things are better with a parrott

Hello

{Image by Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio}

I thought I would peek my head in at least once this week.  Hi!  I seem to be on a once a week posting shedule as of late.  It has been a few weeks of a lot of work with little to show.  It happens.  But the next couple of weeks are going to be full of new invitation designs for some winter weddings, save the date designs for spring weddings, including my own save the date!  

As you may have guessed, we had our engagment photo shoot this weekend in Boston.  So much fun!!  You may read all about it & see more photos on Li's blog because she tells the story so well!  All I can say is she is absolutely amazing & so talented.  We just LOVE our photos! Under 300 days & counting...

I hope you & your loved ones have a very happy holiday weekend making new memories & recounting old ones.  It will be a day of remembering for my family as we remember my Grammy, who passed away late last week.  So...it will remain a bit quiet around here for the next week or so as I will be making a short trip to Florida next weekend, but I look forward to sharing soon!  

Wedding Program Inspiration

Wedding Programs, by nature of their contents, are a last minute item.  Your ceremony is your wedding.  Most people {myself completely included} tend to focus on the reception as the wedding, but the reason you have a reception is to celebrate your ceremony where you committed your lives to each other in front of family & friends.  Therefore it is understandable that you are working on the details of your ceremony until the last minute possible because it is so important.  By the time you are done planning your ceremony you may be thinking, program? Do I really need a program?  In a short word, yes. 

You want your guests to feel welcomed & involved with your wedding.  The more involved they feel, the better experience they will have.  Wedding programs allow your guests to follow the ceremony, understand what is happening & why, & it is a keepsake of the day.  Programs come in all shapes & sizes & there is no set format on what your program should look like.  It should work for you & your ceremony & reflect you as a couple.  The key "ingredients" for a program include: your full names, wedding date, city, state, & location of the ceremony, the order of the wedding ceremony including musical selections & the composers & performers, the readings, the source or author, & the readers, wedding party names & their relation to you, your officiant's name, a thank you note to your parents & guests, & a brief explanation of traditions, rituals, & ethic customs for both religious & secular ceremonies.  You may also wish to honor those who have passed or could not join you by including a memorial. 

Below are a few of my favorite programs I have designed along with a description of why the format was chosen for that particular ceremony.


Shelley & Willie needed a booklet-style program for their wedding ceremony, which was an elegant affair at the Cosmos Club.  The program continued the theme of their invitations & included all of the key ceremony information listed above.  They also included an explanation of their wedding ceremony as it was a specific kind & they included why various parts of the ceremony were important.  The cover of the program was gocco screen printed & the interior pages were digitally printed.



Jess & Jay were married in July in Maine.  Knowing the church where their ceremony was taking place had no air conditioning, we knew a fan was the perfect program.  We continued the theme of their wedding invitations using the same design elements, typefaces, & colors.  As it was a religious ceremony, the contents included the readings & readers, along with all the music selections on one side.  On the other side the wedding party & a note to the guests was included.  The fans were digitally printed & hand-assembled.

Gisela & Richard had an art-deco inspired wedding Miami.  Gisela wanted to keep the program small {4.5 x 6.26"} but wanted to fit a lot of information so we used every inch of available space.  The front featured the same peonies from her invitation. The inside had the ceremony & wedding party information on the left side & their three readings on the right side so guests could follow along.  The back included a note to guests & a memorial section.  There were not additional pages so the ribbon served a more decorative rather than functional purpose, unlike the first program where the ribbon actually held the interior pages in.  This entire program was gocco screen printed.


Larissa & Brennan had a religious ceremony similar to Jess & Jay's.  We decided to go with a simple folded card {5 x 7"}, also continuing the theme of their wedding invitations.  The inside pages held the ceremony information on the left side & the wedding party information along with their note to guests on the right side.  This entire program was also gocco screen printed.

