Carolyn + Dave’s Traditional Romantic Wedding Invitations

Sarah from Banter & Charm sent over these beautiful traditional wedding invitations that she created for a recent client – I love the subtle gray and white color palette paired with pink edge painting! Sarah decided to keep things simple with a typography-focused design letterpress printed on super thick paper. Always a classic combination!

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From Sarah: A self-proclaimed paper snob, Carolyn was looking for a traditional, yet romantic design on thick, luxurious paper. She shared her inspiration board with me, and after a bit of brainstorming we decided on a classy, typographic design with letterpress printing in gray ink on thick 220# cotton paper. For a subtle pop of color, we added pink edge painting to the invitation and RSVP. The return address and rsvp address were letterpress printed to finish off the invitation suite.

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For Carolyn’s day of stationery, we went with a similar typographic design, and used pink again to add a romantic touch. For the menu and program we went with flat printing to stay within budget and on schedule. The meal choice illustrations made another appearance on the dinner menu to tie everything together.

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Thanks Sarah!

Design: Banter & Charm

Letterpress Printing: Rohner Letterpress

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

Photo Credit: Banter & Charm

Wedding Stationery Inspiration: Bougainvillea

Bougainvillea’s bright pops of color made it an instant hit on blogs and social media. It naturally worked its way onto the wedding scene in every piece from the alter to the dinner table. While bougainvillea is a beautiful vine that can be incorporated into many spaces of your wedding day, there is also a lot of inspiration to be pulled from its vibrant colors. – Lauren

Bougainvillea Wedding Inspiration

My initial inspiration came from this gorgeous bohemian wedding on Green Wedding Shoes. Taking a cue from the various tones of coral and pink, here are some fun ways to incorporate bougainvillea into for your wedding day.

dessert signage

Dessert and food labels via Style Me Pretty

transparent-place-cards

Ombre escort cards via Ashley Gain Blog // Translucent escort cards via Martha Stewart Weddings

cocktail napkins

Custom cocktail napkins via Style Me Pretty

escort-card-display

Escort card display via Style Me Pretty

ombre menu

Hand painted menu via Shannon Kirsten

chalk-favor-tagswatercolor-table-numbers

Coral Chalkboard Favor Tags via Kraft Stash on Etsy // Watercolor table numbers via Style Me Pretty

Whether you decide to use the plant itself or find color inspiration in the beautiful blooms – there are so many different ways to incorporate this summer trend into your big day!

Where To Find Vintage Stamps

As you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of using vintage stamps on milestone stationery like wedding invitations and baby announcements. I used vintage stamps for my own wedding invitations, moving announcements, and for Sophie’s birth announcements almost two (!!) years ago – and I’ve featured countless wedding invitations with beautiful vintage stamps over the years. Vintage stamps offer a wonderful opportunity to represent your personal style, whether chosen thematically or by color palette. And since unused postage never expires, there are endless options to suit everything from a formal black tie wedding to a casual backyard gathering. Some readers have asked for tips on where to find vintage stamps over the last few weeks, so today I thought I’d share my go-to sources!

Where to Find Vintage Stamps by Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Union Photography from Allison and Mark’s wedding invitations

eBay

If you have the time to search for stamps yourself, eBay is a wonderful resource for finding vintage stamps! This is my personal go-to source, and I like to search for entire sheets of vintage stamps. You can start here, and you’ll find sheets of everything from 3¢ stamps to recently issued stamps. You can refine the results by adding keywords – like science, love, birds, etc. – but leave out the word “stamp” since you’re already searching by stamp sheets. This method can be super effective if you’re searching for thematic stamps, but you may run into a bit of trouble if you’re trying to group stamps based on a particular color palette.

The best way to search for vintage stamps on eBay is by identifying the Scott number of a particular stamp that you love, since many eBay stamp dealers will use only the Scott number in their listing. For example, a really pretty flower “Love” stamp is #1951, my favorite constellation stamp is #3945, and another favorite stamp with state birds and flowers is #1953.

Where to Find Vintage Stamps by Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by me from Sophie’s Constellation-Inspired Birth Announcements

Online Shops

There are a bunch of online vintage stamp shops that will curate a collection of stamps for you based on your theme or color palette – such a great option for busy couples or anyone feeling super overwhelmed by the whole process. There are probably a million more that I don’t know about, but here are a few of the shops on my radar:

Underwood Letterpress

Verde Studio

Pack and Post

TreasureFox

Vintage Postage Shop

Darling One

Love the Postage

A couple more online stamp shop options: Champion Stamps and US Mint Sheets. They don’t offer stamp curation, at least that I know of, but you can buy tons of vintage stamps here. Just browse by Scott number through pages and pages of vintage stamps to find what you like – just pay attention to the pricing, which may not be face value.

