A Grand Chicago Wedding at The Peninsula Hotel

A Chicago wedding held at The Peninsula Hotel is always a grand affair, but Laura and Will's summer wedding takes the cake! Sophisticated and elegant, their wedding was all about the beautiful little details that really brought the whole wedding together. We're talking an unexpected wedding color combination (red and apple green), an intricate custom wedding monogram, and a Peninsula Hotel setting that was drop-dead gorgeous!! Combine all of these aspects with the sweetest couple ever, and we have a wedding winner!

Laura and Will's save the date featured the Chicago skyline to get their guests excited for their Windy City nuptials!

For the couple's wedding invitations, they wanted to keep them relatively traditional, but add in a touch of their fun personality! So for the printing, we went with classic letterpress (in their wedding colors), and topped the invitation with their custom wedding monogram.

One of our favorite elements of their reception was the couple's menu card! It was mounted to apple green card stock, and was placed at each place setting. At the top of each menu was a thank you from the bride and groom. Such a sweet touch to a fabulous wedding weekend! 

Planning your own Windy City wedding? Be sure to visit our real wedding gallery over on our website to see more pictures from Laura and Will's special day!!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

Ps. Did you miss out on our October deal for custom holiday cards?! Well...surprise!! We're offering 15% off printing of your custom card if your design fee is paid by November 1st. Email custom@nicoandlala.com to get started!

Custom Save the Dates

It's that time of year...save the date season for 2015 weddings! Over the past few weeks, we've sent out some incredible save the dates, each set so beautiful and creative!! We are so lucky to have 2015 brides who truly embrace the N&L vision when working with us to create their custom save the dates. What exactly is our vision you ask? And what is the process about going about creating your own custom save the date for your big day?

Let's start from the beginning! At Nico and Lala, we specialize in branding weddings. We help couples create pieces that are both classic and custom, but often with some kind of a modern twist. Save the dates are vital to setting the tone for your big day, since it is the first item they will receive. But before we start on this all important step of designing the save the date, we often start with creating a custom wedding monogram. Not all couples opt for a custom monogram, but if you're interested in creating a wedding logo (which is an excellent way to brand your wedding), we ideally start by creating this first. This helps us narrow your vision, and allows us to effectively move into your save the dates, invitations, and fun flair, or "swag" as we like to call it!

We LOVE the inspiration behind this watercolor save the date. The bride wants an ombre pink wedding, so each wedding piece will progressively grow darker. So for their save the date, we started with a "ginger" colored envelope, and incorporated the couple's custom wedding monogram, a watercolor Chicago skyline and assortment of pink peonies.

Morgan and Jon are getting married at The Greenbrier in West Virginia, so we helped them create a save the date that incorporated the rich and historic feel of the resort. We also created a custom map of the Washington D.C. area so guests can pre-plan activities in the capitol city.

After we have the custom monogram design down, we start on the good stuff...custom save the dates! Since wedding invitations tend to offer a more formal feel, couple's often choose to incorporate more style and personality into their save the dates. We love stretching our creativity, and have gained inspiration from the most original sources. From an ombre wedding, to a logo inspired by a bench at wedding venue...creativity comes from everywhere and is so fun to incorporate into your custom save the date!

For Melissa and Jeremy's save the date, we took inspiration from the wedding's location, The Bel-Air Beach Club!

For Shawn and Steven's save the date, we created a postcard to get guests excited about their Hawaiian destination wedding! Hawaii is not only where the pair will tie the knot, but also happens to be where they got engaged.

So, how do we capture your wedding vision before we start designing? We normally begin with an in-studio consultation, or for couples not located in Chicago, we often do phone consultations! We love our long distance brides, and are experts at interpreting your loose words and ideas into a tailored and to die for wedding. If you are lucky enough to be in the Windy City, we meet one on one and talk about your vision, share samples of our previous work and get a feel for what you had in mind. We want to know YOU, so Pinterest boards, binders full of photos and articles, or emails of ideas are all welcome.

