When Robin and Sarah from GATHER Events asked me to be a part of their rehearsal dinner styled photo shoot, I was excited. When they explained their concept to me, I was ecstatic! Basically they handed me this inspiration board:

I was immediately in love with the textures — grainy sand, thick cable knit blanket, smooth marshmallow-y desserts. Then I was enraptured by the colors — creamy white, hazy smoke from the fire against the gradient of the sunset. It felt sumptuous yet cozy, casual and inviting. Needless to say,  I was incredibly inspired!

The cable knit from the inspiration board lead to the hand-drawn envelope liner which is contrasted with a graphic interpretation of the sunset gradient on the invitation. Yarn from the cable knit is also referenced with the twirl-y flourishes that accent the text on both the invitation and the mailing address. The color palette includes warm tones on the invitation which is then placed into the smokey grey envelope.

The typographic elements and graphic sunset gradient featured on the invitation were echoed in the menu design. Drinks were skillfully concocted by Pharmacie and pizzas were baked in Urban Pie‘s mobile (yes, mobile!!) wood burning oven.

Given that we were on a beach, it only seemed natural for the guest book to take the form of a “message in a bottle”. We tweaked it slightly and called it “wisdom in a bottle” encouraging guests to give some words of advice to the soon-to-be-wed couple. To make it a little more authentic, Robin and Sarah burned the edges of the sign hanging on the glass jug to give it texture and lend a little bit of a smokey quality to it.

The favors — delicious “Pigments” by Petite Pig — are in a glass jar sealed with a cork and a tag that reads “Mint to be”.

Check out the entire shoot from this talented team assembled by GATHER Events and featured on 100 Layer Cake!
Photography: Heather Kincaid // Concept, Event Design, Florals, Production, Styling: GATHER Events // Furniture, Custom Napkins, Pillows, Styling: Borrowed Blu // Hair & Makeup: Tara Dowburd-Luftman // Pizza: Urban Pie // Favors: Petite Pig // Cocktails: Pharmacie

Ciao Amici!

It’s a big year! Not only am I starting this blog… I am also getting married in June! (So excited!!) Between all of the gown shopping, venue hunting and cake tastings, I am designing all of the papergoods for the entire affair. And by “all” I mean e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g! First up? Our Jack & Jill shower invitations. A few weekends ago my fiancé, Jason, and I were lucky enough have a Jack & Jill shower thrown for us at Mozza here in LA. Because the party was scheduled for a Friday evening and both guys and girls were invited, I wanted to design something that would evoke the convivial spirit of the evening while not getting too “girly”.

The first design element that popped into my head was the font Birmingham. I downloaded this font (for free!) months ago and have been eager for the opportunity to design with it. This quirky serif font with extra wide W’s, M’s and A’s embodies a sweet, handwritten quality that fit the vibe of the evening: casual elegance with a bit of personality. Complementary to the font, a hand drawn frame and illustrations of hearts and arrows are integrated with the typography to define the space. Lastly, to make sure everyone knew who the “Mr. & Mrs. to be” was, Jason and I did silhouette drawings that I then scanned and placed into the layout. As for the color palette — a pop of persimmon on an otherwise monochromatic invitation is carried over to the envelope color and punctuated with the heart and arrow strategically placed on the envelope liner.

And so begins the parade of papergoods that I will be creating in the upcoming months for our wedding…

I could not be more thrilled to be typing my very first blog post on my brand new website! A grande grazie to the Roundhouse Designs guys who totally rocked building the pages that comprise this site. Not only are they programming rockstars, they even taught me a new word: skeuomorphism — they're so smart! My site is going live just in time for the annual design blogger conference, ALT Summit. Before I jet to Salt Lake City to hob nob with fellow bloggers, let me whet your appetite with a few things you can expect on my corner of the world wide web:

~ A sneak peek behind the scenes at the design process and the inspiration for Lupa & Pepi's custom and ready-made papergoods. You'll also have a front row seat as I face the ultimate design challenge: designing paper goods for my own wedding!

~ While design has my heart, food occupies my mind! The evidence? My Instagram feed. On the blog, I will share favorite recipes, culinary adventures and my attempts at cracking the code of my great-great-aunt's (she's the "Lupa" of "Lupa & Pepi") recipe book. She never wrote down a recipe without omitting an ingredient or altering measurements for fear one of her friends would claim the recipe as her own!

~ The women in my family have had tremendous influence on me and serve as the inspiration for the name of my company. My mom — known around here as MamamiaRita — will be a regular guest contributor, sharing everything from classic pasta recipes to sage advice. She is one amazing lady! You will rarely see her in the kitchen, yet there's always a home-cooked multi-course meal on the table at dinner time. Maybe if you ask nicely, she'll tell you how she does it!

Ok, time to dash off to the airport!
Arrivederci!

Photos by Lupa & Pepi. Left to right: Custom papergoods order, our Thanksgiving table setting, homebaked Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmallow Cookies from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook, MamamiaRita and Me at Eataly in New York City