giving away our love!

Susan was the winner of our FREE letterpress Ready-to-Love giveaway that was hosted on Style Me Pretty. She chose the Dotted design from the Ready-to-Love collection for her invitations. It turned out beautifully and her guests are going to swoon!

Stay tuned for an exciting announcement today for the May giveaway/sale for all new LAFI clients!!

left my <3

Hubby and I had a wonderful trip up North this past weekend for Mother's Day. My husband and I both grew up in Northern California, and so both of our Moms are there! It was wonderful to see everyone, and we also got to see some G'ma and Aunties and Cousins!

We snuck in a little trip to San Francisco as well. We hung out in the Little Italy district of North Beach, and basically pretended we were in Italy. I brought my camera with me and got some cool shots of everyone. Although the trip was much too short, it was some much needed family time!

Next up, fam's coming to San Diego to visit. Beach here we come!

nouveau love

old-fashioned love

love cinco de mayo style

Happy Cinco de Mayo all! For day 2 of my post a day, comes a destination wedding in Mexico. Lindsay wanted it to remain light and casual, but not too overdone with the theme. Her colors were rich and bright primary colors. We first did the Save-the-date with the Mexican papel theme, and it became a cornerstone, so we brought it through to the invitation suite. For the invitations, we kept the same feeling but brought in some handwriting to make it more personal and classy.

Have a fun and safe 5th!

love in patterns

We are starting up a post a day. Woot woot! We will be finally showing a bunch of recent works that we are really excited about. We had a lot of June & July brides and have tons to show! Here's the first installment, Candace & Philip. Aqua and chocolate brown give their modern seaside affair an amazing touch. Here's an email we received from the bride, who is actually an event planner at a popular wedding venue here in San Diego.

"I wanted to thank you for the beautiful work on the invites! They are stunning! I love the contrast of the belly band against the invite and I showed them off at my bridal shower yesterday. Every single person said they had never seen a design like that before! I told them to see you when they get married :) "

Thank YOU Candace, and we can't wait to design the rest of your coordinating pieces for your special day!

raise up the love

Here's a sneak peek of our upcoming blog post...

love en pointe

My husband and I took some lovely Trash the Dress pictures earlier this year, and our photographer posted them on her blog here. We just love them! Thanks again Susan for being such an amazing person and photographer!

i'm in love with a picture

love the seventeenth of march

Apparently that is how you say Happy Saint Patrick's day in Irish! Hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday.

bring on the love

As a graphic designer first, and stationery design second, I realize that while the two design worlds are very different, they are of course intrinsically related to each other. There are definite styles to the wedding design world, and I find interesting when the design "real world" seemingly takes cues from the wedding/romantic/feminine style of the wedding world. But then I think, is that the chicken vs. the egg syndrome? Does wedding style/design come from real world? Or does the wedding world have it's own trends that radiate outward? It is a big enough chunk of the industry to make an impact. Either way, they do influence each other, and I'm more than happy when I identify styles from wedding design in real world packaging and vice versa. Here are some of my favorite packaging designs that include beautiful details that could be amazing wedding invitations:

Love in Texas!

You know what they say about Texas. Can you imagine how stunning this wedding will be? Amanda and Kenneth are getting married in the beautiful Rockefeller Hall in Houston, Texas. Amanda is using bright apple green for her centerpieces with rich chocolate brown accents throughout. Amanda is a vintage kind of gal, while her fiancé tends to be drawn to the modern. We married those two styles and came up with this little gem :)

Modern Spanish Love

Can I just say, designing these invitations made my day! Hey that rhymes! :)

When Jennifer & Jayson met with me they had this very cool idea of incorporating their photo in their invites. Jennifer & Jayson's main theme is Old Spanish infused with Modern styles. Their colors are cranberry, chocolate and ivory. These invites have such a cool personal vibe to them. Love it!

I <3 NY

"I'm in a New York state of mind..."

I just finished up designing invitations for a Bride and Groom getting hitched in NY, NY. I think I had too much fun designing these. I've been looking forward to designing these ever since she contacted me.

Their wedding is going to be a mashup of elegant, urban, funky, sophisticated... basically New York! Their colors are chocolate brown and lavender. Here are my top favorites.



I am so in love!! :)

Pink Love

Whoosh!

That's what this week has been for me. I laughed, I cried.

Most of you have heard through the grapevine about Love at First Invite's feature on Style Me Pretty's Think Pink week. Style Me Pretty first contacted me a few weeks ago, and asked if I would be willing to do a free stationary giveaway for their Think Pink week, dedicated to survivors of breast cancer. I excitedly accepted and designed a special invitation set that was inspired by survivors of breast cancer, the bond between generations, and the bond between women together all around the world.



On top of all that love, the world was introduced to Love at First Invite! I received tons and tons of love mail, loving the idea of bringing custom design to all brides, loving my designs, and loving the affordability of all of it! I feel like the world just gave me a big fat hug. All the hard work and sleepless nights are all worth it.

To bring the week to a close, SMP posted a young cancer survivor's story that moved me to tears. It was a powerful statement to such an important cause.

Thank you to the ladies of Style Me Pretty for all that you do. Lots of love ladies!

damask'in in love - i2i

Another inspiration to invite (i2i) damask style!

Katie and Steve are getting married in a large ballroom, their colors are a dramatic candy pink and black with lots of dressy details. Brilliant!

This stationary set was a pleasure to design and the end result is really breathtaking. These are called U-fold invitations, and they are less expensive than traditional pocketfolds but nonetheless striking. They are actually in a black linen paper which I am totally in love with now. Trés chic!

love under the california sun

Hayley & Chris are getting married alongside the beach and wanted a super modern caribbean feel to their save-the-dates. Their main colors are Aqua and Yellow and their centerpieces will be lemons! How delicious is that? :)

love in del mar - i2i

My first inspiration to invite (i2i) is from Jennifer & Matt. They will be married in Del Mar alongside the ocean.

Jennifer's colors are an ocean blue and chocolate brown. She wanted her stationary to have that breeze of the ocean and beach life, without being over stated.

Above is her inspiration board for her wedding, you may recognize it as it was featured on Style Me Pretty.

We followed the theme through to her pocketfold invitations, welcome booklet, programs, table cards, and seating chart.