Wedding Wednesday {Signed, Sealed, Delivered}

Did I tell you guys the story of our wedding invitations? (I promise, promise, promise the big reveal of all the wedding picture details is coming very soon!)

Well, I got very ambitious with our invites - I'm a self-confessed paper addict and just couldn't resist the temptation to go all out, with letterpress,  with envelopes within envelopes, with custom stamps, individualized labels and envelop liners. Handmade envelope liners. Done with my hands. For hours. And hours. And hours.



No, those are not my results (oh how I wish they were!). Let me tell ya, my results...may not have been worth all the work! If only I'd known about Mr. Boddington's Studio and the stunning options envelope options they provide! That's where those stunners are from.

And don't even get me started on Mr. Boddington Studio's invitation suites. I've died and gone to graphic design heaven.




spotted via snippet & ink

Are you drooling all over your keyboard yet?

I'm desperate to design another invitation suite. I just need a proper event. A Sunday brunch warrants it, right?! How about happy hour with the girls? Too much? Come on people, when did Evite take over the world?!

Sponsor {Grace Edmonds Calligraphy}

For those of you in the wedding invitation market, or really if you have any paper needs, I'd immediately point you to Apartment #34's newest sponsor, Grace Edmonds, and her amazing calligraphy. Her work is jaw-droppingly good.

Her custom hand written work will turn any invitation into an heirloom piece. Her work really speaks for itself!





Be sure to check out Grace's website for more amazing examples in her portfolio - and then if you're not getting married - make up an excuse to work with her! How wonderful would it be to throw evite out the window and invite your birthday or summer BBQ guests to a fete with a handwritten invite!


Would you like to reach thousands of style savvy readers everyday and let them know about your services, shop or art? Apartment #34 is accepting spnosorship for July and August and offering a small business special!

Email apt34blog {at} gmail {dot} com by July 10 for more information!

Wedding Wednesday {What's Fit to Print}

One of my absolute favorite parts of our wedding planning was designing the invitation. I'm a total graphic designer wannabe who is a freakish font loving, paper crazed, letter press fiend. Fabulous wedding invitation suites make me weak in the knees. That's why I just had to share these stunners with you.

The attention to detail in this suite - from the berry-paper lined envelopes, to the personality-filled stamps, gorgeous calligraphy and hand drawn map make me want to frame the entire thing on my wall - and it's not even my wedding!



I love how this second suite is clean and crisp but still incorporates my beloved calligraphy and some really adorable Mexican iconography. And did you catch the Mexican themed stamps too?



The couple behind this wedding kept the gorgeous coming with their seating cards, dinner menus and table numbers. I'm swooning over the orange and grey color combo too!




Do you notice a grey theme growing? This last set of invites land right in my favorite color scheme with sweet design details including the nature-based illustrations, small pops of a yummy mauve and extras like the circular wedding itinerary that mirror the lovely mums. The white on grey calligraphy on the envelopes put me right over the edge.


images via 1 lost resource help! 2 erica and abrahm at ruby pr 3 lost resource help!

I think I could redesign my wedding invites 100 times. There are a million amazing wedding invitation designers out there and I'd love to work with them all! Of course I have to give a shout out to Brown Sugar Design - who I worked with for my wedding and could not have been happier with.

If you're in the midst in of invite planning be sure to check back in a bit - I'll have another hot tip to share!

Wedding Invitations

This year the hottest wedding invitations styles take their cue from the world around us. Bold prints and delicate, subtle patterns combine in designer Vera Wang's wedding invitation lines.Your wedding is your day, a day when your personal style should hold sway.

Wedding Wednesday {Driving Directions}

Planning a wedding in a relatively remote location has me wondering how I'm going to help my guests find our little paradise. Certainly it's not on any map you can buy in a store. 

That's why I was so excited when I was browsing one of my favorite inspiration destinations, Green Wedding Shoes and discovered the invitation suite from this ah-maze-ing wedding. Seriously. 

The invites include an equally amazing hand-drawn map.

Couture Maps is behind these beautiful creations. Their portfolio is filled with gorgeous example after gorgeous example.

Wouldn't it make such an amazing keepsake for you and your guests? 

Unfortunately, a couture map is a bit outside my wedding budget - but who knows...I can doodle. Maybe I'll take a rudimentary crack at map making myself!

Wedding Wednesday {The Perfect Pairings}

This week we're working with our brilliant designers at Brown Sugar Studios to finalize our invitation suite so I have letterpress on the brain. There's nothing more impressive than an amazingly coordinated invite set.

These are a few of my current favorites.

Do I spy bakers twine??

I've never seen country look so classy!

You should know the pears and blossoms were hand drawn by the bride! Swoon. I'm dying to share our invites with you, but we'll all just have to wait until they hit the mail. It'll be here before you know it, trust me. 

PS. Brides - there is a great letterpress giveaway at 100 Layer Cake this week. Don't miss your chance to enter!

invites by alee and press & parrott design studio via 100 layer cake & green wedding shoes

Wedding Wednesday {Giveaway}

To celebrate the completion of a major wedding planning milestone - sending out our save the date announcements, we have a great giveaway for you - a grab bag of amazing greeting cards by Wiley Valentine.

Wiley Valentine creates wedding invitations, stationary, note cards and all things us paper addicts adore. They are generously offering Apt#34 readers a card grab bag that includes flat and letterpress greetings and their environmentally friendly seed cards.

This is a card lover's dream prize people!

To enter, visit Wiley Valentine, peruse their lovely cards and then leave a comment here letting us know which one is your fave. A winner will be chosen at random at noon on Friday, Oct. 30 and notified via email.

Bonus: If you follow Apt#34 on twitter and tweet (or retweet) this giveaway you'll get an extra five entires.

In the meantime head to Wiley Valentine's blog for great wedding inspiration here. 

Good luck!

Wedding Wednesday {Paper}

On Saturday we hit the six month mark until the wedding! Proper wedding etiquette will tell you that destination weddings call for save the date announcements to be sent out at least 6 months in advance. 

Luckily, I love all things related to wedding invitations so I had a blast coming up with ideas and now that they've been sent I get to share the final product with you.

We came up with the idea of using vintage Mexican postcards . Fun, right? But hard to find. Thank gawd for Amazon and replicas!

I'm thrilled to announce that we decided to work with the uberfabulous Brown Sugar Design for our wedding invitations (more on their amazing work in the weeks to come!). 

Brown Sugar gave us the brilliant idea of having a custom stamp made to simplify the save the date process even more. I couldn't be happier with the final product.

The finishing touch was to put each postcard in a brown envelope tied up with string - it reminded me of old airmail packages and gives the recipients something to open.

The announcements should be hitting mailboxes as I type this post so I guess there's no backing out now. ;) 

In celebration of my love of all things paper I'll be featuring an amazing giveaway later today. Be sure to check back - you won't want to miss it!

In the meantime, be sure to check out Brown Sugar Design for more paper inspiration!