New Site! Back to Blogging!

Hi Lovelies! I'm Back! If you scroll down to the previous blog, you'll see it's been over a year since I posted. As you may know, for the first four years of Wouldn't it be Lovely, it was really a side gig, I was working designing shoes full time, and then about a year and a half ago, I switched to be the head of Style and Design at a catering company so I could design events full time. This was all while working on Wouldn't it be Lovely in every free moment I had. It made for 80 hour work weeks, but when you love something, working all the time feels like you're moving towards something great. So about a year ago, my husband and I decided it was a good time to get knocked up and Wouldn't it be Lovely's business literally quadrupled from the year before. So to get it all done, the blog had to be put on the back burner for a while. But now, after 3 months into the land of baby snuggles, Wouldn't it be Lovely is busy enough to be my full time gig! Which meant it was time for a website overhaul and a return to blogging! If you count taking care of our little nugget of a baby, I'm still working 80 hours a week, and a lot of design work gets done between the hours of 9pm-2am, but really, it's kind of perfect in a crazy way.

So check out the new site, and all the new wedding invite and save the date designs. You'll see lots of gold foil and watercolor on there! Starting now, I'll be blogging 2-3 times a week about past and current wedding invites and save the dates, the design process, some home projects we've got going on. I'm sure I'll sneak in some cute baby shots of our son Charlie as well as our travel adventures into the mix! 

Missed you all! xox

South Africa, Part Two: Madikwe Game Reserve

Time for our Africa recap part two! Our time in Madikwe reserve. We went back and forth for a while about where to do our safari, and ended up and Madikwe as a recommendation from the travel agency we used, and honestly, I don't think we could have made a better decision. We talked to quite a lot of people and heard about multiple safari experiences, and I truly think that we could not have made a better decision for what we wanted. The things that were most important to us? One: Seeing lots of animals, close up, in their natural environment. Two: Staying somewhere NICE. Three: Not having to worry about finding the animals ourselves, and learning something in the process. Four: Just having a good time. 

As a little side note, we only had ONE thing go wrong on this trip.... me getting bitten by a CRAZY roided up spider. It started as a quarter sized bite on my foot that slowly expanded to take up my ENTIRE foot and then a rash over basically my entire body. Luckily it wasn't too too bad until two days before we left, but once I googled "spider bite South Africa" in my down time and read about amputation and skin grafts I started to get a SMIDGE worried. I also have the craziest skin ever (allergic reactions to the sun and cold among other things) so I decided to not think too much about it until I got home. So I went strait to my doctor after getting off the plane (where I needed to hide my ailment to avoid being thrown into ebola quarantine), who made a point not to touch me and looked up rashes on the CDC website which was UBER comforting. Then he proceeded to bring in two other doctors to look at the medical weido, but they decided it was no biggie, gave me some meds and I was on my way. So that's all cleared up now which is GREAT. Compared to other things that could go wrong when traveling, I'm ok with how it all played out! OK.... now on to all the fun fun details!

One of the awesome things about Madikwe is that it is a reserve with ONLY guided tours from the lodges within  the reserve. Which means that its organized and well run, only three cars are allowed at a sighting at a time, which means you get VERY close and because all the cars are in contact with each other, you are pretty much guaranteed to see something amazing. Our drivers were truly amazing, they take you around, telling you all sorts of interesting things, and even take some time out of your drive to feed you and ply you with alcohol if you want it! We did two drives a day, 3 hours or so each, one early in the morning, and one in the evening (which turns into a night drive for the last hour). We saw EVERYTHING we wanted to, as you can see from the photos, plus some really crazy things we never would have expected. For instance: A pride of lions, eating a pregnant zebra, one of them eating just the fetus, with the jackals skirting around trying to steal scraps, when a herd of elephants comes up all pissed and scares the lions away, taking down trees and all sorts of other things in the process. It's just crazy amazing. 

a slideshow, because there are too many pics!