Going back to my opening sentence - wedding programs are a last minute item.  These four programs were designed, printed, assembled, & delivered all under two weeks before the big day.  That first one arrived the day before the ceremony {which is actually cutting it just a bit too close for my comfort!}.  With that being said, beautiful & practical programs are completely possible, even if you think you do not have enough time!   

Holiday Goodness in the Shop!

 
I have three new Holiday cards in my shop!  You may click on each of the photos to be taken to my shop, or you may visit here. 



Each card is letterpress by hand, by me {as always!} with two different ink colors including chartreuse green, turquoise blue, chocolate brown, & translucent silver shimmer. I also have a new coaster set in my shop - buttons!  I updated the packaging on my record coaster set to reflect the season as well.  


These are the perfect little gift for any crafty person in your life!  

 
These coasters are a great host/hostess gift to bring to your holiday parties this season, or for any music lover! 

My 2009 Holiday Shop is pretty much complete!  I have a few other little gift tags that will be in the shop this week & possibly some other fun gift wrapping goods.  We shall see...As always, thanks for checking out my work & for your support.   

Wedding Under the Live Oak

Hello!  I hope you had a nice weekend.  The weather was just lovely here & continues to be.  I recently had the opportunity to once again work with artist & illustrator Jen of Swallowfield.  I was quite honored to be asked because these save the dates are for her brother, Sam & his fiance, Laura!  Laura & Sam are getting married under a beautiful live oak tree next Spring, so Jen drew a live oak.  Using her illustration to frame the design, I set the text using two simple & elegant typefaces.  The save the dates were gocco screenprinted on 100% cotton paper in pearl white using a springy green, peach, & warm gray inks paired with coordinating gray envelopes.  The live oak printed beautifully!  Large, solid areas on soft, textured paper do not always work to the gocco printers advantage, but with experience, a few tricks of the trade, & a lot of patience, the desired result can be reached!  

A Spooktacular Dessert Buffet

{Images by Jessica Robitaille}

I hope you all had a fun weekend!  If you are like me, then you are filled to capacity with sweets.  My sister & her husband, along with my parent's never-ending supply of Halloween props, threw a fantastic Halloween party on Friday night.  Halloween was always an extravagant affair that took months of planning around the Parrott household.  Each year the four of us spent September coming up with bigger, better, & scarier ideas than the last for our party.  My father would transform our garage into a haunted house & my mother would create spooky vignettes throughout the room.  My sister & I would design & deliver the invitations to everyone in our neighborhood.  We would also map out the haunted "walk" which was a ghost tour {always led by yours truly} through our backyard, around our house, through the front yard, & back to the garage.  Everyone went all-out for the event.  My father would build a tunnel leading out of the back door of the garage into the backyard, fill it with strobe lights, spider webs, & dry ice, leaving a small opening where he could jump out & scare people.  One year our neighbor built a life-size coffin & played Dracula for years.  Our shed became a mausoleum.  The garden became a graveyard.  One year a friend of my father's dressed as a fencer & stood on top of our picnic table swashing his sword & laughing like a crazy man.  To this day he remains the scariest in our cast of characters. 

Food was never the focus, though candy was always there.  Things have changed over the years & this year my sister was the one who went all out with the sweets.  Treats included eyeballs {chocolate covered donuts}, fingers {sugar cookies}, ghosts & pumpkins {brownie pops}, candy apples, popcorn balls, & cupcakes.  Drinks included Witch's Brew {sangria}, spiced cider {including a frozen "brain"}, zombie juice {beer}, & specimen samples {jell-o shots...& yes, they were sterile}!  Jess has a few more photos on her blog as well. 

I cannot wait until she creates a dessert buffet for our wedding {minus the Halloween theme, of course}!  Jess has been designing wedding candy tables & special event desert buffets.  Southern Maine brides definitely check her out! 

