It was such a great experience working with Brittany on her wedding invitations. At our first meeting, we sat and drank coffee together for over an hour just chatting about her wedding. We instantly had a great connection, and I felt like I had known Brittany for years! She started giving me ideas by going through my portfolio of previous invitations and picked out all the invites she was drawn to the most. This helped me narrow in on her style and the direction we would then take for her invitations.

We went with a bold damask pattern using black and a deep purple accent color. I repeated this design on her invitation, reply card, and menus, which all came out amazing! Brittany was thrilled with her invitations (she said that she cried when she first opened the proofs), I love that!

Brittany and Chris were married on the seventh of August at Abiqua Country Estates in Silverton and I'm so excited for them! Congratulations again to both of you =)

The bold design coupled with a dainty elegant font was a striking combination

I designed a diamond shaped return address seal for the outer envelope, and it quickly became one of my favorite parts of this invitation set

The subtle hints of purple within the design was a beautiful detail

I designed matching address labels that incorporated the design and fonts from her invitation

Doing reply postcards are not only fun, but they are a great cost saver. Not only do you take the envelope out of the equation but you also pay less postage (only 28 cents compared to the letter rate of 44 cents)!

I can't believe it's already been a year since my friend Shea had her beautiful daughter Ada! It's been so much fun to watch Ada grow and develop over the past year into a little individual. Already she has a mind of her own and resembles her amazing parents in so many ways!

Shea is planning an ice cream cone themed party for Ada's first birthday celebration, and asked me to design party invitations to go along with their theme. She envisioned having a waffle cone topped with three scoopes of ice cream with each scoop having a picture of Ada inside. I love taking an idea and bringing it to life and seeing the finished result =)

The invitations turned out adorable, I can't wait to celebrate with sweet little Ada and all their friends and family! Happy Birthday Ada Jean =)

At the Oregon Wedding Showcase in January 2010, I met Jamie Carney the owner of Divine Weddings and Events who then referred her sister Lora Juza to me. I'm so glad she did because it was so much fun working with Lora on her grass theme invitations! Lora started by sending me several different examples of invitations she really liked to give me an idea of her vision, and she let me take it from there, which was awesome. The examples shown in the pictures were the preliminary mock-ups, but I absolutely love these photos (taken by the incredibly talented Ashley Sturm Photography).

I designed Lora's invitation set as well as her menus, and I love how all the pieces came out. The grass illustration was done in a very soft muted green and carried through on all the designs! Lora is getting married in September and I'm so pumped for her and Michael to tie the knot =) Congratulations you two!

To give the grass some texture, we printed these invitations on a textured linen cardstock

I love how the barrier between the information and the address is the grass illustration!

Their cute menu!

If you love these invitations, please leave a comment! Your feedback is much appreciated =)

This invitation set has been one of my favorites this year, not only because I love the design but because I was able to be involved in so many of their wedding design details. I designed their invitation set, menus, programs, favor inserts, thank you notes, and table reserved cards, which has been so much fun! After their wedding, I will post additional pictures of their other design elements, but for now I would love to share the gorgeous invitation set! Congratulations Priscilla and Dominic on your upcoming wedding at the end of August! You've been amazing to work with =)

We used a dark brown/metallic Pocket Folds Signature Side from Envelopments for the invitation set. We kept the colors neutral with brown, tan, creams and a subtle splash of green to go along with her wedding color scheme. Beautiful!

Her design was simple yet strikingly elegant. Priscilla wanted the corners of the invitation to look worn, with a few subtle flower details, so I used Photoshop to create this effect.

You may remember seeing this image because it was featured in Oregon Bride Magazine's Best of 2010 Issue. I blogged about it here if you missed that particular post. Red Pearl Designs was voted as Best Invitations in the Valley for 2010!

This menu was actually the initial mock-up and not the final version, but it still gives you an idea of the overal look of her menu. We printed enough to place one menu at each guests table setting!