We stayed at two different lodges on the reserve. Tau Game Lodge was first. It was the bigger of the two lodges, we had a little "hut" though I use that term lightly because it's REALLY nice. We got to our room to find a little monkey peaking in our windows (SO CUTE, but apparently they'll shit all over your bed and tear your room to shreds if you don't lock your doors, smart little buggers). We had a SUPER fun time there, we were with paired with a group from Texas for our game drive and they were REALLY fun. One of our favorite parts of this trip was all the people we hung out with, it's really what made this our favorite vacation yet. Tau had a fun bar area and pool tables and other social spaces which really encourages the guests to hang out and have fun, which we definitely did! Our next reserve, Impodimo Game Lodge,  was a little smaller and a little more geared towards relaxation. Our room there was even better than the one at Tau and overlooked a watering hole that was always PACKED with animals, we could just sit on our deck and watch elephants, baboons, kudu, warthogs, you name it, come up and get a drink and hang out. Impodimo wasn't fenced in though, so you needed to get escorted to your room after dinner with someone with a rifle to avoid getting eaten by a lion, better safe than sorry right? eek. So that kind of made late night drinking and socializing not so likely. Despite that, I still liked that lodge as much if not more than Tau. But really you couldn't go wrong with either! The food was AMAZING at both, I ate wildebeest, and other weird things, all of which were delicious. Both lodges were all inclusive, which we really liked and really made the whole thing stress free and relaxing. So yeah, I could go on forever about all the details, but I'm going to let the pics speak for themselves, and say that I am already dying to go back and do it all and more all over again! 

P.S. Check in later this week for an AWESOME new save the date that just went out!!! 

It's almost vacation time!

boulder beach, bo-kaap, table mountain, safari

I'm getting PUMPED. It's been a CRAZY six months. All the invitations I've designed for this wedding season (June-October) are out! I've got a handful of winter weddings this year, and lots of day of designs for October to still work on, but the crazy busy time has passed! Between that and starting the new job, (which I'm LOVING) life has been a little crazy, with very little time to breathe. So with all that, you can only imagine how excited I am for VACATION!!

The hubby and I are off to South Africa in just four days! It's been a trip we've always wanted to do, and it seemed like the perfect time. We're starting out in Cape Town, where we'll see penguins, whales and sharks, crazy colorful neighborhoods, do some amazing hikes and eat tasty food. Then we're off to Madikwe for a safari, where we'll see elephants (if you followed the blog when we went to Thailand last year, you know how I feel about elephants), lions, giraffes and more! I haven't really had time to think about it much and it's just now that it's really hitting me! Ekk! Any one ever been? Any tips?

I'll be sharing pics when I can, but I'll be on vacation, so no promises, but I'll definitely have pics and posts when I get back! I have a couple posts ready for while I'm gone, be sure to check in next week to see one of my FAVORITE designs from this year. We did gold foil letterpress and it's AMAZEBALLS. 

C is for Change

Alice Mourou has made an entire font from flowers and they are absolutely amazing! Head over to her website to see the whole set! 

This was my first week at my new job! It's a huge change, the pace, the environment, the timelines, everything really.  It's been a fun and tiring couple of days. As with any big change, it can be a little overwhelming at times and I know that figuring it all out will take time, so I'm trying to enjoy every moment! 

On top of all that, right now is NUTS for Wouldn't it be Lovely.  I'm loving all the weddings I'm currently working on. They really run the gamut! I've got a modern campy design sitting next to a super soft and romantic one, a gold and glamorous one next to one thats a little more vintage inspired. I love working with all the different vibes, it keeps the creative juices flowing. I'm also working on lots of day-of designs for the weddings coming up in the next month. Basically there's a lot going out that I haven't even been able to take photos of because there's so much going on! So, I'm sorry for the lack of posts of late, but we'll definitely have lots to show soon!

With all the craziness, I will probably only be posting 3 times a week until things slow down ( around the end of July). I'm going to try and keep it regular with posts Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings! So keep checking in and I'll keep you updated with inspiration, process and new products!

Big News, Big Change!

Photo by Ashley Herrin

As I've mentioned before, the wedding biz and Wouldn't it be Lovely is not my full time job (I put in the hours for it to be, but I still have a 9-5), but that's all about to change! Today is my last day at Reebok, where I have been designing kids shoes since an internship my junior year at RISD, and then full time since I graduated. That's almost exactly 8 years!  It's a little bittersweet, Reebok is where I became a REAL designer, traveled the world, met and befriended wonderful people, and so much more. As much as I've loved it there, ever since I designed my own wedding, I've felt the pull of event design. It's just recently that I have been offered an amazing opportunity to do that full time! 

As of the 23rd, I'll be the new Head of Style and Design at Peppers. I am insanely excited to be a part of such an amazing company. It's really more than I ever could have asked for. So if you're getting married in New England, swing on by! They do fabulous catering, cake and pastry design, and now I'll be doing event design, styling, blogging and so much more for them too.

If you're wondering what that means for Wouldn't it be Lovely, have no fear, I'll still be here sharing inspiration, DIY projects, and creating custom wedding designs just as I have been for the last three years. Along with all the things happening at WIBL, I'll also be sharing posts that will take you over to the blog at Peppers so you can see all the awesomeness we'll be creating over there too!

So here I go, let the adventure begin!