Inspiration and Invitations: Home Town Style

So I have mentioned the Reception that my parents are hosting in my home town, but Mama Peep and I are just now starting to plan it.

When Mama Peep said that they wanted to throw a home town reception, I knew immediately where she wanted to host it. Way before Mr. Peep and I were engaged, whenever we went to my parents house we would always conveniently end up hiking around the Interpretive Center. I even have photo proof- Christmas 2006:

Poppy Peep even started to drop very obvious hints, "you know they host weddings and parties here!! But they book out two years in advance!"

Surprise, surprise, in January of 2008, Mama Peep called and said they had booked the Interpretive Center for our Home Town Reception to be held in July 2009. Here's a picture of the center itself:


Those windows are sliding glass doors and just behind them is the reception room. Those folks are checking out this view of the light house:

And for all you South Bay LA Brides that are still looking for a venue, here's a shot of a wedding. This place is affordable, and it has a ridiculously fantastic view.*

Source.

So now that you have seen the venue, let's talk about inspiration and invitations. The room itself is navy and blue and we want the overall feel to be beach casual. Last week I hopped over to Style Me Pretty and found some navy inspiration boards, and then I went to Wedding Paper Divas to find some matching invites. I put all of it in a nice little power point presentation and sent it to Mama Peep to get her input.

This one is classic, clean and keeps with the beach theme. But it might be just a bit too formal. Mama Peep saw this and asked if we needed to get a vespa?

This invitation would go perfectly with it:

I saw this and immediately thought it exuded casual home town party. I even tried to find the white dress in the picture, but no luck.

Here's my idea of a matching invite for this board:

And I have been swooning over lime green and navy together for ages- totally fun, hip and modern.



I think the colors in this invite go perfectly with this board:

And I think this invite captures the casual atmosphere of the party well:


In the end, I think we are going to do a bit more of a combo of one and three, blues and lime green. But we are going to focus more on the casual beach theme. I'm digging this inspiration board:


And Mama Peep thought these invites truly evoked the setting of the event and the causal nature:


Other than the inspiration and the invites, I am pretty much giving Mama Peep free rein in the event itself. Now I just have to figure out what I am going to wear???

Anyone else having a home town reception after the wedding? What's your inspiration?

*Just in case you don't want to go down the street and pay 10 times as much at Trump's Golf Course.