Becca & Brent's White Fiesta Wedding Invites

Designing wedding invitations with MYSELF as a client was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. I've designed so many invites via Orange Paper Shoppe this past year, but sitting down to make invites for my OWN wedding was very challenging, I'm a tough customer. I always wanted to letterpress my invitations, but Brent convinced me that they would be just as good if I made & printed them myself. Once he convinced me, I got to work hand-lettering the main invite and rsvp card. 

I made mini postcards using a few of my favorites from my vintage postcard collection. On the back of these I printed all of our wedding info for our guests (hotel accommodations, registry info. etc.), which fit into these mini white envelopes. 

We had an all-white, fiesta themed wedding in Old Town San Diego,  so I stuck with a lighter white on white color palette and used these AMAZING vintage cactus stamps (found here on Etsy) and vintage cactus postcards to bring that fiesta flair. 

My favorite part of these invites were the Hola bags I hired my super talented friends at Hecho Por Sego to illustrate and screen print for me. These little bags secured the rsvp cards and mini envelopes with all the wedding info, and I tied them all together with metallic and white twine.

They were a ton of work, but in the end I was really happy with how they turned out and think they did a great job setting the tone for our wedding. I'll be sharing more pictures from the big day soon!

Photos by Kristina Lee Photography

The Brent Proposal

Hello loyal blog readers! Sorry I've neglected this blog for MONTHS, hopefully you all haven't given up on me and reading my blog. So much has happened in the last few months of my life, I finally have a moment to breathe and get caught up on my life + inspiration. We'll start by catching up with THIS - THE PROPOSAL! After 9 years of dating Brent proposed to me on the beach in Long Beach with this amazing Eiffel Tower ring he had made for me. BEST ENGAGEMENT RING EVER! We are moving to France in a few weeks, hence the Eiffel Tower. It was so cute and romantic, and even though it stuck out a bit, I rocked it until we got our real rings made. Everywhere I went, almost every day someone made a comment about how dangerous it was - well, you are all lucky I didn't punch you in the face with it. Brent tricked me into going down to the beach by telling me he had to collect straws off the beach for a presentation at work. He said similar to how Billabong makes boardshorts out of recycled water bottles, Quiksilver was going to start making boardshorts out of plastic straws from the beach, and they were going to give a presentation about it, so he needed to collect some to take photos for the presentation. Of course I never turn down an opportunity to go beach combing (beach combing HOARDER!), so I agreed to go, not thinking anything of it, picking up every dirty plastic straw in the sand all along the bay, all the way to the beach. GROSS! AND NO, Quiksilver is NOT actually making boardshorts out of straws, but there are SO MANY straws on the beach that I completely believed him. (Maybe someone SHOULD think about making something out of recycled beach straws?) Anyway - once we had gathered about 50 dirty straws he asked me to help him photograph them in the sand… so as I started styling straws in the sand, he got down on one knee and surprised me. I don't really remember much of what either of us said (I feel like this happens to a lot of people), but I remember being really happy and excited and surprised (obviously surprised, because if I had been suspicious at all I would NOT have worn workout clothes with my Patagonia vest - why didn't I even think to put on a cuter sweater and hat for this?! Haha oh well). He was also clever enough to have asked our amazing photographer friend Kristina of Kristina Lee Photography to photograph it all - she was hiding in the lifeguard tower on the beach snapping all these awesome photos. Thanks for the great pictures Kristina! We went back to our house after where more friends were waiting with champagne and it couldn't have been more PERFECT. That's my story.

Life Lately

Life has been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to catch up about any of it on my blog! But being too busy has been a good problem to have, a 'first world problem' as Brent keeps telling me. Do I have time to run AND surf, handle all my freelance clients, work on my new business AND enjoy the weekends? It's all been great, so I can't complain. I've been really productive with my new paper shop, freelance projects, and still trying to get in lots of early morning and evening runs on the beach before it's pitch black at 4pm (until 7am, ugh). Bike rides and cocktails and time with Brent, trips to San Diego for birthdays, baby showers, and surfing. Conclusion : I'm pretty good at being my own boss, and life is really really good!

Northwest Vacation

I've spent the last 10 days up in Washington, enjoying some vacation time with family, exploring the beautiful Northwest. It started with a weekend in downtown Seattle for my cousin Kevin and his wife Shannon's wedding, followed by a Kudela family day in Everett, a day on the water in Indianola with Aunt Marcia and Uncle Mike, and a week in Tacoma with my sister and her family. I've gone on lots of runs down tree-lined streets, watched the rain from the porch, eaten delicious seafood, drank good coffee, read some books, went antiquing, had several beach-combing adventures finding sea glass, sand dollars and striped rocks, and spent days playing with my little nephew Max. It's been so relaxing, and good to get out of my normal element for a bit - I am leaving feeling very refreshed and inspired.

Max's First Birthday Fiesta

A few months ago I posted about these invites I made for my nephew Max's first birthday - even though I'm now a few months late, I wanted to share pictures from the actual party. My sister Hanna did the best job making decorations for the party! She made these adorable mini piñatas that we filled with Mexican candy, tissue paper pinwheels, tissue paper flowers for everyone's hair, and the cutest cactus cupcakes and piñata cookies. I helped with some garlands, the donkey cupcake flags and straw tags. Everything came together so well, it was the perfect first birthday fiesta. Now stop growing so fast little Max!

Andrea & Scott's Wedding Invitations

I just finished making 100 of these wedding invitations for my friends Andrea and Scott. I lined the envelopes with a metallic, handmade paper, hand ripped the edges of all the invite pieces, and tied everything together with a metallic hemp - simple, classic, natural, and hand-crafted were all great choices, these came out beautiful. Congrats Andrea & Scott - can't wait to celebrate the big day with you!

a summer wave

Found this shot while digging through some old files today - a summer wave in Laguna I snapped a few years ago. I need more clear, blue, summer waves in my life, and definitely more Laguna time.

Brent shreds Las Gaviotas

 A short clip of Brent getting a fun ride, captured on our friend Cris' GoPro, at Las Gaviotas back in July.

5'10'' Squid Lid Quad

Brent got me the most amazing birthday present this year - my first ever custom surfboard that is the perfect size and shape for me -  a 5'10'' Squid Lid Quad shaped by my friend Blake Sinclair.  I got to pick the colors and design the scalloped edge - it came out perfect, and is such a fun shape for these summer waves!

(Top two photos by me, bottom two board photos shot by Blake)

Adios Bitchachos!

I did this little illustration for a goodbye card I made for my friends and Quik/Roxy. Adios Bitchachos!