Design Workshop with Ariella Chezar + Kristi Amoroso

Printed Matter: Ashley G and Drew

When it comes to wedding gifts, we appreciate a personal and offbeat take on the traditional printed ephemera. You can't go wrong with an illustrated portrait of a happy couple or a positive slogan to grace the walls of their home. We've been fans of Portland artist Ashley Goldberg's pen-and-ink drawings for quite some time. Her prints sell under the title Ashley G and Drew and she describes her style as "simple, but with a sophisticated or stark color palette." We think its pretty awesome.

Shop Ashley G and Drew here.

Design Crush: Claudia Pearson for West Elm

Brooklyn artist and illustrator Claudia Pearson recently teamed up with West Elm to create an exclusive collection of plates and whimsical tea towels that celebrate the season, pictured below. Her handmade work is inspired by great food, family and friends. In 2008, she designed her own line of tea towels, recipe cards, prints and coloring books. She first creates each illustration by hand then transfers each drawing to a computer and plays around the pattern and textures.

"My work retains an organic, handmade feel and I love the blend of analog and digital," she tells West Elm. As for her collaboration with West Elm, she says, "The line was born out of a great brainstorming session I had with the West Elm creative team. Known for my graphic, food themed tea towels, we set about developing ideas around the beach BBQ. With this in mind, I researched images that evoked those late summer beach days surrounded by close one’s and started sketching. Then the fun layering and coloring part happened."

We expecially love her kitchen prints, inspired by weekend trips to the farmer's market. She is a woman after our own food-loving hearts!

Visit Claudia Pearson's Etsy shop here.

Real Wedding: Blair & Rie, Brooklyn, New York

Real Wedding: Blair & Rie
Photography by Oh, Darling! PhotographyThe Love Story: Blair and Rie first met at a mutual friend's Birthday party and started dating soon there after. There wedding in Brooklyn was actually their third celebration! "We were originally married at the Courthouse in New York, we then had a traditional Shinto ceremony at a shrine off the coast of Hiroshima in Japan. That ceremony was wonderfully elaborate, so we decided to have a simple, laid-back ceremony in the states," says the bride. "The park where we had the ceremony is on the water in a part of Brooklyn that has been used mainly for ports for cargo ships and manufacturing up until recently. It's becoming more residential now."

The Lovely Details: From the bride: "Our theme was originally going to be a bit more rustic but a designer friend of ours (who created the invitations) went in a more industrial direction. It worked out really well. What we ended up with was a blend of nautical and industrial design. We tried to follow his lead when creating the other decorations for the ceremony and reception. Our friends helped us out a lot. We happen to know a very talented florist and pastry chef. They took care of the cake, bouquet, boutonnieres, table decorations, etc. Our friend who stood in as our florist also makes sugar sculptures that we gave away as wedding favors. The photographers at Oh, Darling! were truly fantastic. We also had a classical guitarist to play the ceremony. She was really great!"

We did a few things ourselves. I spotted these really cute puppets on Etsy that I really wanted, but had no excuse to buy, until I decided we could use them as part of a seating chart. The puppets were different animals. Each table was given a different puppet. We created tags using shipping labels that we printed the name of each guest along with a line drawing of their table's animal. We soaked the tags in coffee to give them an aged looked.

Vendors:
Photography by Oh, Darling! Photography
Wedding Dress: Saja Wedding
Hair Accessaries: Ban.do
Bouquet: Kyoko Masutani
Wedding Cake: Yoshie Shirakawa
Wedding Favors: Made by a Man and a Woman

Happy Mother's Day from The Collection Event Studio!

Mom, Mommy, Mother, Mama Bear, Mama. Whatever you call her, be sure to tell her you love her. If you aren't able to spend this special day with your mom, send her lots of love and thanks. 

Happy Mother's Day. Enjoy the special day. 

{Our graphic designer Kelly with her mom Jan. Shaunna and her mom Susan. Emarie and her mom Melanie at Em's 30th Birthday Party. MacKensey's mom Lesley with her sister Chelsey-three days before Mack was born.}

We love you moms!!

Press: Featured on On To Baby!

We were featured earlier this week on On To Baby!

In April, a handful of our favorite industry peeps threw an adorable baby shower for Erin Taylor of Bustle Events. The shower was held here in the studio and the gals from Engaged and Inspired, Floral Theory, Lover.ly and Wedding Bee turned our studio into a baby boy haven.   

The all-too-precious invites were created by Collection Member The Aerialist Press with tasty sweets from Members Batter Bakery and Fox and Fawn Bakehouse. The lovely Kristy from Volatile Photography captured the event.

New Handwritten Wall Decals by Shanna Murray

Shanna Murray's decals are simple and charming and we just love them! She recently added new decals to her shop as well as some new color options for the spring and summer season. Her handwritten style is so lovely, isn't it? "Born of the belief that we all need a little spot to tuck inspiration in, each piece in the collection is designed to create a perfect spot to celebrate the little things that make us smile. A little happiness for your walls."

Check out Shanna’s new designs here.

Talking Shop with Carla & Rebecca of Alder & Co.

What inspired you to open Alder & Co.? My husband was transferred to Portland from Los Angeles. I co-owned a store in LA and couldn't rid myself of the retail bug once we relocated.  I tried to ignore it, but 2 and a half years later, I was looking at "For Lease" signs.

How would you describe your wares? Rebecca Westby {store manager, web designer and photographer extraordinaire}: We love buying things for the store that we use in our own homes.  We also love knowing the actual artist, and we love finding that artist close by, or overseas.  Discovery and travel are part of what makes the job so fun.

What is Alder & Co.'s aesthetic? Honestly, it's a hard thing to describe. We love refined, and we also enjoy a sense of humor.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  Also, we really try hard to offer items that aren't seen everywhere, though admittedly, this has become more difficult to do.  Technology makes for a very small world.

What are your favorite materials to work with? We don't design anything ourselves, so we love supporting artists of all different mediums. We like using our linen tea towels, we like burning our Astier de Villatte candles, we like using ceramic pieces from Notary, we like Matteo on our beds, and we like Aesop skincare! We also are huge fans of smaller businesses. We love shopping at Canoe, Odessa and Una - all of which are dangerously close by!

What is your design weakness?

Carla: Textiles! I have a house full of blankets, linen napkins, and tea towels. I can't seem to stop myself.

Rebecca: White and pale pink. And pretty French dresses. 

Shop Alder & Co. here.