Tickle Me Turquoise by Flakes Paperie

Toronto Life Weddings

My good friend Kelly's wedding, which you may have read about here or here, is featured in the 2012 edition of Toronto Life Weddings. Yeah to Kelly + Murray! Is that one good looking bride and groom or what?! 

Of course I was also excited to see a shot of K+M's Flakes Paperie stationery included in the spread. This current issue is on newstands now and of course I recommend picking it up to see all of Kelly + Murray's details, as well as the other fabulous Toronto weddings and vendors featured. To close, because I loved them so, how about a shot of their program fans once more...

C + T's Style Me Pretty Feature

I'm finally getting around to sharing this Style me Pretty post featuring Ted + Christine's fabulous wedding photos. I loved creating all of the stationery for their wedding (which you may recall from here) and was thrilled to see the details come to life, expertly captured by A Simple Photograph.  Christine and Ted's great style certainly translated into a fabulous wedding. I mean that veil, the flower boxes, the yellow balloon - stop, it's too much. Heck, they even went to a ballgame to snap a few pictures - how fun is that?!  Check out the rest of the pictures on A Simple Photograph's blog...    

A+R's Ruffled Feature

One of my wonderful client's (who you may recall from here and here) wedding was featured on Ruffled recently. Alana and Rich did such a fabulous job of styling the Art Gallery of Hamilton.  Their unique aesthetic and woodland theme was perfectly integrated into the day and wonderfully captured by their photographer. Check it out to see all the details, including some of the paper goods by Flakes Paperie!

from Ruffled, photos by Jayme Morrison.

Our Wedding {part three}

Now for the final instalment of our wedding - the decor details...

Our reception venue was a blank canvas to say the least. The space definitely needed to be decorated and thankfully our fabulous wedding party (lured with pizza and beer) helped us do this the night before the wedding. We hung paper lanterns from the wooden beams and fancied up the mantle with our initials and a few of the many cat grass plants I'd been growing for the wedding.  Candles in small mason jars filled with grey sand lined the railing of the back deck and were lit in the evening along with few more paper lanterns. For favours we filled jars with our homemade candied nuts.  Along with the ring pillow, I also sewed fabric squares in a variety of patterned fabrics to sit beneath the centrepieces. I printed menus for every guest along with a postcard, which doubled as their place card, and had a spot to leave us a message.  

Our fabulous cupcakes were accompanied by a homemade cookie bar thanks to the baking of a few generous family members. I fell in love with protea flowers during our trip to Africa earlier that year, which is where Cory proposed (in Zambia) and placed the robust stems in mason jars scattered about. 

 All in all we couldn't have been happier with our wedding and had so much fun planning it all...well maybe except for the final days where we might have morphed into borderline nut-bar versions of ourselves (I don't recommend having the close of your first home purchase days before your wedding).  Home buying stress aside, all of those cornball lines about your wedding going so fast and being the best day really do apply. We truly loved every minute of it...ok, so maybe we didn't love our own speeches to which the term "wing it" definitely applies (word to the wise: write a speech). We were very lucky that our friends and family were ridiculously helpful (yes, even the drunken groomsmen who got on each others shoulders to pull down the paper lanterns at nights end) which is essential when your venue comes with nothing and no one on-site. I would say that sums it all up...thanks for letting me share our day with you!

 

As for our fabulous vendors: Venue, The Maplewood/ Photographer, Tracey MacIsaac Photography/ Bridesmaid Dresses, J. Crew/ Flower Girl Dress, Sweet Plume/ Wedding Dress,Pearl Bridal House/ Flowers,The Flower Market/ Cupcakes, Eat My Words

Questions/comments? Reply to this post or email me at hello@flakespaperie.com

Our wedding {part two}

And now for the second batch of our wedding details! Cory's nephew Devin was the most perfect ring bearer and played his part flawlessly, not to mention blew us all away with his killer dance moves later that night. The flower girl, or "flower girlzilla" as I like to call her, my insanely adorable niece Chloé, was just a little more resistant to her role (enter cries of "I want to go home!"). But she warmed up to the idea post-ceremony (of course) and looked beyond cute in her pouffy tulle dress. Following the ceremony we had cocktail hour outside the reception venue with Pimms No. 1 cocktails (an homage to our South African safari trip, where we first fell in love with Pimms) served with striped straws that I embellished and yummy hors d'oeuvres.

While our guests enjoyed the food and drinks, we snapped photos with our top notch wedding party.  The 'moustache on a stick' photo session of Cory and I (which was a little less predictable at the time) is our favourite, because the photos are ridiculous just like us.    

Up next, reception decor in the final post...

Our wedding {part one}

I'm not gonna lie - I love me a good wedding. The dressing up, the details, the drinks, the dancing, the drinks (did I already say that?)...I love it all. And let's be honest, even the bad ones are still good entertainment, in a 'yikes...awkward' kind of way. You know, the ones where the favour is a monogrammed keychain and the best man's speech includes details about that time the Groom got so drunk he threw up all over the...well, you get the idea. As this blog chronicles my wedding invitation design work, I thought it only fitting that I share the details of my own wedding. I'll spare you the bajillion photos of our smiling faces and instead focus on the little details that made our wedding, well...our wedding! 

