Before the grass starts to turn green and the leaves start to turn, we wanted to post this adorable and nature inspired Woodland Baptism Celebration event. We worked with Miles’ Mom, Stacy, to come up with a fun interactive Baptism celebration where the little guests would have something fun to look at and the overall design would still be elegant and sophisticated enough for the rest of the guests to enjoy:) When we first started planing the design, we were going to use faux snow to create a wintery woodland scene but Chicago weather had another idea and it ended up being 60 degrees in February!! Ixnay the snow and add a lot more green moss!
Miles’ Grandpa, made the custom favors of birch pole tea light holders and we wanted the welcome table to play off the perfect favors perfectly. We created a small forest surrounding the table, laid fresh green moss on the table and placed the cutest woodland creatures were throughout the table and trees.
There were four different looks throughout the room to create a small forest. Each of the looks incorporated a fun woodland creature, either made from bottle brush or from actual wood cut outs. The trees added height to the room but did not block the view of the guests at the tables. Our favorite look included the little woodland creatures found in glass jars nestled in moss!
The head table was made up of a continuous look of fresh greenery, tree cutouts, and woodland creatures placed on either side of long birch poles placed in the center. The head table was placed in the center of the room so all the other looks played off this table perfectly!
We wish Miles and his family congratulations on his special day and we hope that Spring actually comes to Chicago (forecast shows for more snow this week!?!)
Time flies when you are having fun…isn’t that the saying? Well, it has not only been fun but it has been a lot of growing up, learning, and hard work. Limani Designs started at a time in my life that I pretty much felt the whole world change around me. I had been working at Harpo at the time and there was no better place to learn to follow your heart when it comes to your own happiness other than from Oprah herself! In July of 2011 this was my life…I was getting married, I was going to be without a job for the first time since I was 16, and I was moving away from home (finally I know, but still a very new experience for me). *Please note, getting married and moving out of my parents home are NOT negative things by all means, I just felt the life I had grown accustom to was changing pretty drastically all in one month:) My friends were finding and taking on new positions around me and I just couldn’t see myself doing that at that time…
I think sometimes the inner voice in your head is just the smartest but we are too scared to listen to it. Well, I listened to that voice. We enjoyed our wedding celebration, a wonderful party that feels like yesterday btw, took a month long honeymoon to do nothing but go to different beaches every day and during all this time I knew when I got back I would take a leap of faith and start a business that I was passionate about!
In October of 2011, with the help and guidance of our good friend and Koumbaro, Alex, I created my very first LLC company. Obviously before I got there I had agonized about the name for months prior to this decision. I wanted the name to include my mom and I in a way that was not obvious. I kept thinking, there had to be something that my mom and I loved more than our families, fashion and creating things…the Limani in Agrili! Our first family home is by this tiny seaport in the southern part of Greece that if possible, I would spend the rest of my life there. It. Was. Perfect. It had a special meaning to both of us, it was different and it brings us pure happiness thinking about it. Of course, my brain did’t stop there, I immediately knew I wanted a paper boat logo! My mom used to make paper boats with us all the time when we were little and you can’t have a seaport without boats, am I right?
So that started it but what do you do when you start a business and have not idea what your next steps our? Before starting Limani, my mom, Angie, and I were fortunate enough to work on some pretty special celebrations before realizing this is what we wanted to do full heartedly. Those experiences our my absolute favorite. We jumped right in to every project and figured things out as we went. Without even realizing it then, we had started our portfolio-yay! So I spent hours…I mean HOURS…putting together a website, (I am not tech savvy at all by any means but this was not a battle I was going to lose) and LimaniDesigns.com 1.0 was launched in January 2012!! Woohoo!!
Then the best things started happening…our friends and family started referring us to clients and we have not stopped since then. We can’t tell you all how important it is to have a strong, supporting circle and we absolutely would not be doing this all these years (and many, many, many more to come) if it wasn’t for you!
Thank you for taking this journey with us and we look forward to the next chapter in our lives with open arms. Our new meeting space is just perfect and we couldn’t be happier to have a place that we can meet clients without the clatter of the Starbucks team making coffee in the background (although all those Starbucks meetings with our clients have always been our favorites). This place is small and just what we need right now. Thank you all for coming out and celebrating our Open House with us. We plan on celebrating a lot this year so stay tuned for more wine and champagne parties to come!
Eventually, our dream will be to have a large studio space WITH our meeting space but for now I have learned to enjoy the small wonders and be happy!
Also, while all of the above was going on, I had dreamed of our cute Etsy Shop that we opened in February 2012, so this Open House celebration also celebrated 5 years of making and selling Angie’s beautiful candles. I can not even imagine creating her unique candles (or attempt to) why mess with a great thing, right?! I not only love my Mom but I admire her ability to be the creative person that she is and do everything that she does. I will write a different post about her another time…I am already too emotional!
Even though our Easter is not till May 1st, our season started early this year with our first order coming through in February (yay! for really organized souls)! We have received so many custom orders, Angie and I are learning a lot about what toy/show/game is really trending now:) and we will continue accepting custom orders until the week before Easter.
This year’s collection is as always cheerful, with brightly colored ribbon details, playful and youthful. There is intricate wrapping, little details throughout and of course the main idea behind our Shop, ORIGINAL designs. Which one is your favorite?
Happy April everyone! This is going to be a great month, I just feel it!
xoxo,
Eleni and Team Limani
Venue: The Wedding Gallery, Roscoe Village in Chicago. Limani Designs’ Easter Candle Collection on Etsy
Chevron print details AND bow ties?? Yes, that sounds perfect for a little guy’s Baptism celebration. When we talked to Rita, we only had a few weeks to put together her son’s Baptism. We love a good challenge but we also loved working with her idea of incorporating chevron and bow ties to the decor.
