Paper reborn

Sometimes, I get unusual requests. Sometimes, I get nearly impossible requests. And sometimes, I get wonderful requests that I can't wait to fill. This is the story about a request from Kris Labang of On3 Photography.

A few weeks ago, Kris emailed me and asked if I had any scraps of paper that I might be willing to part with. Scraps...me? I had stockpiled so many paper scraps in the past three years that I could probably cover all the walls of my house (and my neighbor's house) in chocolate brown, Tiffany blue and champagne metallic cardstock. Suffice it to say, I jumped at the chance to give new life to my paper scraps.

Kris just emailed the above photo to me from a recent wedding. I love how professional photographers can make wedding bands and e-rings look like priceless pieces of art...beautifully enhanced by a chili pepper red linen cardstock.

Getting closer

It's an exciting time for Emi Ink since we're on the verge of launching our newly designed site! It's taken a lot longer than it should have, but it's easy to put things like this on the backburner when you've got stacks and stacks of paper and cardstock staring at you, just waiting to be assembled into lovely invitations.

It does amuse me to think that a handful of my clients have gotten married, gotten pregnant, and are now celebrating their children's first birthdays in the time that it's taken me to bring the concept of my new web site to life. Yeesh...it's been THAT long.

No more excuses, though...we're in the home stretch now and as soon as the new site is live, you'll be the first to know!

Say...gorgonzola?

Looking for a fun addition to your reception? Check out the photo booth rental offered by Blue Cheese! I ran into company owners, Sandra and Marvin Williams, at the Wedding Expo this past weekend and remembered that I had wanted to blog about this cool idea for quite some time now.

Your guests can pile in for some crazy candid shots and their photo is printed within seconds. You can also opt to have all the digital photos copied to CD as a wonderful keepsake from your special day. Fun, fun, fun!

Observations from the Expo

Another expo has come and gone, but we had fun chatting with everyone who stopped by the Emi Ink booth. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, I met a lot of 08.08.08 couples who were still on the hunt for invitations. On the flip side, I met a lot of newly engaged 2009 couples who were just starting their whole wedding planning process.

Some trends that I picked up on? Color, drama, and personality!

Color - There will always be a place of honor for pretty pastels and soft whites, but more and more couples are looking towards pallettes filled with fun, vibrant colors. Don't be afraid of unexpected color combinations...turn to your florist, linens specialist and invitation designer to transform your funky color combos into the next "hot" pallette!

Drama - I talked to so many couples who were looking to WOW their guests. An invitation is just an invitation unless you give it an unexpected punch of drama. Some couples want big and oversized, some couples want books to tell their romantic stories, some couples just want *bling*...and more *bling*...on top of the *bling*.

Personality - Brainstorm ways to personalize your invitation so it can truly reflect your personalities. I once designed an invitation for a couple that incorporated a teeny, tiny honeybee charm on the front of it. The groom was an entomologist and this was the perfect accent to personalize the piece. Think outside the box...

Gotta love Swarovski

Question: If a tree falls in a forest with no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Answer: Yes...if it's a crystal forest.

Less than a month ago, Swarovski celebrated the grand opening of their flagship Ginza, Tokyo store and I'm in awe of the gorgeous Crystal Forest concept brought to life by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka.

The store's facade features 1500 stainless-steel mirrored prisms:


Shoppers are surrounded with dripping crystals throughout the entire store:

Note to self: Must visit this store in person one day!

I seriously love this concept and wonder how difficult (and expensive) it would be to translate the look and feel of this design to a wedding reception venue?

Wedding Expo this weekend!

Emi Ink is busy gearing up for this weekend's Wedding Expo! Hope to see you there!

What: Hawaii World Class Wedding Expo
When: Friday, April 18 (6pm - 10pm) and Saturday, April 19 (11am - 5pm)
Where: Hawaii Convention Center
Admission: $6.00

The groom who knew his colors

When I'm meeting with clients and I hear words like "aquamarine" or "caspian" or "sunstone", these words are usually coming out of my own mouth. Brides normally hold their own quite well in the "Name That Color" game, and will meticulously flip through paper swatch books with ease and flair. Grooms, however, don't often share the same level of skill and precision as their female counterparts.

In my experience, grooms have a hard time appreciating the subtle differences between soft pink vs. baby pink, or garnet vs. cranberry. To the testosterone-driven groom, red is red, green is green, and pink is...not a color that he wants on his wedding invitations.

