N&L Nashville Reunion

The N&L team just spent a weekend together in Nashville and had the best time together! You might remember that Lauren recently moved back, so the rest of the team headed south to spend a couple days with her in Nashville. This was Courtney and Meghan's first time in the Music City, which made everything that much more exciting! Take a peek at our girl's weekend in Nashville!

We landed early Friday morning, and after settling in, we headed straight to Midtown. After walking around and checking out the sights (which included the cutest farmer's market in Nashville), we spotted the "I believe in Nashville" sign on the side of a building. So we of course we had to stop for a picture! We then headed to East Nashville to meet with our website guru at Bongo East coffeeshop. If you're looking for a not-so-basic (but delicious) seasonal caffeinated beverage...this is your spot! Bongo East happened to be right next door to the most creative "weenery" we've ever seen. Yes, a weenery is a real thing. And yes, their window boxes are in the shape of hotdogs! We just had to snap a picture. We introduce you to "I Dream of Weenie!" So funny, right?!

After our meeting, we headed to The Pharmacy (also in East Nashville) for some lunch. Pharmacy is a unique mix of delicious food, tasty drinks, and a large beer garden. We recommend grabbing a group of your friends to sit outside under the twinkle lights as you sip on one of their many beers and enjoy a burger!

And how good is their branding? Love that font!

First on the agenda for our first night in Nashville, bowling at Pinewood Social. This unique space (which features unique, old-school decor) is part coffee shop, part restaurant, part bowling alley, and part meeting space. They even have a large outside area with games like bocce ball and a pool. We paired our bowling shoes with some champagne, and started our night out right!

After bowling, we headed to 5th and Taylor for a late dinner. This restaurant is new on the Nashville food scene, and is housed inside of a large, converted warehouse in Germantown. Combining unique decor features and art installations with simplistic elegance of fiddle leaf fig trees and lots of candles, the decor itself is a winner. But when combined with their delectable food offerings (don't miss the sausage-cheddar biscuits and bacon wrapped quail), 5th and Taylor is a must visit!

Saturday started with brunch at Biscuit Love! In one word, tasty. Make sure to try their "bonuts" aka biscuit donuts. Which were paired with both lemon mascarpone and blueberry compote. We kept going back for more bonuts, yum!

After brunch, we headed to Acme Feed and Seed to watch the Tennessee game, and catch up with one of our favorite wedding planners (Dori from The Social Office)! Acme Feed and Seed is a large bar made up of three floors and an amazing rooftop. We had so much fun cheering on Tennessee at this awesome bar!!

How great is this view?!

Nico with a baby...in a bar! While meeting with Dori, we got to meet the newest addition to her family, sweet Madolyn! How cute is she in her Tennessee orange and bonnet?

After spending the day at Acme, N&L treated the Nashville newbies to a night out on the town on Broadway! We experienced what Nashville is famous for...the Honky Tonk bars!!

We ended our night of fun at Losers Bar in Midtown, and listened to some amazing live music! Thanks to Shawn Lacy and his band, the N&L girls had a great last night together in Nashville dancing and singing along! We just hope by the next time we see them live, they learn some Taylor Swift songs...

Xo,

Nico and Lala

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Wedding Cake Inspiration

We'll admit it...our office has something of a sweet tooth. We all really enjoy our sweet treats, which makes today's blogpost that much sweeter! Wedding cakes are a true work of art. They not only have to look good, but also taste delicious. So we want to share our top ten all-time favorite wedding cakes to give you all some wedding cake inspiration!

1. The Classic, All-White Wedding Cake

We're starting off our roundup with the most classic wedding cake there is...an all white wedding cake! Though neutral in color, this cake's beauty is in the details with it's delicate roses, pearl details, and finished off with the new couple's monogram.

2. White and Gold Monogrammed Wedding Cake

Speaking of monograms, this white wedding cake prominently featured the couple's custom wedding monogram. Drawn in gold icing on the side of the cake, the monogram was paired with simple swiss dots to allow their wedding monogram to shine!

3. Monogrammed Navy and Coral Wedding Cake

This classic wedding cake paired classic wedding cake design (including pearl accents and romantic flowers) with their custom wedding monogram. The couple's wedding colors were navy and coral, so their monogram added a nice pop of color to their romantic wedding cake.

Groom's like cake, too! For Kyle's groom cake, he chose to pay homage to his favorite baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers.

4. White and Gold Nautical Wedding Cake

We couldn't think of a better way to pay tribute to this couple's destination wedding location than adding a piece of white coral to the top of their wedding cake. The nautical accent gave their traditionally colored white and gold wedding cake a fun, nautical twist!

