Oh So Beautiful Paper

Archive for November, 2010

From the brown and blue color palette to the bird-theme details throughout the invitation suite, these wedding invitations totally remind me of fall.  The invitations were designed by Allie of Allie Ruth Design for her good friends Danielle and Rob’s recent wedding.  Since Allie knows the couple so well, she was able to weave personal details throughout the invitation design:

From Allie: The bride and groom are some of my closest friends, Danielle and Rob. They were married on October 24th in Ormond Beach, Florida.  Danielle has an amazing sense of style – she puts a vintage kind of glamour into every outfit, so it’s only fitting that her wedding have a vintage theme as well.  She also wanted to incorporate birds, since they are such a timeless and quintessential image of love.

With those two things in mind, I started thinking of materials and processes that would complement her vision.  Chipboard immediately struck me as a perfect medium for letterpress, also lending an earthy feel to the overall collection.  The chipboard invitations, letterpress printed with dark brown ink and block-printed at the top with light blue, serve as the perfect backdrop for the RSVP postcards.

I chose to work with post cards that are made by Cavallini & Co.  I designed a simple RSVP and printed it onto the back of the post cards. One of the most special little touches in the invitation ensemble was the use of a small collection of vintage postage stamps on each RSVP post card.  The whole suite was finished with a band of kraft paper and blue butcher’s twine.

I hand-calligraphed every envelope with a brown India ink brush pen and closed them up with some cute Japanese washi tape that I happened to have on hand, as well as little Cavallini & Co. “Bird and Nest” stickers.

Thank you so much Allie!  Your calligraphy is so pretty – congratulations on a beautiful invitation suite!

Looking for more wedding invitation inspiration?  Check out our real invitations gallery!

{image credits: allie ruth design}

Victorian and vineyard aren’t words that usually go together, but in the case of this wedding invitation from Dingbat Press, they definitely do!  Adrienne from Dingbat Press created these invitations for a bride who wanted something a bit different for her vineyard wedding, while still reflecting the elegance of the wedding style and venue.

From Adrienne:  With the wedding venue located in a beautiful vineyard in California, Demi wanted to tie in the feeling of the location without going overboard on a vineyard cliché.  These invitations were designed based off of a vintage monogram found in a victorian-era story-book and then adapted with her initial and simple typography so as to not compete with the ornate monogram.

The invitations were letterpress printed on 110# cotton paper in chocolate and sage green, along with an rsvp card and a directions enclosure card.

So pretty!  Thank you so much Adrienne!

p.s. One last reminder to enter the holiday card giveaway from Two Brunettes – the contest closes tonight!

{image credits: dingbat press}

I have a serious weakness for ampersands; and when it comes to wedding invitations, I don’t think there is a better symbol for a wedding and the union of two people.  So when Amy sent over her wedding invitations designed around the theme of the ampersand, I just couldn’t resist.  Amy and her husband Ryan were married this past July, and Amy created a lovely modern wedding invitation based on her love for typography and with fun accents in bright magenta.

From Amy: I am a graphic designer/art director from NYC and my fiancé (now husband) is an avid photographer, so I wanted our wedding invitations to evoke the sense of creative and bold energy that flows through our lives.  I am typically drawn to bright colors and patterns and knew I wanted to incorporate them into the final design.

Our wedding was at the beach but I knew I didn’t want to get trapped in a typical beach-themed design.  Furthermore, our wedding had a very modern yet minimalist feel, so I tried to keep the invites just as simple using our wedding colors of gray & magenta with accents of orange.

I fell in love with an ampersand as a theme accent across the invitation suite as it represented not only our joining, but also my love for typography.

I bought the invitation folders in metallic gray from a paper store in midtown NYC, as well as all the paper and envelopes needed for the suite.  The actual invitations and accompanying pieces were created in Illustrator and InDesign and then printed on photo printers from our home studio.

I also went around to several paper stores collecting 150 different sheets of patterned paper for the envelope liners, which I made by hand.

Finally, I bought three different kinds of thick ribbon from a craft store that were used as belly bands around the outer invitation folder and places throughout the reception.

Thank you so much Amy!  Congratulations on such a beautiful invitation suite!

p.s. On a different note, have you all entered the custom holiday card giveaway from Two Brunettes?  Don’t wait, the contest closes tomorrow!

{image credits: Amy Noonan}

I just spent waaaay too much time Handlettering Cite, the blog of hand lettering artist Alex Savakis – which he fills with quotes from Ghandi to Mark Twain (and everyone in between) in his own lettering styles.  There are some serious gems, both in quotes and lettering styles, so it was hard to pick out just a couple of favorites:

Check out the rest (and maybe suggest a quote or two for Alex to consider) over at Handlettering Cite!

{image credits: alex savakis}