Vivien + Jon’s Geometric Baby Shower Invitations

As you saw yesterday, I love informal co-ed baby showers – aka a last shindig with friends and family! When designing the invitations for her friends Vivien and Jon’s baby party, Lauren Chism drew inspiration from a geometric pillow in the nursery and a bright color palette that included coral, navy, mustard yellow, and mint green. The resulting design couldn’t be more perfect!

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From LaurenWhen my dear friend Vivien, who is a stationery designer herself, asked me to design her baby shower invitations, I was honored, excited and a little nervous: designing for a designer – that’s a tough job!

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Vivien and her husband Jon did not find out the sex of the baby, and the shower was co-ed, so I knew the most important task was making sure that the invitation wasn’t too feminine and that the guys wouldn’t feel like they were being dragged to a traditional baby shower. They had already dubbed it a ‘Baby Party’ – so with that tag line and a fun geometric pillow from the nursery as inspiration, I worked to create something that was fun, not girly, not too baby shower-y and most importantly, something that Vivien would love. Easy, right?!

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The final result was a fun mix of typography, geometric pattern, and color. I worked with a palette that coordinated with her nursery: coral, gold, mint, mustard, navy and gray. I couldn’t decide which envelopes to use, so I ended up sending a combination of mint and mustard envelopes.

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I didn’t want to crowd up the main invitation with the hosts’ names (there were several), so I created a little insert with a list of names. That or using the back is a great way to include everyone when you have lots of people or couples hosting, without having to fit them all on the main invitation. (Plus it added some fun color to whole package).

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Vivien loved how they turned out and I loved getting to play such a special part in their shower. Oh, and by the way, Vivien and Jon welcomed a little GIRL, Zoe, in August!

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Thanks Lauren!

Lauren Chism Fine Papers is a member of the Designer Rolodex â€“ you can check out more of Lauren’s work right here!

Photo Credits: Heather Hawkins

Crystal + Jason’s Red and White Retro Wedding Invitations

I love the versatility of the color red. Dress it up for a classic winter wedding invitation, or down for a picnic-inspired summer wedding. Today we have a set of fun red and black vintage-inspired invitations from Mary at Real Mart. Originally created for the wedding of Real Mart print designer Crystal Dennis, the invitations feature lots of swirls, flourishes, and playful polka dots!

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From Mary: Crystal is a print designer here at Real Art. One of our favorites of her designs is the retro invitation suite that she designed for her very own wedding! It has a classic retro theme filled with polka dots, swirls, and curly Qs. It features custom bird and index illustrations, polka dot ribbon and paper, a cute little hang tag, and red envelopes. The invitations were letterpress printed on off-white paper with red and black ink.

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Crystal’s wedding reception was held at America’s Packard Museum, an automotive museum filled with beautiful vintage cars! The reception also featured a rockabilly band for some “Real Retro” entertainment.

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Thanks Mary!

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

Photo Credits: Real Mart

Our Baby Shower!

Today we’re taking a quick trip back in time… to our baby shower! The ladies at On To Baby were kind enough to feature our shower yesterday, and I thought I’d share a few of my favorites here. My dear friends Janice and Maggie hosted the most beautiful shower for us, inspired by my love of all things constellation! Funny story: because I ended up having to be induced with Sophie 3 weeks early, our baby shower took place the DAY before we went into the hospital for the induction. Those last few days were a complete blur of anxiety and nerves, so it was really nice to have a day to spend with our friends and family before Sophie’s arrival!

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Sugar Paper did an amazing job with the invitations, incorporating gold and white foil on die cut kraft paper, calligraphy from Lisa Holtzman, and a custom constellation envelope liner. Janice worked with Verde Studio to select astronomy-themed vintage postage as the finishing touch.

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We’re not the most traditional of people, so we wanted an informal co-ed shower that gave us an opportunity to spend time with our friends and family. Janice asked her sister (a private chef) to put together a buffet of our favorite brunch food, and Andy came up with a trio of brunch cocktail recipes. There was also a coffee bar and dessert bar featuring cupcakes and macarons from our local favorite The Sweet Lobby.

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This is Maggie and Trevor’s pup, Eleanor, when she was just a tiny wee thing! I think it should be mandatory to have at least one puppy at every party.

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Thank you, thank you, thank you Maggie and Janice! Check out the full details over on On To Baby!

Event Planning: Bellwether Events and Maggie Adams

Invitation Design: Sugar Paper

Invitation Calligraphy: Lisa Holtzman Calligraphy

Day-of Calligraphy: Meant to Be Calligraphy

Postage: Verde Studio

Catering: Leslie Raybuck

Desserts: The Sweet Lobby

Photo Credits: The Observatory

Thomas’s Western Rodeo 2nd Birthday Party Invitations

Happy Monday everyone! I thought I’d kick the week off with these too-cute-for-words birthday party invitations from the ladies of Vellum & Vogue! Inspired by vintage fabric, the suite features a wood engraved invitation that evokes heat branding, wood tags with the image of a cowboy, and burlap ribbon. So fun!

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From Alana + Krystal of Vellum & Vogue: Dana came to us looking for a unique and festive invitation for her son’s 2nd birthday. The overall theme of the party was inspired by a vintage rodeo fabric she fell in love with. Once we laid our eyes on the unique textile, we knew we had to incorporate it into the invitation.

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We decided to create a custom fabric backer for the invitation, which highlighted one of the many rodeo-inspired vignettes found within the fabric. To complement the Western theme, we engraved the invitation design onto a solid cedar wood stock and kept the burn markings to mimic the look of heat branding. We then wrapped the invitation in a wide burlap-style ribbon and finished the look with small wood tags bearing the image of a cowboy.  

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Each invitation was packaged in a kraft box, sealed with a wraparound address label and mailed with Western-inspired postage.

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Thanks Alana + Krystal!

Photo Credits: Vellum & Vogue

{happy weekend!}

Sigh. Week two of this ridiculous government shutdown. And the more I listen to the news, the angrier I get. So! Time for distractions! Last weekend, we hopped into the car for a spontaneous trip to the mountains. We were only gone for a couple of days, but it was nice to get away from DC – and even more nice to see some real fall foliage. And this weekend, Paper Camp is in DC! I’m so excited to see some of my fellow panelists and meet the new students! But in the meantime…

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Photo by me via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend:

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

Check back soon for this week’s cocktail! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here next week! xoxo