5. Nautical Coral and Navy Wedding Cake

This coral and navy wedding cake is another example of a nautical wedding cake done right. Highlighting the traditional nautical (and Nantucket) colorway of navy and coral, this wedding cake features classical preppy elements (like navy ribbon and swiss dots) and gorgeous pink peonies.

6. Preppy Palm Beach Wedding Cake

We love seeing modern twists on a wedding cake, and this preppy cake (inspired by the wedding's Palm Beach location) does just that! Nixing the white wedding cake tradition, this cake was turquoise with some amazing white swiss dot detailing that was arranged in a chevron pattern. Definitely a one of a kind wedding cake!

7. Architectural White Wedding Cake

This all-white wedding cake is another one of a kind cake! Featuring architectural decor, this cake's flowers are three-dimensional and bring it's design to a new level of awesome. 

8. White Wedding Cake With a Pop of Color

At N&L, we specialize in creating creating wedding invitations that are traditional, but with a slight modern twist. We think this wedding cake is just that! Sticking with a traditional white cake and minimalistic design, this cake features two bright pops of color in the form of fresh flowers. The deep colored flower adds such a fun twist to the classic wedding cake!

9. Preppy Pink and Green Wedding Cake

There is something so beautiful about adding fresh flowers to a wedding cake! We love the abundance of pink and white flowers mixed with greenery on this cake. It highlighted the couple's unique wedding color palette of mint and coral perfectly.

10. Vintage Southern Wedding Cake

We saved the best for last! This Southern wedding not only featured a wedding cake, but an entire dessert bar for guests to enjoy. All of the desserts featured a romantic, vintage feel to coordinate with the wedding's barn location. While we love the wedding cake, we actually think their cupcakes are the winner. Featuring a couple different designs, their cupcakes ranged from a quilted top to designs resembling flowers. So sweet!

Hope this post as left you feeling extra sweet on this Wednesday morning!!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

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20% Off Custom Holiday Card Promo

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Can you believe it's already that time of year again? Custom holiday card time! In the spirit of the season, we're offering 20% off printing of custom holiday cards! Interested? Pay your design fee ($75) before October 15th (10 days left to pay) and get us your picture before November 1st to be eligible for our discount. Take a peek at our process, and a sweet sampling of custom holiday cards we've done in the past.

The Nico and Lala Custom Holiday Card Process:

Step One: Fill out our contact form (found here), and we will e-mail you our online holiday card form. The form will capture your family's information, as well as any design ideas you may have.
Step Two: Pay your custom design fee invoice ($75) by October 15th. Your photos do not have to be in by this time.
Step Three: In order to be eligible for our discount, you must send us your photos no later than November 1, 2015. Any photos received after this date will not be eligible for our 20% off discount, so please plan accordingly.
Step Four: Once we receive your photos, we will e-mail you a digital proof within two weeks. Once approved, your cards will ship within three to five business days.

Please note our 20% off offer applies to digital printing only. The design fee must be paid by October 15, 2015 and holiday card pictures must be submitted by November 1, 2015 to be eligible for our discount.

To give your holiday card extra N&L swank this year, start by filling out our contact form. Hugs and kisses, and warm holiday wishes!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

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Wedding Invitation Etiquette: Inner and Outer Envelopes

We're wrapping up design on our final invitations for the 2015 wedding season, and are already hard at work on our 2016 weddings! Our new batch of bride and grooms are already coming up with some beautiful ideas for their invitations that we can't wait to share. But with a new set of couples come questions about proper wedding invitation etiquette. One of the more common wedding invitation etiquette questions being, "What are inner and outer envelopes?  Do I really need double envelopes?" So today, we're sharing some of our wedding etiquette knowledge about inner and outer envelopes for wedding invitations!

The tradition of sending out wedding invitations in double envelopes (the inner and outer) dates back to the early 1800's when mail was delivered on horseback and by foot. As you can imagine, traveling many miles in all sorts of weather conditions led to envelopes becoming dirty or torn. So it became proper etiquette to deliver wedding invitations inside double envelopes (the smaller "inner" envelope, and the slightly larger "outer") to protect the inner envelope and ultimately, the wedding invitation. When the invitation was delivered, the outer envelope was removed, revealing a clean inner envelope holding the wedding invitation.

Besides one envelope being smaller, and the other slightly bigger...how do these two envelopes differ? The larger, outer envelope contains full mailing information so that the postal service may deliver your invitation. Printed on the front of the envelopes are the guests' formal names and titles, their street address, city, state, and zip-code. On the back flap of the outer envelope is your return address information, so that if an invitation is undeliverable, the post office may return it. The smaller, inner envelope is an ungummed envelope (as opposed to the sealable, gummed outer envelope) and is left unsealed inside of the larger envelope. The front of the inner envelope is informally addressed, and only includes your guests' names, no address. If additional guests are invited (e.g. a "plus one" or children), that would be indicated on the inner envelope. If a couple chooses to include an envelope liner, the inner envelope is the envelope that gets lined. Lining the inner envelope allows your liner to really shine since the inner envelope is ungummed. 

