{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  It’s been a wet and rainy early spring week here in DC, but I’ve been taking advantage of the gloomy weather to get things done around the house and behind the scenes.  I love the sense of accomplishment and relief that comes from checking off an item that has sat on my to-do list for nearly a year (I’m also have awesome procrastination skills).  My plans for the weekend involve finishing this book in time for a book club meeting on Monday and taking my mom out to a movie – what are you all up to this weekend?  As always, in the meantime…

{the world’s most adorable cake from herriott grace}

…a few links for your weekend:

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

That’s it for me this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here on Monday!  xoxo

Today I Love: Dark Interiors + Wedding Trends

Happy Monday everyone!  Are you all still here, or have you started to run off for the holidays already?  We leave for my in-laws house on Thursday, but I’ll be posting all week just in case you were wondering.  I always use the last couple of weeks of the year to get myself organized, and I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend updating my Pinterest page with some of my favorite inspiration from the last year.  I love looking back on the year to see what inspired me, from fantastic wedding invitations to wedding details to interiors.  So to start things off this morning, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite images:

Mr-Boddington-Studio-Desk dark-room-antique-table

{Mr. Boddington’s Studio via Brooklyn Bride; Eric Piasecki via Desire to Inspire}

This year I’ve been drawn to slightly darker interiors, although we’ll see if I start going back to peaceful whites and lighter tones now that the sun is setting at 4:30 every afternoon.  I absolutely adore the desk and wallpaper from the tour of Mr. Boddington’s Studio, and if there’s anything I’ve learned this year, it’s that darker walls can be beautiful with the right kind of light.

forest-wedding-reception-table-ideas

{Jose Villa via Once Wed}

Silhouette-Wedding-Cake papel-picado-wedding-banners

{Ashley Brockinton Photography via The Bride’s Cafe; Rosie Parsons via Ruffled}

For weddings, I’m still just as in love with silhouettes as ever, but love seeing them done in an unexpected way – like the wedding cake above.  I also developed a serious crush on papel picado banners and quasi-industrial lighting for wedding receptions.

rob-ryan-papercut-wedding-invitation

{evs media via Once Wed}

heart-shaped-wedding-invitations

{The Indigo Bunting}

This has been a pretty incredible year for wedding invitations and I’m going to attempt a best-of round-up of my favorites next week, but these two invitations are high up on my list.  For the papercut invitation, artist Rob Ryan gave the bride permission to use his artwork for the invitation – so amazing!

{alli coate}

One of my favorite quotes, made even more lovely with sweet embroidery.

There’s tons more where that came from, and you’re welcome to visit me over at Pinterest!

{all images via their respective sources}

{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}

    NYIGF, Part 1

    This past weekend I went to check out the New York International Gift Fair, a huge trade show held twice a year at the Javits Center (the same convention center where the National Stationery Show takes place in May).  It was wonderful to see some of my favorite stationers also exhibit at NYIGF – like Albertine Press, Carta Inc., May Day Studio, and Pistachio Press (you can check out their booths from the Stationery Show right here) – and to catch up with other friends.  Smock made their first appearance at the NYIGF, with a super cute booth full of paper pinwheels and bunting made from their gift wrap sheets:

    Smock-NYIGF-Holiday

    Smock-NYIGF-Pinwheels Smock-NYIGF-Pinwheel

    Smock-NYIGF-Wedding

    Smock-NYIGF-Letterpress-Cards Smock-NYIGF-Gift-Wrap

    Smock-NYIGF-Boxes
    {smock}

    I absolutely loved the Laurel Denise booth design this year!  The book page wallpaper and manzanita branches were the perfect way to showcase Laurel’s lovely jewelry:

    Laurel Denise

    Laurel Denise Book Pages Wallpaper Laurel Denise Jewelry

    Laurel-Denise-Jewelry

    Laurel-Denise-Jewelry
    {laurel denise}

    I am completely in love with these new wooden silhouettes and necklaces from Figs and Ginger – not only are the necklaces gorgeous, but the wood veneer silhouettes can be customized as a beautiful keepsake!

    Figs-Ginger-Wood-Silhouette

    Figs-Ginger-Wood-Silhouette-Necklaces
    {figs and ginger}

    Cute new holiday cards and boxed note card sets from 9 Spot Monk:

    9 Spot Monk Cards

    9 Spot Monk Holiday Cards

    9 Spot Monk Holiday Cards
    {9 Spot Monk}

    I also came across this amazing booth from Mex Events (warning – the website plays music) full of gorgeous papel picado banners, everything from little skeletons to mini-banners to full-size banners for parties and holidays.  I was in complete heaven!

    Mexican papel picado banners

    Mexican papel picado banners

    Mexican papel picado banners

    Mexican papel picado banners

    Mex Events will also work with brides and grooms on custom designs for wedding invitations and save the dates, as well as custom banners for wedding receptions.  So cool!

    Stay tuned for more from the Gift Fair coming up soon!

    {smock photos by stephen michael garey for oh so beautiful paper, all other photos by me}

    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}