Celebrating our First Anniversary!

My husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary (check out our wedding featured on The Knotty Bride!). While we would consider ourselves to be NOT so traditional, I wanted to give traditional anniversary gift giving a try. We pulled up the list to find that the first year of marriage is represented by....paper.

Great, I LOVE paper. He should have it easy on this one. I love notecards, fun calendars, prints, letterpressed coasters...the list could go on and on. Now, what to give him? Here are some ideas that I threw around that might help you with your first anniversary gift:

• Concert tickets Unfortunately, I didn't see any shows, performances or events in the upcoming calendar that were fitting. Check Live Nation to see who is playing in your area.
• Plane tickets Sure, a bit more costly! But, if you have the budget, how fun would it be to take a weekend trip? We are headed to Europe in a few weeks for our belated honeymoon, so another trip was not in our cards. I like Kayak for deal shopping.
• Photo book Recap your first year of marriage with a book of photos. If you take the amount of photos that my husband and I do (instagram: marit522), you could fill up a book pretty easily. 
• Print How about some sentimental wall art? Make it yourself (get creative with photos, wedding songs or your vows!) or buy it online. If you had a destination wedding, maybe find a cool vintage travel poster. Highlight how or where you met – you're sure to find something on Etsy!
• Jewelry There are tons of options that use paper. I had cufflinks made for our wedding out of maps of our engagement location. Chart Metalworks can make earrings, rings, pendants, keychains...you name it!
• Get crafty If you have a limited budget, make something. Paper flowers are beautiful (and they never die!) – you probably have enough leftover invitations to make a meaningful bouquet. Or give paper making a try – hop on Pinterest for lots of paper craft ideas.

So, what did we end up with? I had a map made by a FABULOUS etsy seller highlighting Pemaquid Harbor, Maine – where we got engaged and married. The little "islands" almost in the middle are the exact rocks where he proposed. The water depths are reflected by different paper colors and textures to create a true work of art.

I can't wait to hang this in our house! You can pick from ready-made locations or customize your own (location AND color). I really can't say enough nice things about working with Marnie to create this. She was so friendly and responsive!

Dave also bought something to decorate our walls. While Maine is a special place for us, so is Ohio. It's where we met, on a random night through two separate work happy hours. I absolutely love this. Find your state here!

 

Dave broke the rules and bought me another present (how lucky am I?). My new lobster trap ring is so perfectly me.

 

We rounded out our night with an amazing dinner at Flour & Water in San Francisco, followed by drinks at Homestead. To stay with tradition, we came home and ate wedding cake and sipped champagne. 

Next year...cotton. Any ideas?

Get your laugh on!

I absolutely had to share this with you. It's too funny NOT to laugh at all the cliché trends and aspects of wedding planning...this coming from a bride who also used mason jars in her wedding. Man I love the Onion.

Enjoy and happy Tuesday!

Lobster claw placecards are now in my Etsy shop!

I still can't believe that I hand cut and scored 70 lobsterclaws. Our wedding definitely was a total DIY experience!  Since then, I've received so many compliments and requests, so I decided to have a die made as a way to offer them to my planning couples. I had a batch of ivory, metallic pink and classic red made and I'm excited to announce that they're now in my Etsy shop!



The place cards are being sold in packs of 8 (packaged with bakers twine and a protective clear envelope!), making them a fun addition for a lobster bake, potluck or dinner party – but I can sell them in larger quantities for weddings and other events. Want another color, email me and perhaps I can put through a custom order.



Because really, how cute are these?

Head on over to  Etsy and pick up a set!

Notecards are available in my Etsy shop!

I was doing some cleaning up in our office and realized that I have SO MANY envelopes left over from 6+ years of designing stationery. I've got them in all colors and various sizes and hate to see them go into a recycling bin. I get that from my mother, I can't let ANYTHING go to waste. It makes cooking dinner pretty interesting sometimes. But now, it gives me an excuse to design lovely notecard sets.

