideas into keepsakes by customizing them with your name and wedding date. Now, that’s peachy!

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Thanks Karen for stopping by and sharing these great ideas. If anyone is looking for Georgia or Atlanta related items for your wedding or event take a look at the Georgia Gifts for Less website.

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the $100 gift certificate to Wedding Paper Divas and the $100 gift certificate to Beau-coup is Jess who said "I'd go for the Modern Whimsy invitations in Bark and the chocolate caramel apples. Wedding colors so far are blue, dark green and brown - we're still working on a palette."Jess, send me an email me your contact information. I'll be working on an inspiration board for you and will post as soon as it's done!

Studio Wed Atlanta Website

I'm very happy to announce the StudioWed Atlanta website is live! We still have some tweaks to make to the website and we are working on the blog, but in the meantime please be sure to stop by and see our impressive list of vendors.

The studio will open in Midtown West in only 2 weeks!!! I'll be sure to keep you updated on the details.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day and enjoy some time with your loved ones.

Photo by Blue World Studios

Don't forget today is the last day to enter the Beau-coup & Wedding Paper Divas giveaway.

Kemba Celebrations

Today I am happy to feature the culturally inspired stationery of Kemba Celebrations. They offer standard collections but also offer exquisite custom designed stationery to reflect the culture and traditions of the couple. Kemba has stopped by today to share her work.
Lemiga: What services does Kemba Celebrations provide?

Kemba: Kemba Celebrations creates cultural and theme invitations and stationery. In addition to custom design and printing we also offer an exclusive letterpress invitation line based on cultures from around the world that allows couples to customize inks, paper colors and matching reception designs.

Lemiga: How did you get started in the stationery business?

Kemba: We run a marketing design and copy writing business and one of our clients and a dear friend was getting married. She couldn't find any thing she liked in the stationery books, so my husband and I volunteered to design her invitations and stationery.

Well, we ended up branding her Persian wedding: designing a wedding logo, translating phrases into farsi (the native language of Persia) and developing everything from the save- the-dates to the thank you cards. And in the process we got completely hooked. We realized there wasn’t a lot out there for brides looking to celebrate their heritage in an elegant, distinctive way. And Kemba Celebrations was born.

Lemiga: What makes Kemba Celebrations different from other stationers?

Kemba: We are distinctive in a couple ways, in what we design and how we do it. We help brides celebrate their heritage or cultural and theme interests through design. So whether custom or not, our designs involve lots of research. We look at decorative arts, textiles and architecture of the cultures we are designing in.

Plus we love color and dimension. So even when flat printing that dimension comes through with custom illustrations that often involve intricate patterns. The results are unique pieces that guests have not seen before.

Lemiga: What has been your favorite invitation to design?

Kemba: Each of our designs has been fun in some different way. But for pure sentimentality our first design for our friend’s Persian wedding has been our favorite. We just loved the collaborative process of working with the couple and interpreting traditional Persian tile design into a stationery suite. And the excited feedback, even from her relatives in Iran, was great.

Lemiga: What new products or trends will you be introducing for 2009?

Kemba: We are working on a new line using decorative paper from around the world, ribbons and diecut shapes to create unique stationery for cultural, destination and theme weddings, like beach weddings. We are also looking to make our letterpress designs available as flat printed pieces.

Plus we want to be a resource for information on stationery, and cultural and theme celebrations. So we are looking to offer more articles and advice on our site in coming months.
Thanks for stopping by today Kemba. I'm so looking forward to seeing your new designs!

Giveaway: Beau-coup & Wedding Paper Divas

In celebration of my 200th post - yeah! - I'm doing a giveaway sponsored by Wedding Paper Divas and Beau-coup for $100 gift certificates to both shops!

Here are the rules:
1. Visit Wedding Paper Divas and select a wedding invitation and then visit Beau-coup and select a wedding favor that captures the style or theme of your wedding.

2a. Save the wedding invitation as a "favorite" on the Wedding Paper Divas site. This is done by clicking on the "Save in Favorites" button on the desired wedding invitation page.

2b. Subscribe to the Beau-coup newsletter here

3. Leave a comment on my blog telling me which invitation and favor you selected along with your wedding colors.

I will choose a winner to receive the gift certificates AND I'll design an inspiration board to capture the style or theme of your wedding. Contest ends this Friday, February 13th at 10:00p.m.

