Southwestern Turquoise Wedding Inspiration

Last week it was the talk of the wedding planning industry that Pantone announced that turquoise would be the color of 2010. I LOVE turquoise, especially turquoise and silver southwestern inspired jewelry.

What better color palette for an outdoor, southwestern wedding than using a range of neutral tones accented by turquoise and silver?

Turquoise is a very strong color, so for your turquoise inspired wedding make it an accent color on a neutral palette as opposed to the main focus for a very luxurious and elegant take on the trend.

Eva Mendez at the 2009 Golden Globes proved that southwestern, turquoise jewelry looks gorgeous paired with white formal wear. Get your bridesmaids involved and allow them to pick up their favorite southwestern turquoise and silver jewelry to personalize their own look and stay with your theme. Also, as an added flare to your bouquets, have your florist wrap the bouquets with beaded turquoise bracelets.

To incorporate the silver elements of your color palette, have your bridesmaids wear a soft, gray/silver color (they'll love you since they can wear it again!), and use antique silver vases for your centerpieces.

Images: Tent, Eva Mendez, Gray Ruffle Dress, Antique Silver Vase, Cream Floral Arrangement, Turquoise and Silver Necklace, Turquoise and Silver Jewelry, Succulent and Silver Arrangements

Anyone else love turquoise and silver jewelry as much as I do?

Eco-Friendly Stationery How To's

Photo: Creative Commons License

One of the easiest ways to go green for your wedding or event is to make your invitations eco-friendly. There are tons of vendors out there who offer eco-friendly invitation products (myself included), but what exactly makes an invitation eco-friendly?

1. The Paper, Stock and Materials. There are several different paper options for today's brides and party hosts. Recycled seems to be the obvious choice for eco-friendly invitations, but there are other options as well. Many vendors offer FSC Certified stocks, which are created from trees from sustainable forests and processed in mills using sustainable energy. Another option would be to go with 100% cotton paper. Most cotton papers are tree-free, and created using leftover cotton linters leftover from the textile industry. Paper vendors are also getting more and more creative. There are several that now offer papers embedded with seeds, so your guests can plant them after your event as passed. That's a unique way to recycle your guests won't soon forget!


2. The Printing Process. Vegetable and soy based inks are preferable over petroleum based inks. These inks are low in VOC's and better for the environment. Choose single color printing over multiple colors can lessen the environmental impact as well. Another less thought of printing choice is digital offset, which doesn't use the same film and chemical process to create the plates to print your invitations. Also when choosing a printer, several use green energy to run their presses, making them a greener option.


3. The Number of Pieces. Take into consideration to order the number of invitations you think you'll need and not to way overestimate them to eliminate waste. Also, if you can try to condense as much information onto a minimum number of insertion cards to not only save you money, but also to prevent waste as well. Having a wedding website makes it easy to do this, being you can post additional information about your wedding (like hotel information) as well as give guests a place to RSVP on the Internet.

Does anyone have any green printing tips I might have missed? Please share!

New Year, New Blog

Photo: Edz Gazette

Happy New Year!

As part of my New Year's Resolutions (yes, I know it seems I have a lot this year!), I've decided I want to be a better blogger. Part of that process is figuring out what you want to say so you can become more focused in spreading the message you want to send.

So with that in mind, I decided it was time for a Blog Mission Statement...

Invite Couture Blog's Mission Statement:

Invite Couture Blog is home to my online notebook. It's home to my ideas, thoughts, inspiration and tips on artistry and creativity. My goal is to provide my readers with a resource of ideas to better express themselves and personalities while planning and creating special life events they are sharing with their friends and family.

New Year, new goals, new promises to deliver on. I'm excited to start this new year off with a bang.