Where to Find Vintage Stamps by Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Antiquaria from this Vintage-Inspired DIY Save the Date Tutorial

Local stamp dealers, stamp club members, and stamp shows

If you can track down a local stamp dealer or stamp club, they will often have vintage postage that they are willing to part with for face value. I’m told they come by large piles of vintage stamps when they buy stamp collections – but many are considered “worthless” from a stamp collecting point of view. Seriously: just Google your city/area and “stamp club” and see what comes up. You can try emailing the club or see if they list upcoming stamp show dates and go talk to them in person.

Where to Find Vintage Stamps by Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photo by Paisley Quill from Brooks and Erin’s wedding invitations

Local stamp shops and antique stores

If there is a stamp and coin shop in your area, you’re in luck! Stop by and ask to see their face value stamps. Stamp museums also often sell vintage stamps; a fun detail I discovered during a visit to the National Postal Museum earlier this year. You can also try local antique shops – if they don’t have any in the shop they may still be able to connect you with a local dealer with an extra supply of face value stamps. I’ve also heard of some people stumbling onto affordable stamp collections at flea markets – just be sure that you’re buying unused/uncanceled stamps!

Where to Find Vintage Stamps by Oh So Beautiful PaperWhere to Find Vintage Stamps by Oh So Beautiful Paper

Photos via Martha Stewart Weddings

A few tips for using vintage stamps:

While you’re searching and shopping for stamps, make sure that you have one stamp worth at least 15¢ (or more!). Most wedding invitations require a minimum of 70¢ postage at the current rate. The 3¢ and 8¢ stamps are beautiful, but you’ll need a 29¢ or 33¢ stamp somewhere in the mix to make up the difference.

Consider planning out your stamp arrangement ahead of time to make sure you leave room for an address – and to maximize visual impact. Some stamps look best in a straight row across the top of an envelope, while others look best in a puzzle piece arrangement in the corner. It all depends on the group of stamps you select!

Tell your stationer and/or calligrapher as soon as possible if you plan to incorporate vintage stamps into your wedding stationery. A calligrapher will definitely need to know so he or she can leave enough room at the top of the envelope for your stamps, and a large number of vintage stamps might affect a stationer’s idea to use a non-traditional envelope shape or layout.

If a particular stamp design is in high demand, some dealers will list the stamp at a price greater than face value. I’ve seen this happen to some of the pretty “Love” stamps frequently used on wedding invitations, so if you have your heart set on a particular stamp you might need to factor that cost into your stationery budget. I personally think it’s worth it to find the perfect stamp for the occasion, but the trick is to find stamps that collectors don’t care about yet make a visual impact when assembled as a small group on your envelope.

Those are my tips! Are any of you planning to use vintage stamps soon?

Party Paper: A Camping Party

I think I’m in denial that we have officially entered the final few weeks of summer. Can this season please never end!? But nevertheless, there’s still time to squeeze in those summer favorites… like camp! Sure many camps may be coming to a close, but that’s no reason why you can’t throw a camping party! The trees, the starry night sky, it’s all perfect inspiration for your final summer bash. â€”Kelly

Camping Party Ideas via Oh So Beautiful PaperNo. 1 Camp Banner from Ello There at Urbanic, No. 2 Wood Chain Kit from Sideshow Press, No. 3 Paddle Postcards from Sideshow Press, No. 4 Starry Plates from Urbanic, No. 5 Birch Paper Straws from Thatch & Thistle Supply Co., No. 6 Camp Stationery Survival Kit from Norman’s Printery

{images via their respective sources}

 

Today I love…

I used to do these kinds of posts all the time back in the day – and I kind of miss them! So today I thought I’d share a few of the things are inspiring me these days or that have caught my eye over the last couple of weeks:

Today I Love: Summer Inspiration from Oh So Beautiful Paper

1. Mini copper planters from Julia Kostreva

2. These DIY printable party invitations from Martha Stewart are an oldie but a goodie – and so perfect for summer!

3. Cantaloupe-Basil Granita

4. Tilly baguette leather clutch with scallop detail by Matine

5. This scallop necklace is so pretty (and I apparently have a thing for scallop details these days)

6. We have this amazing ship kite from Haptic Lab in white in Sophie’s room and we LOVE it! It’s made by artisans in Bali from locally-sourced bamboo and nylon – but I also love the canary yellow version!