Jessica Rust

This has pretty much become my go-to wedding gift. How much do you love Jessica Rust Designs? She does little drawings on ceramic plates, mugs, and bowls, and each piece is customized. When I bought this set... ...for our friends' wedding in June (you customize the plate to have their initials carved into the tree- how great is that?), I wrote an email to Jessica telling her that I hoped we got a set of her dishes for our wedding. Then, in July, a package came for us from one of my friends from school and her husband. When we opened it, there was this set...
...customized for us! My friend had ordered it without even knowing that I had been coveting anything Jessica Rust for our wedding. The whole thing confirmed for me the following: a) it really is great to have friends whose tastes are almost unsettlingly close to yours, and b) coffee really does taste better out of a mug with your and your new husband's names on it.
Ms. Rust came out with a limited edition bowl, about which she sent around a little email today. I love the brown on the white porcelain, the contrast of the hand-drawn feel with the sleek lines of the dishes, and the fact that these sets are classic wedding gifts that are neither stuffy nor impersonal. Just gorgeous.

Photo Booths

It may have to do with being raised by a super-artistic lady and a guy who will take any opportunity to make a funny face, but I love photobooth photos. I'm a sucker for photos in general, really. So when we were asked to come up with a list of what we wanted for our wedding, (seeing as how we live in an apartment the size of a suburban closet) we replied that we wanted photos. Namely, we wanted a photo booth for our wedding reception. Some people thought it was a great idea; others, not so much. Thanks to the persuasive nature of my now-cousin Emily, instead of lots of toaster ovens, we had a photo booth at our reception. As much as I love everything else that we received (some of the items I'll be writing about later), these photos are what I will save first when my house burns down. Here is a small sample of pictures from that night. I love that when there is not a photographer present, the dynamic of the people in the photo booth is completely unadulterated. Some of my most treasured pictures from the photo booth are of my aunties with my cousins' kids, but seeing as how they are kids, I want to get permission from parents first before I go posting pictures of their children on the internet. The pictures of the adults are great, too.
This is me and my little (though much taller than me) cousin/bridesmaid Molly (toward the end of the evening when people had changed into more comfy clothes). Molly and I became really close about 7 years ago- she is such an incredible person. She's in her early 20's, but is more centered than many people my age. She's a great kid, and I feel lucky to be related to her.
This is me and my parents. I think you can tell from this picture that I grew up in a really silly household. If someone were to ask about our family dynamic, I would show them this picture:
Jordy and his sister. They are both incredibly witty, though their similarities kind of end there. This series has themes for each picture. I'm not sure what the top 2 are, but the bottom 2 are "roller coaster going up" and "roller coaster going down":
And Speck and Coop (who were both groomsmen/women), Jordy's friends from high school:
Finally, me and my husband (the cardboard cutout of Jordy is a great story and one that I may share later- suffice it to say that Jordy's friends are hilarious):
If you are throwing a wedding, I highly recommend arranging for some kind of setup where people can take pictures of themselves. This can be through a photo booth rental (if you pick a digital one like I did, you avoid using environmentally yucky chemicals, and you get digital files of all of the photos), or by setting up an area with a backdrop of some kind where people can set a timer on a digital camera on a tripod. Of course, I can't find the example in Martha Stewart Weddings that I am thinking of... just think fun fabrics, a tripod, and some very happy guests.

Little Doodles

Kate Wilson, who writes the Little Doodles blog, has an Etsy shop where she's selling these prints. If I were this talented, I would just take a sharpie to my walls, because I'd never be able to part with my work. Check these birds that are on sale now.
These dogs are from her online portfolio. In case you can't read the print, it says "glasses are the epitome of doggy chic." I love it.

Red Start Design

There's an absolutely delicious magazine to which I'm afraid I am on the verge of becoming addicted. It's called Metropolis, and it's an architecture/culture/design magazine chock-full of stuff that would boost your cool-quotient by a million. Anyhow. Featured in this month's magazine is a little company called Red Start Design that makes this great ring:
How awesome is this? It's a level! Says the website, "The skewed curves of the piece contrast with the concept of balance. The two edges of the ring meet at a right angle, yet as a whole the ring appears anything but angular." I love it.
They also developed a necklace (with some engineering students at Stanford) that changes subtly with different noise or light levels. It, too, is gorgeous- made out of sterling and sapphires.
And, just in case you aren't in the mood to dork out (but why would you not be?), they also make regular old jewelry.

Sara Cihat

I found Sara Cihat on Craft magazine's blog. She takes old dishware that she finds at thrift shops and gives the pieces new life by reglazing them and refiring them. The result is a funky, fun set of different patterns in bold colors and motifs, with no 2 single items being exactly the same. I think that there's something so fun about having a set of dishware that doesn't match exactly (which is why we ordered different patterns of the china that we picked). You pretty much can't throw a stuffy dinner party if your china doesn't match. And having an astronaut on your plates is pretty much a hand-delivered letter pressed invitation for your dinner guests to dance on the table and swing from the chandeliers. I can't decide if I like the anchor the best or the astronaut.
I also love that her pieces give new life to old pieces- this is the height of sustainable design. Seeing as how fashion and design are so cyclical, it makes perfect sense that you can highlight the great parts of a piece (in this case, the lines of the china), and add an element that makes it modern (the big motifs) while still keeping the item's character. By doing this, you also save that item from ending up in a landfill, and you also consume an item that does not have to be manufactured instead of one that does (I hope that last part makes sense). It reminds me of the piece in Blueprint this month about giving new life to flea market finds. My favorite was a set of re-painted frames in different shades of green (shown below): the lines of the frames are classic and hip, and painting them green adds an element that makes the frames look very modern and fresh. Maybe I'll schedule a trip to the Chelsea flea market next weekend- I'm envisioning a project involving a stencil, a can of spray paint, and a vintage briefcase...

Tord Boontje

Tord Boontje has been one of my favorite artists/designers for a while now. I love the clean lines combined with the whimsical floral and nature-inspired patterns. Natural, modern, a little industrial, all beautiful. We received his "table stories" china (and garland lights which I have not yet hung) for our wedding, and it makes me happy every time I go to have a bowl of cereal. Be on the lookout for a post about the table that we made that mimics one of his.