A Giant Celebration

photo by Angie Silvy

This week San Francisco is abuzz celebrating the Giants World Series victory.  On Halloween, fans will fill the streets for a ticker tape parade honoring their 2012 World Champions.  I'm sure one of our clients, Ashton, will stake out a front row seat for the festivities.  Earlier this year Ashton (a huge Giant's fan) had the most amazing Bar Mitzvah celebration at AT&T park planned by Laurie Arons Special Events.  It was a once in a lifetime experience for the lucky attendees.  The night began with cocktails in the dugout and locker room.  The kids were able to swing a bat in the actual batting cages that their favorite players use during games.  The celebration continued with dinner, activities and dancing in the club level of the park.  It was a night people are still talking about and few will forget the celebration.

We were fortunate enough to work with Laurie Arons on many details for the celebration.  I love a theme party and the best part was that the clients were game to include as many ideas as we could come up with.  The first on our list was the save the date.  We wanted to do something that would be fun and also get people excited for the event.  We decided to do an old fashioned event poster with a photo of Ashton on it.  The poster did not divulge the exact location of the celebration, but gave the theme of the party and got people guessing as to where the location might be.  In this day of email and evites, the arrival of a tube in the mail is extremely exciting for the invitees!

save the date by ps paper

Because the save the dates were such a hit, it set the bar high for the invitation.  One of the luckiest things was that Ashton's initials are AF, so I was able to modify the SF Giants logo.  The AF logo was used throughout the celebration and worked well with the theme.  The invitation was printed on a real baseball.  The baseball invited people to the party at AT&T park.  We had an separate card on top of the box inviting guests to the Bar Mitzvah service.  The baseball theme was continued in the RSVP and information card.  After receiving the invitation, people could not wait to see what was in store for them at the ball park and I'm sure no one was disappointed. 

Invitation by ps paper

One of my favorite details at the party was the escorts used for the adult dinner seating.  Each of the tables were named for a beloved Giants player and the the guests were given baseball trading cards for the player that corresponded with their table.

Photo by Angie Silvy

Escort cards/display by ps paper

Of course this celebration would not be complete without a dessert table, in fact we did two different tables.  One was filled with baseball themed desserts, the centerpiece was a cake replica of the World Championship Trophy, created by Katrina Roselle.  Who knew the Giants would be getting another trophy this year?  The other, filled with candy, was a big hit with the kids.

dessert tables styled by Jill Sassa

These were only a few of the things that Laurie Arons Special Events had in store for guests.  Here is a link to Laurie's blog post of this event.  It's safe to say the guests had as much fun as we did working on this event!

Kathryn + Ryan's Save the Dates and Invitations

Kathryn Storke {who publishes the wedding blog Snippet & Ink} + Ryan Grady were married last December in San Francisco.  We felt so lucky that Kathryn, who lives and breathes wedding details, entrusted us with her save the dates, wedding invitations and all things paper for her big day. Kathryn + Ryan got married in San Francisco, their save the dates combined the retro feeling and Golden Gate Bridge views of their reception venue, The Presidio Social Club.  The save the dates were glittered vintage postcard images, complete with a handwritten message from the couple.  The other card provided information about hotels as well as their wedding website.  We tied the postcards with bakers twine and added a custom metal rimmed tag.  The cards were sent in a glassine envelope so it retained the postcard feel while protecting the glittered images.

Kathryn had lots ideas for her wedding invitations and she decided on this classic and elegant invitation. They were double thick Crane Lettra cotton card stock which were hand edged with red and had the corners rounded.  It's hard to see how luxurious and rich the cards were but when you hold them they are extra thick and the detail of the hand-edging is more visible.  The envelopes were all hand bordered to match the cards.  All of the pieces were letterpress by Alan Hillesheim Letterpress.  The wreath details were letterpressed without any color which added to the elegant feeling of the invitation.  The subtle color of the red accents reflected the December wedding without feeling too seasonal.

I'll be sharing more details from Kathryn + Ryan's wedding in my upcoming posts!

photography (top photo) : Elizabeth Messina, event planner: Jenna Lam for Laurie Arons Boutique Events