My dear friend Ashley Sturm is getting married in September, and after her wedding I plan to share all of her design elements with you! I'm working on all sorts of fun pieces that will be displayed at her wedding, and I can't wait to blog about everything. For now, here is a quick preview of her gorgeous invitations that go along with her vintage wedding theme!

How would you like to win a $25 gift certificate towards any item in Mindy Strauss Life Photography's Etsy Shop? I know I would!! You can enter up to 4 times. If you would like to find out the entry details visit her blog for more information.

Here is a sneak peak of some of the items in Mindy Strauss's shop! Click on the link to view all her available items!

Sirius and I started working on her invitations after she was referred to me by her wedding coordinator Emee from EJP Events. She sent me a photo of her cake because she wanted to incorporate the same swirl design into her invitation. Their set included an Invitation, Reply Postcard, and a folded thank you card with a photo from their wedding. Each piece incorporated the swirl design with the striking colors of black, red and white.

I just received a nice thank you note from Sirius which said "Thank you so much for all of our wedding stationary. It turned out so beautifully, and we got so many compliments on them. You worked so hard to make me happy and I'm so appreciative of all your effors!" It was such a sweet note, and I'm so glad to hear their invitations were loved by all their guests as well =)

I had the pleasure of working with Garden Gallery Ironworks on their grand re-opening invitations. They are now located in suite 416 of the Woodburn Company Stores, and their new location is wonderful! Since I had never been to Garden Gallery, I made the quick drive to Woodburn to go check it out, and I was very impressed with all the wonderful items they had to offer. I ended up purchasing the cutest little bird house that now sits on my front porch =)

After I returned home from my visit, I felt immediately inspired to start designing their invitation. They wanted a folded invitation with a fresh design approach so it would stand out from anything they've ever done in the past, so I got to work doing just that. When the owner, Don saw the first proof his exact words were "It's Incredible!! We love it!"

I would encourage all of you to celebrate their grand re-opening on Friday, July 23 from 6-9pm. They will be serving refreshments (wine - coffee - desserts) and you will have the chance to win special prizes and drawings!

Also, the fun continues through the weekend. On Saturday, July 24 and Sunday, July 25, you can enjoy new products and special drawings!

It was a great experience working with Garden Gallery Ironworks, they are wonderful people! The invitations turned out beautiful, and everyone has loved them. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I'm excited to present the advertisement I designed for Luxe Event Productions. Misty contacted me in spring and asked me to design their ad for the fall/winter issue of Oregon Bride Magazine, and of course I said YES!

Luxe is a contemporary and style-savvy event management company for social, corporate, and non-profit events. They also have a great wedding blog with lots of great planning tips and ideas, called Sothisisbliss, check it out!

As I got started on the design, Misty sent me an image taken by Ophelia Photography of the modern day bride to use in the ad. It was an image of an absolutely gorgeous girl with tattoos on her arm. I decided to play with the idea of the alternative bride by using an elegant yet grungy illustration that resembled a tattoo to transition the image into the text below. The ending result was a very striking ad that will hopefully grab the attention of Oregon Bride readers, and generate lots of new business for Luxe!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think of the ad!

Today is my 2 year wedding anniversary to my husband Ryan, and I felt inspired to share some of our wedding photos and details about our day with you! It's been an amazing two years being married to a wonderful man. He's always very supportive of my business, and his encouragement throughout the years has been a great motivator for me to pursue my passion as a graphic designer. I love you Ry! Happy Anniversary =)

Our amazing photos were taken by Eric John Photography located in Salem, Oregon. Eric was so much fun and easy to work with! We loved his artistic approach towards the photos and feel like he did a great job of capturing our wedding.

For our wedding invitations, I designed them myself (Red Pearl Designs)! At the time I didn't have access to design them on the computer, so I crafted each one by hand using stamps and metallic cardstock paper. After stamping over 100 invitations, my husband and I both painfully regreted the decision to hand craft our invitations. It was SO MUCH WORK but they did turn out very cute! 

My make-up was done by Technical Artistry in Salem, Oregon. They did an amazing job at listiening to exactly what I wanted, and making me feel beautiful on my special day!

