New Mexico Dream Wedding Kick Off Party

Hey ladies - and guys too! It's that time of year again...the $50,000 New Mexico Dream Wedding contest is just about to open registration for this chance of a lifetime! This year a lot has changed and you don't even have to write an essay, which was always required before. All of the new rules and regs are going to be given at the Kick Off Party on the 17th at the Tamaya Resort, by the way that's where the wedding and reception will be held-are you kidding me!? Have you seen this place? It's amazing! Check out the NMDW website for more details and pitures of all of the details from last years wedding. Oh, and stop by the party! They'll be tons of food, drinks, and did I tell you about the prizes...?I don't know what all the prizes will be, but I'm giving away a gift certificate for 50 wedding programs that is worth over $125. If you have a chance stop by and say hello!

In the Studio

Here at the studios things are winding down for the season, and thought you all would like to see some of the things we worked on...


I made Cristina and Robert's pocketfold invitations early this year. Cristina wanted the same tags that were on her invitations to be on her programs, so here they are...These are cool tags because they can be used for favor tags as well.

Cristin and Bryan also got pocketfold invitations, but I love the design of the invitation card that went inside so much that I wanted to highlight it on its own.

Janice and Tom were just married yesterday, and I worked in collaboration with the brides sister Cathy John of Cathy John Design Studio. She created the letterpress covers, and I did the printing and assembly of the inserts. They came out simply stunning!

Marissa and her mom came up with the design of her wedding invitations. We used a deep champagne colored cardstock with midnight blue printing and backing. The thermograph ink looked amazing on this tea length invitation.

Kodie wanted a white invitation with accents of brick red and black. The pocketfold that we used was a shimmery with a lined texture to it. They came out Niiiice!

This was my favorite of the season. Melissa and Chad had a hard time deciding on a color palette for their labor weekend wedding. We started with eggplant and coral, next was an autumn palette of gold, brown, red, and burt orange. Finally Melissa decided on Tiffany Blue and hues of pink. This square pocketfold is what we finally decided on, and wow! I love it!

My first baptism invitation! We used a shimmery white cardstock and printed in a simple black ink. The cross motiff is simple but very elegantly adorned with a small Swarovski crystal. We used platinum colored envelopes instead of a plain old white one.

Rachel and Michael were also married this weekend. Rachel found me on Etsy, and we were able to design this all over email. We also did a similiar Save the Date. This invitation is so sleek, it was perfect for the couples Malibu wedding.

Real Wedding: Stefanie and Nathan

I haven't posted a Real Wedding feature in awhile, and I am so excited to show off this wedding I was able to work on from earlier this year.

Stefanie and Nathan were one of the coolest couples that I've been able to work with. They were so laid back, and very very kind. I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of the photos from their wedding...It ended up being amazing (I knew they would), and you can see for yourself that every detail came out beautiful.

Here are the details:

Colors: Tiffany Blue and Espresso Brown
Flowers: Tanya Cole of Tiger Lily Floral
Cake: Suzy Kaplan of Patisserie C
Venue: Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town
Decor: Distracted by Decor
Photography: Kristina of Blue Rose Photography Studio
Invitations: Elva Marie of Elva Marie's Fine Paper
Hair/Makeup: Maychel of Salon Helena
Officiant: Richard Stoops of Marriage Makers
Favors: loose leaf tea from Adagio Teas
DJ: Too Hot to Stop

Thanks Stefanie and Nathan! I loved working with you...best of luck for a long and happy marriage!

Remember, if you are a planner, photographer, or bride who would like to have a wedding featured, please send photos and detailed information to info@elvamariesfinepaper.com for consideration.

Seth Goodman Updated his blog!

Check it out here...

What the blog!?

I have been, needless to say, a little missing in action these days...I have been having a whirlwind of emotions that I thought I'd explain. In October I graduated from grad school, my parents relocated to a new town, the relationship I thought was going to last a lifetime ended, I started dating again, I got ripped off by 3 separate clients!, I nearly went bankrupt, and sometimes I feel completely lost and discouraged! Though my circumstances have been up and down these past few months, I still feel very optimistic that things will turn out exactly the way I want them to and I am officially turning over a new leaf in both my personal and professional life...One of the first things I've been working on is myself. My mind, body, and spirit all need some improvement and slowly but surely I am getting to a better place. I started working out a few nights a week, I'm surrounding myself with positive friends - old and new, and I'm watching my diet. The second thing and the most exciting thing that I am going to do in just a few weeks is have a personal boudoir session done by Jones Photo Art. I think that this is going to do wonders for my self esteem and I can't wait to show you all the final photos! I really want my business to be successful, so I am strategically revising my business model to better suit my client base. So in a nutshell, that's what's been going on! It helps me to write about it and get it all out in the open. I know that things will turn around, I just hope it's sooner than later!

Featured Vendor: Tiger Lily Floral

My good friend Tanya Cole owns Tiger Lily Floral in Albuquerque, and she recently made some HUGE changes to her shop. She used to be located on Central near the Frontier Restaurant, but made a move home in order to focus on some different projects that she has in the works including more events and weddings. If you've seen her work, I am sure you'll agree that she is absolutely amazing! If you have a chance check out her revamped website. In addition to adding a ton of new pics to her gallery, she also has a page that can help you with your planning by showing photographs of popular flowers that you may not know the names of... check it out here!

Do you know what these are? The first one to answer correctly gets a box of Thank You cards!

Postage Rate Increase

In case you haven't heard, the US Postal Service raised their first class stamp rates to $ 0.44. If you bought a stash of the Forever stamps with the bells on them, your in luck - they are still good to use.

This leads me into a series of Frequently Asked Questions about invitations that I have been dying to answer!

How much is it going to cost to send out our invitations?
This can really only be answered by an aficionado at the post office. More than likely they will cost more than an average letter or greeting card because of size and weight.
I would suggest that once you have your invitation suite in hand, to have it weighed and measured so that you are not in shock when you are ready for mailing. Since your invitations are more delicate than most other mailings, I would suggest that you splurge and have them hand canceled instead of having then sent through the post office machinery. Some post office won't even charge you extra.

Do I have to put a stamp on my rsvp envelope?

You don't have to do anything BUT if you are expecting your guests to actually send them back a stamp is a good idea. Since this card is generally smaller than the actual invitation, using a standard first class stamp should do the trick.

Where can I buy cool stamps?

Here a couple of places that I usually recommend:

http://www.zazzle.com/

http://www.everafterpostage.com/

http://www.championstamp.com/

For more on invitation FAQ's, as well as other general wedding category check out the New Mexico Wedding Professional official blog here!