Jan

14

Celebration to Adoration: Bridal Thank You Cards

Filed Under Adoration, Invitation | 2 Comments

Mind your manners with these stylish Bridal Thank You Cards

During the process of your wedding you are so grateful for all of your friends and family that go out of their way to assist you in planning, stand by your side and lavish you with registry gifts to help start you and your fiance’s life together.  With the gracious bride in mind, we designed these custom illustrated blind letterpressed Bridal Thank You Cards featuring stylized doves and birds with colorful envelope liners. With a rich and thick feel to them, saying ‘Thank You’ to your guests just got a lot more stylish.

Thick cotton paper was used for an ultra deep impression and rich feeling texture.

Envelope liners are available in tangerine, lilac and mint or can be customized to your own wedding colors or patterns.

Photography by Katie Neal

If you forgot to order your Thank You’s along with your wedding invitations, let Alchemy customize our cards and colors for your Bridal Thank You Cards. Also, if you live in the San Diego area stop by Provence Bride to purchase them in person while shopping for your wedding dress or other gorgeous bridal accessories.

Jan

10

Art History for Brides: Egyptian Wedding Invitation

Filed Under Art History for Brides, Invitation | 1 Comment

A Cleopatra worthy Egyptian Wedding Invitation

Today we’ll be posting part 2 of our Egyptian Art History for Brides series. For this ancient art genre we created an ultra luxurious Egyptian wedding invitation featuring pyramid inspired stepped shapes, rich black and opulent gold. Egyptian style was highly revered by the Art Nouveau genre which was also infused into this custom design.

This trifold designed invitation features a pyramid cut closure with a gold lotus flower design and is tied up with an attached silk gold ribbon .

Stylized lotus flowers form a delicate frame around custom designed fonts and romantic script.

A gold ribbon holds the RSVP in place and on display inside of the invitation.

Don’t miss part 3 of our Egyptian series coming next with Cleopatra worthy style tips.

Photography by Katie Neal

Jan

7

Art History for Brides: Walk like an Egyptian…

Filed Under Art History for Brides, Flowers and Decoration, Inspiration, Invitation | 2 Comments


We’re very excited to post our first installment in our Art History for Brides!! This is a series we’re designing exclusively for Style Unveiled, an amazing source for wedding inspiration and vendors that you MUST make part of your daily reads. With an education in art and art history, I’ve always found that knowledge of design and its history is so important in moving forward with new creative designs. Hence, the Art History for Brides series was born. From Egyptian, Greco Roman, Renaissance, Baroque… all the way up to Art Nouveau, Art Deco & Hollywood Regency, we’ll be covering design of the times and showing you how you can bring some art history into the modern world for your stylish wedding day!

Art History for Brides

When it comes it comes to art and design, whether it be fashion, architecture, decor or painting, the genre from which it came speaks loudly about its origins and the culture in which it was born. It says who the people were, how their civilizations functions, and how their creative expressions told us about their lives at that time in history.

In today’s world there is rarely an element of design that did not derive from one of the great art genres of our history. Bringing in these elements from Egyptian to Roman, Baroque to Victorian and Art Nouveau to Art Deco, and then combing them and reinterpreting them into your own personal translations is what creates truly unique and stunning wedding designs.

In working with many different brides, I love to have them tell me what they love and imagine their dream wedding to be like, but all to often then not, they unfortunately mix up their Baroque from Victorian, their Deco and Art Nouveau and tons of Mid-Century modern with Hollywood Regency. With so many looks and styles to admire, unless they know their Renaissance from their Regency, who’s really to blame?! Enter Art History for Brides. Showing all of the genre-confused brides out there that walking step by step through history can be fun and of course be a tremendous style aide in designing their big day.

Walk (down the aisle) Like an Egyptian….

We will be starting all the way back from the ancient Egyptians, who were known for their bold use of gold, jewels, animals, symbolism, geometric shapes and ornately decorated objects.

Symbolism played a major role in Egyptian art which led to over exaggerated colors and geometric illustrations of their perceived lives. Egyptians were known for worshiping their animals at the highest level and projecting them into gods that were often seen as the head or body of a human. This was seen in the Sphinx with the body of a lion and Horus the falcon headed god. We incorporated symbols such as the eagle god Horus, an ankh, scarabs, lotus and papyrus into our Egyptian style wedding invitation.

Gold was ever present in the times of the ancient Egyptians and considered to be the skin of the gods, a divine and indestructible metal associated with the sun. Egyptians worked with gold, blue lapis from Afghanistan and many precious gemstones such as rubies and emeralds in their jewelry, funeral masks and other precious decorative objects.  For a royal feel in your wedding infuse elements of gold into your china, linens or even goldware instead of flatware as we did..

In addition to their jewelry making skills they were very talented glass and pottery artisans who created beautiful decorative vases, bowls and goblets in blues, greens and amber present in the royal chambers. We brought in a teal ceramic water pitcher onto our table as well as an amber glass goblet we used as a vase.

