The first thing to do when designing our brand was to come up with the logo. We wanted something with a classic, fun look, with a kind of retro quality, but not too far off from the feel of our Lisa Welge Photography brand.

With the popularity (and just plain cuteness) of our previous elephant, we knew they HAD to stay. Our new elephants were born, this time as a couple in love. I think these guys are my favorite part! So cute. And of course, trunks up for good luck!

These are our new business cards. The photos don’t do them justice. They are a silk laminate with spot UV coating and feel great. You must see them in person! Business cards printed through DPI Perfect.

These are our new consultation folders for our initial meeting with potential clients. I SO cannot wait to start presenting these at our upcoming consults! Folders printed through 48Hour Print.

Folder front.

Ellie’s on the inside!

Slipped inside the folder is our brand-spanking new, full-color pricing guide. I put a ton of work into these and am so in love with how they turned out! Inside are lots of photos and descriptions of all of our products and services. Pricing guide printed at Next Day Flyers.

I also designed some thank you cards and anniversary cards which turned out super cute! Cards printed at Catprint. Envelopes from Paper Source.

We also got some awesome pens with our logo!

Another one of my favorite things are these rubber stamps with our logo and elephants. They are great for stamping shipping boxes and envelopes or whatever fun use we find for them! Stamps from RubberStamps.net.

The full identity suite. I love the colors, the cohesiveness, and had so much fun designing everything. So much heart and soul went into creating this and it makes me overjoyed to finally share it with the world.

Overall, we are SO HAPPY with how everything has turned out so far and could not be more excited to be The Goodness. As a husband and wife team, it has been amazing to watch our business grow (while working our butts off!) and having a blast meeting so many amazing couples. We thank our clients from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us and choosing us to be a part of one of the most special times in their lives. Geoff and I feel so lucky everyday for the wonderful life we share and we can’t wait for all the goodness the future holds for us.

All right, enough jibba-jabba! Head on over to www.thegoodness.com to check out the new site!

While we will leave lisawelge.com/blog up and running, it is no longer being updated and all new posts will be on thegoodness.com. Update your bookmarks! My new twitter is twitter.com/LisaBardot and Geoff’s remainstwitter.com/GeoffBardot. Our new Facebook page can be found by clicking here.

]]> http://lisawelge.com/blog/2010/07/announcing-the-goodness/feed/ 1 http://lisawelge.com/blog/2010/06/adam-and-stacys-bright-and-colorful-wedding-design/ http://lisawelge.com/blog/2010/06/adam-and-stacys-bright-and-colorful-wedding-design/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:00:00 +0000 LisaWelge http://lisawelge.com/blog/2010/06/adam-and-stacys-bright-and-colorful-wedding-design/ I had so much fun designing Adam and Stacy’s wedding invitations. I love that they wanted to go with something that was modern and colorful. Stacy was inspired by the peacock feather theme that she weaved into the wedding decor, so the design we came up with was a bit of an abstraction of that. She wanted something simple but still organic and I really think these hit the nail on the head! Here is the front of the invitation.

Here is the whole suite, including invitation front and back, RSVP card and envelopes with custom address labels. We went with a shimmer paper for the invitation and RSVP and metallic envelopes, because Stacy said she loved “shimmery”.

The RSVP card.

Here is Adam and Stacy’s engagement session guestbook, which I designed to match the wedding invitations. On the cover I matched the typography….

…and on the inside I incorporated the design elements. Each page even included a little bit of design from their invites. This is one of the things I love about designing the wedding invitations — because I custom design ALL of our products, everything gets to match! I can’t wait to design Adam and Stacy’s wedding album soon!

I designed a monogram that appeared on each piece. Dorothy even used the monogram on her reception menu and favors! I love to see the design elements get used throughout the wedding.

This is the front and back of the postcard RSVP. Dorothy and Teddy applied a stamp to the back, so all their guests had to do was fill our there names and preferences and drop it in the mailbox.

Here is the reception card with a custom map of Downtown Sacramento.

I think my favorite part of the suite has to be the map. I adore the way it turned out. It was so much fun to design! It told guests were to find all the wedding events and pointed out parking and hotels.

Dorothy’s mother commissioned some announcements to send out after the wedding as well. Overall the design turned out elegant and pretty, with a modern flair. And now, having attended the wedding, I’d say they matched the day perfectly!

Wedding Invitation Design ©2010 Lisa Welge Photography and Design, All Rights Reserved.

It all started with a kitty and a bunny. When we all met up for our initial consultation, they told us how they wanted to incorporate John’s kitty and Elizabeth’s bunnies into their wedding. (Check out their engagement session for some cute photos of them with their pets!) They envisioned a logo with a bunny bride and kitty groom. I designed the logo you’ll see in the save the dates below and throughout the suite.