New Atlanta Occasions Blog

Atlanta Occasions Magazine has just launched a new fabulous blog which will be full of inspiration and resources for those planning events and weddings in Atlanta. Check it out here.

NACE Atlanta Competition

The NACE Atlanta event design trends competition was held at the Atlanta History Center last week.

Some of Atlanta's most talented event designers displayed their designs. Here are a few of my favorites

The entire top of this table, designed by Divine Events Catering, was made of cake!
Ashley Baber and Foxgloves & Ivy showcased this beautiful purple and white design

This fabulous all black table is from Bold American

The winner of the competition was A Legendary Event who did a gorgeous green and white Eco theme table

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of the designs I created for our wedding table displays at the Rivaaj Magazine and Weddings Instyle Bridal Show this Sunday, February 8th, 12-5pm at the Retreat of Dunwoody, 1001 Summit Boulevard, Atlanta, Georgia 30319.

Red, Purple & Gold Table

Photo Credits: 1st row - Jasmine Star, Daughter of Design, Nirali Magazine
2nd row - David Tutera, Geoff White, Millie Holloman, Daughter of Design
3rd row - Rang Decor, Jasmine Star, Millie Holloman, Amber Events

Blue & Orange TablePhoto Credits: 1st row - photos 1 & 2 Nirali Magazine, Geoff White, LotusHaus

2nd row - Barber Photography, Wedding Paper Divas, Rang Decor, Bride & Bloom
3rd row - Nirali Magazine, Amorology, Geoff White, Nirali Magazine
4th row - Karen Wise, Nirali Magazine, Amorology

We'll be in booth #35 so stop by and see us!

Rae Leytham Photography

Today I am so fortunate to have Rae of Rae Leytham Photography stop by to share with us her work. I met Rae and her husband Wesley at the Southern Weddings launch party. They were so cool when I walked up to them and professed to be a blog stalker!

Lemiga: How did you get started in photography and what made you decide to
start Rae Leytham Photography?

Rae: I took a photography class in college and loved it. My goal was to land a
job in the Forensics field which made sense with a Biology degree. I did
get a Forensics job and eventually became a Forensic Photographer. After
doing that for a few years, I moved into Crime Scene Investigations. I
still had a camera in my hand though! I became friends with a wedding
photographer (she shot Wesley's sister's wedding) and I assisted her at a
few weddings. I basically held her bags, but someone found out and they
needed an inexpensive photographer. I shot the wedding and it was pretty
good. I got the bug for photographing happy moments for a change and it
snow-balled. After shooting weddings for many friends of friends, we
decided to open a real business. Wesley started out as being my assistant,
but he got tired of holding my bags. So, he started learning photography
and cameras and lighting and now he is better than me (did I just write
that?). I quit my job in Forensics because my Photography business had
grown so much and a year later, Wesley quit his job at an Engineering firm.
We have been working side by side for 2 years now and we still love it and
each other!

Lemiga: Where are you based and do you travel to Atlanta? Do you charge travel
fees to shoot in Atlanta?

Rae: Wesley and I are based in Pensacola, Florida. We have family and several
clients we visit in Atlanta, so we are always excited to visit Atlanta. We
do not charge travel fees for Atlanta.

Lemiga: What type of photography services do you offer?

Rae: We love all kinds of photography. Weddings make our world go 'round, but we
love baby and family sessions too. Wesley really likes landscape and
architecture photography, while I prefer Senior sessions. We have been told
that our boudoir sessions are amazing and we certainly have fun with those
too.

Lemiga: What is your favorite part of the wedding day to capture?

Rae: Wesley and I agree on this! We both love it when a bride and groom have a
first look BEFORE their ceremony and they spend at least 30 minutes with us!
It is always just them and us and they have so much fun. Their nerves are
reduced and they have gorgeous photos with no pressure of wanting to go to
the reception. That is really the only time for the whole day that it is
just them. They can talk and laugh and get sexy and romantic...all while we
are capturing it!

Lemiga: What has been the highlight of your career to date?

Rae: There have been so many! We love it when magazines and blogs want to
feature us. We love it when people know us (from our blog) and we don't
know them! But, I think we were most excited when the photo coordinator
from The Knot cold-contacted us and asked for an image to be used in the
Florida fall/winter 2008 edition. She saw it on our blog and wanted to use
it! It is the very last page in the magazine and it is a full page. We had
never submitted anything to The Knot before and were so excited that they
found us!
To see more of their beautiful work check out the Rae Leytham Photography website and blog