Unique wedding design idea: tailor-made swizzle sticks

Last fall, I shared a sneak peek with you of an exclusive new design item that I’ve recently developed: tailor-made illustrated drink stirs. Couture wedding photographer Andrea from AndreaAndMarcus.com offered her talent and created a lovely styled shoot with the swizzle sticks I had made for her. I’m super excited that the beautiful vintage-inspired wedding blog Love My Dress from the UK just featured lots of eye candy from the photo shoot!

Enjoy a few sneak peeks from the Love My Dress blog feature:

unique event design element and conversation starter: tailor-made illustrated drink stirs

special design accent for the cocktail bar: a matching display and keepsake item

I think these drink stirs are a lovely and very personalized design element for engagement parties, bridal showers, the bridal cocktail bar, or even the reception. A great conversation starter and guest favor too!

Since I’ve first written about them, I’ve received a lot of inquiries. A bride I recently designed for had also spotted them, fell in love, and commissioned me to design swizzle sticks for her own wedding. She got married in beautiful Venice, Italy (how romantic!!!), and celebrated in the magnificent Ca’Sagredo Hotel right on the Canale Grande. I just saw the photos from AndreaAndMarcus.com yesterday (still top secret), they are G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. and will be featured on Style Me Pretty shortly. I can’t wait! Stay tuned, I’ll share glimpses here when they’re online!

To see more photos and inspiration from this lovely shoot, visit The Lovely Dress Blog. For further unique wedding ideas or if you’re interested in couture swizzle-sticks for yourself, visit AstridMuellerExclusive.com or email me – Looking forward to hearing from you!

How would you incorporate the drink stirs into your own festivities?

PS: If you’re a wedding designer or blogger and would like to blog about them too, email me, I’ve got more photos that haven’t been published yet.

New York glamour wedding celebration inspiration

One for the ladies! (As if everything else I write hasn’t been haha)

I’m currently creating items for a styled photoshoot in New York, with a bunch of incredibly talented wedding professionals, like Maya Kalman from SwankProductions, Andrea from Andrea & Marcus, Rebecca Ashby from ThePinkOrange stationery studio… here are a few sneak peeks from our mood board!

Glitter inspiration:

image via pinterest via Maya Kalman via wedding chicks …

Liz Taylor’s jewelry as inspiration for my illustrations:

one of Liz Taylor’s amazing jewelry pieces – recently auctioned at Christie’s

one of our muses for modern New York fashion groove, winter feeling and materials:

New York style impersonated – Sarah Jessica Parker (image via Pinterest)

one of the materials we’ll work with is velvet:

velvet roses – image via pinterest - as inspiration for velvet material

See our full inspiration board here on my pinterest account!

I’m super buzzed about the photo shoot, I know it will be so glamorous, so much eye candy! Swoooooooon! I’m creating a bunch of design accents with my illustrations that I’ve never made before. With velvet! And cast acrylic! I’m really excited about these as well. Stay tuned! Come back!

bridal photo session idea: illustrated ballroom backdrop

In harmony with the Holiday season, I just worked on a very festive design project: a bride commissioned me to illustrate a baroque ballroom photo backdrop for a bridal photo shoot! The bride will be sitting in front of the backdrop, on an actual baroque chaise, and it will look as if she’s sitting in front of a magnificent Louis XIV inspired ballroom. Isn’t this just a super neat idea?

Here’s a sneak peek of the 16 feet tall tableau:
illustration by Astrid Mueller Exclusive – intended to be used as bridal photo shoot backdrop

I’m in love with this idea of a photo backdrop with an illustration, custom-tailored to the style of the celebration – I mean how unique is that? I can picture this to be extremely fun for a bachelorette night too – I bet they’d love to be photographed princess-style!

Greek Island Wedding Inspiration

Are you dreaming of getting married in the wonderful Mediterranean, on a Greek Island? Then this inspiration may be just perfect for you. Through my brand design atelier, I recently had the opportunity to develop and design the new brand for Stella and Moscha (formerly known as Weddings in Santorini). They are really talented top notch Greek Island wedding designers, and it was a pleasure to help them do their work justice with a custom-tailored new brand design. I’m so excited for them: their new website and Greek Island Wedding Inspirations blog went live this weekend!

A sneak peek of their new website:

www.StellaAndMoscha.com – brand design by Astrid Mueller Boutique Branding

and their new blog:

www.GreekIslandWeddingInspirations.com – brand design by Astrid Mueller Boutique Branding

This is some of the inspiration I worked with when designing for them:

I collected these images (and more, see my mood board on pinterest) in light of their unique expertise and brand characteristics – each image holds special significance:

1. Inspiration: Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love, and Greek art history. Image via pinterest
2. Last century’s designer to the stars: Madame Grès, whose muse was classical greek fashion. Image via pinterest
3. Moscha from Stella and Moscha asked me to be inspired by the classical Greek Meandros pattern, as seen in this piece
4. The wedding designers’ work is top notch, they work with designer hotels and for international brides – these Louboutin’s signified this for me
5. Grace Santorini Hotel, one of the boutique hotels Stella and Moscha work with
6. This image visualized their brand feeling for me: Celebrating, warm Mediterranean sea breeze, warmth, luxury, joy of life! Image via pinterest
7. Greek Stefanas, traditional wedding crowns. Moscha loved these as inspiration, and we played with the thought of using them in the design!

I’ll share more details soon! In the meantime, start dreaming of a vacation in Greece – like I am right now! – and indulge in Stella and Moscha’s beautiful event design galleries.

Happy weekend everyone!

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