The wording they wrote for their save the dates was so darn cute! I just love that they wanted to put their own spin on things!

When it was time to design their invitations, they described some ideas and themes they wanted and I designed this invitation suite complete with invitation, hotel information card, RSVP postcard and address label.

The bunny kitty logo was there too of course!

This was the RSVP postcard. I designed them so that they did not require an additional envelope and they could stick a (less expensive!) stamp on the back. I love thinking of creative ways to save money. Then all their guests had to do was fill it out and drop it in the mail box!

The final piece, which should be hitting the post office soon, is the Thank You cards. Elizabeth mentioned the idea of a talk bubble coming out of the bunny and kitty and I ran with it. I think these are super cute!

I imagine it will be fun for John and Elizabeth to fill out the talk bubble! SO cute!

Now this is my favorite part. When I design your wedding invitations, I can provide you with the design elements so that you can incorporate them elsewhere into the wedding. I love all the ways that the couple used the logo and design throughout the day. Elizabeth told me she was able to have a theme without being too “theme-y”, and she loved how everything matched.

Check out the Ring Bearer Bowl made by Etsy seller Paloma’s Nest! She had the logo stamped on to the bowl. Loving it!

I love the custom m&m’s with the logo!

John even made a little sign for the vegetarian dish they served at the reception. Darling.

Not a part of the design, but definitely a part of the wedding theme are these adorable cake toppers by the amazing Bunny with a Toolbelt. This was the second wedding in a row to have Bunny with a Toolbelt cake toppers! I love them!

When John and Elizabeth came by to pick up their wedding photos, they joked about getting the logo as tattoos. I guess that means they liked it! Come back tomorrow to see more photos of John and Elizabeth’s wedding!

I really am a sucker for these sites. I love checking out awesome graphic design. Click here to check it out!

It all started with my inspiration – the tea/cocktail length, natural waisted, fifties-style party dress. I knew I wanted something fun and and I looooooove the retro stylings of fifties fashion. I drew inspiration from an amazing dressmaker, Dolly Thicke of Dolly Couture. Then found and fell in love with this dress by designer Elie Saab.

Can we say SWOON?! I loved the lines and shape and set out on a mission to make a similar dress with my own flair.

I also stumbled across this dress:

Wowza. I instantly loved the idea of the multicolored petticoat and knew this would be a part of my dress as well. (images by the talented Aaron Delesie)

So work started in January with some practice mockups. (Very rough, and excuse the messy backgrounds). I am pretty much creating the whole thing without a pattern, aside from the built in corset.

Here I figured out that I want a gathered skirt, not a circle skirt as pictured above.

Trying to figure out the gathers on the bodice.

A practice petticoat.

After making and adjusting the corset top about 3-4 times I had my custom pattern pieces that fit me like a glove.

So, every gigantic project has to have a stupid mistake and here’s mine. I completed making the corset top and was ready to start adding the top layer of fabric that would become the gathers that crossed under the bust. So I’m pinning away into the corset, getting all my gathers in place and looking good. I’m ready to sew so I unpin everything and notice my dress form is wet. The substance is an unscented slippery goo. Thats when I realize the bust inserts I had use on the bodice were gel filled and I had been sticking about a million pins into them. Gel gunk is all over the inside of the corset. The bodice is ruined. My poor dress form is now oddly discolored. (see photo below)

I can only laugh at myself for being so dumb. BUT, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? The incident only gave me the opportunity to make and even BETTER bodice from scratch.

Bodice done-ish. Onto the skirt. I learned this really cool way of gathering fabric. Take a piece of string and use your longest, widest zig-zag stitch and sew over it. the just pull the string and viola! Instant gathers! This helps big time when you have over 5 yards of fabric to gather.

So after 6 months it’s finally starting to look like a dress! Here it is un-hemmed and way too long.

Here I pinned it up a bit. The length will me more along these lines.

I still have a lot to do. I might add some flowers to the hem and of course need to make the 10+ petticoats all in different colors, which will take a loooong time, but it’s coming along! I’ll post updates when I can. Three months from tomorrow we’ll be married!

Our guestbooks feature a full photo wrap cover, with thick, lay-flat pages.

Guestbooks are designed with plenty of empty space your your guests to write you advice, a well-wishing, or love note, yearbook-style.

Brent and Christina had me design thier wedding invitations as well. When you choose to have your wedding stationary designed with me, this alows me to be able to integrage the design elements from their invitations into your guestbook, and later, your wedding album.

Brent and Christina even included a little note for their guests.