Amy + Forrest’s Modern Illustrated Wedding Invitations

Today’s second set of real invitations comes from Amy Hardy, a freelance designer who was married in Nashville this past June!  Amy put together a fun, modern wedding invitation suite with hand lettering (and letters individually constructed from paper!) that also incorporates her husband’s background in landscape architecture.  So cool!

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From Amy: I am an art director and graphic designer, and my husband Forrest is studying Landscape Architecture.  We met through a mutual friend in 2007 and got to know each other as running partners.  Once we finally started dating, our friendship quickly became romantic and real.  Within the first year of dating, we knew this was it.  On June 26, 2010 we made the promise of marriage to one another.  Our wedding was in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Our wedding stationery represented our creative and detail-oriented personalities, as well as our wedding’s charming Southern summer theme.  This included save-the-dates, invitations with a belly band and RSVP card, programs, favors, signage, and thank you cards.

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I considered every detail in the stationery, from the stamps to the envelope liners. After constructing individual letters out of paper, I added vine details and Delicato as a secondary typeface.

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I love bright colored accents (note my husband’s bright red hair!) and hand-rendered typography, so we knew our stationery had to be typographic and colorful. Because of his blue eyes, red hair, and fun personality, Forrest wanted to wear a bright blue bow tie. That led to a bright, jewel blue as our founding color, with yellow as the accent.

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Because printing was digital, we used Mohawk Via Vellum to slightly raise the type.  The paper’s subtle and soft texture also complimented the cut paper typography.

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I was inspired by our unique obsessions and the details that define us as a couple.  For instance, Forrest has a plant background, so I detailed the typography with vines. For favors, we made packets of wildflower seeds.  Each packet read, “Wildflower Seeds: Please plant these to celebrate the beauty of this day.”

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We had a blast at our Save the Date photo shoot, as seen in the photo we chose.

Beautiful Amy, thank you so much for sharing your wedding invitations and stationery!  For more from Amy and Forrest’s gorgeous wedding just click right here, and you can check out more of Amy’s design work right here!

{image credits: invitation photos by Amy | reception photos by Kristyn Hogan}

*Mohawk Paper is one of our fantastic sponsors; for more on our editorial policies, please click here.

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  It’s a glorious day here in DC, so I’m taking advantage of the slightly cooler air to run a few errands and enjoy the sunshine (while it lasts!).  It’s also apple season, which feels incredibly sudden since I feel like I was just out picking blackberries a few weekends ago, but I’m hoping to find some time to go apple picking over the next couple of weeks.  Hooray for Fall!  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend!

…and in case you missed it, a round-up of this week’s posts:

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

{photo via truly smitten}

Colorful Edge Painting

I absolutely adore the technique of edge painting – it’s such a wonderful way to add a subtle pop of color and personality to a business card or wedding invitation.

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Adrienne from Dingbat Press sent me a note to let me know that she’s now providing edge painting for invitations and business cards, and – just for Oh So Beautiful Paper readers – she’s offering FREE edge painting on orders placed in the month of September!  Just make sure to mention Oh So Beautiful Paper when you contact Dingbat Press to request an estimate!

{image credits: dingbat press}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  I’m still on my blog field trip that I mentioned at the beginning of the week – and while I’ll have full details next week, I’m seriously excited because today we’re heading to Brimfield!  It’s my first time at the show and I have a long list of things I’m hoping to find and bring back home.  I’m afraid I don’t have my usual Friday round-up post for you today, so instead I’ll leave you with a few photos from our trip so far…

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…we’ve been up in the mountains, and today the cooler fall weather brought clouds, a bit of rain, and LOTS of mist.  For someone who isn’t used to spending a lot of time this far up above sea level, it was pretty cool and more than a little surreal.  I can only imagine how beautiful these mountains must be once the leaves start to turn!

So that’s it for me until Monday – oh, and don’t forget to enter for a chance to win 100 letterpress Save the Dates from 42 Pressed – the contest closes Monday at midnight!  But just in case you missed it this week…

See you all next week!

{all photos by me}

Eleanor + Armin’s Chipboard Wedding Invitations

Today’s real invitations come to us from Eleanor, a graphic designer and recent bride whose father happens to be a letterpress printer (lucky girl!).  Eleanor knew that she wanted the invitations to reflect her wedding’s outdoor garden party theme, but chose to print on chipboard for a more relaxed feel.  Eleanor and her fiancé spent two days with her Dad in the print shop creating her three-color wedding invitation, and fortunately for us she documented the entire process!

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From Eleanor: My parents live on a 5 acre property in Sebastopol, which is not quite a backyard but not quite a farm, and I wanted the invitations to reflect the feeling of an outdoor, mid-summer, evening garden party.  I knew white string party lights would be a key element in our wedding reception décor and decided to make them a featured part of our invitation design.

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The overall feel of the wedding was homemade and DIY with some of the print shop elements that I grew up with – butcher paper from my Dad’s shop for the table runners, chipboard for the invitations, and old wood type table numbers that we painted to go along with our color scheme.

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I intentionally did not try to match everything perfectly, there was an overall look that tied everything together.

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My dad is an longtime letterpress printer and is somewhat of a curmudgeon (he doesn’t even have a website!) – he makes a big point of refusing to print items such as wedding invitations.  He wanted me to see how much work goes into making the invitations I designed.

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If I had known how difficult it is to get white to read on chip board I would have never designed them that way!  It was indeed a good education.  I’m  very happy with how the invitations came out, but mostly what makes them so special is they are infused with so much love – as my dad, my husband and I bonded over those two days while his Heidelberg press huffed, puffed and clanked away in his shop.

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Eleanor has a ton more photos from the printing process, which you can find on her flickr page, and you can see more from Eleanor’s wedding over on her blog.  Eleanor has also created a printable version of her wedding invitation suite, which you can find available for purchase on her website right here!  Thanks so much Eleanor!

{image credits: Eleanor | E.M. Papers}