Royal Steamline The Blog | Inspiration for Brides & Grooms

We’ve been meaning to post about this for a while, but you know how other things always seem to crop up. Well, no more excuses!

Earlier this year, Royal Steamline was invited to participate in a wedding concept photoshoot co-coordinated by Jessica Monnich (of Jessica Monnich Photography), Erin Coleman (of Peppermint Pretty), and Beth Bennett (of Stylish Happenings). The shoot, held at the Three Points Ranch outside of Austin, Texas, had a vintage carnival theme, so we thought that our Two Ring Circus design would be a perfect match:

Two Ring Circus invitations (as well Steamside on center right) -- photo montage by Jessica Monnich

And here’s a fun shot of the matching Table Cards:

Two Ring Circus table card at the Austin shoot -- photo by Jessica Monnich

There are tons of great images from the huge shoot, which included amazing fashions, cute couples and…fire eaters!

Flames of Love -- photo montage by Jessica Monnich

Please check out the full spread at Jessica’s blog or see the awesome compilation over at Utterly Engaged (our invitation is on the cover!).

Finally, thanks to Jessica, Erin, Beth and everyone else who made this a fantastic project. We were so happy to be a part of it!

Meerkat by Ryan Berkley

A Romp In The Courtyard by Ryan Berkley

A few years back I volunteered to take photos of dogs and cats for an animal rescue group. The hope was to get their cute little mugs up on the group’s website to up their chances of being adopted. The website got the word out, but there were always a lot of animals without a home. Maybe what we were missing in those portraits were the costumes?

Now, I’m not one for dressing up my pets, but there’s something I can’t resist about these vintage-style animal portraits. They’d make for a quirky decoration in a vintage-style wedding or a gift for the bride & groom. We bought a couple of Ryan Berkley’s animal portraits at a craft fair in Portland and have been big fans ever since. His superhero characters are brilliant, too.

Miss Dewdrop Mouse by Hot Digital Dog

So are animal portraits the new silhouettes? Hmmm…we’ve already featured ravens a-plenty, but we may need to branch out and incorporate more creature portraits in our designs. What kind of animal are you?

You can find Berkley Illustrations and Hot Digital Dog on Etsy.

… A

"Machine Light" by Frank Buchwald

A little Steampunk, a little mad scientist, these industrial creations by German designer Frank Buchwald incorporate Edison bulbs in what is a radiant display of functional design. With its antique-style carbon filaments and warm glow, this historic bulb would make a nice alternative to candles. And while this lamp may be difficult to get your hands on, there are plenty of ways to incorporate the Edison bulb into your antique or steam-influenced wedding. String a few single bulbs from any regular light base or chandelier and voilà — très classique.

Find Edison reproduction light bulbs here: House of Antique Hardware.

Edison light bulb found at House of Antique Hardware

Edison Chandelier at Pottery Barn

{Hipster Grifter Paper Foldable, part of the FREEwilliamsburg hipster-of-the-month series}

If there’s one good thing that comes out of this whole Hipster Grifter debacle, it’s the discovery of some fun art.

Wouldn’t these paper foldables make for cool wedding cake toppers or as part of your table centerpieces? Check out more of these crafty creations at: PaperFoldables.com

J & I live and breath music. We even spent our first date arguing over who was the bigger music aficionado. So there was no doubt that when we got married, music would be a huge part of the event. The only problem was we both hate to dance and have a huge aversion toward the traditional wedding DJ. The solution: we had to take control of every note.

We agreed on two things: 1) we didn’t want a dance floor and 2) we wanted our friend Nyles to play during various parts of the wedding. But we weren’t sure what to do the rest of the time. And what about the welcome party the night before? Since we had recently digitized nearly our entire music collection, it was pretty clear that making our own mix was the way to go. So we set out to make the soundtrack of our life together.

While vinyl is divine, you just can’t beat the convenience of MP3s. No crating a bunch of records to the venue and all the actual “mixing” happens before the event. Creating the playlists was a welcome break from wedding planning and something we could contribute to equally. Plus, it was a great excuse to buy a new iPod. For much less than the cost of a wedding DJ, we had our personal mix of songs for the entire weekend and we didn’t have to worry about coordinating (and paying) yet another wedding vendor. And best of all, the iPod and mixes came home with us.

Stay tuned for some of our themed playlists to borrow for your reception.

TIP: Make sure your venue has a set-up for your iPod. A simple stereo system with an 1/8-inch-to-RCA cable will do (you can find these on Amazon or Radio Shack for super cheap).