Couture from Unveiled

{collage board for Couture, Suite #12 from Unveiled by Checkerboard}

Images for this collage are provided by Michele M. Waite Photography and Cookie Creatives. The invitation shown is a 3 layer invite with a blush ribbon and a black moire envelope liner.

Invitation Inspiration: Unveiled

{images of new Unveiled invitations by Checkerboard}

When choosing wedding invitations, think about what your guest will feel like when they see it in their stack of mail. The envelope should stand out from all the others. Right? The addressing should be special, and when they open the envelope the design and the weight of the paper really makes a big difference. Even if you choose the simplest design, presentation and weight make all the difference. I love designing with our papers. Since I source most of them, because I am inspired by them, our designs begin with really wonderful papers that look and feel really good. When designing, I like to keep the potential couples in mind, thinking about what can make each invitation special and personal.

Keep your guests in mind when you choose your papers and envelopes, your invitation is a little gift to each guest actually. Inviting is a gift in itself. Expressing yourself with your invitation is easy when you start with a company that feels the same way! I am pretty lucky to work for a company that knows how important this is. It makes my job so much more fun.

Finally, Unveiled

{new Checkerboard wedding product from the Unveiled, an "inspired wedding" collection}

Do you want to know where I have been? Maybe you just stumbled here, but I have been a little absent from blogging for a while. It's hard balancing family, work and fun with time spent connected to the keyboard, so I took a little break to try to find that balance.

About a year ago, I started designing for this new project, that was "unveiled" in May at the National Stationery Show in New York City. It has been a pretty exciting year. This collection and it's presentation of invitations is very different from anything that is on the market today. {so cool!} We do all our trends research ourselves, watching fashion, design, decor, furniture, and color. My eyes are always open to translating fashion into paper. Created and inspired by couples that want to share their personalities with their guests, this collection of innovative invitations and imported Italian papers is finally on the market. It is so exciting hearing all of the feedback and wonderful comments. I hope this book, presented with full color inspiration boards, kicks up the heels of brides and grooms all over. The inspiration boards were a collaboration of amazing talent. Images from the incredible Michele M. Waite Photography of Washington State actually inspired the boards. She was a major contributor of images and time, as well as Jennifer Burkhart of Cookie Creatives, award winning cake designer Michelle Bohigian of Something Sweet by Michelle, Cathy Walsh of Sprout, Erin Wolczik and fantastic product shots by Adoniram Sides of Checkerboard.

{Unveiled inspiration board from Suite # 1, Presidio, featuring a new luxury envelope}

**The Unveiled Collection is hot off the press and not currently available online. You can call Checkerboard customer service {1.800.735.2475 or e-mail us at info@checkernet.com} to find a vendor in your community that carries Unveiled. Or, you can contact me if you are in Central Massachusetts!

Networking and Collaboration for Innovation

{images borrowed from the blog of eInvite.com featuring photos by michele m. waite}

{image of silk kimono cake by something sweet by michelle}

{image via cookie creatives}

It 's spring here in the US and every wedding vendor is starting to feel the bustle. As the skies turn blue and the trees burst to life once again, we start to feel energetic and excited for the coming warm season. This is such a fun time for wedding vendors. If you are paper, there is the National Stationery Show, if you are flora, photog or sweet, your calendars are probably already full.

I am paper. Our new designs are about to be revealed to our clients in NY in May. We are brimming with excitement and last minute touches for the show. This year I had the pleasure of working with outside vendors on a collaborative project for one of our wedding stationery albums, Unveiled. Discovered on all the best wedding blogs, like Style Me Pretty and 100 Layer Cake, was Michèle M. Waite. Her unconventional photographic signature caught my eye and when I contacted her she was simply incredible. My idea was a little time consuming even in the bustle of spring business, but Michele was attentive and helpful, making my idea a lot more concrete and exciting. In the months prior it had been just an idea, a pitch to my management and administrators, but now it was coming together and becoming validated. Exciting, yes. {yay} The fun of creative people working together makes me insanely prolific in the idea department. So I continued with my adventure.

Earlier this year I met up with Michelle Bohigian, yes a 3rd Michelle, at Taste of the Nation in Worcester where she was serving up some incredible chocolate cake. I had seen her business, Something Sweet by Michelle featured in major wedding mags and on the Today Show. I knew if she was the creme de la creme of cakes then maybe a taste would be a great idea. A year later, at one of Michelle's personal tastings at local Tuckerman Hall, she introduced to me to yet another incredible wedding vendor, Jennifer Burkhart from Cookie Creatives. She had a sweet mention of us on her blog today. Great relationships come from open conversation. Both women proved to be amazing from hello and I instantly started bouncing ideas off each.
With finishing touches from our photoshoot earlier in the month with my Worcester girl Cathy Walsh from Sprout, plentiful flora was added to the mix.

{sprout worcester, a trend setter in flowers, a community advocate in the woo. love her!}

When my brain stopped spinning ideas, a brand new concept was created for a beautiful collaboration of talents and trades. From paper to imagery, cake to cookie we were all brought together by the wonders of media. From the far corner of the west coast to the opposite side of the country, a fun creative collaboration has come to fruition. I just want to tell you what amazing people and businesswomen they are. Each helping me develop my idea and work innovation into an industry that is constantly evolving with fashion, technology, the environment, and recently the economy.

What is the collaboration? The finishing touches are being added now. I will sneak a few tidbits out as they are available! Let's just say, your eyes will look at wedding invitations a whole new way! From networking and collaboration on the internet and locally, by getting involved with a community abundant with talent, together I hope we make a splash at the NYSS in May. It will all be "Unveiled" soon!

