Today’s real invitations come from one of my very favorite bloggers, the lovely Alyson from Unruly Things!  You might remember Alyson from her guest posts last year.  In addition to her fabulous blog, Alyson also runs a letterpress studio called Postal Press, so when Alyson first got engaged and started planning her wedding, I knew the invitations would be incredible no matter what.  Then Alyson mentioned vintage botanical imagery as her main inspiration and I got even more excited!  So as you can imagine, I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome Alyson back to Oh So Beautiful Paper  with her stunning wedding invitations!

From Alyson: When Levi {most commonly known as DLB on my blog} and I started planning our wedding, we looked at only one venue and knew it was for us.  If you know me at all from Unruly Things, you know that Levi and I have a strong love for all things nature inspired.

Our wedding was at beautiful lake in the middle of the old growth forest in the Columbia River Gorge. 95% of our guests traveled from out of town for our wedding, so we wanted them to get a really good feel for the venue as well as our wedding style from the invitations.  We opted for fonts with a classic feel and botanical illustrations inspired by vintage book plates.

I collected vintage postage stamps during our engagement that we used for our envelopes and contacted Kathryn Murray to write the beautiful calligraphy for our guest’s addresses.  Months before the wedding, I taught Levi how to letterpress so that he could help with the printing.

We letterpressed our invitations on brown bag paper and included fun extra details: an illustrated map to the venue, a letterpress kraft tag with hotel accommodations and, my favorite, a Columbia River Gorge wildlife cheat sheet – complete with typical specimen of plants and animals our guests might see during the event  {no one saw any elk, but we heard that one of our guests came upon a baby bear late in the evening!!}  Over all, I couldn’t have imagined our wedding any other way.  It was entirely us.

Alyson also sent over a few photos from her wedding, captured by Erin Grace Photography, including the gorgeous botanical place cards and ceremony programs!

Stunning… seriously just stunning.  Each detail fits together perfectly, from the kraft paper invitations details to the amazing botanical elements (hello gorgeous ferns and moss!) to the apothecary glass centerpieces.  Congratulations Alyson!

{image credits: invitation photos by alyson graves brown, wedding photos by erin grace photography}