Cory and I were married a year and a half ago in Ancaster. Me and my ladies (and my token 'bridesman') prepared at my parent's house where my uber-skilled friend Holly (hair stylist extraordinaire) did everyone's 'do' (except the bridesman - he got to sleep in).  Accessory wise, I made a tulle pouf for my hair as well as a belt for my wedding dress and used my Grandma's beautiful vintage beaded purse.

Our ceremony was in the woods in what was at one time a camp chapel with wooden benches for our guests to sit on. We decorated with homemade pomanders (my sister just loooved making those)(note:extreme sarcasm) and mason jars filled with hydrangeas, fuji mums and grapevine branches.

Our very talented friend Darren performed Postcards from far Away and Reign of Love on the piano and my incredible cousin Erica sang Bob Dylan's To Make you Feel my Love (Adele style).  Hot damn the music was good. My dear friend Laura (sensational wedding helper) read a poem my Grandpa had written my Grandma in the 40's (tearjerker) and we wrapped it all up by walking out to the Beach Boys.  

 As for paper goodies at the ceremony, I made up little tissue packs with witty labels like "For all the softies..." and "For when no one is looking..." and three page booklet programs detailing the who's who of the ceremony.

{part two} to come...

photos by Tracey MacIsaac (vendors listed in final post)

Sunshine and navy blue

Here's a look at Olivia and Matt's yellow and navy invitation suite.  I adore their colour scheme and was so happy with the layered screen-printing of the big yellow ranunculus. We opted to pair this flat invite with a shimmer gold envelope.

The Big Day {Ayslin + Phil}

Ayslin and Phil, whose invites you may recall, were married this past October at the Berkeley Church in Toronto. Their beautiful venue provided the perfect backdrop for many gorgeous and unique photos, including the fabulous vintage-goody-filled room where the gals had their make up done. Talented Toronto based photographer Chan-Ra Rin expertly captured the style and joy of the day, as seen in the incredible photos below...

The reception space included a fully stacked candy bar, hydrangea centre-pieces and white paper lanterns.  Flakes Paperie worked with the happy couple to create programs, menus, a seating chart poster and candy box labels to correspond with their invitations.

All in all, I'd say this wedding was top notch, which I know first hand as I was lucky enough to be in attendance!  Yes sir Cory and I were there, drinking Stiegl, binge-eating candy and dancing into the wee hours. 

Thanks for sharing your day Ayslin! 

Venue: Berkeley Church, Photographer: Chan-Ra Photography, Flowers: Lakeshore Village Flowers, Dress: Pearl Bridal, Stationery: Flakes Paperie

Behold!

Apart from today being fantastic due to the abundance of chocolate and candy, this day also marks the unveiling of BHLDN -Anthropologie's brand new wedding line! As expected, it doesn't disappoint.  I adore the bridesmaid dresses (hint hint dear friend whose wedding I'm in this fall) and the shoes - oh heaven! 

A few favourites...

 

Uschi + Kay Feature

Gaelan, creator of the fabulous Toronto based "boutique wedding blog" Uschi and Kay was kind enough to feature Flakes Paperie this morning. Swing by and check it out! 

Eat my Words

Today I thought I'd share one of our amazing wedding vendors, the Toronto based Eat My Words. I initially discovered them flipping through the pages of an old Style at Home magazine. Their beautiful cupcake designs caught my eye and as I read on to discover they were a non-profit who contributed proceeds to the Steven Lewis Foundation, I was sold. After all, Cory and I had just gotten engaged in Zambia, where in one in five adults lives with HIV, and so contributing to a foundation that funds community based AIDS organizations throughout Africa just made sense. It was also nice to know that some small part of our wedding budget was going towards something meaningful that we believed in.

As you can see, our wedding day cupcakes couldn't have been more beautiful and were met with rave reviews. We ordered a small cake for cutting along with regular and mini cupcakes in a range of delectable flavours, all of which were fabulous. The vanilla raspberry - don't even get me started!

Photo courtesy of our wedding photographer, Tracy MacIsaac 

Pretty things to come

Exciting news for brides-to-be...if you haven't already heard, Anthropologie will soon be launching it's very own wedding line! Which basically means I'm going to want to get married all over again...great. The site for BHLDN will officially launch on February 14th and will no doubt be chock-full of awesomeness. 

A little bit of fall on a winter day

My studio has a lot of windows, which is great, however in the winter it gets pretty darn cold.  Currently bundled up in many ridiculous layers (yes, I just might have a bathrobe on over my jeans) I long for warmer months. And so I'm taking a mental trip back to this past fall and posting the wonderful Dana & Tom's falling leaves invitations. The invitation suite was screen-printed on a shimmer stock with rusty orange ink.

Note: please don't knock on my door today - it takes a while to get this bathrobe off.  

 

K+M's Ruffled feature

Last week my good friend Kelly's wedding was featured on the fabulous wedding blog Ruffled. It's a great feature that perfectly captures the essence of their big day, expertly photographed by the talented folks at Toronto's Mango Studios. Head on over to Ruffled to check out the gorgeous pics of kelly and Murray (seriously, is that a good looking couple or what) and their wonderful details...not to mention a few great shots of their invitations and program fans made by none other than Flakes Paperie - fancy that!    

Photo by Mango Studios

Upcoming Wedding Show!

This coming weekend Flakes Paperie will have a booth at the Wedding Dreams Show in Kitchener.  The show is held Saturday and Sunday 10am to 5pm at Bingemans and is the largest show in the area. Print off this coupon to save $2 off admission. Stop by booth no.61 and say hi!