Welcome to Fall everyone! Around here, the air is definitely cooling down. To celebrate, we’ve launched four new design templates for our wedding websites and email wedding invitations. You can find them all in our Design Boutique. We hope these help make your wedding planning easier and fun!
As with all of our templates, you are welcome to customize font type, colors and images to make the design your own.
I can’t even explain how privileged I feel to introduce our next Real Glöbie couple, who were among the first gay couples to be married at City Hall in New York City on July 24, 2011.
(photos from New York Wedding Day by Liesl Henrichsen from PhotoPink. Photos from “Celebration of Love” party by Jerry Zalez Photography other photos captured by various media outlets to celebrate first day of Gay Marriage in NYC. hooray!)
Photo by: Lauren Colchamiro/Metro
The Glö-Couple (tell us a fun fact about each of you):
Gisela, Studio Manger (I am a Certified Good Time) &
Alena, Executive Assistant (Makes the World’s Best Mac N Cheese)
Celebration Date & Location:
NYC Wedding Ceremony: 7/24/2011
Wedding Celebration: 10/08/2011
Art House Productions
Jersey City, NJ USA
Tell us how you got engaged:
In April of 2010 while in Miami (we love Miami) I made a custom scratch off card for Alena with the question: Will you Marry Me? Alena started laughing…I was like I am serious! She said yes…we partied like rock stars!
What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
We wanted an intimate Celebration of Love – that was catered to us. We were not concerned with having the fanciest venue and dresses – but more concerned with how we could be creative and FUN.
Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
Alena and I baked 150 cupcakes the night before our party, had a stepNrepeat backdrop made, custom m&ms, pens, a slideshow and even a specialty drink menu. We designed a “Celebration of Love: logo and it was EVERYWHERE!
What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design? If you made them yourself, tell us how you did it.
Nothing to fancy. We wanted it to be sweet and informative – with a tease for what our guests could expect the night of the party. I used photos from the day of our ceremony in New York, combined that with some cool text and VOILA!
Now show us your Glövites and Glösite
Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
When you are planning your party remember that you will never be able to please everyone. There will be people that can’t make it on a specific date. The party is about YOU. And you don’t need to go broke to prove to everyone that you are in love.
What’s the biggest “say what?” moment or funny story that’s happened since you started planning?
About an hour before our party Alena had a true bridezilla moment about us not being ready…she went to run up the stairs and tumbled UP the staircase! Luckily she didn’t break her neck.
Care to share some of your vendors?
Photo Pink – for being there the day we got married. Jerry Zalez – took pictures day of our party. 9th and Coles Tavern – the local bar that also provided back up for liquor consumption :)
This couple needs little to no intro to set the tone for what their celebration is all about. Fun, fun and pretty much more fun. I’ve been waiting and waiting to have the chance to introduce you all to these great ladies – enjoy getting to know Liz and Cristina!
The Glö-Couple:
Liz, an attorney and
Cristina, a pastry chef
These gals blog! Check out Liz’s blog Bunny Loves Bacon and Cristina’s blog Cervezecal
Celebration Date & Location:
September 2011
Ceremony: Coral Gables Congregational Church,
Reception: Cristina’s parents’ house
Coral Gables, Florida USA
Tell us how you got engaged:
Cristina says: Liz had been drinking, and as I was putting her to bed she looked up sleepily and said “will you marry me?” And I said yes. And the next morning we confirmed that it was all true.
What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
The overall feeling is “family gathering with bacon.” We didn’t want anything too formal and we want people to have plenty of good food and drinks, feel comfortable, and have fun spending time with each other. For us, this means not worrying about or including chair covers, favors, or the color of cocktail napkins. :)
Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
Instead of just having a day or a weekend celebration, we are having months of celebration! We’ve invited people to join us for events leading up to and after the wedding (like a book convention, a day at the spa with us, and a trip to New York to see Lord of the Rings!). We really wanted to include people in our lives for in more than just one day. Editor’s note: these ladies are way to modest – they are planning an entire epic celebration full of a bajillion fun events for those who are free to join. I’ve already started lobbying for my own invitation….See their entire range of events below!
What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design?
Honestly, we just picked the design because we liked it. I like the color yellow and it was a good backdrop for the tons of text that we have.
Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!
This has got to be my absolute favorite page…
Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
Cristina says: Figure out what is really important to you and stick to it. Don’t worry about all the stuff that people or wedding magazines say you “have” to have (favors, flowers, a clown, etc.), and don’t get distracted. For us, our non-negotiables were having the ceremony at our church, having good food, and being able to invite everyone we care about (since Cristina has a huge family, that means a huge guest list).