Colors played a major role in their symbolism and made color jems very important in their meanings.

  • Black – Black granite, silt and paint was widely used and considered the color of the country, the underworld and life and fertility.
  • Turquoise - The green color of turquoise was synonymous with joy and life (A perfect stone for a wedding celebration!)
  • Lapis Lazuli - Blue was the color of the heavens, water, and the primeval flood, and it represented creation and rebirth.
  • Amazonite - Its light blue color symbolized good luck and fertility
  • Jasper - Red symbolized fire and blood of their god Isis and thought to improve fertility.

Lotus flowers were considered a holy flower that represented the sun and a symbol of rebirth since it closes and goes under water at night and rises and reopens at dawn. Water lilies were also very praised because of the same qualities. For our Egyptian style tablescape we infused proteas, pink peonies, black cala lilies and white lily-of-the-nile to bring in an Egyptian flare.

Egyptian furniture was made of hand carved pieces with inlaid gold, beads and tiles. Infuse your wedding with some Egyptian style with ornate Egyptian chairs for the bride and groom, flowing white papyrus inspired fabrics and a relaxing dais with wooden lounges for your cocktail reception.

The Egyptian wedding ceremony was a simple yet poignant and consisted of the bride, wearing a white papyrus sheath with her most treasured jewels and gold, and then moving her belongings into her husbands home. Enough said. Celebrations were held at the couples new home and were full of wine, flowers and food.

Event Design, Invitation Design & Styling by Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations

Floral Design by Isari Flower Studio

Photography by Katie Neal

This is only part 1 in our Egyptian series. Check back soon for the invitation and fashion that we’d suggest for your Egyptian inspired wedding.

Jan

4

Aspiration to Realization: Goals for 2011

Filed Under Adoration, Beautification, Cake and Confection, Celebration, Coordination and Collaboration, Culinary Creation, Destination, Drink and Libation, Epicreation, Fashion and Accessorization, Flowers and Decoration, Home Accessorization, Illumination, Imagination, Inspiration, Invitation, Location, Musical Compliation, Occasion, Photographic Interpretation, Publication, Registration | 3 Comments

Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations’ Goals for 2011 that I would like to share with you…

It’s barely 2011 and the exciting possibility of starting off with a clean slate of goals lie ahead of us. All of the opportunities that we can imagine for this year are still a possibility and with this post and a positive attitude they can become a probability. The year can be full of wonderful dreams and aspirations that we create for it and make for a wonderfully successful and stylish 2011 where we can not only grow but forge wonderful relationships with other creative people in the event design industry and reach out to brides and clients to make their wedding dreams come true.

It seems as if  just imagining these wonderful goals sets them into action and have already had a wonderful start to 2011. With even more goals to conquer then ever, I wanted to share them all with you.

To work with other planners to design and style their clients weddings and special events.

With a background in interior design and art direction our love of design is what drives us in this industry.  We of course love to plan as well and bring all of the components such as catering and music and coordination together but our heart is driven by style. We love to focus on the small details, one-of-a-kind ideas, custom made linens, hand ombre dyed napkins, embellished and intricate styled dessert bars. We can oversee and direct all of the creative design aspects including floral, lighting, linens, and detailed site plans or even just take over specific areas such as tablescapes, lounges and dessert bars. Being able to work with other planners as their go-to designer not only allows us to focus solely on the design that we love but also allows the planner to focus on all of the other intricate details involved in planning while knowing that their clients event design will be

To work with other planners to design their clients invitations and wedding stationery & to design even more gorgeous custom luxury wedding invitations.

We believe that great event design starts with the invitation and should be just as beautiful and luxurious as the linens and the flowers that you put on your table. Great invitations and stationery is like another design accessory in your overall creation. We love to collaborate with other great planners to create custom wedding stationery suites for their clients events. We don’t just look at invitations as a single element but as part of a whole. Being able to work with other planners and learn about how we can incorporate their clients inspirations  into the stationery including invitations, welcome booklets, dessert tags is a wonderful way to add our design value into another planners work.

As an event designer in addition to stationery designer we know how the creative process works and know how to bring in unique paper elements that add to the overall decor of an event. Custom illustrations, unique embellishments such as chain and stone and new techniques such as laser cutting allow us to create one-of-a-kind custom invitations and stationery that serve as fashionable accessories to your clients special day.

To plan and design weddings and celebrations in Italy and throughout Europe.

While living in Florence for my masters in graphic design I also worked with a boutique luxury travel company as a personal concierge. I would coordinate castle rentals, villa rentals, wine tours, truffle hunts and gallery visits for weddings and holidays for clients throughout Europe. With so many wonderful connections in Tuscany and throughout Italy and Europe, planning events there would be the perfect transition into being known as a luxury destination wedding planner. My Italian is starting to get a bit rusty so would love the excuse to ‘parla Italiano’.  Whether it be an intimate wedding in your own private villa in Tuscany,  a 4 day trip to Monaco with your closest friends gambling along side you in Monte Carlo, a private perfume tour of Fragonard in Eze or taking a cruise on a yacht for your 1 day anniversary party around the Mediterranean, we can make it all happen while still having the high level of design that you can expect with Alchemy Fine Events.

