Oh So Beautiful Paper

I’m busy prepping more posts from the Stationery Show, but taking another quick break to bring you these gorgeous real invitations from a vintage seaside picnic inspired wedding.  These invitations come to us courtesy of Kathleen, whose gorgeous invitations and wedding you may remember from this post back in April and Smitten.  As it turns out, these are the first real invitations to have been at least partially inspired by Oh So Beautiful Paper!  Bianca loved these vintage labels from Found Vintage Style that Chelsea posted here back in March, and sent the link to Kathleen as design inspiration!  But back to Bianca’s invitations – let’s start off with the background on the design inspiration:

{photo via Sierra Cross Park}

From Kathleen: Bianca, a summer bride-to-be, contacted me with tons of inspiration photos and the main creative direction being “vintage seaside picnic.”  Her wedding is taking place on a beach in California – the gorgeous Sierra Cross Park – on picnic blankets and with vintage baskets filled with fruit, cheese and wine as a centerpiece for her guests.

I tried to achieve this look through vintage wood-cut design elements and a beachy color palette of sandy tans and ocean-inspired blues.  I chose Eames Furniture Weave Finish in white for the invites and pacific blue for the envelopes (stock available via envelopemall.com).

Because this bride was on a budget, we had these printed digitally with a local vendor that is always wiling to push the limits as far as what kind of stock they will run through their digital press.  While it’s not as tactile as letterpress the overall look and feel is still very sophisticated.

It was truly a pleasure working with Bianca on her invitations!

I love, love this invitation design – from the color palette to the seaside- and vintage label-inspired design elements – the entire suite is just beautiful!  Thanks so much Kathleen, for sharing these invitations with us!  Kathleen has been doing freelance invitation design since her own wedding a couple of months ago, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

{except where noted, all photos by Kathleen Shannon}

1. Jeanne says:

   05/21/2009 at 10:10 AM

   These are incredible and the color is amazing!
2. truly smitten says:

   05/21/2009 at 8:39 AM

   amazing design!!
3. Tracy Francis says:

   05/21/2009 at 4:26 AM

   Wow I agree, can’t wait to see what she does next. An all on a digital press, impressive!
4. Autumn says:

   05/20/2009 at 6:26 PM

   Thank you for showing such a wonderful example of how more modest budgets can still achieve a rich and beautifully detailed invitation suite. Really lovely!