Last but not least....let's talk timelines. Once we get a feel for your vision, proofs take two weeks to be created and sent. Once your final design is set, it's on to printing! Most save the dates we design are printed digitally, and once approved, are printed and shipped within 5 to 7 business days. Upgraded printing often takes a bit longer, and can be estimated at the time of design approval. If you choose to accent your beautiful creation with calligraphy, we have several calligraphers we work with who are excellent. We are happy to share samples of their work, their pricing, and a timeline based upon their availability.

For more information on our printing styles and processes, please visit our website! We would love to design your custom save the date! Please e-mail custom@nicoandlala.com to get started!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

Ps. One of our favorite additions to a custom N&L save the date is a coordinating wedding website! Designed before save the dates get sent out, a wedding website is a stylish place guests can go to get all wedding day specifics. Check out Melissa and Jeremy's custom wedding website that coordinates with save the dates for their Santa Monica wedding!

Stock the Bar Engagement Party

It's been wedding week in the N&L Studio! We've had so many pretty wedding goodies go out in the past week, and we're just bursting with excitement over all of it! If you follow us on Instagram, you've seen a sneak peek at some of the gorgeous things we've been working on (including 3 different sets of save the dates for 2015 weddings, gorgeous blue and white foil stamped wedding invitations, AND amazing swag for a wedding in Vero Beach, FL). It is all SO GOOD!!! We will share more pictures with y'all in the coming weeks!!

In keeping with our theme of weddings and everything that goes into them, we're excited to share a preppy stock the bar engagement party! We recently partnered with Brittney Ann (of the blog Hosting and Toasting) to throw a fabulous party in celebration of one of her friends engagements. You might remember BAC from past parties, including her "favorite things" Christmas gift exchange, as well as her D.C. meet and greet for Carly of The College Prepster. Every party we've helped her with has been super preppy and fun, and this stock the bar engagement party was no different!

We stuck with classically preppy colors when designing the invitation, at the hostess' request. We love any color paired with navy, but this bright green adds such a fun pop of color!! We added a fun envelope liner, filled with a wine glass and beer bottle pattern...of course! We even added in a fun insert card that read, “A bottle of red or a bottle of white, maybe tequila and salt for a margarita delight. Glasses, napkins or an ice bucket too! Let’s stock their bar before they say “I do!”

 BAC already had a lucite tray (which is one of our favorite home accessories), so we made her a custom insert just for the party! Such a cute idea, and it looks so great paired with the fun navy and green straws!

Guests were treated to custom koozies to celebrate the happy couple!

Cheers to the happy couple! And a huge thanks to BAC for including us in this special day! Looking for more engagement party inspiration?! Be sure to check out some parties we've helped with in the past including this nautical engagement party! And be sure to check out BAC's post over on Hosting and Toasting on her sister (Megan's) summer engagement party!

Don't forget--only one week left to take advantage of our deal on custom holiday cards! If you order before October 15th (next Wednesday), receive 20% off printing! For more info, visit our website or e-mail custom@nicoandlala.com to get started!!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

Ode to Toile: Our Favorite Fall Pattern

Happy first day of October!

Today, we're celebrating our favorite pattern for fall...toile! The pattern that decorated your great Aunt Milly's tea set is back and better than ever. While the centuries old pattern will always be associated with classical decor and luxury, toile has received a modern makeover in recent years by changing up the classical pastoral scenes, colors, and even which items are decorated in this traditional print. We love this trend of giving the classical print a modern makeover, and in true N&L fashion, we do just that by adding in an unexpected colorway or pairing it with fun design elements! The more we do with toile, the more we love it!! Check out some of our favorite ways we're using toile this fall!

We adore this toile patterned envelope liner! Especially when it's paired with a foil stamped rehearsal dinner invitation printed on WOOD. Very masculine, and chic!!

One of our favorite things is adding a modern twist to classic designs. Which is why we love our brightly colored toile iPhone cover, which is monogrammed, and comes in several fun colors!

For this sweet birth announcement, we paired baby blue toile with an antler monogram to create a Southern feel!

We love our toile pencil/ makeup brush holder--a pop of style for your desktop!

Does anything pair better than Chinoiserie and toile? We love this blue and white save the date featuring a ginger jar inspired toile on the envelope liner!

Xo,

Nico and Lala