It's easy and economical to embellish your envelopes with a great polka-dot paper. Even if the invitation is classic, the liner can be colorful.
The fanciful quality of this buffet will instill childlike anticipation in every guest. Treats are playfully displayed on stands and sticks and in cups and bags, as they would be at an old-time carnival. The striped awning, in muted candy colors, echoes the swirled lollipops, rock candy, taffy, and fondant "ribbons" on the cake.
The classic ensemble of a striped button-down shirt and French-knot cuff links inspired these favors in summery hues, which we filled with saltwater taffy.
Here, we put the notion of icing on ice, relying instead on unadorned pastel layers for graphic appeal. Coconut pound cake, tinted with gel-paste food coloring, serves as the foundation, while white fondant and passion-fruit curd rest on top (the curd is also between each layer). Sorbets in mango, passion fruit, lychee nut, and coconut are paired with strawberry sugar wafers that mimic the look of the cakes.
How do I love thee? Let me count the dots. In this 1950s-style bouquet, chocolate cosmos pop out of a dome of blushing roses framed with polka dots and tied with a lavender ribbon.
Your guests will fill the sky on your wedding day with a shower of paper confetti. Playful polka-dot bags will hold confetti until guests are ready to release it. Premade fabric bags are decorated with ink from a circular pad. These make perfectly round impressions. Slip a piece of card stock into the bag to prevent the ink from bleeding through; fabric needs more drying time than paper does.
To ensure that they would have unique keepsake photographs of their guests, the couple set up an outdoor portrait studio made up of lengths of bright floral fabric draped over a clothesline. The photographer chose the background best suited to each subject's outfit, mixing unlike but complementary patterns to create a jubilant, richly textured collection of pictures.
Lines and dots are combined here; the striped place cards are held up by circular bases. The bases' patterns vary, but the colors are the same. This project is easy when you use a pad of patterned paper (commonly sold for scrapbooking) that comes packaged in matching colors; the kind used here came from a pad of 6-inch square paper by Making Memories.
This modern nod to luminarias -- paper bags with votives inside -- updates the look with chic stripes printed onto vellum and wrapped around straight-sided square glass vases.
Circles cut from metallic contact paper add a playful touch to an otherwise empty space. Recruit friends to stick them up before the party starts and peel them away after the night winds down.
Con-Tact Brand "Metal FX" contact paper in copper (amazon.com). Martha Stewart Crafts Simple Circle Cutter (michaels.com for stores).
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