This past weekend, imagine my delight when I met the groom who knew his colors. The couple had done their homework before meeting me, and had some ideas of what papers they wanted to use. As I was showing them samples of paper stocks, I was almost speechless when the groom turned to his lovely bride and said, "Hey, weren't we looking at Pyrite? And I think the other color we liked was Ecru Micah." Egad! Could this really be happening in the middle of my consultation? Had I really found the ever-elusive TECHNICOLOR GROOM?

Maybe he was one of the lucky kids in school who had a 64-color Crayola set with a sharpener in the back of the box. Or, maybe he loved to dye Easter eggs and had become a skilled mixologist of colors.

Or, maybe...just maybe...he truly loved his bride and cared enough to get involved in the wedding planning.

Thanks, C + J, for a fun consultation that will go down in the Emi Ink history books.

Postal rate increase = déjà vu

You know that huge jar of pennies that you're too lazy to roll? Seems that those coins will come in handy when the US Postal Service raises their rates...again...on May 12. If you're looking for cute wedding stamps right now, it's slim pickings -- you can choose between American journalists or the American flag. But I'm sure it won't be long before USPS offers something more "love inspired."
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For all of you inquiring minds, here's a summary of the postal rate increases effective May 12, 2008 as they may relate to your invitations:

1-ounce standard: increases from $0.41 to $0.42
2-ounce standard: increases from $0.58 to $0.59
3-ounce standard: increases from $0.75 to $0.76

1-ounce square: increases from $0.58 to $0.59
2-ounce square: increases from $0.75 to $0.76
3-ounce square: increases from $0.92 to $0.93
(Rates are higher because square invitations are subject to a $0.17 non-machinable surcharge)

postcard: increases from $0.26 to $0.27
(Height: 3.5" min and 4.25" max; Length: 5" min and 6" max)
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There are so many rules and postal guidelines to follow and sometimes it's difficult to weed through all the information provided on the USPS web site. The best thing you can do is just pay a friendly visit to your neighborhood post office to have all your pressing questions answered.

By the way, a friendly reminder for those of you getting ready to send out invitations in the next month: Lucky you! You're saving a penny on the postage for your outer envelopes, but if your RSVP deadline is after May 12 don't forget to adhere enough postage for your response envelopes or response postcards to find their way back to you!

Movie night

A few days ago, I was tapped my Midweek to do a movie review of Run Fatboy Run. I'd never done a movie review before, so I paid extra close attention to characters' names, actors' names, story lines, plot twists...not that this amount of detail was remotely necessary in the 10-minute interview with the reporter, but I always like to be prepared.

If you're curious, click here to read my take on the movie. And if you're wondering how I was tasked with this in the first place, Midweek was looking for someone in the wedding industry and a friend of mine made the hook-up.

Happy side note: Apparently lots of people read these weekly movie reviews because I've been hearing from old friends who I haven't connected with in ages!

Hello old friend!

Some people aren't very impressed with the new Nordstrom store that recently opened up at Ala Moana Shopping Center. I'm not one of those people.

When I first got wind that Nordstrom would be making its Hawaii debut this year, I was thrilled. Having lived in the Bay Area for awhile, I had come to love this chic department store and waited with baited breath until I could once again put my Nordstrom credit card to good use. Even my husband, bless his heart, understood my excitement and presented me with a Nordstrom gift card at Christmas so I could shop to my heart's content once the store officially opened.

I checked out the store during its grand opening weekend, but not wanting to feel pressured by the frenzied crowd of shoppers, I kept my gift card safely in my purse. There's just something about an unused gift card in your wallet that makes you feel EMPOWERED!

However, when one must make the choice between the feeling of empowerment or two pairs of cute shoes, there's really no comparison. For me, the shoes will always reign victorious. Shocking.

Thanks to a fun girls' night out on Saturday that ended with a victory dinner at the in-store cafe, my inner shopping diva is happy once again.

Blend of cultures + music to my ears

I had a fun meeting at The Wedding Cafe yesterday with a client who's looking to weave Jewish, Chinese and Hawaiian-inspired traditions into her summer wedding. It's such a treat to meet couples who seamlessly blend together their rich cultural traditions in order to transform their wedding into a deeply personal, and wonderfully unique celebration. I'm so honored to be creating this couple's wedding stationery and am excited to see the culmination of our months of discussions and planning!

After I wrapped up my meeting, I stopped to chat for a few minutes with Pumehana Davis Wadsworth. Pumehana is an incredibly talented harpist (I was thrilled to have her play at my wedding!) who performs at The Wedding Cafe on selected Wednesdays...and has recently added regular performances at Stage Restaurant at the Honolulu Design Center on Friday nights. After hearing Pumehana play on many occasions, I've realized that there just isn't a genre of music that she can't rock. If you're looking for a classic addition to your wedding, look no further: www.harphawaii.com.