{happy weekend!}

I'm pretty sure the sun is shining for the first time all week here in DC – hooray!  Between sunshine and a friend visiting this weekend, I'm definitely ready to get a move on the weekend!  But in the meantime…

Its-a-lovely-day

…a few links for you all to enjoy:

Oh, and just a reminder to any DC-area folks that I'll be speaking at the Not So Big Wedding this Sunday at Rockwood Manor. I hope you'll come by to say hello!

{image credits: revivify via you are my fave}

Real Invitations – Cynthia + Michael, Part 2

Cyd’s wedding ceremony programs were a true labor of love — with a beautiful result! — deserving of a post all their own.  Plus they were inspired in part by my own wedding ceremony programs, so I just had to give Cyd’s lovely blue and kraft paper programs a bit of extra love!

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From Cyd: For our ceremony programs, I was inspired by your cute pocket-sized ceremony programs and the lovely programs you featured by Erin Jang which had kraft paper pages and gocco’d covers.

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These were easily the most time consuming of my DIY projects – I designed them and laid them out myself in InDesign.  Every cover was individually cut, scored, lined on the inside with the same paper as our envelope liners, and then hand bound (we’re talking old school book binding with a needle and thread here) with blue and white striped baker’s twine.

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The pages were kraft paper, which was a material I introduced with the envelopes of our Bookmark the Dates (DIY bookmarks as I’m a literature buff and my husband is an English teacher) and later incorporated in several areas throughout our event.

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I gocco’d both the front and back covers, picking up on the flourish from our invitations, and used Paper Source cardstock in Lake for the actual covers.

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They were immensely time-consuming, but guests loved them and very few were left behind. I can’t say I’ll be making any more miniature books anytime soon, but I sure did love the way these turned out!

Beautiful!  Don’t you all just love the mix of craft paper and that gorgeous lake blue?  You can read more about Cyd’s wedding over on The Sweetest Occassion or on her column on Elizabeth Anne Designs.  Oh, and for those of you curious about the script font used in Cyd’s programs, it’s called Burgues and can be found at Veer.  Thanks so much, Cyd, for sharing your lovely programs and gorgeous wedding invitations with us!

{all photos by Oh So Beautiful Paper}

Wedding Invitations — Campbell Raw Press

Maggie Campbell is kind of my hero — she *just* had a baby (the ever-adorable Charlotte) and just three weeks later she’s launching her new line of absolutely beautiful letterpress wedding invitations.  Amazing!

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The Campbell Raw Press wedding line includes three invitation suites named for some of Maggie’s favorite authors — Fitzgerald, Collins, and Strand — each of which can be customized with different color palettes and beautiful Japanese patterned screenprinted paper known as chiyogami:

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{Fitzgerald}

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{Collins}

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{Strand}

Aren’t these gorgeous?  So elegant and beautifully letterpress printed.  Just in case you’d like to see one of these suites in person, Maggie has made samples available for purchase in her etsy shop.  You can also read more about the Campbell Raw Press wedding invitation line (and check out a bunch of additional photos) on her website right here.  Congratulations Maggie!

{image credits: Campbell Raw Press}

Sparkling Lights + Beautiful Flowers

I just love these photos from two recent weddings.  First, from Diana + Anthony's wedding via What Junebug Loves, and photographed by Sean Flanigan, the globe lights strung across the reception area create such a beautiful effect:

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And from Jen + Nick's wedding photographed by the amazingly talented Robert Sukrachand via Once Wed, I love the idea of a floral wreath hung above the bride and groom during the ceremony — totally unexpected, and undeniably lovely:

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Aren't those flowers fabulous?  The arrangements were created by the fabulous Saipua.  Amazing.

{photographs by Sean Flanigan and Robert Sukrachand}

Carrie + Barrett’s Wood Veneer Mountain Wedding Invitations

Today’s real invitations come from the fantastic design duo of Bird and Banner, who created an amazing set of wood veneer wedding invitations (and ceremony programs, menus, favor labels, and table numbers) for Carrie and Barrett for their Jackson Hole, Wyoming wedding last year.  This suite is one of my favorites from the Bird and Banner portfolio, largely for its wonderful mix of different materials and typography styles.  Erin and Nicole, the talented ladies behind Bird and Banner, stopped by to describe the creative process behind these lovely pink and brown wedding invitations, so I’ll turn things over to them!

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From Erin and Nicole: Neither Carrie nor Barrett are from Jackson Hole but the couple had shared many special times there.  They knew it was the perfect place to celebrate their wedding.  Held at the Crescent Ranch, the inspiration was rustic yet elegant which included a formal BBQ menu and a fiddler band.

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Because it was a destination wedding Carrie and Barrett wanted to highlight the location in their invitations as much as possible.  This led us to explore using new materials and formats that would help introduce their guests to the location.

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Our initial idea was a muslin bag filled with wooden postcards.

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We loved the idea of mixing Carrie’s palatte of bright pink and brown with wood.  Working with language describing the location, we planned to use a mix of type styles.

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Unfortunately the design started to look like a “Most Wanted” poster!  So we scaled back, and then everything came together.

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Carrie and Barrett had a full weekend of festivities planned so we also created an itinerary for guests that included hand drawn illustrations of the various Jackson Hole event locations, including the arch in the town square where they got engaged.

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From the bride, Carrie: Erin and Nicole from Bird and Banner are so amazingly creative; I never had to reiterate the feel/mood we wanted to convey to our guests more than once.  Awesome!  The itinerary, invitations, packaging, etc., are what I was most proud of in the wedding planning process — even though they did all the work, they made me feel like we were a team in creating the PERFECT presentation.

So, so lovely — and a beautiful mix of rustic and modern design elements that create the perfect invitation for a wedding in Jackson Hole.  I love the attention to detail throughout the invitation, from the line illustrations to the tiny hearts and border details.  Thanks so much to Carrie, and of course to Nicole + Erin from Bird and Banner, for stopping by to share these gorgeous wedding invitations today!

{image credits: reception photos by Carrie Patterson, all others via Bird and Banner}