The tradition of double envelopes for wedding invitations is still alive and well, with many couples choosing to include both inner and outer envelopes in their wedding invitations. In today's modern age, we still have some of our mail arrive ripped and dirty (thank you, USPS), so the double envelope still does the job of protecting your wedding invitation. Some couples choose to omit the inner envelope, and send their wedding invitations in a single envelope. Both practices are proper when it comes to wedding etiquette, it's up to the individual couple to decide their preference!

So now you're an expert on inner and outer envelopes for wedding invitations, too!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

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The Art of the Custom Birth Announcement

Happy Monday, everyone!

There's no better way to start the week than with babies, right? Our clients have had somewhat of a baby boom over the past few months, so we've had adorable birth announcements flying out of our studio door. From the theme of the baby's nursery to taking inspiration from the baby's name, we design birth announcement s that are truly unique to our client's new baby. We love when our clients come to us with unique sources of inspiration...it makes our job that much more fun! So we're starting our Monday morning by sharing some custom birth announcements, and the even cuter babies featured on them. Take a peek at some of our custom creations below!

Natalie's custom birth announcement was inspired by the soft pink and French blue colors of her nursery and featured a unique die-cut shape, a stork inspired monogram, and pictures of her and her big brother. We love how elegant (and sweet) her announcement turned out!

One of our favorite custom birth announcement creations, for our swanky, little client! Madolyn's birth announcement was printed in pink and gray thermography and featured beautiful accents including a satin bow, her name written out in calligraphy, and of course...elephants.

This tri-fold design worked perfectly for this custom birth announcement for triplets! How cute are these boys?

Isn't looking at sweet birth announcements a great start to a Monday morning? Custom birth announcements are always one of our favorite projects to work on. In need of a custom birth announcement for your new addition? E-mail us at custom@nicoandlala.com to get started.

Xo,

Nico and Lala

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Elegant Garden Wedding

There's an old saying that rain is good luck on your wedding day. In Kali and Matt's case it was more than good luck, it was great luck and helped create some unforgettable memories. This sweet couple got married last August in an elegant end-of-summer wedding. Held on the North Shore of Chicago at the Chicago Botanic Garden, their wedding was the perfect mix of classic elements, lush floral arrangements, and the most beautiful garden setting.

For Kali and Matt's save the dates, they wanted to keep the design both classic and elegant, with a subtle modern twist. So when choosing fonts, we choose to highlight a beautiful script font along with a more modern block font. Their square-shaped save the date was mounted to a stone grey paper, which gave their design a slight border.

We also created a coordinating wedding website so that Kali and Matt's wedding guests could easily access information about their wedding weekend! Their website included information about the wedding party, a schedule of events for their wedding weekend, a photo gallery, and a link to their wedding registry. To take a peek at Kali and Matt's wedding website visit www.kaliplusmatt.com.

In keeping with Kali and Matt's classically elegant theme, we kept colors neutral for their wedding invitations. Printed in gold foil, their invitation mixed calligraphy with a block font, giving their traditional wedding invitation a modern twist. The sides of their stone colored invitation were both gilded and beveled, adding a luxurious touch to their custom invitation. Their invitation ensemble, which also included a reception card and a reply card, was wrapped in a champagne colored ribbon, and was sealed with Kali's custom wedding monogram.

Kali and Matt's wedding program featured the couple's custom wedding monogram printed in thermography on the front cover, and was bound with a satin bow.

Kali and Matt's ceremony was held at the historic (and incredibly quaint) Kenilworth Union Church.

Kali's wedding dress has us envisioning Jackie O. with its classic, tea-length design. We love how all of her bridesmaid's matched her in their white, short dresses. The neutral color palette is such an elegant choice, and really let the garden scenery of their wedding shine! 

The rain following their ceremony not only provided the couple with good luck, but a great photo opportunity held in the gardens at the church. We love the adorable umbrellas!

After the rain cleared, Kali and Matt's guests headed to the Chicago Botanic Garden to celebrate late into the night with cocktails, dinner, and dancing. The Botanic Gardens played the perfect backdrop to their elegant garden wedding reception.

No Chicago wedding is complete without a Chicago deep-dish pizza in the shape of a heart!

Congratulations to Kali and Matt, who just celebrated their first anniversary last month! We are so happy we got to be part of their special day!

Xo,

Nico and Lala

Wedding Day Photography By: Chrystl Roberge Photography
Styled Paper Photography By: Old South Studios
Wedding Ceremony Venue: Kenilworth Union Church
Wedding Reception Venue: Chicago Botanic Garden