I met Kelly last year through the local chapter of The Rising Tide Society Tuesday’s Together that I lead. And we hit it off right away.

Brent and Janelle chose me to design their wedding invitations and I loved their style immediately. For one, their reception was at The Barn at the Ackerhurst Dairy Farm and I absolutely adore that venue.

Wedding colors, bridesmaid dresses, flowers, what type of shoe, how you should wear your hair, chicken or beef, band or DJ…

I preach this a lot to couples.

Do it your way.

It’s your wedding and (hopefully) this is the only one you’re going to get.  So embrace yourselves, your love and your style.

When is a good time to get all those wedding planning items done?

To help, I created this fun little graphic you can pin and keep handy while you’re creeping closer to wedding day.

I’ll never forget the day I got a phone call from Jan.

When I talked to Jan Knobel for the first time on the phone, she was a nervous mother-of-the-bride.  And she had a right to be.

When you think barn, you may think country or rustic.  I was talking about the Barn at the Ackerhurst Dairy Farm to someone and they wondered who would have their wedding on dirt floors.

In Memory Ideas for your Wedding Day

Sometimes the people you couldn’t picture your wedding without, won’t be able to be there.

Chances are, they have a front row seat from heaven though.

I really wanted to crash this wedding.  It was going to be gorgeous, I did so many custom pieces for them and I was staying downtown that weekend with two girlfriends for a weekend away.  Ashley even told me to!

I ponder the question: how did I get here?  I mean, I never dreamed about becoming a wedding invitation designer.  In fact, that job probably didn’t exist in those books about careers I paged through in high school.  Nor probably was graphic designer.