{happy weekend!}

We're currently having the most beautiful stretch of spring weather here in DC, and all I really want to do right now is sit outside and enjoy it.  This is definitely a weekend for trying to do some yard work, but I'm also thinking about taking a quick field trip to take advantage of all the gorgeous sunshine this weekend, even if it's just to someplace nearby like Mount Vernon (I love the lawn behind the house, such a gorgeous view!).  But in the meantime…

Spring-window

…a few links for your weekend:

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

{image credits: fine little day}

Melissa + Jerome’s Golf Theme Save the Dates

Longtime reader Melissa just sent out the Save the Dates for her upcoming wedding, and she was kind enough to send over photos of the finished product!

From Melissa: We are getting married at an elegant golf course in Saratoga Springs (Saratoga National Golf Club) this fall and wanted to play up the location on the Save the Date.

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Since I am a graphic designer I was really excited to design and create my own ‘save the date’ (and will be starting the invites soon).  We letterpress printed and diecut the card with Studio on Fire, and printed the inside cover argyle pattern on my printer.

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Melissa-golf-tee-save-the-date-detail

The colors of our wedding our brown and green so we stayed within those colors for all the elements of the package.  We created a “JM” logo that will be used thru out the wedding and you see it here on the card, in the middle of the inside argyle cover pattern, and we even created a stamp for the outside wrapping.

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Melissa-golf-tee-save-the-date-mailing

The mailing label wraps around to the back where you find the logo again as well as the return address.  Once we picked our venue, I knew I just had to send out golf tees with our names… and putting it all together was a lot of fun.

Thanks so much Melissa!  I’ll be back with my usual Friday round-up post a bit later this afternoon!

{image credits: melissa depasquale}

Chris + Emma’s Vintage Texas Cactus Wedding Invitations

Brace yourselves, because today’s real wedding invitations are truly spectacular.  Combining three of my favorite things — gorgeous calligraphy, letterpress printing, and vintage stamps — Emma + Chris’s southwestern cactus-inspired wedding invitations are a true representation of their upcoming Texas wedding.  So let’s get right to it!

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From Emma: I am a designer living in Austin, Texas. I started designing wedding invitations about a year ago, when I took a job at a local invitation shop.  I draw my inspiration from nature, art, and all things vintage. (Update: Emma has since formed her own design studio called Antiquaria in partnership with calligrapher Bailey Amon)

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Our wedding will be out doors in the hill country of Austin and I wanted an invitation that reflected the southwest without being overtly western.  I had the invitations letterpress printed at our awesome vendor Stationery Works using a warm gray ink.

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Keeping all the letterpress printed pieces one color helped keep the overall cost down and I was able to add in pops of color with the bright yellow envelope liner and a reproduction vintage postcard (which I printed myself). All the pieces were then tied together in little bundles with yellow bakers twine from Whisker Graphics.

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Emma-chris-texas-cactus-wedding-invitations-calligraphy

The outer envelopes brought it all together with calligraphy by Bailey Amon and vintage cactus postage that I found on ebay.

Thanks so much Emma!  You can find more of Emma’s design inspiration and influences, as well as more tidbits about her wedding, on her blog, Love of Folly, and more of her beautiful designs at Antiquaria.

Image Credits: Emma | Antiquaria

Custom Illustrated Letterpress Portraits

Kavamore Press recently sent me a note letting me know about their new collaboration with wedding illustrator Stroopwoffle creating letterpress portraits for use in Save the Dates, thank you cards, or other wedding ephemera – or even in business cards and baby announcements:

Kavamore-stroopwoffle

Kavamore Press is currently offering a 20% discount on all orders placed before April 15.  Check out all the details right here!

{image credits: kavamore press}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm looking forward to some family time this weekend, and to hopefully wrapping up a couple of projects I feel like I've been working on forever.  I'm not looking forward to all the rain we're supposed to be getting here on the East Coast this weekend, but I suppose that's to be expected this month (and I'm definitely glad that it's raining instead of snowing!).  But in the meantime…

Paper-hearts

…a few links for your weekend:

That does it for me this week!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you here again on Monday!

{image credits: shutter sisters via mary ruffle}