I wore chandelier earrings and a Nadri crystal bracelet as my jewelry, which I found at Nordstrom in the Fashion Jewelry section. They have beautiful options for wedding accessories at reasonable prices. I showed the lady working the jewelry section a picture of my dress, and she gave great advice on the accessory options that would compliment me best! It was very helpful!

We absolutely LOVED our cake. It was made of individual cupcakes from St. Cupcake which is located in Portland. They are the tastiest cupcakes I've ever had in my life and offer a variety of flavors and frostings!

My wedding dress is from Lena Medoyeff located in Portland off 23rd Avenue. It was the cutest little bridal shop with gorgeous dresses! The designer is local here in Oregon, and each dress is one of a kind. There are no two alike, which gives you a gorgeous custom dress. My dress was under $1,000, so the prices were very reasonable!

As you can probably tell, our colors were green and purple! These have always been my favorite colors, so I'm a huge believer in picking colors that are meaningful to you.

Our linens were rented from Crossroads Linens in Salem, and they were WONDERFUL to wotk with. Picking out the perfect linens can be very overwhelming, but the owner Shirley was a huge help and offered her expert opinion. She made the process simple, and is very flexible about the entire rental process. Shirley didn't expect us to return the linens the next day after the wedding, she gave us a until Tuesday after our Saturday wedding to return everything, which made it much easier on everyone. The linens worked out perfectly for our wedding, and I would definitely recommend their services to other brides!

For our favor table, we did a candy bar! We ordered all the various candies from Candy Warehouse, and borrowed the vases from friends and family. It was a huge hit, but a lot of work and prep! I would highly recommend using The Candy Buffet by Novia Events. They specialize in Candy Bars at weddings and events, and do an UNBELIEVABLE job.

My lovely bridesmaids wore J.crew dresses that worked out fabulously! They offer simple and elegent dresses ranging in tons of styles, which made it easy to find the perfect dress for my girls.

The tuxedos were rented from Mr. Formal, and we were very happy with the quality of the tuxedos and the customer service we received. They had a great deal where if you rented 5 tuxedos you would get the grooms free! I would definitely recommend Mr. Formal!

My bridesmaids got their shoes from Payless Shoe Source! I wanted white peep toe wedges (so it would be easy for them to walk in the grass), and I searched everywhere. Finally Payless came through for me and had the perfect shoe for under $15 each!

We were married at the Green Villa Garden in Independence, Oregon on July 19th, 2008 which is a beautiful garden setting for outdoor weddings. It was an awesome venue and worked out perfectly for us.

I'm sure that I've left out important details by accident, but feel free to comment and ask questions. I would be happy to offer any advice or referrals if you need help planning your wedding! =)

Last night I attended the Oregon Bride Best of 2010 Bride Party, and Red Pearl Designs took home the BEST INVITES in the Valley Award! I was presented with a framed award from Oregon Bride Magazine and I feel extremely honored to be the recipient! Thank you to everyone who voted =)

As a winner, I've been featured in the latest issue of Oregon Bride Magazine in their "Best of 2010" section. I've included some images of the magazine showing my feature which has a picture of one of my invitation sets, a brief description about my business and a client testimonial. This is the first time I've ever been published in a state-wide publication and I couldn't be more excited!!

When I saw Tara at the October Bridal Show, she asked me if I would do her wedding invitations... and my response was, OF COURSE! =)

Tara is getting married in August at St. Boniface Catholic Church and then having their reception at the Silver Falls Vineyard. Her colors are green and purple, which are perfect for a summer wedding! Since Tara is havings hydrangea in her flowers, we went with a hydrangea graphic on her invitations and they turned out beautiful!

We chose Gumdrop Green envelopes to compliment the invitations. To finish off the envelopes, I designed custom address labels with a little sneak peak of the hydrangea design in the corners to give Tara's guests a little preview of the invitation waiting inside. According to Tara and her mom Linda, these invitations were a huge hit with all their guests!

Congratulations to Tara and Chris!! I couldn't be more excited for you two!

