Knot so easy, but worth it

A couple of weeks ago, The Knot hosted a "Cocktails and Connections" event at the Laniakea YWCA for local wedding professionals. Mona Hirata and her team from Weddings by Grace and Mona did a fantastic job of pulling the event together! Emi Ink donated all the stationery for the evening, so there were a LOT of projects to manage in the weeks leading up to the event. Here's an overview of some of the pieces we created for this museum-themed event:

Valet tickets

We produced special valet tickets for Prestige Valet Service, complete with custom logo, perforations for the 3-part ticket, and a hole punch for the key ring. A lot of details went into this one and this project turned out to be the one that I was most paranoid about. Each ticket required three sets of identical numbers and I asked multiple people to proof the stack for me to prevent any mix-ups with someone going home with the wrong car!

Exhibit placards

Beautiful floral arrangements by Spinning Web Florist dressed up the event space and were cordoned off with red velvet ropes. In another area, models posing as living statues were covered in gold paint from head to toe and decked out in gold wedding gowns. For each floral arrangement and living statue, I created a museum-style placard.

Food labels

While the valet tickets made me paranoid, these tent-fold food labels made me frustrated. Ginniberries created an amazing menu of butler-passed hors d'oeuvres and for each food item, I created a raw silk white tented card to go with it. It was particularly hard to create these on an empty stomach.

Tea card

The ladies from A Cup of Tea were stationed in the corner of the room with lovely take-home tea favors for everyone. I designed a simple folded card that listed the assorted teas with a small envelope to hold a tea sample of our choice.

Admission ticket

This admission ticket was more of a decorative piece than a functional piece. It slipped into an antique gold pocket that was attached to the exterior of the program.

Interior view of program/map

While brainstorming with Mona during the early planning stages, we came up with the idea of doing a map or guide to add to the museum feel of this event. I was going to do a simple, black and white map, but after spying a detailed map of Buckingham Palace that appeared in the newspaper on the eve of William and Kate's nuptials, I decided to try a different approach. It was a lot of work, but in the end I was happy with the overall piece.

Soda bottle tags

Even the soda bottles courtesy of Waialua Soda Works were adorned with coordinating hang tags.

Favor bag tags

The finishing touch was a tag hanging from the handles of our take home gift bags.

In terms of volume of work, this was a doozie. I had the help of my normal "supporting cast" but an extra special thank you goes out to my friend, Sonya, who helped me with die-cutting some of the pieces above, and gave up an entire Saturday night to assist with the assembly. (For all of you DIY brides out there, have a crafty friend help you with your projects and it'll make the hours fly by!)

There were a lot of vendors hard at work during the event, but my projects were done by the time I arrived so I could just relax and enjoy myself. Highlights for me included the 10-minute massage courtesy of the Spa at Trump (Trump Waikiki Hotel), the AMAZING cake by cakelava (I took a quick photo with my phone, but it really doesn't do it any justice), and the friends, old and new, that I was able to chat with. Fun night!