Stationery for the Newly Wed

For the newly, & nearly, wed, it is always important to have stationery on hand for the ever-important thank you notes.  A hand-written thank you note is not only appreciated when it comes to engagement, shower, & wedding gifts, it is necessary.  Etiquette on when to send thank you notes is a little scattered.  The popular belief is the bride & groom have one year to send thank you notes, because guests have the same amount of time to send a gift.  According to Emily Post, all thank you notes should be written within three months of the receipt of the gift.  If it were up to Ms. Post, you would write a thank you note on the same day {this may sound like crazy talk, but Rich & I went to his Aunt & Uncle's 50th Anniversary on Saturday night & we received a thank you note on Tuesday.  Just saying...}.
If you are getting married, stay on top of your thank you notes & try to send one when you receive this gift.  Stay organized by keeping a list of guests at each event where you may receive gifts {an engagement party, shower, the wedding...} & have someone record what you received as you open the gifts {as my sister's maid-of-honor, I did this at her shower}.  Once you send the thank you note, check them off.  I think it is also nice to write a note to guests you did not receive gifts from, but attended & helped celebrate.
Other people who should receive a thank you note includes your attendants, anyone who hosted a party or shower for you, people who help to entertain out-of-town guests, others who lent a helping hand before, during, or after your wedding, & any of your suppliers or vendors that went above & beyond. 

Be sure to personalize your note, writing their names & the gift they gave you & how you plan to use it.  If it is before the wedding, be sure to add how excited you are to celebrate with them or if it is after the wedding, tell them how much it meant to have them there. 

As you can see from all the examples above, thank you notes do not have to match your wedding invitation suite {though that is very nice!}.  Customized notes can say anything from "Thank you", your new last name {if that may be the case}, or initials, or something more creative.  The bottom custom set happens to be for Rich & myself.  The letters of our first names are next to each other in the alphabet, so I did a blind deboss of the letters before "R" & part of "T" after "S" & I printed "RS" in sage green to coordinate with one of our wedding colors.  We have only received one gift from my aunts & uncles, but we stand ready to write!  I am determined to stay on top of our thank yous.  As more gifts come in & I get a little behind, I am going to set a goal of writing them each Sunday night. 

Now of course you may not be getting married, but custom stationery makes the perfect gift for the newlyweds in your life...or yourself!

Rustic Elegance at the Barn

Mary & Bobby are planning a happy & homespun wedding on Mary's family's farm in a charming little town in Texas.  Mary commissioned Betsy Dunlap to handletter the entire wedding invitation, RSVP, return address, as well as a few words for the map.  Betsy's lettering is perfect for this rustic barn wedding - organic & relaxed with loads of charm!  I designed the custom map of the town & included the locations where various events are happening.  I found vintage images of a barn, church, & house & paired them with Betsy's words.  On the RSVP the little blue bird couple make an appearance for a sweet little touch.  The three pieces were parceled together with some natural twine & embellished with a little round tag featuring a little blue nest, symbolizing the new life the couple will be starting together.  The entire invitation suite is just adorable & loved having the opportunity to work Mary, who had such a vision for her suite, as well Betsy, whose work I love.  The invitation was screenprinted in chocolate brown & wedgewood blue inks on soft, 100% cotton paper in Pearl.  For a final rustic touch, the suite was sent in 100% recycled brown kraft envelopes {my favorites, as we know!}. 

I will be back to my my semi-regular posting this week.  Sometimes when you go on vacation, even for a few days, it takes a little time to get back into the swing of things.  But the press has been humming & I will be rolling out the remainder of my holiday goods in the next week or so, along with a super sweet project I have been working on with my sister!  

A Little Trip to LA-LA Land

I took my first journey to the other side of the country the other week.  I had never been to CA or the West coast & my toes got to feel the cold Pacific Ocean.  Rich's sister, Deb, & her fiance, Dom, moved to Hollywood about two years ago & are both pursuing their masters in painting.  We stayed with them & enjoyed the sites of LA...through the rain!  It had not rained since February, so I guess it was time.  We did have some glimpses of sun while visiting the Hollywood sign.



The sunset was so pretty over the Hollywood hills facing downtown LA.

