Congratulations Erin & Frank!

My friends, Erin and Frank, are getting married today!  I really wish that Josh and I could fly over from France for the weekend to celebrate with them. They came all the way from Florida to our Seattle wedding and we loved having them there. I know theirs will be a perfect and festive wedding! The couple and many of their good friends are avid swing dancers so there's sure to be lots of dancing. Also, the Scrabble theme as seen in the guest book will be present in other ways today, for example the place cards are letter trays with each of the guests' names spelled out! I can't wait to see all of the pictures. Speaking of pictures, here is a link to their lovely engagement photo session taken by Photonotions Photography.

It was a fun book to make. At first I tried to saw through the Scrabble pieces to make them thinner, but I soon realized that wasn't my most brilliant idea! To save my fingers I decided to work around the full thickness of the pieces. Above you can see my solution - the covers are made using two layers of laminated .98 board. The Kutrimmer couldn't quite handle that thickness, so I cut them by hand. Phew! It was a great workout!

Mission Accomplished: Guest Books & Exciting News

Voila! Three earth friendly looking guest books! I've obscured the logos on the front covers, but otherwise, that's just what they look like. I finished them on Friday morning, so I had plenty of time to turn them in before their afternoon deadline.

Ollie kept me company, and thankfully a squirrel kept him entertained, so he wasn't chasing paper around the bindery!

Here is a shot of what I use for my job backer (the contraption that holds the text block in place while the shoulders are formed). Gilding boards with binders board support strips are set securely into a lying press. I use a jewelers hammer and a fender hammer for rounding.

It had been a while since I'd sewn an endband, and it was fun to get to do six of them!

 Now for the biggest news of all! On Wednesday Josh and I found out that we'll be relocating to Paris for 3 months! He leaves on Friday and I'll join him the first week of April after I finish up projects in the bindery. It's just now sinking in that this is really happening. I didn't have time to think about it while I was working on the guest books, so it's been a great weekend just daydreaming about all of the things we'll get to see and do in the next couple of months. Me-oh-my!

Ben & Caitlin's Wedding

Congrats to Ben & Caitlin who were married on the 3rd! They had a lovely fall wedding complete with autumn colors and homemade pies. The ceremony was held at Bull Street Baptist in Savannah, and the reception was out at Old Fort Jackson. It was neat to be back at Bull Street, and it was fun to see the fort. Josh and I were excited to see it after driving by for years without taking a peek.

The photo above is a detail of the guest book I made for the newlyweds. I used a preprinted text block which included columns for date, name, address, and comments. There are plenty of pages left so they can use the book in their guest room and at any future celebrations.

There were so many great details throughout the wedding - both the preexisting rustic gems at the fort and the special touches prepared just for the day. I even found a hidden Mickey (almost)!

A shot of the guest book in action!

And finally, click above for some pretty scenes from the day.

Special thanks to Lisa of Orange Blossom Ink for letting me use her fonts and borrow her printer for the cover AND for driving us to and from the airport rental car place after our car troubles!