Moira Events Design & Coordination

{Jazz Age Garden Party}

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:47:00 +0000

Laura and Tom's wedding is coming up this July on The Berkeley Ferry boat located in the San Diego harbor. We are going with a "Jazz Age Garden Party" theme - shades of ivory, white and buttercup yellow, candle light, plum feathers, pin wheels, Anthropology bridesmaids dresses, monograms, antique silverware, three piece suits, and touches of light blue.

This week we worked on a mock-up of their two tablescapes...well, kinda two. The first boasted a custom table runner in buttercup and ivory stripes. The end of each runner had their combined monogram painted in pale blue.

The second table was adorned with a runner made of varying sizes of satin ribbon in shades of ivory, white, buttercup and pale blue.

The ceremony alter will be flanked with two lemon trees to bring in the buttercup. we also incorporated lemons into the tablescapes!

Guests will arrive on the boat and be greeted by tray passed champagne:

we love the ribbon tags on the stems...

{Table One}

with the ribbon runner

we love the vintage french baskets in matching ivory filled with lemons and fresh lemon leaves.

The centerpieces were comprised of multiple types of floral clusters in several different types of containers including stemmed vessels, mini vases, cut crystals, and French wire baskets.

we also tucked plume feather into the flowers, creating a very 1920's feel.

The flower girl basket in matching cream French vintage wire basket with matching bow...

We paired Tiffany blue napkins with table number one. We also used vintage silver flatware...love!

{Table 2}

The second table number font alters with the first table - script and block.

The end of the runner bore the couples combined monogram.

We used antique books to elevate the center flower cluster.

For the place card mock up, we used a round table and radiated the same satin ribbon from table number one. we placed a centerpiece in the middle and clustered it with a mini vase, antique owl, and vintage watering thingy {I have no idea what its actually called}

The place cards were placed on the ribbons...

Real Wedding: Garden Roses {save the dates}

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:40:00 +0000

I have way too many favorite designs. I love this one! Dark blue envelopes are paired with red and teal for a perfect late-summer combination. Custom liners bore the couple monogram to add a little extra detail to these save the dates. The save the date card itself was wrapped in a custom printed velum wrapper and tied up with red thread. You can view the entire suite {here}

Valentines Day gift wrap

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:12:00 +0000

This year I decided to make pin wheels! Aren’t they adorable! They are pretty easy to DIY and there is glitter ALL OVER my office, but I love how they turned out! They would also be great as boutonnieres for your groomsmen or details throughout your reception.

Fall Tree save the dates

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:37:00 +0000

Im getting a ton of orders for fall save the dates right now! So exciting! I finished these ones a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to posting them.

These save the dates are from our Fall Tree line and are chocolate mounted on indigo in and indigo envelope.

Golden Birds invitation suite

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:04:00 +0000

Every once in a while, not too often, I design an invitation that makes me wish I could redo our wedding invitations. Ok, thats never actually happened. I love the invitations I design, but this one just strikes a chord in my heart. Not only do I love it, I envy it. The colors are perfect, the calligraphy is amazing. Swoon.

This is a three piece invitation suite from our Moira Design Studio line called Golden Birds. Printed on bright white linen paper, double mounted on seaglass and antique gold shimmer, then tucked into seaglass envelopes with custom liners. Gorgeous. All three envelopes boast my newest calligraphy hand along the lines of Spencerian calligraphy, which is amazing (and which Im also still learning, so its far from perfect!)

Monogram Inital table numbers

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:44:00 +0000

Today we worked on some table numbers from our Monogram Initial invitation suite. They were printed on ivory shimmer linen cardstock and mounted on black linen cardstock. The bride really loved the multiple fonts we used on Courtney's table numbers, so we did a semi-custom design to incorporate those for her. The table numbers are all topped with the bride and groom's new last name initial.

Preview: Golden Birds invitation

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:51:00 +0000

I love this entire suite! Here is a preview picture of the finished product for our Golden Birds invitation suite - I'll post more tomorrow...

Chandelier wedding invitations - indigo & avacado

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:09:00 +0000

Our full line of ready-to-order invitations are available on our site with a vast array of customizing options. Here is our Chandelier wedding invitation with a couple custom options added:

Colors: Indigo & avacado

Envelope: Indigo

Addressing: avacado opaque calligraphy

we create envelope liners for all our designs that vary from patterns, to gardens, to hanging chandeliers like our Ballroom Chandelier wedding invitation.

we added a special braided grosgrain ribbon for an tad bit more unique closure option.

Our chadelier was adorned with crystals!

I wasnt super sure about the color combo, but I think I rather like it!

Real Party: Sara's Birthday

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:13:00 +0000

I designed and threw a party for Sara's birthday back in December. Since she is a Christmas baby, I wanted to design something completely un-Christmas. I went with pink, grey, white and glitter for the palate incorporating white paper Japanese lanterns and pink plates!

I started the design working with circles in shades of pink and grey. I took about half of them, hit them with some spray adhesive and then covered them in a fine glitter. I attached them to double-faced satin ribbon in grey and pink and created a chandelier over the table by hanging them with the Japanese lanterns.

Since I collect mercury glass, and it is in fact silver and matched the overall design, I incorporated it into the table. Everything sat on a pretty taffeta tablecloth in a neutral taupe color.

I combined white china plates with pink salad plates and napkins for a more interesting place setting and to bring in some color to the table.

Sara is a Capricorn, so the natural drink choice is also a Capricorn! Its a champagne drink made with Rose champagne, cumquats and cumquat sanding sugar rimmed champagne glasses. I really like to use coupe champagne classes for rimming for a larger surface area for the sugar.

I tucked dark pink flowers into the candles along the middle of the table. Their dark contrast was lovely against the lighter table cloth and candle light.

Her pretty little gift - two shades of double-faced pink satin ribbon topped with a pair of flowers:

This is what happens for your birthday when your sister is an event designer!

Real Wedding Invitations - Farmhouse wedding

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:12:00 +0000

Oh, how I love these.

These are the result of the first round of ideas and proofs with miss Sarah. Changes will be made, to be sure, but Im loving the direction we're heading!

the front of the invitation is quite simple:

but, flip it over and its backed in the same pattern as the custom envelope liner!

Today's calligraphy work

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:08:00 +0000

I had a couple calligraphy projects this week! The first was a package of table numbers and menus going to Concept Events Design for their display table. Natrually, I packed the whole thing up quite pretty and addressed it in white opaque ink!

I had an invitation shipment this week...the post office loves to see how I address the boxes - they always get a kick out of me insisting I apply the postage stickers myself so they dont make my pretty box look ugly. Wouldnt you love to recieve a package like this?

A couple more that got sent out this week:

white opaque ink on seaglass invitations

metallic purple on blush envelopes:

avacado opaque ink on indigo envelopes:

Real Wedding: Courtney & Dan

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:04:00 +0000

The gorgeous reception was held at Lowes Coronado.

I simply LOVE Courtneys place card layout! She had large wooden trays custom made, which were then filled with sand. Each of her calligraphy place cards were tied onto a starfish, and all the starfish were nesstled into the sand. Just gorgeous!

{anyone want to use the giant trays? oh yeah, I have them!!}

A damask menu in her pattern sat at each pacesetting topped with an amazing shortbread cookie with their monogram PRINTED onto eatable frosting!! These amazing custom cookies came from my favorite sugar queens at Sweet Cheeks. A favor tag was tied onto the cookie as well.

Since we used two different fonts and a variety of damask combinations on all her pieces, we did the same for the table numbers. They varied table to table...

Amazing, beautiful, and quite tasty cake from the girls at Sweet Cheeks. See the damask pattern? Yeah, it the same pattern! The marvelous Elaine printed it on the cake!

I did all the calligraphy for Courtney as well as designed all her stationery products. Each place card also had a little jewel on it!

Ok, I had to throw this in there as well. Jenny, at least you know who he is!! Look at that dip, ladies and gentlemen!! Oh, and is she wearing Dolce & Gabbana?

all photos by the fab Chris & Kristin from CKris Photography

Real Wedding: Courtney & Dan

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:20:00 +0000

Courtney & I sat down one day and the conversation went something like this, "I love paper, I love this pattern, what could we possibly put it on?" I said, "everything!" We went a tad nuts, but had a great time doing it!

Door signs for the girls room while they were getting ready at Lowes Coronado, where the reception was held.

the gorgeous bride:

Her amazing invitations! We did custom envelope liners with her pattern and the couples monogram.

her programs are one of my personal faves! Shimmer coverstock with her damask pattern and tied with a purple satin ribbon. More on these later...

remember these? I love her custom petal cones with her damask pattern and their monogram on the inside!

Each of the petal cones and the bubbles were topped with little mini tags with cute saying on them paired with the same damask pattern.

Matching lables? Oh yes.

Real Wedding: Courtney & Dan {preview}

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:36:00 +0000

Courtney & Dan were married back in October and she recently stopped by to drop off her professional pictures! Here is a quick preview of their wedding, more tomorrow:

photography by the amazing husband and wife team of Chris & Kristin Photography

Real Wedding: Christina & Dave - behind the scenes

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:22:00 +0000

The day before the wedding, we got all the champage into the frig to chill. We also pre-tied all the straws onto the mini bottles so we didnt have to worry about it the morning of the wedding. Here is Miss Sarah filling our awesome SubZero frig

I love Pellegrino. I love anything that comes in "mini" form. I love these bottles:

All our mini bottles all lined up and ready to go:

Sarah making some final adjustments to the straws:

The other Miss Sara (not, having two Sara's didnt get confusing at all!) lighting all the millions of candles in the reception area:

Our amazing bartender, Michelle, along with Sara and I behind the bar. Dont you love our matching aprons?? You know how much I love black & ivory!

Real Wedding: Christina & Dave - cocktails & dessert

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:04:00 +0000

Remember that we greeted everyone with the mini champagne bottles? following the ceremony, we opened the bar and hosed two signature cocktails that the fab girls at Moira created themselves!

The cocktail hour was hosed in the rotunda of the house. These amazing chandeliers hung all around the room.

Our two signature cocktails consisted of an espresso martini and a caramel apple martini (no, not an appletini, this one was much better!)

The caramel appletinis were garnished with a chunck of caramel. You can see the amaing miss Sarah shakin things up behind the bar...

remember our awesome cake?

once we had sliced it, we used cake flags to mark the flavors. did I glue every last bead onto the top of those toothpics? oh, yes I did!

Toward the end of the night, we brought out the s'mores tray!

Real Wedding: Christina & Dave - hors d'oeuvres

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 01:59:00 +0000

we held a full hors d'oeuvres hour following the ceremony. Naturally, I didnt want to be annoying with my camera all over the table with the food on it and all the guests in the room, so here are some shots before the food was set.

Real Wedding: Christina & Dave - the reception

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:23:00 +0000

The place card table was amazing! Randi from Naakiti florals created an amazing tablescape using a 2" deep plexi glass table top. In it, she created a monogram of the bride and grooms initials along with orchids and curly willow. The place cards varied in design across the table.

Dane, from Simple Elegance, created a cake that reflected the same pattern we used on all the stationery. Not only was the cake a perfect fit for our event, it tasted amazing as well! We used a large, clear plexi glass cake stand to match our killer Ghost chairs.

We paired two different linens together. On the round tables, we used a black and white floral pattern. We also had 8' banquet tables that donned black and white striped linens. We used green napkins through out the reception as well as on the cake table.

Moira Design Studio created all the custom stationery for this wedding from the save the dates all the way to the cake flags. We'll put together an entire post on all the stationery items we created.

Real Wedding: Christina & Dave - the ceremony

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:36:00 +0000

Christina & Dave got married in a private home in Summerlin in Las Vegas. The guests were greeted with mini champagne bottles and mini Pellegrino bottles (in green and black, the wedding colors!)

The ceremony overlooked the golf course and the Nevada mountains. We used Ghost chairs throughout the entire event (LOVE them!). We wanted to keep flowers to a minimum and with clean lines. For the ceremony, we used moss balls down the aisle in different sizes. We also arranged the chairs in a more informal arrangement, more like small cocktails groupings. We also incorporated small white cocktail tables throughout the ceremony area.

Real Wedding - Christina & David, Las Vegas

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:35:00 +0000

The {Moira} team spend the weekend in Las Vegas prepping and executing Christina and Dave's wedding. Both the ceremony and reception were held at a 12,000 square food home in Summerlin.

Sneak a peak...

Real wedding: John & Jenny - Reception Details

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:53:00 +0000

The wedding was in March and outdoors...therefore, it was cold. I didnt want to do the typical favors - box of chocolate, silly little candle, something useless and meaningless. We decided to order pashminas from New York in the wedding colors. I wrapped each pashmina with a matching grosgrain ribbon and put them in an awesome copper bucket. The bucket was placed at the ceremony site with a little sign that says, "in case you get chilly." They were a huge hit!!

With a three month engagement and the bride living out of state, there were just some things that got cut. Ceremony programs were one of them! I made a huge chalk board and the bride hand wrote the ceremony program information on it.

Rather than an arch, we used two matching topiary trees. Each tree was placed in a planter that I painted to match the wedding colors. The base of each tree was covered in moss and a cluster of flowers.

Each placecard was hand written by the bride, and layerd with a piece of copper cardstock with the guests table numbers on it. Each guests name was pinned to a large, velvet covered corkboard.

The large frame was on two copper easels:

The cocktail hour was set up in the gazebo for the guests following the ceremony. Each gazebo was adorned with japanese paper lanters with ribbons in matching colors hanging from each of them.

The second favor for the guests was the cookie table!! We asked each of the women influential in the brides life to make their best cookie recipe. Each cookie was placed in a large glass cookie jar. Each jar had a lable with the cookies name on it, and who made the cookie. The guests were each given blue paper bags to take the cookies home with them.

Real Wedding: John & Jenny - Ceremony

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:13:00 +0000

The brides oh-so-talented brother played a bit of classical guitar as the guests sat, and as the bride walked down the aisle.

The bride getting ready to walk down the aisle with her dad:

The bridal party was done semi-backwards...there was one bridesmaid and one groomsmen on each side, rather than girls on one, guys on the other. Everyone knew each other pretty well, and two members of the bridal party were married!

The new Mr & Mrs:

Real Wedding: John & Jenny - Bridal Party

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:23:00 +0000

The bride and groom had two members of the bridal party stand for them on either side. The bridesmaids both wore a dark blue dresses of their choice. One was J Crew and the second was BCBG. The guys all wore a grey suit of their choice.

Real Wedding: John & Jenny - flowers

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:21:00 +0000

Miss Jenny has very particular taste, and I mean that in a very good way. This girls style is impeccable: sophisticated, classic, a bit whimsical, and slightly eclectic. I knew choosing design aspects for her wedding could present a challenge, since this girl certainly knows what she likes.

A bit of history: When I think of Jenny, a very distinctive color palate comes to mind: neutral. In particular, slate blues, grey, black, ivory and blush - all the colors she wears quite often that I just love on her. That palate, minus the blush, makes for great wedding colors!

Jenny threw my bridal shower for me in the early spring before my wedding. As a hostess gift, I made her a rather large arrangement of flowers using the colors I thought she might like. In the back of my mind, I was testing out wedding flowers for her, even though she had not yet met John {but soon would!}. She LOVED the flowers, and even commented that they would be perfect for her wedding someday...naturally, in my mind, my response was, "Duh, I already know that."

Here are the flowers I made for her hostess gift:

For her wedding, which was at the same time of year as my shower, I used all the same flowers minus the blush stock and hyacinth.

We had a large floral piece for the place card table. We removed the funny/ugly little blue napkin flower that somehow ended up pinned to the tablecloth. Eeek.

The brides bouquet had long ribbons in various shades of blues and grey.

The ceremony had river rocks down the aisle and flower heads rather than petals {petals are sooooo last decade}. Large bunches of the eucalyptus adorned the aisle chairs as well as ribbons along the rear row of chairs.

Real Wedding: Jenny & Johns - getting ready

jessica@moiraevents.com (Jessica) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:43:00 +0000

The bride {my dearest Jenny} wore an ivory layered satin dress from BCBG. The dress was amazing and fit her like a glove {a little tiny glove at that}. She had gorgeous pieces of alacon lace added along the little sweet heart neckline and at the hem to add a more personal touch.

The conversation went as follows:

me: "you should get some awesome shoes for your wedding."

jenny, "no, I wont wear white shoes again. I would rather just wear something I already have."

Me, "no, not white shoes, awesome shoes. there's a difference."

Jenny, "no, I'll just wear something I have."

Me, "no, seriously, get some killer heels. Like blue ones."

Jenny, "ooohh, not white shoes?"

Me "Good lord, I need to be more clear. Get some awesome BLUE shoes!!"

and Jenny got some awesome blue shoes:

Old: art deco hair clips

New: dress

Borrowed: earings, which were borrowed from her lovely maid of honor & the art deco clips, which I also wore at my wedding.

Blue: the awesome shoes

Flowers by Moira Events. An additional post will follow on how we choose her flowers.

Her bouquet was of white and ivory garden roses, silver dollar eucalyptus, white hygrandea, white and ivory stock, white tulips, and blue juniper berries. The bridesmaids carried similar, smaller bouquets.

The oh-so-talented bride, who used to work for Trish McEvoy, did her mother makeup the day of her own wedding.

The brides hair was styled by Jessica at Moira Events {oh yeah, we did all sorts of goodies for her wedding!}

Who wouldnt kill for this girls eyes??

More to come!