When my good friend Breanna Johnson asked me to design custom postcards to market her new station at Studio Montage, I was thrilled to help! She wanted a design that had a boutique feel to coordinate with the style of the salon, so we used a vintage frame to enclose the wording on the front. We selected the greenish-blue as the frame color because it was subtle yet elegant. Breanna and I were so excited to see the finished postcards!! They will be a great tool to hopefully generate new clients =)

Right now Breanna is offering a free consultation as well as a reconstructive treatment when you schedule your next hair appointment. She is a wonderful friend of mine and she would greatly appreciate your business! Give her a call on her cell 503-510-1506 or at the shop 503-385-8287! Studio Montage is located on Edgewater street in West Salem.

I had the pleasure of designing Valerie Ralston's logo and business cards for her new business called The Savvy Shopper. She is a personal shopper based in the Washington area, so give her a call if you are in need of a personal shopper. I have to say, I was immediately impressed by Valerie because of her passion and excitement towards her business and life in general.

We wanted her designs to look classy and sophisticated since that is the type of overall look she strives to give her customers. The finished cards look awesome! I'm excited to see Valerie's business grow as she continues to help her customers find clothing that fits their body and style.

For shopping advice and tips, follow Valerie's blog and her facebook page.

We all know there are LOTS of options when it comes to selecting your wedding invitations (or any stationary need for that matter). So why would you decide to use a designer? I have a few reasons in mind:

1. By using a designer you have more control over your design. With the freedom to change colors, fonts, layouts, paper, envelope and size, it makes your invitations much more unique and special for your event.

2. There are no surpises! I always give my customers a printed proof of their items before the entire order is sent to print, which allows the customer to ensure the colors are coming out correctly and see the quality of their design.

3. The ability to work with a real person. Most stationary companies are based online which means you get little to no contact with a real person. You are limited to selecting specific options and hoping for the best. When using a designer, you get to be involved in the process by sharing your ideas, suggesting changes and asking questions

4. Making the process easier. By hiring a designer you are also hiring their expertise. You no longer have to stress about when you need to mail your invitations, how many extras to order, what information needs to be on the invitation... it's my job to help you with ALL of that and make the process easier for you.

5. Vendor relationships. If you decide to tackle a stationary project on your own, it takes a lot of extra time and energy to research where to purchase materials and where to print your items. Over the years, I've built great relationships with printing companies and paper suppliers. I take all the hassle out of all the searching. Plus, you'll never have to think about how to set up a high-resolution PDF file with 1/8" bleeds and 300 DPI images. Instead, you get to focus on the event itself and trust your stationary items are taken care of =)

These are just a few of the many perks of using a designer. I hope you consider using Red Pearl Designs for your next stationary project!

If you love a particular design, it can be customized to fit your event. Here is an example showing a complete color and font change.

Here is an example showing a different pocketfold envelope and a slight color change.

This example shows a drastic color change and different fonts.

I couldn't be more excited to announce that Red Pearl Designs was selected to be a part of Style Me Pretty's exclusive Little Black Book. It's a huge honor because Style Me Pretty hand-selects each of their vendors and only chooses the best of the best in the wedding industry. After I received the invitation last week, I went through an interview process to make sure I was a good fit for the Little Black Book. After the interview, I found out I was a great fit for the Wedding Invitation category for the Little Black Book!

Thousands of bride's all throughout the country visit Style Me Pretty as a resource for inspiration to create a fabulous wedding and to find great vendors to help with their special day. If you want to visit my listing in the Little Black Book, click here to check it out!

If you are a bride planning your special day, I would HIGHLY recommend that you follow the Style Me Pretty Blog as well as the Little Black Book Blog to see what other bride's across the country have done for their fabulous weddings. The creativity I see within these blog postings typically blows my mind, and I have a feeling you will agree =)

I can't help but smile when I look at Clara and James Wedding Invitation, it has such a happy and vibrant appeal to it. We kept the design fairly simple allowing the bright pink elements to carry the invitation. Clara wanted her invitation to be matted with metallic pink to match her design, and then attached to a signature 4-fold envelope. Her invitation and reply card were then sealed shut with a printed outer square displaying their names & wedding date. Clara was ecstatic with the finished product and so were all of her guests! We had so much fun working together to create invitations that matched their style and tied in with their wedding.

I was so excited to design Laura and Mike's wedding invitations, especially after I found out their colors were purple and orange. We decided to go with a bold flower design in the corner and compliment the invitation with Pop Tones "Orange Fizz" envelopes. Laura also wanted a separate insert for their registry information with a small map for directions to the venue. Even though it was a small insert, I still wanted to incorporate their design as a smaller version in the corner, and use their same purple for the route on the map. It was so much fun working with Laura and Mike, and I'm so happy with how beautiful their invitations turned out =)

I am a huge fan of using pocketfolds to present your stationary piece. Everything is so perfectly organized with a special pocket designated for the direction insert and reply card, and the matted invitation glued to the center. How could you not love the finished product?

The invitation set shown here was designed using an orchid throughout the entire set, and I must say that it turned out gorgeous! The colors look so striking and elegant together, and I especially love how we did the reverse colors on the reply card using the purple as the background color.

My favorite feature about the pocketfold envelopements is the endless possibilities of color options and various folds you can use. If you prefer to have a square pocketfold, or would prefer everything to be oriented as landscape instead of portrait, it can be done!

I LOVE tri-fold wedding invitations! They are a blast to design because they include so many graphical elements such as photographs, fun backgrounds, special quotes and text from the couple. It's such a unique way to send an invitation to your guests and a great way to share your engagement shoot with your friends and family.

This particular tri-fold invitation has a country theme using a western grunge font and earthy colors to compliment their engagement shoot. The finished product is absolutely stunning, with full color images on both sides and printed on a beautiful high-gloss paper. You could even insert additional items such as an RSVP postcard if desired. The whole look is completed with a square envelope available in 100 colors!
Tri-fold wedding invitations start at $5.00 each, and can be custom designed with special graphics or colors to compliment your wedding. The engagement photos shown in this tri-fold were taken by Ashley Sturm Photography, she is an AMAZING photographer based out of Salem, Oregon. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of this invitation =)

I love designing baby announcements for excited parents wanting to share the news with all their friends and relatives about the new addition to their family =) It's such a fun experience to work together with the parents to design a custom announcement that fits the personality and style of the family. I realize there are a lot of options available for birth announcements, most of which require you to enter the info you'd like to share, and in return it generates a card. This may get the job done, but there are thousands of other parents who have used that exact same design. By using a designer, you don't even need to leave your home! Simply give me a call and let me know the basic info (name, birth date..etc), and I will take care of the rest. You have enough to think about with a new baby at home, so sit back and relax while I design and print your announcement cards. I can even mail them out for you with a supplied mailing list! Your friends and family will LOVE to receive a custom design announcement of your new little addition =)

Contact Red Pearl Designs today to order your custom designed baby announcment. If you loved the photos in these designs, you should definitely check out Ashley Sturm Photography. By using both of our services - Ashley Sturm Photography and Red Pearl Designs - you will receive 5% off your photography package AND 5% off your baby announcement order!

One of my favorite things about being a designer is that I'm constantly presented with new challenges and design opportunites to tackle. When Ken Ammann asked me to design a custom mouse pad for his company, I was really excited to take on a project that I'd never done before. I spent about a week researching different print vendors who could produce high-quality mouse pads at a reasonable price. Once I felt confident that I had found the perfect print vendor, I began working on the design. After I presented Ken with a couple design choices, we decided to proceed with the white and black design which ties in nicely to the business cards and other promotional material.

I've really enjoyed my experience working with Ken Ammann, and you better believe if I ever need an attorney at law I will be giving him a call. I'm very excited to add this project to my portfolio, and hopefully I will get the opportunity to work on more mouse pad designs in the future! If you need a custom mouse pad or any other promotional material contact Red Pearl Designs to discuss your project.