New in my Etsy shop is a notecards shop. You'll start to see it fill up with designs over the next few months. If you are in need of some custom notecards (perfect for thank yous or just to say hello with snail mail), email me at weddings@marithanson.com and I'd love to design some for you!

Otherwise, check out the available designs and I'll mail them tomorrow! :)

 

Marit Hanson Weddings on Style Me Pretty!

I kind of want to type my post title 193 more times. That's how excited I am to see my work on the pages of Style Me Pretty! I've been a member of the Little Black Book for many years now (woo hoo!), but this is my first feature on their blog.

I worked with Locally Grown Weddings (an amazing group of ladies), in San Francisco on this styled shoot. It was so much fun to design all the paper goods for them, and I can't wait to work with them in the future!

Wicked Good Wedding Feature!

Check it out, our wedding was featured on The Party Press! I was so excited to share all of our details again. I hope that party planners all over the world are inspired by our Wicked Good Wedding. Even more so, I hope they contact me to help them with their big event. :)

In case you missed it, we were featured on the Knotty Bride too. If you are planning a wedding, make sure to add her blog to your bookmarks if it isn't already. She'll inspire you, and make you laugh until you pee your pants. Which in my book, is the perfect combination.

What I've been up to...

2012 has been full of changes for me. I started the year by quitting my full-time day job to focus on weddings. Most of my time is spent working as Creative Director WeddingLovely. I work with two amazing and talented women, and we are building something so awesome for all you planning brides as well as small independent vendors (like me!). It gets better and better every day. Whether you are a bride or a wedding vendor--check it out! We'd love to have you be a part of WeddingLovely.


Things are going great, I honestly couldn't be happier. Every day, I am immersed in weddings and meeting new people. The wedding industry has some truly amazing and inspirational entrepreneurs– it's definitely put some spark back into my life and a match under my ass. My assistant, Pete, no longer spends all day alone. Instead? He gets outside time and some afternoon snuggles while I work on my laptop. I'm even learning to make some time for myself too, I'm back in spin class and getting into shape. Even more awesome, is my amazing husband who has supported my leap...he rocks my socks off. I could not have done this without him. Life is good.

While I am not super active on my blog, I will try to pop in more often to update you on what's going on with Marit Hanson Weddings. I've got some new designs to share (and a website that needs a refresh!). You can always find me on twitter, I tweet daily! I'm also on Pinterest--you can find everything from fashion, to home decor, to things that make me giggle...and weddings of course! If you aren't a fan on facebook, I'd love to have you there too! I blog M-F at WeddingLovely, visit it for daily wedding inspiration!

Thank you so much everyone for supporting me! Marit Hanson Weddings has been 6 years in the making (I can't believe that!) and it feels so good to finally be able to focus on the wedding industry full-time.

xoxo

Wicked Good Wedding

Some of you probably already saw our feature on The Knotty Bride today. I was stoked to see our wedding on her site, she's my favorite wedding blogger ever. She tells it how it is and cracks my ass up while doing so. If you have not read her recaps of The Bachelor, please go do so! But, before you go---here are some more photos from our "Wicked Good Wedding." Enjoy!

Having a Winery Wedding?

Getting married at a vineyard? Or maybe you and your fiancé share a love for wine? Either way I think you are going to love this invitation set I created with one thing in mind: wine!



An elegant pattern covers this invitation set. Look closer, and you'll see that it's actually wine bottles!



Love the design, but find that it's not the right color palette? Or maybe you'd like to see some different fonts. No problem! I can customize the design just for you.

You can order a sample here.

Cheers!

Update!

I've been MIA on my blog. With Facebook and Twitter being so easily accessible and so followed, it's easy to get behind here. Sorry about that! I have lots of stuff I want to share with you: new designs, DIY and advice to name a few. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, I am so excited to announce that I have joined WeddingLovely as Creative Director! If you aren't familiar with it---get yourself familiar! If you are a bride, WeddingLovely is a GREAT source to find some amazing vendors. Sign up for the email newsletters and get some amazing tips, advice and vendor suggestions for your wedding.

