Whitney + A.K.’s Colorful Letterpress Wedding Invitations

Today I’m super excited to feature the wedding invitations from Whitney of Gus & Ruby Letterpress!  Whitney and Samantha are two seriously talented stationers, so when it came time for Whitney’s own wedding I was dying to see the invitations!  Whitney worked with Love*Jenna Calligraphy, incorporating Jenna’s beautiful script into a bright and colorful invitation suite inspired by dahlias and the bridesmaids’ wedding attire.  Cyd from The Sweetest Occasion is featuring the full wedding today, so check out all the beautiful details right here.  But now, time for the invitations and coordinating wedding stationery!

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitation-Suite

From Whitney:  The entire wedding was planned around the color of the bridesmaid’s dresses (a vibrant, warm purple shade) and shoes (a bright shade somewhere between peach and coral) and the invitations were no exception.  I felt strongly that while I wanted our invitations to be different, I didn’t want to do something so over the top that it didn’t mesh with my and A.K.’s personalities, which are laid back and fun, but not flashy.  This was a struggle for me as a designer, printer and owner of a stationery boutique, but I think I succeeded in the end.  Overall I wanted the invitation suite to set the tone for the wedding: a fun, backyard garden-party with saturated mid-August colors.

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitation-Envelopes

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitation-Muslin-Bag

We used dahlias as our main flower and I created abstract versions of them to use as the design for the paper goods.  I didn’t want them to be obvious flowers so I spread them around the invitation at varying sizes and heights so they would feel celebratory – almost in the way fireworks do.  We chose Jenna Hein from Love*Jenna Calligraphy to write choice words for each piece because of her playful, whimsical style that also has traditional undertones.  The muslin bag came into play because I have never been a big fan of opening an invitation envelope and having numerous pieces fall into my hands.  The bag housed all of the pieces and also tied in to the numerous textures we used throughout the wedding.

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitations Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitations

The biggest challenge aside from the number of runs through the press (most pieces were 4-color) was hand-mixing the inks to match the fabrics.  None of the colors I ended up with were actual PMS colors!

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Invitation-RSVP-Card

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Rehearsal-Dinner-Invitation

In addition to beautiful wedding and rehearsal dinner invitations, Whitney created several coordinating day-of stationery elements, including letterpress ceremony programs that honored the memories of family members, beautiful table numbers, and fun cake menus.  And of course, as a stationer, Whitney couldn’t forget to print herself some matching thank you cards!

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Ceremony-Program Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Ceremony-Program

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Ceremony-Program

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Ceremony-Program

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Table-Number-Sign Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Cake-Menu

Letterpress-Calligraphy-Wedding-Thank-You-Cards

So pretty!  Congratulations again to Whitney, and don’t forget to check out her beautiful wedding right here!

Design and Letterpress Printing: Gus & Ruby Letterpress

Calligraphy: Love *Jenna Calligraphy

Photo Cred­its: Brea McDon­ald Photography

{happy weekend!}

Happy Friday everyone!  Next week I’ll be taking a little blog break, but I have two of my favorite bloggers filling in with some fabulous guest posts – Jane from Ill Seen, Ill Said and Kate from Wit + Delight!  You’ll have to wait until next week to see what they have planned for you, but I know you’re going to love it all!  But in the meantime…

…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!

{image credit: mayu}

DIY Will You Be My Bridesmaid Bear Hug Cards

Kathryn from Blackbird Letterpress let me know about the incredibly sweet way that one of her customers asked her friends to be bridesmaids in her upcoming wedding.  Meryl used Kathryn’s Grizzly Bear Hug die cut cards, inserted some photobooth photos that she’d taken with friends over the years, and a tiny banner containing the relevant question.

Bear-Hug-Bridesmaid-Card

Meryl reports that she received many hugs and yeses in return.  Yay!

Bear-Hug-Bridesmaid-Card Bear-Hug-Bridesmaid-Card

Such a cute idea – thanks Kathryn and Meryl!

{image credits: meryl}

{happy weekend!}

Happy Halloween weekend everyone!  This is shaping up to be a bit of a crazy weekend, and not just because of Halloween… you may have heard of this tiny little rally happening in my neighborhood?  Should be interesting!  Aside from all the commotion, I’m looking forward to some Halloween fun with good friends and hopefully a few trick-or-treaters, 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 a Happy Halloween, and I’ll see you all back here on Monday!

{image credits: bekah campbell via mary ruffle}

{happy weekend!}

Ok, I’ll admit it, this week totally won.  I’m exhausted and ready for a much-needed weekend.  I’m also really looking forward to this weekend, because tomorrow is the annual Crafty Bastards fair here in DC!  If you’re in the DC area, you should definitely come check it out.  Also relevant to DC-based readers, one of the many projects I’ve been working on recently is almost done!  Want a sneak peek?  I’m so excited!  But in the meantime…

…a few links for your weekend:

…and just 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 (and hopefully relaxing) weekend, and I’ll see you all back here on Monday!

{photo by aimee, who has the most lovely photostream, found via design crush}