Tom Sawyer + Huckleberry Finn Birthday Party Invitations

A few weeks ago, event designer Brandi Brown wrote in seeking advice for the invitations for her twin sons’ first birthday party – Brandi’s theme revolved around the story of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and she wanted something that would mimic the boys’ straw hats.  I suggested that Brandi use burlap as the main element, and did a quick burlap round-up that she could use as inspiration.  Brandi sent over some photos of the invitation and party, and they’re absolutely fantastic!

huckleberry-finn-tom-sawyer-burlap-birthday-party-invitation

To create the invitations, Brandi glued a square of burlap to a thin piece of balsa wood.  The invitation details were printed by a local printer onto green card stock and layered on top of the burlap.  A silhouette image of two boys fishing represents both the birthday boys as well as Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.  So cute, right?!

huckleberry-finn-tom-sawyer-burlap-birthday-party-banner

huckleberry-finn-tom-sawyer-burlap-birthday-party-banner

{a custom burlap banner from funkyshique}

huckleberry-finn-tom-sawyer-birthday-party-menu-cards

{LOVE the cute little menu cards!}

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{more burlap details – a burlap tablecloth above, and burlap sippy cups for littlest party-goers below}

huckleberry-finn-tom-sawyer-birthday-party-burlap-cups

huckleberry-finn-tom-sawyer-birthday-party-book-favors

{the perfect favors, a personal hardback copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn!}

Brandi worked with fellow event planner Kate Landers, and you can check out additional details from the party on both Brandi’s blog and Kate’s blog.  Congratulations Brandi – I can’t wait to see what you do for the boys’ second birthday!

{image credits: inga finch photography}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  The siren call of the weekend is absolutely calling my name today.  I find myself getting more and more excited for each weekend to arrive, since I know that Fall is only a few more weekends away.  I can’t wait for cooler weather and everything else that Fall brings – the ability to turn off the AC, fall clothing, and changing leaves.  I’m heading off for a weekend with no specific plans, which is actually kind of a nice change – but in the meantime…


{love this William Morris quote from the Wild & Wolf booth at NYIGF}

…a few links for your weekend!

And in case you missed it, a quick round up of posts from this week:

That’s it for me this week!  I have stunning wedding invitations from one of my favorite bloggers to share with you next week, so I’ll see you all back here on Monday!

{photo by my dad}

    {happy weekend!}

    Happy Friday everyone!  This will be a working weekend for me, as tomorrow I’m heading up to the New York International Gift Fair for a couple of days.  It’ll be fun to catch up with the stationery exhibitors at NYIGF and friends in NYC.  But after a busy couple of weeks I’ll be looking forward to a quiet and relaxing weekend next weekend… the Florida girl in me misses my summers by the beach, so I’d love to escape to a tiny town by the water for a weekend.  But in the meantime…

    …a few links for your weekend!

    And just in case you missed it, a few favorite posts from this week!

    That’s it for me this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend – I’ll be back next week with photos from the Gift Fair and lots of other goodies.  See you on Monday!

    {image source}

    Texas Ranch Wedding Invitations

    This week’s real wedding invitations come to us from Stephanie at Salt + Pepper Press – and they’re inspired by all things Texas!  Stephanie and her husband Robbie were married at Three Points Ranch in the heart of Texas in early May.  From the beginning, Stephanie and Robbie set out to create a true country Texas-style wedding – from a custom cattle brand to cowboy boots!

    texas-ranch-wedding-tent

    From Stephanie: Our goal was to make our wedding as tastefully Texan as possible.  We wanted to really emphasize that this was going to be a laidback ranch wedding with the whole cowboy feel and we wanted to make sure that feeling was present in the invitations.

    Texas-Ranch-Save-the-Date

    Texas-Ranch-Wedding-Invitations-Wood-Veneer

    First we created our custom cattle brand, which is actually an S R G – our initials and the first letter of his last name.  In Texas, every ranch has its own brand that they use as their trademark from branding cattle to their logo and identity.  We wanted to create the same kind of brand that stood for us and our wedding.  From there we developed the invitation suite.

    Texas-Ranch-Wedding-Invitations

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-rsvp

    To make sure that we pushed the ranch theme, we backed every invitation with wood veneer and branded it with our custom made cattle brand.  We also made belly bands out of the wood that wrapped around the wedding invitations and branded that as well.

    Texas-Ranch-Wedding-Invitation

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-wood-veneer-brand texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-thank-you-card

    Texas-Ranch-Wedding-Invitations-Wear

    To take it one step further, we made a poster that reminded our guests of the iconic WANTED poster from the west and that we used instead of a enclosure card with reception information.  We had so much fun creating, printing and assembling the invitations!

    Texas-Wedding-Invitations-Poster

    Stephanie also sent over a bunch of photos from her wedding, courtesy of two pair photography, showing how she incorporated elements from the invitations into her Texas ranch wedding!

    texas ranch wedding

    texas ranch wedding

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-ceremony-program

    {the beautiful ceremony programs}

    texas-ranch-wedding-table-setting2

    {love the kraft paper table runner!}

    texas-ranch-wedding-table-setting

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-brand

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-reception-coaster

    {letterpress coasters with the wedding brand}

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-pecan-favor-bags

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-peanut-favor-bags

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-custom-cup

    texas-ranch-wedding-invitations-papel-picado

    So gorgeous – and I absolutely love the papel picado banners!  Thank you so much, Stephanie, for sharing your wedding invitations and beautiful wedding day details!

    {image credits: invitation photos by stephanie good, wedding photos by two pair photography}


    Romantic Pink + Gray Wedding Invitations

    When I first saw these utterly romantic wedding invitations from Parrott Design Studio, the first element to jump out at me was the gorgeous blush pink and slate gray color palette (my favorite color combination, as you may have noticed from my blog design).  But as I looked closer, I noticed the beautiful blind deboss pattern and calligraphy details:

    pink and gray classic wedding invitation

    Sarah said the bride wanted something delicate and romantic to fit with a vintage-inspired wedding style.  I love the way the blind deboss pattern resembles vintage lace!

    pink and gray classic wedding invitation

    Sarah commissioned Grace Edmands to calligraph the bride and groom’s names, wedding venue, and rsvp card – so lovely!

    pink and gray classic wedding invitation

    Such a beautiful and romantic, yet totally classic, wedding invitation!  You can check out a few more photos and a bit more about the inspiration behind the design over on Sarah’s blog right here!

    {image credits: parrott design studio}