Maggiano’s at Old Orchard has wonderful banquet rooms found in their lower level. The room is pretty dark with a lot of wood detail so we wanted to make sure we brighten up everything with a playful yet elegant design.
We used different shades of blue and greys throughout the decor pieces and only used different types of white flowers with a pop of blue hydrangeas. We hung silver lanterns from the ceiling and used lots of fun paper lanterns and pinwheels to create a fun display over the dessert tables.
Little bow tie details were found throughout the glass cylinders and chevron covered risers, ribbon details and runners were placed throughout the tables. The overall event felt very fun, festive and modern.
Baby Charbel and his older sister had a beautiful photo session and the little guy was wrapped in a pretty chevron print blanket (how adorable are they?!?) so we couldn’t resist but use a chevron print tote bin for his well wishes cards.
The sweet table was made up of beautiful pastries and adorable cookies by Evon’s Sweet Creations and we used pretty ribbon and paper flower details, provided by Rita, to create a fun blue and white candy bar.
Wishing Charbel and his family congratulations on his special day. Rita, it was so much fun working with you!
We love our clients but sometimes we L O V E our clients!! When we first spoke to Eleni we fell in love not only with her personality but with what she had in mind for her daughter’s Baptism celebration. Some people have the kindest souls that make you want to be a better person, a person that loves wholeheartedly and is not afraid to show it! Emme is just the cutest and happiest baby and we couldn’t be happier sharing this cheerful album with you!
Baby Emme’s Baptism celebration was inpired by Eleni’s love of fairies and all things magical. We couldn’t resist creating little forest like moments on the tables with fairy touches throughout the room.
The invitations suite started with bark like dark brown paper, a creamy shimmery card stock layer on top with hanging greenery and little pink butterflies and of course a little fairy dotting the “i”. The pink, green and natural brown color palette was used throughout the decor and little frames on the tables with cute fairy quotes.
For the service our Ceremonial Candles were created with sparkly butterflies and pretty pink fabric and ribbon details. The witness pins, martyrika, were made up of pink and green ribbons with a small silver cross and green leaf detail placed in a silk brown box with a fairy sitting on top, it’s always about the little details;)
For the reception celebration, the place cards were placed on a hanging ribbons on our trellis. the hanging greenery on top coordinated with the greenery on the invitations. The wooden tree trunk holding the large floral arrangement was made to look like a Fairy house. Each place card had a small wooden butterfly attached.
The flower arrangements consisted of three looks; the silver lantern with floral coming out of the front door, the tall tree like fixtures with greenery wrapped around their trunks, and the wild arrangement with a glass dome housing a small fairy. We used different shades of pink flowers and lots of different greenery. At the honor table, a small fairy house was placed by the lantern and of course a bottle of pixie dust!
The kids activity table included making your own pixie dust, a must for a fairy party along with a sparkly wand, and coloring pages from our favorite Enchanted Forrest coloring book. On the back of the little guests’ chairs, fairy wings or butterfly catchers were attached.
We can’t forget to mention the gorgeous and oh so fresh cake by Madame Gateau! Look at that detail on the sugar flowers and butterflies. Eleni had the most precious photos taken of baby Emme dressed up in her fairy wings that we placed at the cake table…how adorable right?!
All in all it was the perfect event for a gorgeous sunny day and lovely celebration. We can’t wait to work on Emme’s first birthday party celebration, filled with lots of sunshine, happiness and love! Congratulations Emme on your special day!
Pink and gold? Sparkly hearts? Lots of personal details and an organized bride? Yes please, we are in! Meeting Angela through our good friends Alex and Danielle, was such a treat! She had so many pretty ideas and personal touches planned for her and Peter’s wedding, that it did not feel like work at all! Their invitations had a pink sparkly heart that held the invitation suite together and from our meeting with Angela we found out how much she loves hearts! The design took off from there.
For the service, we custom made the ceremonial candles with a simple and elegant design in mind. The delicate lace wrapped around the candles coordinated with Angela’s dress and the touch of sparkly floral detail picked up her beautiful beading on her dress. The large candles on either side of the table were made up of cream, silky, textured fabric with an inner layer of organza and tied with cream long ribbons. As guests left the ceremony, they picked up cream cones with gold heart details filled with roses petals to throw onto the newly married couple (recently featured in Pop Sugar’s Valentine’s Day Wedding Ideas Guide).
The Valentine’s Day styled shoot that we featured last week was inspired by the fixtures we created for Angela and Peter’s Wedding! We wanted the gold fixture to add height to the room with hanging sparkly hearts in golds, pinks and creams with candles and little glass domes with filled with mini garden roses hanging from pink ribbons creating a very much Love is in the Air concept.
We added a lot more candles and used the cream ribbon and sparkly heart throughout the tables. Flowerville created the flower arrangements in pinks, creams and whites with gold candle holders. The welcome table was made up of different ribbons with the place cards placed on the ribbons. All the place cards had a gold heart attached to them.
The sweetheart table had to stand out and we can’t have sparkly hearts and not a sparkly table cloth, so we used our favorite sequin table cloth from La Tavola Linens and draped the gold “Mr. & Mrs.” sign in front. On the back of Angela and Peter’s chairs we tied with pink ribbon the gold sparkly “&” sign!
The candy bar selection was made up of all Angela and Peter’s favorites and the pop of teal from the Love sign and tags was a fun explosion of color amongst all the soft blush and gold found throughout the room.
Don’t these two look so lovely? Besides working on the wedding, we just fell in love with all the images from Lilly Photography the beautiful blush and gold sparkly dresses by the attendants, the personalized bridal hanger, the beautiful Our Story board and of course the custom wedding cake topper! Timeless and elegant wedding! Wishing Angela and Peter congratulations and many, many, many more wonderful celebrations to come!