  
A few highlights included M Cafe's delicious vegetarian faire in Culver City.  "Pulled Pork" with wasabi potatoes {I wish I could eat those potatoes right now!} & "Bacon" club with kale & peanuts.  So good.

Cue the music to one of the best tv shows ever.  Also, say good-bye to the sun as it does not reappear for the durration of our trip.


We drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu one morning, picked out which "house" we will buy {I kid!}, & then drove to Venice Beach.


Here you may catch a little glimpse of the Santa Monica Pier.

Notice how we are basically the only people on the beach.  I do agree it was a bit chilly, but it was downright cold for most of the natives.  Those who were out on the boardwalk were decked in hats, scarves, & boots!

While we were at Venice Beach we went to Urbanic Paper Boutique, which was just as lovely as expected, & I bought a few pretty cards & notebooks.  Other food highlights included breakfast at Green Peas, in Culver City, & a very fancy, shmancy dinner at AOC Wine Bar in Los Angeles.   We also went to The Beauty Bar & another bar...I think it was called The Piano Bar, but I am not entirely sure.  I do know this band was playing & at the end of the night the drummer let Rich jump on his drums & play for a few songs.  Awesome!

Overall, we had a great time, though I found LA very overwhelming at times.  Apparently I am a New England girl at heart.  However, we will certainly be back to visit soon!  Hopefully the sun joins us!

2010 Letterpress Calendar

I am really excited & super proud to present my 2010 limited edition letterpress calendar.  It has been a few months in the making & I am so pleased at the final product.  I am so happy I took the leap & decided to letterpress the entire calendar.  As I mentioned previously, it has taken a couple years to get here!  But enough chat, here are the details:

- Limited edition of 150 calendars - only 115 will be available online {25 are presents to friends & family & 10 are going to Craftland}. Each calendar is numbered on the pretty paper band.
 - 5 x 7", printed on 110lb, 100% cotton Lettra paper in flourescent white. There is a hole at the top & lovely 100% cotton ribbon for hanging.
- Ink colors include candy-colored hues of blush, citrus, chartreuse, sage, sea, slate, & silver shimmer. Includes some of my favorite vintage imagery & original illustrations.
- Each calendar was hand printed by me on my antique Golding Jobber No. 6, making each month truly unique due to texture & ink coverage. Each month passed through the press at least twice.

Fun little bit: I designed each calendar so the bottom part with the image can be cut, leaving you with a little 3.5 x 5" piece of letterpress art!  Perfect for hanging or sending in a 4bar envelope or as a postcard. 

Thus begins the holiday season at the parrott design studio shop!  December is actually a little peek at one of my holiday cards.  The birds are printed with just a hint of silver. It is almost like a blind deboss, but shimmery!

Well, believe it or not, I am off to LA!!  My very first trip to California.  We are only there for a few days, but I am excited for some fun in the sun.  See you next week...& as always, thank you so much for visiting me here in this space & for your support.  

Updated Website Coming Soon

I know people look at my website, however I did not realize how many until I started getting emails a few days ago with people wondering where it went!  It is still there & you can still click on "Blog" to get to my blog, "Shop" to get to my shop, & you can join the mailing list in the meantime.  My portfolio is viewable on flickr.  

Even though my website was just over a year old, it needed some serious updating with regards to information.  My new website will be more organized with a new section just for weddings, which is then divided into Letterpress & Gocco, so there is no confusion over what printing method you are looking at.  There will be a section for stationery, which includes custom & ready-made, as well as a section for invitations, which includes all of the other invitations I do for events {baby showers, bridal showers, rehearsal dinners, birthdays, etc.}.  The details section is where most of the new information is coming including a comprehensive FAQ section, information on how to start & my process, information on letterpress & gocco, pricing structure, as well as reviews from past clients. 

So...its coming!  I am just putting some final touches on the wording, getting my slide-shows in order, & then it will live.  I am, of course, still updating this space & my shop, as well as my flickr.  Speaking of which....tomorrow = 2010 calendars!  See you back here tomorrow!