Jonathan Adler : Brooklyn Design / Modernism Young Designer of the Year

Last week I attended the Modernism Show at the Park Avenue Armory (unfortunately the show ended on the 19th) and was excited to see Jonathan Adler recognized with the Brooklyn Museum / Modernism Young Designer of the Year award. Exhibited were some of Jonathan's beautiful ceramic pieces from his early years to present day. The display was beautifully and delightfully presented at the entrance of the show.

{Images by Thoughtful Day}

The Decanter Lifestyle

Up until recently, I never thought about owning a decanter and actually using it. Patrick and I got into a discussion about them and both decided it is a total lifestyle. I love decorative decanters, and have a few of them, but it's hard to imagine a functional decanter becoming part of our lifestyle. I have contemplated registering for one, there are so many gorgeous wine decanters on the market, but who really uses them? Hugh Hefner? Robin Leach? Below are some of my favorite picks from the modern (and some re-issued) world of crystal decanters.


The Ambassador decanters designed by Oswald Haerdtl in 1925 are such modern and elegant shapes.


(l-r) Thomas O'Brien's Cynthia decanter has a beautiful feminine shape with vertical chiseled cuts. I love the masculinity of Ted Muehling's Tortoise decanter.


The first thing I thought of when I saw these decanters by William Yeoward was a lollipop.


Although the Eveline decanter is a modern design by William Yeoward, it is extremely rare to find hand cut star shapes as such on vintage glass decanters.


(l-r) I love this trio of Rosenthal decanters, the stoppers are some of my favorites. This last decanter is a classic shape (yet again) by William Yeoward. I can't help but mention him when posting about crystal as he has some of my favorite designs out there right now.

Save the Dates!

Last week we sent out the save the dates. It felt so good to get those out, they were a lot of work! But to be honest I am having so much fun designing all of the little details for our wedding, that it doesn't really feel like work.

Because we are having a destination wedding, there was a ton of information that had to go into each booklet. Everything from the itinerary, travel and passport information, a brief on the resort and all of the festivities. Even a what to wear section, the resort we are having our event is pretty formal in the evening, so I needed to make people aware that they can't really rock flip-flops at any of the on-site restaurants.

I wanted to save money on the save the dates and splurge on the invites, so I just printed them out on our ink jet printer and my friend Emily helped sew them. Actually she did all of the sewing, I just sat and collated. I really wanted them to be informal, cheerful and whimsical. After all, it's going to be a fun, celebratory weekend with all of our closest friends and family. The invites will be much more formal, but still have a touch of playfulness.

top to bottom
• front booklet page to set the tone for the rest of the print collateral
• background patterns, used for the booklet backing and the envelope liners
• assembly line
• stitched booklets

{Images designed by Thoughtful Day}

Yellow Inspiration

Snippet and Ink has put together an impressive amount of wedding color and theme boards, every day I am in constant awe of her stunning compilations.

Above are boards similar to our wedding color story.
Not So Mellow Yellow
Marigold and Gray

the Wedding Invitation Handbook

This book by Julie Holcomb has been an absolute godsend for me in designing all of the wedding stationery. It is not only a must have for any bride to be, but a great reference for anyone interested in the formality of stationery. We were at Kate's Paperie one Saturday afternoon, it seems like all of our Saturdays are spent at paper stores lately...Anyway, Patrick picked it up and made me get it. I am so thankful I did!

Flowers

Circlealine's list #79 & #80 have gorgeous flower selections. I picked out my some of my favorites above.

Lucite

Ahhh lucite. It is one of my favorite materials , I am constantly searching for vintage (solid) lucite sculptures. Of course my best (affordable) luck so far has been ebay, but even it has a limited scope on the kind of lucite I like. I prefer it to be solid, chunky and sculptural, in the most basic simple shapes.





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About a year ago, Patrick banned me from ebay because of my eraser lucite sculpture (it weighs over 50 lbs. and cost triple the price of itself to ship to me)! Whatever, I am back on the wagon and here are a few of my personal favorite selections.

I am so lucky to own these iGuzzini owls! The two obelisks look great on our mantle, the left one is signed Clark T Bailey and the one on the right is vintage Astrolite.
The coolest eraser sculpture ever.

Candy Stripes & Ribbons

Lately I have been obsessed with ribbons, mostly because I am candy striping some of our floral arrangements and bouquets with yellow and grey ribbons. I know it sounds tacky, but it will be beautiful! So I started to search for objects and art inspired from ribbons and stripes. Below are some of the images I came across.

fyi - bklynbride has some really great posts about where to find ribbons in the NYC area.

The iconic Cappellini Rainbow chair and Kosta Boda's Cyklon vase.


These Tracy Glover vases would be perfect bridal party gifts!

I love the Sweater lamp by Egawa + Zbryk.

In my search I came across this gorgeous Gayle Garner Roski watercolor painting.

I love Ed Ruscha's Lisp painting.

What a perfect wedding favor treat, custom colored Ribbon Candy!

The search wouldn't be complete without Frank Gehry's iconic Wiggle chair.

Jennifer Murphy Bears

Since college I've loved Jen Murphy's vintage inspired animals. We both to went to MCAD and ever since I came across her bears, I've been hooked. As soon as Patrick and I got engaged, I asked Jen to create our wedding cake topper. All of her animals have such quirky little personalities and a whimsy to their stance. Whatever it is she decides to make for us will be a special keepsake for the rest of our lives!

These are the cake topper sketches she sent, I am so excited! I will be sure to keep you posted on the final outcome.

China Patterns

One of the best things about being a bride is getting to register and the first thing I picked out was our china pattern. To be honest, I didn't think I was a fine china person until I came across all of the amazing patterns out there.

Here are a few of my favorites:



(Left to Right - Majolica, Spot On, New York Delft, Concetta,
Patchwork, People)

(Left to Right - Giralda, Rutherford Yellow, Carousel, Emperor's Garden, Gwinnett Lane, Spring)


(Left to Right - Elissa, Grey Bird, Pearl Luxe, Corona Grove Platinum, Jean, Lace)