Work is slow in the Summer so I decided to host a picnic party for the family one Sunday. It wasn’t perfect, but we had fun.
Invitation
Click here to download invitation template
We visited a few parks and settled with Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The park was huge, but beautiful. The park had a lot of trees spread out making it great for picnics and/or barbecues especially on sunny days.
Click here for a printable map
We went to the park the weekend before the picnic to find a good spot and figure out how soon we need to get there to reserve it. We found the perfect spot with a view of the lake, and close to the parking lot and bathroom. We got there around 11:30am and luckily the spot was available!
We have set up a “Pack-Your-Own” picnic where guests get a basket each, fill their baskets with food, find a spot on the grass and enjoy their lunch. I have created a welcome poster describing the concept.
Click here to download poster template.
Poster is 15″ x 21″ and can be printed on 4 letter-size paper.
When printing, check the option to tile large pages.
I covered the table with red and white gingham tablecloth
. I bought baskets from Paper Mart for guests to use. I lined the baskets with red and white gingham fabric that I bought at the garment district in NYC. I decided to use wooden forks
and knives
(I love them!) and tied them to Tekla dish towels from Ikea that I was using as napkins.
We served salad in white take-out containers from Paper Mart. We left the containers open so guests can add dressing, there were two to choose from. I printed 2×4 labels
for sealing the salad containers. My mom cooked Sotanghon (Filipino noodle dish) and we served it in kraft take-out containers, sealed with 2×4 labels. Click here for template for the 2×4 labels.
I couldn’t find generic foil-lined bags that are not labeled, so I bought foil lined hot dog bags instead for the pork shish kabobs (pork bbq). I then printed labels to cover the “hot dog” text. I used the kraft take-out containers for the burgers. I ordered wood boats for the corn and bratwurst.
Here are photos of my cousins’ baskets filled with food.
After eating, we played Pictionary. I bought the Mala easel from Ikea together with the Mala drawing paper roll. We used The Game Gal’s word generator to generate words to draw and we used our phones as timer. It was a lot of fun.
I chose this spot in the park because of a small tree that I thought would be perfect for a “photo booth” I was thinking. And here was our set-up and one of our photos:
A few tips:
- Visit the park ahead of time and figure out the best time to get there to reserve the spot you like. Summer is a very popular season for picnics.
- Serve food that can be served lukewarm. This is one disadvantage of hosting a picnic in a park instead of your backyard.
- If you can, pack the food in their individual containers at home. It is less stressful when you have the food all ready to be set up on the table when you get to the park.
- Be prepared for guests to bring food. The original plan was to have all food in containers that can be sealed. But bring plates and extra flatware for food that guests may bring.
- Have a rain plan.
50% off wedding monograms
In honor of Martin Luther King day, we’re offering 50% off monogram orders with promo code MLK1150. That’s $1.25 per monogram on orders of 2 or more! So hurry, order now! This offer is only valid on Martin Luther King day and ends 1/17/11 11:59pm EST.
The Aylee Bits monogram collection boasts of more than 470 designs you can choose from! And there are more designs in the works so stay tuned! Click here to order.
Enter MLK1150 under Promotion Code when you place your order to get 50% off. Please read the promotion terms and restrictions below.
Click here to order.
* The Martin Luther King day promotion is only valid January 17, 2011. All orders must be submitted by January 17, 2011 11:59pm EST. The promotion applies to pre-designed monograms only, and does not apply to previous purchases or custom orders. The Martin Luther King day promotion cannot be combined with other promotions, so the buy 4, get 1 free daily deal will not apply. All designs highlighted in green are not available for this promotion.
50% off wedding monogram orders!
Get 50% off your monogram order with promo code BLCKFRI50. That’s $1.25 per monogram on orders of 2 or more! So hurry, order now! This offer is only valid on Black Friday and ends 11/26 11:59pm EST.
The Aylee Bits monogram collection boasts of more than 470 designs you can choose from! And there are more designs in the works so stay tuned! Click here to order.