Lesson learned: never be afraid to reach out to people who you admire, it could lead to great ideas and wonderful places.

One last thing tonight before I say goodnight, Taste of the Nation mentioned above benefits the Worcester County Food Bank. You know I am a huge supporter personally and professionally, Checkerboard Ltd. where I design has contributed invitations to the event for years. Please come {empty} and enjoy amazing food and cocktails from the best restaurants in Worcester while supporting a great cause.

Taste of the Nation Worcester
April 19, 2010
5:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Crowne Plaza Hotel
10 Lincoln Square
Worcester, MA 01608

For ticket information to this premier national culinary event, visit Share Our Strength.

sweet dreams...

Natural Inspiration

I love the new tool over at Style Me Pretty in the "community section"! More to come from Festival Creative. Join me over there for wedding inspiration and insight on invitations, color, expressing your personal style and more of these amazing mood boards. Their tool is pretty sweet.

Deep and Distinctive

{paper seduction via ffffound}

Invitation Inspiration

{all designs by michelle may for checkerboard, detailed photographs by adoniram sides}

The National Stationery Show is our once a year opportunity to meet up with our clients and touch base with them on what is new and happening. As a designer, it's also pretty much our only opportunity to get feedback on our work from outside the company, where it really counts! Being in NY for the show fills us up with inspiration and really connects us to our customers and what they need. Love it! I love chatting about their clients and what makes them excited about our designs and our company. Fun stuff. These are some of my new designs for wedding "unveiled" at the show.

Beyond designing for Checkerboard, which fuels my creativity, I am so happy to be on board with Cynthia Woehrle and Scott Zoback for Pecha Kucha Worcester and to collaborate with my good friend Andreea Waters for Cirque du Noir also held in Worcester, coming back in October for year two! I am pretty pumped about both happenings, that offer up doses of intimate creative inspiration. What makes us creative? What drives us to be creative every day? What unblocks creative people? What can make someone creative that never knew they had it in them?

Pecha Kucha Night and the live art presentations of Cirque du Noir can help you learn more about yourself, your design medium and your creative spirit.

Take a peek inside the minds of the creative people who live and work in the Worcester area. There are so many unbelievably talented people in this city! Now is their chance to shine, so be there to soak in the rays of electric energy. If you are in the area and are looking for people like you who also consume creativity and spirit, stop by and say hi!

If you're feeling like a voyeur, then come on baby, bring it on: Pass the word!
for daily PKN: Pecha Kucha Daily

Invitation Inspiration

{designs by michelle may for checkerboard and photographed by adoniram sides}

For over 10 years I have been designing invitations for Checkerboard, here in the Worcester area. If you are planning an event, no matter how big or small, and would like some rocking invitations or announcements, I can help you out. No matter what your budget is, we can find the perfect choice for your event. I will work with you from concept to completion if you would like something completely custom, or we can choose something simple and elegant and have it to you within a few business days. We use the finest heavy weight papers and have award winning design and typography.

{image inspiration board by checkerboard}

Working with some pretty outstanding designers, many of which have been featured here (links to their personal art over on the right) in itself is inspirational. I love to go to work everyday and create with paper and imagination. Some of my designs have been chosen by personalities including The Rolling Stones, David Baldacci, Princess Firyal of Jordan and Lionel Pincus, Queen Rania of Jordan, Robert Cray, and President Clinton.

If you are thinking of printing invitations yourself, for the same price that you may spend on papers and inks and trying to design your own, I can find a you a better solution that will save you time and effort...and will not go over your budget. I look forward to creating amazing invitations every day, and I would love to make them for you and create excitement for every guest you invite to your event!

{image inspiration board by checkerboard}

Wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Sweet 16, Corporate Events, birth announcements, first birthdays, graduation, holiday...whatever your event may be.

cheers {noroc},
Michelle

If you are interested in finding out more, please email me: mlhiggs2@yahoo.com
and if you are not in the local area (MA) and still wish to find out more about invitations, feel free to inquire. If I can't assist you from here, I will help you find someone in your area that can!

Sealed with an A

{image via ffffound by Andy Clymer}

When I was young, writing letters was a big part of my fun, well writing them and receiving them. I would check the mailbox daily to see if any of my friends had written back, I would inspect the envelopes, decorated like only children could, alive with color and uniqueness. I remember getting several on the same day and sitting in a little corner in my room and opening each, taking in every word and saving them for a later read before bed. Friends from summer camp, like the girl who taught me how to shave my legs in the big round communal tub, friends from the Cape, friends from college that drew me funny pictures and went on to start successful multimillion dollar businesses and even crushes from seventh grade, letters from all that I treasured and saved.

{wax seal via scribe's delight}

Back then, sealing wax was huge! We each had our own seals and wax and even a fire source in our room. Maybe it was my elementary school teachers that instilled letter writing into all of our beings. Mrs. Becker was so good at teaching grammar and writing...she got me through huge papers in high school and college. She prepared me like no other. I even made some spending money for editing papers in college. Some of those guys are running their own funds now, thanks to me. (wink) I truly believe that teachers could bring this art back if they only TRIED. I am pleading if you did not notice.

I tried very hard to get my daughter into letter writing, so she could experience the joy of personal correspondence, but texting came along so fast. I find it hard to spend quality time with her because her phone is always vibrating and her fingers are as fast as little ants on a melting heap of ice cream on the sidewalk. New rules for today's kids...put that phone away!!!