My Best Friend's Wedding (part II)

I had blogged about helping to do the wedding invites for my best friend Elaine's wedding here. These are some pictures from the wedding to share. (above) Elaine and her then fiance (Chee) dashing around Singapore to run errands the day before the wedding.

(above) These were some corsages I made from lace and ribbons for the wedding party. As you can see, the colour theme of the wedding was black and cream which we carried through all the decor.

(above) Reception table which I helped decorate. The birdcage with message written on tags was an idea I came up with just the day before when the bride realised she didn't have a wedding book for her guest to write their well wishes on. Representing a new home for the newly weds, the birdcage also doubled up as a centre-piece on the reception table. Each guest could write their messages on as many tags as they liked to attach onto the cage which was painted a goth black.

(above) Wedding programs. The wedding program was 16 pages long and we compiled everything into a mini booklet held together by a black grosgrain ribbon and handmade paper embossed with the couple's initials on the front cover.

(above) wedding confetti

(Above) Wedding favours. And for wedding favours, we had jars filled to the brim with candy that guests could dig their hands into. Sadly, my 2 year old had to be bribed with one of these before she agreed to walk down the aisle as the flower girl. Here is a pic of her leading the wedding entourage with a chuppa chup sticking out of her mouth. The sugar rush put her on high the entire wedding service.

(Above) My 2 year old daughter, Vera, acting as the flower girl with a chuppa chup sticking out of her mouth as we led the wedding entourage down the aisle.

World's Most Creative Work Environments

I saw this pic at the coolhunter under the call for submission for the "World's Most Creative Work Environments". I am so in love this idea although I wonder if one could get a little looney working in a cylinder... Does anyone know where this project is?

Stunning Hairpiece

Don't you think this hairpiece is simply stunning and romantic? I really think it will be gorgeous on a wedding entourage. You can also request to have these made smaller. (via laceandtea)

Retro-yummy skates!

These retro rollarskates are just too yummy. oh I do miss rollar skating...reminds me of my growing-up years.

New Year, New Inspirations

Happy New Year and welcome back to Laissezfaire! Hope everyone had a good break from whatever you usually do and got to spend some quality time with family and friends! I know this sounds cliche but I can't believe it is 2009! It really seems like yesterday we just celebrated the turn of the century.

I will kick start the new year here at laissezfaire by sharing some amazing places and inspiring work I recently discovered. Top of the list has got to be the lyrical work by Russian Graphic artist Yulia Brodskaya. My jaws dropped when I first came across her work at Oh Joy.

I also came across these lovely handcrafted menus at The Casual Poet, a little store-cum-coffee shop in Singapore which sells a nicely curated selection of books, t-shirts, stationery, and other wonderful creative goods.

And if you are still looking for calender for the new year, this would be perfect! You can even personalise the calendar to include your "logo".

(above) Seeing Eye Calander.

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone had a good time with family and friends over Christmas. I was so busy tending to last minute gift orders from the online shop that I didn't get the chance to wish everyone a very 'Merry Christmas' earlier this week.

Anyway, I just wanted to take the opportunity this special time of the year to say that it has been such a joy getting to know so many of you through this blog. I am truely thankful for your warm friendship. Even though I have not been able to post as often as I would like to in recent months since the birth of my second child, knowing that you are still visiting keeps me motivated and inspired in more ways than you can imagine. Thank you so much for your support.

I will be signing off to spend more time with family and friends for the rest of the year but will be returning on Jan 5. Meanwhile, here's wishing everyone Happy Holidays and all the very best for 2009! Here is a little festive dance from my family to yours.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

And if you are looking for some ideas that will make this New Year's eve party a little prettier and more memorable, here are some lovely ideas to share from Martha Stewart.com.

Above: Place your homemade Oatmeal cookie in these lovely CD sleeves to give to your guests

Above: These Confetti and noisemaker will make a very fun and pretty looking New Year party favour
(Above) Customise store stationary with a rubber stamp and pad

It's easy to miss something you are not looking for

One of the funniest advertisements I have seen in a while that drives the message across. (via Mr Brown)

Mister Rob Ryan

Gorgeous papercuts by paper artist Rob Ryan. Do check out his blogs here and here! (Thanks meefedtothemax for the links!)

