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Sometimes you have to search for something.  Other times you just happen upon it.  I certainly didn’t have to go digging to find Laura Hooper Calligraphy.  I kept seeing her gorgeous work in real weddings, (including her own) and seeing her name in glowing recommendations.  Laura has 10 years of experience under her belt, as well as work featured in Martha Stewart Weddings and Town & Country Weddings.  (Ed Note: Laura also provided place card calligraphy for my wedding four years ago! –nole)  Laura has calligraphed everything from ginkgo leaves to sand dollars and offers some great products, including her wonderful maps, in her Etsy shop.  Take a look for yourself and I’m sure you’ll understand why she has such satisfied customers!  – Julie

Laura has a wide selection of invitation designs (like the one pictured above) available in her Etsy shop, as well as on her website.  She also offers a number of printing processes like letterpress to thermography.

Whether you’re having a destination wedding or simply have a lot of out of town guests, Laura’s custom maps are a great addition to your invitation suite.

I’m a huge fan of great wedding details.  With charming wooden signs, embroidered napkins and even totes, Laura’s got you covered!  Be sure to check out her blog, website and shop for more.

Photo credits: 1, 2, 3 left, 6, 7 left Laura Hooper; 3 right Kate Headley; 5 left Agnes Lopez; 4, 5 right, 7 right Steve Steinhardt

These beautiful Sonoma Valley wedding invitations from Molly at Paisley Quill are so chic and romantic!  Molly wanted to reflect the vineyard location in a unique way, so she incorporated a cork veneer tag and yellow baker’s twine as a belly band for the invitation suite.  Love it!

From Molly:  Erin wanted wedding invitations that, in her words, were “soft, romantic, unique, yet effortlessly chic.”  The wedding took place at the BR Cohn Winery in Sonoma Valley; we really wanted to play up the wine country theme, but not with a traditional grapevine motif.  That is when I stumbled on cork skin, a thin veneer of cork that is backed with paper to hold its integrity.  Cork.  Wine country.  PERFECT.

Erin opted for two-color letterpress in sunny yellow and a subdued gray.  Envelope liners, a custom map, an itinerary booklet, and a die cut cork tag all held together with yellow baker’s twine completed the look.

To add even more detail to the suite, we went with hand picked vintage stamps from Holly at the Paper Nickel and beautiful calligraphy from Nicole at The Left Handed Calligrapher.  Nicole custom matched the calligraphy ink to the yellow in the invitations.  We also had a custom address stamp made to save a little money on the response envelopes

Thanks Molly!

Design and Letterpress Printing: Paisley Quill

Calligraphy: The Left Handed Calligrapher

Vintage Stamps: The Paper Nickel

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Paisley Quill

It’s summer – which means outdoor picnics, BBQs, and of course lots and lots of watermelon (easily one of our favorite summer fruits) and lots of mint.  So if you’re in the mood for something classic to beat the heat, try a twist on one of Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drinks, a Watermelon Mojito.  Fresh, cold, sweet, citrusy, minty and delicious, the Mojito is the perfect drink for a sweltering summer evening. – Andrew

Read below for the full recipe!

Watermelon Mojito

2 oz Light Rum
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
1 oz Lime Juice
Sparkling Water
Watermelon Juice to Taste
Handful of Mint Leaves

First: if you have any pre-made Mojito mix in your house, that overly sweet artificial stuff, throw it out.  Do it now!  Did you do it?  Ok, good.  Now, in a highball glass, very gently muddle the mint and syrup.  Add the lime juice.  (Some recipes tell you to muddle the lime in the glass and leave the lime shell; freshly squeezed juice definitely is best, but there’s already so much going on in this drink that I recommend discarding the lime shell.)  Fill the glass with lots of crushed ice, then add the rum.  For a classic Mojito, skip the next step, but for a Watermelon Mojito, add some freshly muddled or squeezed watermelon juice.  Top with sparkling water, garnish with a mint sprig, sugar cane or even a cube of watermelon, and enjoy.

The Mojito is a Cuban highball, another one of those drinks that evolved organically out of the country’s citrus and sugar cultivation, like the Daiquiri.  The closest you’ll get to the original flavor of a Cuban Mojito is probably using Bacardi light rum; before the Cuban Revolution drove Bacardi to Puerto Rico, Bacardi was one of Cuba’s biggest distillers.  A classic Mojito is rum, sugar, mint, and lime, but the Mojito is a lot like another drink, the Caipirinha, in that you can play around with the original recipe to create all kinds of variants, using whatever fruit you like.