I'll likely report to you what I am writing for WeddingLovely and link you over (because there's so much good stuff to share!)! I am so excited to be fully emerged in the wedding industry and want to thank all of my amazing friends, family and supportive husband for cheering me along the way. Pete is pretty excited too, this means that I'll be home a lot more – which means more walks and yard time.

You guys rock my socks off.

Holiday crazyness

Who knew that this month would be so hectic! I've been really busy gearing up for our first Christmas as a married couple which means: more shopping, more planning, more traveling and, as a result, LESS TIME. Between working full-time at an agency, doing some work for MHW on the side, spending time with my men (my dog + husband), my freetime for blogging is few and far between. Not to mention, Christmas is a week away and I still have gifts to buy. Amazon here I come!

It's important when you are so busy to stop and smell the roses. Or whatever flowers might be nearby. Speaking of which...check out my bouquet? I totally let the florist run with it, giving her some direction on my style via Pinterest and here's what she put together:


Photo by Kimberly Potterf Photography.

2012 Calendars with FREE SHIPPING

From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, get your 2012 Marit Hanson Weddings Desktop Calendar with FREE SHIPPING! Enter "2012CAL" at checkout.

Click here to order the full calendar.
Click here to order a refill pack only.

A simple way to spruce up your tables

White linens are the most popular way to cover your reception tables. They are often paired up with a colored napkin that corresponds with the theme of the wedding. But did you ever think of injecting a pattern?


We used gingham throughout our stationery and other wedding decor, so it only seemed fitting to tie it into our napkins at the reception. I LOVE how it all turned out.


My mom and I took it upon ourselves to sew all the napkins for the reception. It was quite a task, but since we had a 14 month engagement...it wasn't all that bad. I'm excited to bust them out for Thanksgiving this week. We're hosting it this year, our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. It's only fitting to use the napkins from our wedding day, right?

Aren't our photos lovely? They're taken by the talented Kimberly Potterf Photography.

They nailed it!

OMFG. my husband and I just finished watching last night's SNL on our DVR. And boy did we ROFL. Did you like all those acronyms? You're welcome.

No, but really...if you haven't watched this yet and you have ever been to a bridal shower, you will thank me for sharing it. They really nailed the awkwardness that can come along side of a bridal shower.

Custom Notecards are in my etsy shop!

If there's one thing my mom taught me that has stuck with me, it's to always say thank you. Better yet, say it with words on paper. Because really, who doesn't like getting mail? I know this girl does!



Now, in my etsy shop, you will find a listing for 10 or 20 notecards with envelopes and address labels. Order some for yourself, or for a gift! Feel free to browse my wedding stationery designs for inspiration. I can create a set for you using any of my designs. Or, you can order the set I have posted!

Sad but sweet.

This couple said "til death do us part," and they MEANT IT. Click the link below for the full story:

Couple married 72 years die holding hands

I think I need this bag.

I'm a sucker for Kate Spade, I love her bold patterns and her simple design style. I have seen this particular bag floating around Pinterest, but have yet to find it on Kate Spade's site for purchase.

Isn't it cute? And really, who doesn't like cake for breakfast? I know we were eating our leftover wedding cake. YUM.

This is the kind of wedding every woman should have...

For your bridesmaids...

I was looking around on The Knot for things to do for your bridesmaids when I stumbled across a really cute and heartfelt idea. This bride wrote messages for each bridesmaid on the bottom of their shoe. How sweet is that? My only piece of advice: make sure the shoe fits first!

See other photos from this wedding here.

Today's find

For all the DIY brides out there, or even a bridesmaid throwing a shower, how cute is this cake pan?



I can't even imagine how neat it would look to have a table full of these pretty cakes!

Make it yours for only $21.99 on Amazon. And for you Amazon Primers, like myself, it ships for free!