Wall Calander

Watch winter turn to spring with this for a wall calendar by architecture duo at StokkeAustad. I imagine the leaf-like tags are like sticky tapes that you remove as the year goes by and the colour of the wall changes to reflect the 4 seasons. (above) The whole year in colour. (Image above from une toche de.)

Level 5

Just in case you miss your floor. (via ffffound!)

Falling words

Amazing project by Letras Caindo found here. (via Swissmiss)

Perforated calendar

This perforated calendar that allows you to tear off each day of the year is such a simple yet brilliant idea! (via delight by design)

Pretty bitter gift tags

Great gift tags with a touch of humour.

Handmade stamps from Nora Jane

Adorable handmade stamps from Nora Jane that you can use to stamp away your own Christmas giftwrap. (via Sweet & Low)

Would love to slouch here by the beach

What a lovely room! I just love how everything is kept low-lying with the small steps and changes in levels defining the separate spaces. (from marie claire masion via delight by design)

Chocolate research facility

These arty chocolate wrappers are apparently from a shop in Singapore called Chocolate research facility. Anyone heard about this? I want to be a part of it!

Enchanted Garden

A beautiful mural found on a door out in the middle of nowhere in Brussels. This image reminds me of some secret doorway to an enchanted garden from the pages of a fairytale. Found here.

Shop in a church

Designed by Merkx+Girod architects, this contemporary bookshop is designed within a former Dominican church. I am sure many of you must have seen this but since I have been buried under a rock for a while, I don't recall seeing these images before.

From a design point of view, I really love how the neat rows of books lined up in a modern black steel structure form a contrast with the ornate interior of this gothic church. The colours of the books also stand out really well against the neutral tone of the stone surfaces.

I am not sure how to respond to the image above. I thought at first it was a reading area...but found out later it is a coffee shop. Beautiful as I think it is, I am not sure if it is quite appropriate to locate a crucifix-shaped coffee table at the location where the altar used to be. I guess in true Dutch fashion, the designers have succeeded in coming up with yet another controversial project... (via)

Mad mad week but I'm back!

It has been a mad mad week juggling the babies, orders from my baby online store, organising a hen's night and overseeing the details of my best friend's wedding. I have always consider myself quite an efficient multi-tasker but I have to admit that this past week has been quite stretching.

I miss blogging and all of you out there! I will share more about my friend's wedding once I get down to uploading the pics. Meanwhile, it's surfing time at 3am in the morning at my favourite design websites. I will be back soon with what I find!

Tea Note

Lovely packaging for tea from a Japanese website called Tea-note.

Muji Craft Box

This craft house box from Muji is simply too cute. Think this will make a holiday cake gift box. Available here.

My Best Friend's Wedding (invitations)

I spent the last few days working on the church wedding invites for my best friend, Elaine. A talented designer herself, I felt really honoured to be entrusted to design Elaine's wedding invitations for her.

Elaine and I have known each other since we were 12, and I can say that I don't know of anyone more similar in interests and taste than her. For the design of her invites, I decided that a simple and classic handcrafted wedding invite would reflect Elaine's timeless sense of style.

We decided to keep the cards simple and focus on subtle elements such as the selection of the font and texture of the paper. While scounting the web for a wedding calligrapher, I chanced upon the work of Laura Hooper. As soon as I set my eyes on Laura's work, I knew at once that we had to engage her to do the calligraphy for my best friend.

Laura is well known for her intricate, unique and delicate style of calligraphy. She offers a variety of services including 29 different calligraphy styles for envelope addressing, placecards, etc., and even draws the most gorgeous maps.

I finally settled on a beautiful Allegro Script , which I paired with a San Serif block-like font, for the invite to achieve a simple classic look. Not long after contacting Laura (who is super prompt in her responses), I received the gorgeous artwork and was on my way to gocco-ing 125 invitations by hand. I also got Laura to handwrite the address of the lunch reception which I screen-printed on tags (above) to accompany the invites.

(above) Screen-printing the cards by hand using my beloved gocco! I simply love the imperfections, blotches and everything behind this labour intensive process!

I finally completed the invites at 4am this morning and sent it out. The bride-to-be loves it and I am one happy friend and bride's maid.