Only a few short months left until graduation time hits, which means if you haven't already ordered your announcement, then now is the time! It seems like everyone ends up ordering the exact same announcements every single year... why not change it up and stand out with these full-color tri-fold announcements that showcase your senior pictures? They will be a great keepsake for all your friends and family as well as a cool way to announce your graduation. With plenty of space, you can also give all the details for your graduation party, special quotes, or even a little paragraph about what you plan to do after graduation. If you would like your announcement to stand out amongst all the others, contact Red Pearl Designs to order yours today! If you love the photographs in this design, contact Ashley Sturm Photography to schedule your photo shoot. I trusted her to take amazing photos for my brothers senior pictures, so I think she would do an awesome job with yours =)

If you order your announcements by Friday, April 16th 2010, you will receive 5 free cards with orders of 30 or more announcements! Call today (503) 559-7003!

The perfect way to complete your invitations is by adding a customized postage stamp. It's a great way to tie in your design on the envelope and give the receiver a pleasant first impression. You're no longer stuck with whatever the stamp of the moment happens to be at the Post Office (polar bear, fruit, American Flag...etc). With a range of sizes and postage prices, there is total control of your stamp design making it the perfect final touch to your beautiful invitation set. Ask Red Pearl Designs to add custom stamps to your invitation order!

Custom stamps through zazzle.com are approved by the United States Postal Service.

As many of you may already know, Red Pearl Designs had a booth at the Oregon Bridal Showcase this year. Being my first year in the show there was a lot of planning involved in getting all my displays ready for the brides. I presented my new wedding invitation line called the Boutique Collection which was well received by most everyone that came through my booth. I offered an amazing give-a-way where brides entered to win $125.00 towards their wedding invitations, and the lucky winner Sarah Raska took home the prize! If you missed the show and would like to see some of the invitation items I displayed at the bridal show you can visit my Etsy Shop.

The bridal show was an amazing experience and I plan to continue being involved in the future shows. That being said, I could never have survived the weekend without my close friends and family who offered their time, advice and input. Thank you to those of you who helped with my booth set-up, and to those of you who offered your time by assisting me in my booth throughout the weekend. I feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who want to see me succeed! You're the best!

The next Bridal Shows will be held on October 2nd & 3rd, and on January 22nd & 23rd at the Salem Fairgrounds. Visit the Oregon Wedding Showcase website for more information.

If you are engaged and planning your big day, then I would highly recommend going to the Greater Vancouver Washington Bridal Show! You will find some of the best local wedding vendors to help turn your inspirations into a reality. This show is put on by Luxe Event Productions so it's going to be super classy and helpful for any bride to be! The Show is located at the Hilton Vancouver Washington on March 13, 2010 from 11am-6pm. Admission is $5.00 at the door. Have fun!! =)

I know I'm not the only blogger out there, so I wanted to share a website that I stubbled across this morning. If you happen to be looking for super cute FREE blog templates, then you absolutely must check out this website. It's called Shabby Blogs! They have everything from blog backgrounds, to headers to little buttons and blinkies =) Hopefully you find it as cute as I did!

I couldn't be more excited to share that Red Pearl Designs has been featured on So This is Bliss, which is a Northwest Wedding Blog. Misty Damico owns Luxe Event Productions where she specializes in Wedding and Event Coordination, Consulting and Planning. Although we've only known each other for a short while, she is absolutely fabulous! You can tell immediately that she is very passionate about what she does, and is obviously dang good at it after looking through her work on her website. Definitely contact Misty about coordinating your upcoming wedding! =)

On January 13, 2010 my Thank You Postcards were featured on Portland Style Unveiled! I'm extremely excited to have my work showcased on such a popular site. To give you a little background, Portland Style Unveiled is your source for Portland wedding planning ideas and inspiration. Expressly Stylish, Exclusively Portland. Heather & Kimberly are the two lovely ladies in charge of the site, and they are constantly updating to keep Portland Bride's up-to-date on current trends and help pair you up with local vendors. Definitely check out their site!

I'm very excited to share my NEW blog with everyone! My goal is to be lots better about updating frequently and keeping you all up to date on my recent designs. I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback about my new blog. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment =)