Are you Committed?

The long planning process is almost to an end... I can hardly believe it.  My fellow Chicago Green Wedding Alliance members and Tony and myself have come a long way (baby).  The Green Wedding Alliance is a group we had a hand in starting 2 years ago when we realized our priorities with our lil' ol' Spilled Ink Press needed to be as eco-responsible as we could possibly make them.  We started reaching out to other eco-savvy businesses in Chicago and discovered low and behold, we were all searching for the same thing: alliance.  Perhaps more importantly, we were all looking for a vehicle to get the word out about greener weddings.

So from discussions over a few beers with our friend Lynn at Pollen... cut to 30 + members... cut to a whole lot of planning later.... we welcome you to join us at Committed, Chicago's first exclusively green wedding show.
This show is for couples who are committed-- committed to each other (obviously!), committed to the environment, committed to throwing the bast damn party of their lives.  Because really, that's what a wedding is- you and someone you couldn't love more, coming together with friends and family to eat, drink, and boogie down.  Love is love, we're big fans, it's worth throwing a party for!

Because it's such a big deal, you'll be spending time and money on this party- choosing your vendors that will walk this journey with you is equally as big.  Committed will showcase Chicago Green Wedding Alliance members- the best of the best in Chicago; come and taste their treats, touch our paper, smell the flowers, look at the amazing photographs, all for yourself, all in one beautiful room at the Greenhouse Loft.
Tickets are still available here.  Peruse the vendors here.

Committed
Sunday, February 26th
Greenhouse Loft
2545 W Diversey (in the Green Exchange Building)
12-4pm

For a teaser on a few things you'll see at the show, click on the WGN still shot caption below!

This is me concentrating on not throwing up on Deana's shoes.

Green... the new black?

I'm just wondering... will green start appearing in 2012 wedding palettes?
I hope so!  It's my favorite color!!  Not the wedding fashion expert- or ANY fashion expert for that matter (oh boy, trust me), I'll let these Hollywood diva's dresses do the talking:

YUM!

Wedding favors that may outlive you!

I have a secret.
I'm kind of in love with trees.  There.  I said it.  Well, that was maybe a little too dramatic... I don't mean Mary Katherine Gallagher in-love... more like an intense affinity toward big old trees.

Maybe "love" is a strong word, but if you appreciate tree's... take this survey.

So every year when the Arbor Day Foundation "survey" comes in the mail (make no bones... I know it's just a way to get you to be interactive and then give $10), I very happily fill out the silly survey and give my annual meager donation.  Yes, I climbed tree's when I was a kid.  Yes, I played in a tree house *did you pay a marketing research team to formulate these questions?*.
At the end of the survey you get to swoon over the "free" stuff you get.  This is the part I revel in.  10 free tree's!  2 flowering shrubs?!  Seriously?  Awesome.  Sign me up.

This year- just this morning actually, I filled out the survey online (sorry USPS). When I was tooling around their website, I found THIS!  Tree's as wedding favors!  I did this at our wedding many moons ago.  The tree's survived with moderate success rates, but that was because I tried to go all rogue with it and ordered them too early.  If you order through the Arbor Day Foundation, they come in a neato tube and a personalized message!

Eco-brides... take heed!  Embrace your inner green-goddess (or green-geek, in my case).  Give the gift of trees, support the Arbor Day Foundation, and breath a little easier (hehe, get it...).

And of course as much as I love trees for real, I also love doing tree-inspired invitations!  This one was for a fall wedding in Pennsylvania. Laura and I clicked immediately discussing ideas of how to really showcase leaves, and the tree, and the natural setting of her wedding.  This is how they turned out:

For additional tips on how to green your wedding, see the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance website: www.greenweddingalliance.org

AND... we hope to see you at our "green" wedding show, Committed, that the CGWA is hosting on February 26th at the new Greenhouse Loft.  Meet the members of the Chicago Green Wedding Alliance, sample sustainable catered foods, learn about local beer and spirits, enjoy the sunny new Greenhouse Loft for an afternoon!
See here for details and tickets: www.committedlovechicago.com

CRAVE Chicago, The Urban Girl's Manifesto

Two years ago I was working a wedding show and a stack of books on a vendor's table with a snappy hot pink logo on the cover caught my eye. I've been following Crave Chicago ever since.  Basically, Crave is a network of female business owners, a book with featured entrepreneurs, and they conduct workshops and networking events throughout the year.  The book contains a short bio of the lady-superstars, sharp and bright photographs, and interview-style question and answers that give you a tiny bit of insight into what drives them, what inspires them, advise for others, etc.  Also at the end of the book are deals and discounts for many of the businesses featured.
The second edition just came out and Spilled Ink Press is a proud member of the group, along with friends from FIG, Urban Worm Girl, Village Paperie & Gifts, and I've already started to connect with so many others from this 2nd edition through twitter and events.
To be honest, I was a little nervous about joining the group (perhaps "intimidated" is a better word? "humbled"... "shy"... I know, these are counter-productive emotions for a business owner to have), but spoke to one of the example business owners from the Crave website.  She said, "Crave will be for you what you make of it- if you put yourself out there, you'll meet a lot of great people", and so far it's been amazing.  This is so true for almost all things in life, isn't it?  Hesitation melted...
The official launch of the book was last week.  I sat down a few days later to dive into the contents on a quiet Saturday morning when Tony was out running errands.  Just me and my coffee... and wow.  Suddenly, it wasn't just me and my coffee... it was me, my coffee and over 100 examples of just awesome.

...I think I may send a book to Craig Ferguson and Terry Gross.  Meh, why not?

I've got lot's of books of my very own now... and only 1 Mother and 1 Mother-in-law, so there's many more for the offering.  Let me know if you'd like one!

PS- Amy Boyle did the photography, she did a great job and she's one of the featured business owners.  I learned from that day that I'm MUCH more comfortable when my invitations are being photographed instead of me, but she made me feel at ease despite that.

Blago's Going to Jail

Our former governor is going to be sentenced today, so I guess I won't be seeing him jog past Spilled Ink headquarters for quite some time. That's too bad, because I really wanted to give him one of these cards when he ran down our street. He did inspire it after all. I'm not sure if he'd find it all that funny though.

The Knot Chicago Magazine

It's always fun when a wedding that we've been a part of gets published!  The day-of stationery stuff is of course less glamorous than the actual invitations, so we owe Edyta Szyszlo Photography a huge thank you for snapping some pics of the invitations for Gene and Kristen's wedding.  Their beautiful fall 2010 wedding was featured in this season's issue of The Knot Chicago, including Edyta's lovely photographs.  Here are the original photographs from their big day.
Happy Anniversary Kristen and Gene, and thank you as well to The Knot for keeping their glam wedding in the spotlight!

And why NOT send a Thanksgiving Day card?

We tend to get tunnel vision when we're in the wedding invitation groove.  It happens.

But the other day I got a text from my darling friend Aileen and it just said, "I just bought your Thanksgiving Day card at Target".  Wha?  Ooooh... yes!  That's right! We do greeting cards and last year we did a Thanksgiving Day card and guess what, it's October now and they're in stores!  Time flies when you're wrapping purple ribbon around stuff (and having fun, of course).

So here it is folks.  You know the drill... go to Target, flip over the card, say to the stranger standing next to you, "hey!  I know these kids!" and then buy it.  An optional step is to tell the stranger next to you to buy it as well.  That's gravy.

Get it... gravy...