Liz says: Also, avoid wedding blogs and magazines. They can send you into a spiral of “I want my wedding to look like this and it will never be good enough waaaaaaaaah.” Not fun. I only read two wedding blogs: Offbeat Bride and A Practical Wedding. Keep talking to each other! Wedding planning can bring up emotions around lots of things that you might not have been expecting. It’s OK to realize that you care about things that you didn’t think you would (for me, it was the dress). And it’s OK to realize you *really* couldn’t care less about some things (like decorations). We made our guest list over several months – this gave us time to make sure we weren’t leaving anyone out. We started by making an excel sheet listing people. When we switched to Glo, we inputted all of the people on the list.
Liz says: Glo has been the single biggest organizational help. I was going crazy with my multiple excel sheets for multiple events. Once I inputted the guests into Glo, I could manipulate them much easier. We just sent out our email save the dates, and I would say this: if people don’t view the invitation through their email, send the link to them on Facebook! I sent out 15 messages and within a few hours everyone had viewed it.
super-great tip there about facebook!
What’s the biggest “say what?” moment or funny story that’s happened since you started planning?
Apparently, bridal stores are unable to comprehend that anyone *wouldn’t* want a train on her dress. We were at a certain well-known wedding dress factory trying on dresses and this is how it went:
Liz: Can the train on this dress be cut of?
Saleswoman: Not really. You’ll want it for the pictures, and then you can just bustle it.
Liz: But I don’t want a train.
Saleswoman: It looks nice in pictures.
Liz’s head explodes.
And because no one can resist the cuteness of kitties – here is ONE of Liz and Cristina’s four black cats
So tell us…If you attended Liz and Cristina’s festivities – what would YOU wear to outshine the brides??
OMG – who doesn’t want to get married in Bali? And who doesn’t want to have a Scottish-Singaporean wedding? Plus, these two are keeping the ceremony and reception location a surprise for their guests – Uber-fun! This celebration has all the necessary ingredients (not to mention a fabulously sweet bride.) Diann and Andrew sent paper invitations that guided guests to their Glösite for more information and to RSVP. Read more below….
The Glö-Couple:
Diann, a budding entrepreneur and
Andrew, an engineer
Celebration Date & Location:
May 2011
A secret location (um, how majorly fun is that?!?)
Bali, Indonesia
Tell us how you got engaged:
We made a trip to Bali over a long weekend in February 2010. Andrew and I love to travel and we try to do so every opportunity we can. Well I thought it was going to be a quiet relaxing weekend but on Day 2 of our trip, which just so coincidentally happened to be Valentine’s Day, we were having breakfast out by the pool in our villa when Andrew said he had to go back in to our room to get something. I thought nothing of it and continued eating my breakfast and before I knew it, he was by my side, on one knee, asking me to marry him. I love that he totally caught me by surprise! Later that day, I asked him why he decided to propose over breakfast instead of dinner and he said something I’ll never forget….”I wanted to have a whole day enjoying our engagement together”. And true to that, we had the most memorable day together. The phone calls and text messages we got made us feel so loved. We were amazed at how many people expressed their joy about our engagement. Thanks to our parents and some friends, word spread pretty fast! :)
What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
We chose Bali since it’s so (obviously!) special to us. Even before we got engaged there, it’s always been a magical place that makes us feel so relaxed and at peace. The venue we’ve selected is a beautiful villa on a cliff overlooking the ocean. We chose it as it resounds with the “feeling” we’re going for – intimate and memorable. We are keeping the guest list very small….only our closest family and friends to share with us on this special day and we want them all to have an unforgettable time. Being a destination wedding, we thought it would be nice to have a few days of celebration since everyone’s making such a huge effort to travel and be with us. So we’ve organised a cocktail party at a gorgeous restaurant on Thursday, followed by our wedding ceremony & reception on Saturday and a casual poolside lunch on Sunday. We really just want everyone to have a great time celebrating with us and enjoying themselves. Noting too fancy, just lots of food, drink, music and dancing!
Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
Aunt Montel’s Sugee Cake from: Cherry on a Cake Blog
Quite a few actually! For music, we’ve got a good friend, who’s a musician in Singapore, to perform at our wedding. You can’t beat live music! He’s so talented and we’re thrilled he’ll be singing at our wedding. Since Andrew and I have different cultural backgrounds, we thought it would be nice to incorporate a little of both. Besides the Scottish lads wearing kilts, we’re serving single malt Scottish whisky and incorporating some tartan for our wedding favours. We’ll also have ceilidh dancing (Scottish folk dancing) a must-have at any Scottish wedding! Our wedding cake, made from semolina and almonds, is called Sugee Cake. It’s a traditional cake made by Eurasians (my Mum’s heritage) full of buttery goodness….very scrumptious! We’re also having a very dear friend as our celebrant during the ceremony. He’s so sweetly agreed to marry us and we couldn’t be more thrilled. His wife is my maid-of-honour and their son is my ring bearer!
What was the inspiration for your Glövite and Glösite design?
We initially decided to do a website as an easy way to communicate the many events we’re having. We did consider putting an insert into our paper invitation but it seemed too cluttered. So having a Glösite just made sense, especially for RSVPs. It’s made everything so simple for me! From the initial idea of using it for RSVPs, it’s grown to be quite informative, providing details about Bali such as flights, accommodation, restaurants, and attractions. All important info for a destination wedding! We chose a simple design from the templates available and so far, we’ve got lots of compliments from everyone about how great the site is!
Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!
These are Diann and Andrew’s Paper invitations:
and here is their Glösite:
Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
Time really does fly so try to be as organised as possible! It can be difficult but the best thing I’ve found is to keep notes somewhere….be it an actual notebook, an app on your iPhone or an Excel sheet. It just helps to pen down thoughts as they just seem to come randomly and sometimes they can be the best ideas you don’t want to forget!
Do you know that you can use most twitter background with your Glösite? There are tons of free twitter background available on the web – giving endless Glösite design possibilities. Love that!
Here’s an adorable example I found on Free Twitter Skins – this one is called Winged Messenger. I uploaded the twitter design as the Glösite “background image” – anchored left. And then chose an existing Glö design for the “page design.” I think it’s a perfect match! Are ya diggin’ it?
Meet Elizabeth and Scott. They’re getting married in the beautiful state of Colorado (my new home!), so I am pretty thrilled about that. And Elizabeth spends lots of time looking through a lens at the wedding world, so I just know that there will be lots of lovely details included in their celebration.
The Glö-Couple:
Elizabeth, a wedding and portrait photographer &
Scott, a commercial loan underwriter
Celebration Date & Location:
January 2011
Colorado Springs, CO USA
La Foret Conference and Event Center
Tell us how you got engaged:
We were sitting on our back deck, enjoying the warm summer night and a good glass of bourbon, talking about whether or not we should get married, and Scott pulled out the ring and got down on both knees and asked me to be his wife. It is a simple story, but one of the many memories that will make moving to a new home harder in the future.
What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
It really is a celebration of our friends and family, and thanking them for the support they have given us in our love. So, we really do just want to show everyone a rockin’ good time. Also, as a wedding photographer, I’ve been to well over 100 weddings, and I’ve seen the things that just don’t matter to me, so we’re really trying to focus the bulk of our funds on the things that are important to us and what we feel will encourage people to have a good time (i.e. good food, good wine and beer, and a killer dance party,) my biggest disappointment would be if people went home and actually remembered what my center pieces looked like.
I love that last line!
Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
We are staying pretty traditional. But instead of having just my Dad give my hand in marriage, we will be have both sets of our parents joining our hands together in marriage. I guess our gift registry is pretty not traditional, as the main things we want are romance and wine.
This pair has done something super cool and registered for a wine list! Why didn’t I think of that?!? Here’s what they write to their guests:
Scott and Elizabeth have become enveloped in the world of wine. Between the two of us we have traveled on 6 wine tours in various regions and participated in hundreds of wine tastings, experiencing some of the most amazing wines in the world. However, the world of wine is wide-ranging and can drain the wallet most expeditiously. There are a few bottles we have wanted to purchase and would greatly appreciate the opportunity to. We have created a small registry with one of the most experienced wine stores in Denver that we have come to personally love.
What was the inspiration for your Glövite Save-the-Dates and Glösite design?
I think it started with “our song” which is “You and Me” by Dave Matthews. There is a lyric in the song that goes “and when the kids are old enough we’re gonna teach them to fly,” and I just love the thought of that. But, then I thought, “well, maybe we should learn to fly ourselves first.” So, the entire wedding took on this whole “love taking flight” theme, and what better way to represent that then birds. We did send out printed Save The Dates, which had two bird at either side of a maze (which had meaning but was also a fun activity,) the site and ‘vites are 2 birds chilling on a branch together, and then I am hoping to incorporate more of a birds in flight theme for the day of…but that is still a work in progress.
Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!
If you created your own design – how did you do it?
I made it in Adobe Photoshop. It’s a combination of my photo’s and designs I found online, as I am not much of a free style designer. Scott really wanted to be a Robin, so I made his bird red, I’m not really sure why my bird ended up purple.
What’s the craziest/funniest/biggest ‘SAY WHAT?” moment you’ve had while planning?
It’s not very funny, but the moment I realized it just wasn’t important to me to have everything from the day captured in beautifully lit photograph’s taken by a very professional and very expensive photographer. Not that I don’t have a very talented photographer, its just that it was like #10 on my list.
Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
I still have 4 months to go, but I would say, just go with the flow, problems will happen, but there is no point in stressing yourself out and getting cranky with the person you love. It is just a single day, that signals the rest of your lives together. Nobody likes a bridezilla, not even your husband.
I am pretty excited to introduce Shanelle and Mike to you all. Not only are they getting married on my birthday next year (yay!) but they are actually putting pie front and center in their celebration. PIE! How cool is that?!?
The Glö-Couple:
Shanelle, an Operations Assistant &
Mike, a Marketing Manager
Celebration Date & Location:
August 2011
Camano Island, WA;
Camano Island State Park
Tell us how you got engaged:
I actually proposed to Mike! (You go girl!) We went to his folks vacation home (which he loves) near the Canal to escape a busy period in our lives. I was a nervous wreck, so I basically blurted out a speech about loving him and wanting to marry him and then asked him if he would be engaged to me. I even gave him a watch. He said “of course” right away and then got on his knees and said sweet things. We cried and kissed and laughed and then did a shot of tequila! It was perfect.
What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:
Mike and I are pretty laid back, but love to throw rad parties, so our wedding will reflect our interests while still showing everyone a good time. The main idea is to incorporate things we love (camping, hanging out, mason jars) but still make sure others are comfortable and happy. Figuring that out right away has really helped us stay on track. We haven’t stressed about much because everything we are planning is such a reflection of us and sounds like so much fun; it is making us so excited for the big day. My favorite example is the food; Mike and I like to grill, so our caterer is a local street food vendor that makes gourmet burgers and fries. So stoked!
Here’s some of the inspiration Shanelle has collected so far
Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:
I mentioned some above (burgers and fries), but we are also omitting the traditional cake and doing pie instead. We both LOVE pie, so it just made sense. One of our best friends wil be our officiant and I have a guy on my side of the wedding party. We have to leave the main wedding site before dusk, so we will all go back to our group camping site and make s’mores and laugh. Our rehearsal dinner will be a super chill bbq on the beach. Oh! We are also walking down the isle to a Prince song (I Would Die 4 You) since we both love him. Haha!
What was the inspiration for your Glövite Save-the-Dates and Glösite design?
A friend designed our Save the Dates based on a design we had seen online; she is amazing! We just wanted everything to be clear, simple, and reflect who we are and what type of wedding we are having.
Now show us your Glövites and Glösite!
What’s the craziest/funniest/biggest ‘SAY WHAT?” moment you’ve had while planning?
I tried on a silly, frilly dress for my future mother in law and I got stuck in it! It was too funny and surreal to be embarrassing. Haha!
Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just starting to plan?
Have an an honest conversation with your future spouse about expectations, ideas, traditions (wanted and unwanted) and budget ASAP. Once that is all hashed out, have fun and remember to breathe! Mike and I did a lot of the big planning within a couple of months after getting engaged and that was nice, but it has also taken some of the excitement away for the moment because we now have a while until the wedding and the little stuff can wait. I use a great blog called Offbeatbride that helps keep me calm because you can discuss wedding plans with other lucky ladies. I also suggest using a notebook to keep ideas, swatches, contracts, etc. in. Most importantly, don’t take it too seriously! It’s only one day and you already know how it will end.
So I’m always hunting around the web for different DIY design options. The other day, I happened across a fabulous resource from One Heart Weddings, which offers downloadable DIY designs. Their designs are super compatible to upload as Glövites, and you can print the designs at home if you need some extra paper invites for the older relatives. Plus, there are matching templates for Wedding Programs, Menus and Thank You cards. (as an added bonus, the first 2 downloads are free. yippee!)
I also love that there is a “backgrounds and accents” category with icons and images that are perfect for making Glösite designs.
One Heart Spiraling Flourish Invitation and Accent
To use a OneHeart Wedding invitation design as a Glövite, take the following steps:
1) Choose any OneHeart invitation design (I recommend using a portrait sized design) and clicked “personalize online”
2) Edit the text and click “download PDF”
3) To upload into Glö, you’ll need to crop the design and save it as a ,jpg, .gif or png format.
You can either crop the PDF version and then save it as a JPG using a program like paint (PC), paintbrush (mac) or Adobe Photoshop.
OR
You can take a screenshot of the finished design and save it as the correct file type
(Note: Glövite designs work best with the dimensions w: 431 x h: 531 pixels, but the horizontal designs from OneHeart are pretty spot on.)
4) Then, log onto your glosite.com account and go to “Manage Glövite” > edit/create a Glövite and upload the design
To make a matching Glösite design, you can download one of our DIY templates and use a coordinated OneHeart Wedding Accent to make something fabulous.
One Heart ‘True Love’ Invitation and Accent designs
