Away for the moment...

We have many plans for our blog, updates, projects, behind the scenes sneaks, but currently, we are in the middle of an exciting and giant project... last week we styled and shot our entry for the Inspired Creations Contest (held by Cyd from The Sweetest Occasion and Elizabeth over at Elizabeth Anne Designs) and it has been a blast, but a huge undertaking... plus, its due this Friday! (lots of late nights and hours in Photoshop for Emily!)

A huge thanks to all of our friends who came out and rocked the shoot, were patient with us, helped set up/and or tear down: the amazing and fun Burke family, my sister Olivia, Isaac and Jonathan, and a big thank you to Kristi D. who was the provider of our beautiful cake!

So please forgive us during our absence, we'll be posting photos of this project as soon as we are allowed to, and we'll have updates, parties, tutorials... so much to come, but for now, its late nights of editing and sorting and 'oohing & aahing" over our entry!

Features

I know we're just getting started with posting over here... but in the meantime, check out a couple Paper&Velvet events Hannah B and myself have had the honor of having featured at some lovely design and occasion blogs! (at the time, Paper&Velvet, our new brand, wasn't fully decided upon, so all of our features are just listed under our personal names and my photography site/blog!)

Just recently, our New Years Eve Masquerade was featured over at Bliss! 

 

And a few months back our Buenos Noches Dinner Party from September 2010 was featured on one of my favorite blogs, The Sweetest Occasion:

Pretty exciting! Definitely take a look at the above blogs, as we spend hours scoring them for inspiration and just to look at all the beautiful photographs!

Eat. Drink & Be Merry. A Dinner Party Club Event. Part II, The Details

The overall feel for "Eat.Drink&be Merry" was a midsummer's eve sort of look... lush summer greens, twinkling lights, cut glass and fresh garden edibles. Some of our decor choices and inspirations were gleaned from this site. We had originally planned on using pears as our place cards since Hannah’s parents had a pear tree… but a sneaky raccoon decided to foil our plans… so we purchased green apples. 

 

 

we used garden greenery (Rub barb, Hasta leaves, Mint, Lemon Grass, Ivy, Morning glory vines…) to adorn the tables

 

Our glassware and place settings were a combination of vintage, thrifted and our combined family collections

 

We stuck with a general theme of green and white, a light summer feel. Tissue paper rosettes, chandelier crystals, white twinkle lights, clear cut glass…

 

The event was a major success... and was the start of an exciting adventure for Hannah and myself, as we are now venturing into our own Event Design & Styling business. More events and photos to come, and stay tuned for more details on our budding company, Paper&Velvet!

Photography by Emily O Photography
Styling and design by Paper&Velvet 

Eat. Drink & Be Merry. A Dinner Party Club Event. Part I, The Invites

"No one throws real parties anymore!" A friend of ours recently bemoaned, and we agree.

It was just last summer that I was lamenting over the fact that living in the MidWest, there's not a lot of chances to photograph stylish and beautiful events to Hannah (my creative partner in crime)... and from that conversation, the Dinner Party Club was born.

If we were not to be invited to fabulous events and parties, then we would create our own. Taking care to invite people who would not only enjoy attending, but embrace the entire concept of a dress code, elaborate details, delicious food and an unforgettable evening.

I think we started seriously planning in early June, we set our date for August 20th. Hannah’s parents have the most gorgeous house and they graciously allowed us to host our party there. There were so many stages to the planning, but first and foremost, we needed to get the invites out to our guests!

 

We kept the party size fairly small, which allowed us to put hand-done elements into the invites. I designed the invitations in PS, printed them on vellum, and used one of my photographs as the back layer. We then stitched them with gold thread and hot glued on silk rose leaves. We purchased the vertical envelopes at a small stationary store, hand-wrote little disclaimers to take the formality down a notch. We then finished them with more gold thread and silk rose leaves.

 

 Styling and Invitations by Paper&Velvet
Photography by Emily O Photography