To plan and design weddings and celebrations in San Diego.

As ironic as it may sound, we haven’t had the opportunity to do many events in our own back yard! We love to travel and because of our blog and other blogs that have been kind enough to post our work, the majority of our events have been out of county and out of state. From Santa Barbara to San Francisco, New Orleans, Hawaii, Miami, New York and New Jersey, we have worked with many wonderful clients, but it would also be so amazing to do more events in the city that we’re so proud to be from! San Diego was voted the #1 Destination Wedding location last year and who better to show you all that our wonderful city has to offer then a born and bred local.

To collaborate with talented Chefs and to grow my passion for food into a large part of the events that I design.

For as long as I can remember I have been one of food’s biggest fans. With and Italian/Spanish/Mexican/Dutch family food always played a huge part in our lives and this passion has only grown larger and larger every year. Even in high school I toyed with the idea of culinary school but art school won. What some people don’t appreciate is that food is such an art form that shouldn’t have to be sacrificed for budget or design. I have such a high respect for chefs and love to collaborate with them to create unique recipes, menus and desserts for my clients events. When I see brides that have amazing decor, stunning flowers and extraordinary invitations only to server their guests dry chicken with rice pilaf I’m shocked at how this huge element of celebrating is overlooked. I believe that the food should be the star on the table and that it doesn’t have to be boring when catering a large group of people. In 2011 my goal is not only to bring more daring and gourmet cuisine into my events but hopefully work work with clients that appreciate the art of dining as I do.

To get my work published in top design magazines and to work with publications themselves to show their readers new possibilities in combining event design, fashion, food and the luxury lifestyle.

Working with top magazines, blogs and other publications is such an exciting and great way to show readers what we’re made of and what we can really do. We’re already off to a great start with such wonderful publications as Style Me Pretty, Style Unveiled, Utterly Engaged, Hostess Blog and San Diego’s Riviera Magazine! Creating styled and designed shoots is such a great way to ‘show off’ a bit and test the limits in design while also inspiring brides for their own big days. What I would love to do is not only contribute design ideas but fashion, food, traveling and music which also play such an important role in weddings and celebrations in addition to an overall stylish luxury lifestyle.

Oh, and to add a lot more Missoni to my closet wouldn’t hurt.

Dec

30

Invitation to Celebration: Newspaper Wedding Invitation

Filed Under Invitation | 6 Comments

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! A Newspaper Wedding Invitation!

When designing custom wedding invitations the most exciting part of the design process is when I get to learn about my bride and see if she’s a romantic bride, a sentimental bride, a daring bride or a comedic bride. And when I’m really luck, they’re an all-in-one bride, which was definitely the case for the design of this Newspaper Wedding Invitation.

Lindsay and Jos were to be married at Casa Romantica in San Clemente and wanted to bring in the old world romantic charm of the venue while also showing off an their hilarious sense of humor considering that they first met in a comedy club. And so the art nouveau style Romantica Times Newspaper was founded. We created a classic folded newspaper style invitation complete with various sections such to provide the guests with all of the important and fun details of their wedding to follow.

For the front page news we featured Lindsay and Jos in their dapper attire announcing the ‘merger’ that was to come.

Inside in the ‘Local’ section we created a review of the historical Casa Romantica complete with information about its legendary keyhole entryway.

Playing in tune with their comical blue blood style coverpage photo, we placed the actual invitation under the ‘Society’ section to invite their honored guests to this must attend event of the season.

Keeping in theme with the invitation, the RSVP was designed as a Letter to the Editor, leaving the guests that dare check the ‘cannot attend’ choices such as ‘Wardrobe Issues” or “Fun is Overrated”.

Under the ‘Classifieds’ section Lindsay and Jos wrote personal ads describing the person that they seeked to find but had actually already found. Lindsay’s read lines such as “SWF Seeking: Must have a strong love of family and even stronger sense of humor. Chardonnay lover preferred. Knowledge of classic rock mandatory.”  Some of Jos’s personal read “SWM Seeking: Must love laughing, family and Penn State football. Can adapt to emotional change in male due to sports addiction. Knowledge of 80’s music mandatory.” We also created a horoscope predicting the funny futures of the guest’s time at their wedding.

For even more hilarious anecdotes we created a two page “Funnies Section” with a jumbled word find, comic and crossword puzzle revealing hidden and hilarious secrets about the couple and details of the wedding.

On the last page of the newspaper we provided guests with a little helpful info such as the “Weather” section to predict to aide in outfit selection and “Travel” section with direction and hotel review information.

Working with clients such a Lindsay & Jos that allow me to be as creative as possible is such a dream come true! Designing custom wedding invitations such as this newspaper wedding invitation is such a great way to show off a personal and humorous touch for your wedding.

Invitation Design by Alchemy Fine Events & Invitations

Photography by Katie Neal

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