Enter BLCKFRI50 under Promotion Code when you place your order to get 50% off. Please read the promotion terms and restrictions below.
Click here to order.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
* The BLACK FRIDAY promotion is only valid November 26, 2010. All orders must be submitted by November 26, 2010 11:59pm EST. The promotion applies to pre-designed monograms only, and does not apply to previous purchases or custom orders. The BLACK FRIDAY promotion cannot be combined with other promotions, so the buy 4, get 1 free daily deal will not apply. All designs highlighted in green are not available for this promotion.
Buy 1 monogram, get 1 free – plus new designs
The Aylee Bits monogram collection boasts of more than 470 designs you can choose from! And there are more designs in the works so stay tuned! Click here to order.
For today and tomorrow only, you buy one monogram for $3 and you get one free. Just enter SUMMEREND under Promotion Code when you place your order. Please read the promotion terms and restrictions below.
Click here to order.
* The BOGO SUMMEREND promotion starts August 25, 2010 11:00am EST and ends August 26, 2010 11:59pm EST. The promotion applies to pre-designed monograms only, and does not apply to previous purchases or custom orders. Must buy 1 monogram for $3 to get a free monogram. Regular price (2 for $5) does not apply. The BOGO SUMMEREND promotion cannot be combined with other promotions, so the buy 4, get 1 free daily deal will not apply. All designs highlighted in green are not available for this promotion.
Free Flash-based website from Wix.com
Do you like the Flash sites you see online and want one of your own, but don’t know how to use Flash? Well, now you can for free at Wix.com. I’m not a big fan of Flash websites as a lot of them are not universally accessible. But you can do a lot of cool things (e.g. animations).
Now that our wedding is done, I decided to update our wedding website to contain mostly photos. So I tried out Wix. Here are screenshots of the site I created.
The Wix site editor was pretty easy to use if you’re starting from a template and you need to do basic editing. Some actions that you need to do may not be easy to figure out sometimes. The page manager is the part that I hate the most. It’s hard to get to and hard to understand. The editor also doesn’t have a media manager. There’s no way to organize photos (for example) and if you need to use them again, you’ll have to scroll through a lot of pages if you have a lot of photos.
Ruth & Brian
One of my monogram clients, Ruth and Brian got married in beautiful Honolulu Hawaii. It just gives you this warm feeling to see your work, no matter how small, be a part of someone’s special day. Photos were taken by Chrissy Lambert.
You can see more of their wedding at Chrissy’s blog.
To order monograms, click here.
DIY: Newport wedding map and template
All of our guests including us are from out of town. So in the guest welcome bags, we decided to include a map of key places including room blocks and where we’re staying. The rehearsal dinner location will only be included on maps for those who are invited to the rehearsal dinner.
Our wedding map
As we get closer to the wedding, I will be adding places/sites to see in Newport. If you have any suggestions of nice places/sites to see, please leave a comment.
Now, on to the template…
Template
The Newport map template measures 8.5″ x 11″ and can be reduced. It is in PDF format and can be used with image/graphic editors such as Photoshop and Illustrator. The basic template (see image below) is $10. To purchase, click Buy Now below.
Basic Newport Map template (no additional streets):
Click image to enlarge
For additional streets or customized map, please contact me. Click here for instructions on how to create your own map.
The template in Word (doc) format will be available soon. But note that it won’t be as crisp as the PDF above. Stay tuned…
Pre-designed Program Fan Template
A pre-designed program fan template is now available! The template is based on Alessandra’s program fans that I created.
The template is currently in black ($10). To get the design color customized, purchase the custom-color template ($15). Choose your colors from this color chart and enter the 6-character color code when you pay through Paypal. Click here to purchase.
Announcement re: Monogram orders
I just found out that my monogram order form wasn’t working since April 27. If you have submitted an order, please resubmit by filling out the order form at http://ayleedesigns.gnyc.net/front.html?req-monograms.htm. I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
