New Giveaway! Save the Dates from 42 Pressed!

Dear readers, Oh So Beautiful Paper turns two years old today!  It’s been a truly wonderful two years – thank you all so much for your comments, e-mails, and just for stopping by each day.  I feel so incredibly lucky to share gorgeous paperwares with you every day!  As a special thank you, and to help celebrate our 2nd blog anniversary, 42 Pressed is generously offering one lucky reader the chance to win 100 one-color letterpress Save the Dates!

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So here are the rules: Head on over to 42 Pressed to browse the wedding collection and select a favorite design.  Then come back here and leave a comment with your wedding date, choice of favorite invitation suite, and a quick explanation of how that design will fit in with your wedding day vision!

You’ll have until 11:59 p.m. EST on Monday, September 12 to enter — then we’ll announce the winner on Tuesday!  Bonne chance!

{image credits: 42 Pressed}

Birthday Treasures

I mentioned on twitter that, instead of new things, my Mom sends me little family heirlooms and treasures for my birthday each year.  Past gifts include some of my grandmother’s jewelry and my grandfather’s Army Air Corps pilot’s wings.  I never knew either of my grandparents on my mother’s side, so it’s nice to keep a tiny bit of family history with me.  This year, my Mom sent some family photos, and I thought I’d share a few:

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{my grandparents on their wedding day – my grandmother made her own dress!}

{my mom, my grandmother Margaret, and my great-grandmother Hazel}

{my Mom and grandmother – the first baby of the family!}

{all photos by me}

Frederick + Ana’s Grammercy Park Wedding Invitations

Happy Tuesday everyone!  This week I’m out of town on a blog field trip, which I can’t wait to tell you all about next week!  While I’m on the road I’ve got lots of fun things lined up for you, including a bunch of gorgeous real wedding invitations and a fabulous giveaway!  First up this week, a beautiful wedding invitation from Bryn at Paperfinger.  The invitation suite was letterpress printed in elegant black and white, with Bryn’s lovely calligraphy and illustrations:

New-York-Black-White-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitation

From Bryn: Ana wanted something that felt metropolitan and contemporary – nothing too frilly.  We decided that focusing on the reception site, none other than the Gramercy Park Hotel, would be a great approach.  I love drawing street scenes and neighborhood views and have been incorporating that perspective in a lot of invitations.

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The wedding location is often a great way to capture the style and spirit of the couple.  This hotel is situated on a beautiful block facing Gramercy Park, so we made that view the focus of the invitation while using a clean, modern calligraphy style that was a perfect match for Ana and Frederick.

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I had a lot of fun zooming into Google Maps street-level view to find details for the drawing.  The technology is amazing and makes this kind of illustration so much easier.  From the comfort of my studio, I can get just the right angle on the street or zoom in to see what the park fence is actually like up close.

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New-York-Black-White-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitation-RSVP

The fence itself was so appealing a graphic that I decided to tie it together with the reply postcard so that the two pieces could actually fit together as a diptych.

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Ana was a self-proclaimed non-fussy, “no hearts” kind of girl, but we were both so excited after the invitations were printed (letterpress, black ink) that we couldn’t help but hug!

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The invitation was printed on super-thick and luxurious cotton paper – I love Bryn’s crisp black and white illustrations and the texture of the letterpress impression on the back of the invitation.  Gorgeous work as always Bryn!

{all photos by me}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  Are you all looking forward to the long holiday weekend?  I definitely am – it’ll be nice to have an extra day to catch up on things and it also happens to be my birthday this weekend!  I don’t usually make a big fuss over my birthday, but since I’ll be entering the last year of my twenties I’m paying a bit more attention this time around.  In other news, I haven’t been able to stop listening to the new Wolf Parade album – it’s so good!  The song below is my favorite (sorry, there’s no video, just the audio track) and I can’t wait until they come to the area on tour in a couple of months.  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend!

And in case you missed it, a quick summary of this week’s posts:

That’s it for me this week!  Monday is a holiday here in the United States (and Canada), so I’ll be back on Tuesday – I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Sneak Peek – Martha Stewart Weddings Fall Issue

The new issue of Martha Stewart Weddings is coming to newsstands in just a few days, but in the meantime I have a little sneak peek to share with you!

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The Fall issue will be devoted to all things fashion (fitting for September, no?), and when it came to stationery the editors decided to focus on wedding invitation designs inspired by the elements of fashion, including pleats, scalloped edges, tuxedo details, sheer fabrics, fanciful flourishes, and stitching.  The story includes six of my favorite designers and three amazing calligraphers – I can’t wait to see everything in print!

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By the way, have you been following the opalescent series on The Bride’s Guide?  I love this invitation suite from Sideshow Press.

{image credits: Cover by Ditte Isager and invitation photography by Johnny Miller/Martha Stewart Weddings, Fall 2010}