 

No one really knows the origins of the Mojito.  A romantic story has it descending from a very old drink, the Draque, a drink supposedly invented by Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s with aguardiente (a really primitive version of rum), sugar, mint, and lime (the last three included mostly to hide the taste fo the aguardiente).  It’s possible, but it’s more likely that Cubans figured out for themselves over the years that they could combine all the lime, sugar, and rum they were producing into some really tasty drinks.  Does it matter?  Not really – the Mojito is too delicious.

P.S.  If you make one of these, you can see how much work goes into one of these.  Make sure to tip your bartender well the next time you order one, and make sure the bar isn’t very crowded when you do order one, or else you might not get the best Mojito…

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Amy and Doug wanted wedding invitations that reflected their romantic and rustic wedding style while also maintaining a certain level of formality and sophistication.  They worked with the team at Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondence to create a beautiful lace-inspired invitation suite that incorporates traditional but non-fussy wording and envelope liners made from vintage floral wallpaper.  So pretty!

From Erin at Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondence: Amy told us that she was planning a romantic western wedding overlooking Glacier National Park, with a wooden barn and log lodge as backdrops.  The wedding weekend will start with a kitschy Western theme rehearsal dinner, followed by a more formal and refined wedding with rustic linen and lace.

We imagined homemade cotton dresses, lace, and simple fonts without any fussy language.  The envelope liners are made from vintage floral wallpaper in shades of blue, peach, and cream.

 

We created handkerchief save the dates for the wedding with kraft paper envelopes, and since Amy was looking for something a little more refined but nothing too traditional, we used a metallic sand-colored envelope that looks like kraft paper’s glamorous sister for her invitation suite.

We used vintage eyelash lace to create the artwork used throughout the suite and printed in robin’s egg blue and subtle metallic bronze on 100% cotton ecru paper.  The small floral icons are from a circa-1900 cookbook that tie in with the vintage envelope liners.

Thanks so much Erin!

Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondence is a member of the Designer Rolodex – you can see more of their beautiful work right here or visit the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Lucky Luxe Couture Correspondence

It’s starting to feel like summer here in DC, and summer means summer drinks.  Which may be why I’ve been on such a Latin American drinks kick, because so many Latin American drinks are perfect for summer: sweet, with lots of fruit and lots of ice, and a bit of kick, delicious and refreshing.  Here’s another to add to that list, a twist on Brazil’s national cocktail, the Cherry Caipirinha. – Andrew

Read below for the full recipe!

Cherry Caipirinha

2 oz Cachaça
1/4-1/2 oz Simple Syrup
1/2 Lime
3-4 Cherries
Soda Water

Quarter the lime half and pit the cherries, if needed.  Add the fruit and syrup to a rocks glass or tumbler, then muddle everything together very well.  Add the Cachaça and lots of crushed ice.  Top with soda water, give it a stir, then garnish with a bit of sugar cane (optional but pretty cool) and enjoy!

 

The Caipirinha is up there on my list of perfect summer drinks.  It’s sweet and tart, with lots of fresh flavor from the Cachaça, and enormously refreshing thanks to all that ice and soda water.  If you order a Caipirinha in the U.S., you’re most likely to get one made just with lime, which is a pretty great drink by itself.  But Brazilians use all kinds of fruit, from mango to kiwi to pineapple or passionfruit, in their Caipirinhas, so feel free to add or subtract fruit to this recipe.

The Caipirinha’s name reveals its humble origins as a rustic, easy-to-make version of drinks like the Daiquiri: it means something along the lines of “little country bumpkin” in Brazilian Portuguese.  But the Caipirinha has grown to be wildly popular all throughout Brazil and has been winding its way through the States in recent years.  Give one a try and you’ll see why.

 

The same drink might be pretty good, but a bit more ho-hum, without its key ingredient: the Brazilian spirit Cachaça (pronounced, roughly, ka-SHA-sa).  Cachaça is a close relative of rum, but Cachaça – unlike rum, which is usually distilled from fermented molasses – is distilled directly from fermented sugar cane juice.  The cane juice has to be processed soon after it is harvested, which means the Cachaça retains more flavors from the sugar cane, and much more of a sense of the place where it was made.  Cachaça is a funky spirit with lots of complex vegetal flavors, like a much earthier version of your favorite rum.  Fortunately, it’s increasingly easy to find – go pick some up!

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper