Stationery Winners, orders for paper are in!

Can't wait to share with you the lovely designs I'm cooking up for your personal stationery!

Previews next week and delivery late July.
Life without the internet at home is a challenge for communication but I guess we'll tough it out.
Have a lovely 4th of July, all!

Feel free to contact me with any updates on addresses!

Carrie and Matt : A "Happily Ever After" Couple

Carrie and Matt: (Wedding photo credit: Todd Smith Photography)

Carrie approached me about designing her wedding invitations last fall. She loved several invites she found online but none could offer an accurate depiction of the dogwood flowers that would be on location and blooming at the time of her wedding in Virginia. I was able to custom illustrate the blossoms by hand and type set her invitation on an eco-friendly paper option. She chose a Print-Fold-Seal-Mail option from LCI paper. Inexpensive to mail and minimal waste with a tear and return RSVP card!


Carrie and Matt's Invite: (Photo credit: Caitlin McCready, Hold The Cheese Design)

Carrie and Matt were a "Happily Ever After" couple.
Here's their story.

CM: Carrie, can you share a little about you and a little about him?
CS: I am a graduate student in ecology & evolutionary biology. Matt builds custom furniture.

CM: How did you meet?
CS: We met at Earlham College during our first year and became good friends. We didn't start dating until our third year- after we'd both ended our earlier unhealthy relationships!

CM: Tell me something quirky or interesting about the two of you as a couple.

CS: I am a planner and Matt is a doer. I will spend as long thinking about the best way to get something done as Matt will spend actually doing it.

CM: Do you remember when you fell in love?

CS: We were in love for a long time; there wasn't a moment when it happened.

CM: How about the proposal? How did he ask?
CS: Matt had been 'unofficially' proposing for years. I never wanted an engagement ring or big proposal, but when I finally said yes, the earth shook- Chicago (literally) had a tiny little earthquake that night. We took it as a good sign.

CM: Any stories of the fun and struggle of wedding planning? What have you learned, loved, compromised on?

CS: Things went smoothly thanks to the tremendous efforts of our families and friends. We learned that delegating helped everything get done.

CS: We received so many compliments on the invitations! They were awesome. All in all, I am so thankful that you helped us with the invitations. This spring was so overwhelming. The dogwoods looked so beautiful (... on our wedding day.) The trees cooperated with the theme perfectly!

CM: Carrie successfully defended her Doctoral dissertation, suffered a tragic family loss and was still planning her wedding. As a friend and client, she is one of the strongest most independent woman I know. She is now doing field study in Tanzania and will honeymoon there later this summer with Matt for a bit.

Things I learned from working with Carrie:

-Communication is the life blood of keeping a project on time, especially with an out of state bride.
-If I'm not the one ordering paper, I need to remind the person who orders to get some extra, as I usually do. This allows for printing proofs and alignment compensation (and back ups if the printer gets hungry!)
-Proofing across revisions is also a big key to getting exactly what we're both aiming for!

I will perpetually be learning how to do better as a service provider and design guru. I offer competitive design knowledge at an honest price where we both can get a product and interaction worth repeating! My brides give me great feedback and I know that the relationships we build lead to future collaborations.

Thanks, Carrie for sharing your story and may you both live Happily Ever After.

In the near future, I'll be posting photos of the Stationery Naming Survey Contest Winners with their stationery!

Check out some of my latest work: Wedding and Babies!

Cait

Hold The Cheese
Full Flavor, Fat Free Design