Oh So!

Nole at Oh So Beautiful Paper just posted a whole gallery of our letterpressed wedding invites; everything from our signature line to our custom collection! Thank you, Nole for the wonderful article. We love your site and are always checking in to see what fabulous things you've found.

Be sure to check back at Oh So Beautiful Paper later this afternoon where she'll have even more of our work on display.

See more reviews of Peculiar Pair Press on Project Wedding.

Chasing Dreams

Sometimes we come across fans of our work posting things that catches us by surprise and makes us blush with pride.

Riz over at Chasing Dreams had some absolutely beautiful images (see above) of our Paper Patisserie Notebook set along with some very kind words. Read the full post below and be sure to visit her site for some more inspiring photographs.

Thank you Riz for the post and making the "switch"!

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July 31st, 2009
Paper Patisserie by Peculiar Pair Press
Posted by Riz in Awesome Things, Online Shops, Photography, Shopping Spree

..is an awesome alternative to Moleskine.

DAY NINE. See? I’m making some progress. I’m little by little getting out of my cave, letting go of things I’ve gotten used to (yes, I meant Moleskine), and trying out something new. *This is the part where you shower me with congratulations and pats on the back.*

So yeah, I’m taking a break from Moleskine but that’s only because I found a prettier (and yes, cheaper even) alternative. Behold, the Paper Patisserie Mini Journal Set (sounds prettier too, eh?) by Peculiar Pair Press.

By the way, I’m taking a break from being wordy also. So tonight, I shall try visual.

Read all about it!

In the News! Read about behind the scenes at Peculiar Pair Press on Felt & Wire . We were delighted to be asked to design and print the current promotional postcard for the Strathmore Show contest. Read below our post on Felt & Wire for submission details.

Cash Prizes! Celebrate the art of writing, inviting, and delighting on paper. Mohawk Fine Papers invites you to show the best of your work on Strathmore papers. Entries will be judged on creative design, production excellence, and appropriate paper choice.

Thanks to everyone at Mohawk paper and Alyson Kuhn for this wonderful opportunity and the delightful article!

Modern Bride : Favour Cones

Check out the August issue of Modern Bride where they reveal their "100 things we love" list. It's their annual guide to the best and the budget friendly. You'll find many inspiring ideas for your event including our adorable letterpressed favour cones.

So many uses, you don't have to choose just one! Stuff with french fries at your summer picnic. Fill with rose petals to toss at the wedding ceremony or hang on the arm of each chair at the reception. Fill with candy and give as a party favour. Mark each place setting at your special dinner party.

To order contact us at info@peculiarpairpress.com and we'll send you an order form. 10 cones per pack / retails $14 a pack

New Venture in Sonoma, California

We are excited to announce our collaboration with the extremely talented duo; Kelly & Emarie of A Savvy Event in Sonoma, California. We will join other "A Listers" of the wedding industry to be showcased as part of their A Savvy Collection of wedding vendors. We'll be available for custom consultations for those in and about Scenic Sonoma. Please give us a ring when you want to plan a visit!

Cool Finds : Alameda

Alameda flea market was a bit less crowded this month. Fourth of July weekend must have had something to do with it. That didn't stop us from finding something to take away. This pair of flour sack bag fronts are silkscreened to perfection! The rooster one is my favorite and might even have a bit of letterpress action as there is a faint hint of of an "impression" on the backside. They are just simply two beautiful examples of an attention to packaging detail that we cherish.

Cool Finds : Fremont Diner

If you ever find yourself driving through Sonoma make sure you stop at the Fremont Diner. (2698 Fremont Drive). What use to be the old "Babes" is now a new hip burger & shake establishment that got it all right. From the vintage candy selection down to the chef side bar seating every last detail is obviously well thought out. This place doesn't just have the look down...the food was delicious. Of course my favorite was the chocolate shake I had a "sip" of...but the made to order ice cream sandwich with either chocolate or vanilla ice cream didn't suck either! They do offer real food as well, breakfast treats from griddle cakes to wild shrimp & grits as well as many choices for lunch; including the fremont burger, daily seasonal salad, or one of my favs macaroni & cheese! Their moto is "farm direct" so everything is seasonal, local & fresh.

I would even make the hour trek drive out there to show the place off to an out-of-towner; it's that cute! But don't just take our word for it...

InStyle - Non Tradional Invites

Our beloved invitation for Jackie & Joby was published in InStyle's invitation story about non traditional invitations. Black and white invite? Ho Hum they say. We have to agree that Jackie & Joby's wedding was far from traditional. Based on a concept of "Beatles Go To India" we were able to combine traditional India motifs with the color palette & iconic imagery of the era of the Beatles. The couple adore the Beatles & planned their honeymoon in India.

We loved the freedom we had to create such a unique invitation. There were belly bands with clouds on them, brightly colored envelopes and even ex libris cards that encouraged guests to bring a book as a gift to expand the couples ever growing collection.

Some amazing industry folks were involved that we love working with! Alison Events helped pull everything together and make sure that all the details were nailed down; Nicole Sillapere designed the wedding to make sure the couples dream became a reality and A Jesse Leake captured all of this amazing work and important event on film.

(photos by Jesse Leake)

A Savvy Event for Alice Waters

Emarie & Kelly of A Savvy Event asked us to create a rustic style menu for a very special dinner hosted by Alice Waters of the infamous Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley. Proceeds from the dinner benefit the Land Based Learning where Ms. Waters serves on the national Advisory Board.

The evening started with Alice Waters in conversation with Craig McNamara at the Farm on Putah Creek. They discussed her views on public school lunches, partnerships with local organic farmers and her inspiration behind her restaurant. Guests at the talk could nibble pizza's oven baked onsite by Buckhorn Grill and sample many delicious organic wines from local vineyards. Many got in line to buy a signed copy of Alice's new book, Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea.

For those who purchased tickets to attend the private dinner with Alice Waters were directed to the beautiful setting designed by A Savvy Event. Glass vases in shades of blue and green filled with local wildflowers graced the king table with natural linens and crisp white plates. The menus were held in place with rafia and every guest had their own unique Peculiar Pair place cards!

Cornerstone Hoedown

We were asked by the lovely ladies at Cornerstone Gardens to create an invite for their upcoming party. They settled on a country howdown theme that was a treat to create. It's always a nice change to design something that is type driven without all the fancy cursive fonts and delicate florals. This invite was bold & brazen..grabbing your attention immediately. The friendly southern tone just makes you want to put on your boots and 2 step the night away.

Kristen said they received so many positive replies the day after they were mailed; all with kudos and praises to the design of the invitation - thank you!

We'll be there, not square, and will post pics of the fabulous venue & festivities.

And if you are still looking for a venue for your fabulous event we urge you to check out Cornerstone! Located at the gateway to the Wine Country, Cornerstone Gardens is a unique and contemporary location that combines an avant-garde landscape with the pure romance of the Sonoma Valley. Cornerstone can accommodate events, from the intimate to the grand, in several picturesque areas. They offer several spaces, which include the Vineyard Lawn, which is surrounded by lush pinot noir vineyards, a Historic Barn, and a grand Zephyr tent nestled in the middle of a rose garden. Small intimate weddings and elopement packages are also available and are held in an intimate and private setting among the vineyards. Cornerstone Gardens is the ultimate choice for an unforgettable celebration. (- cornerstonegardens.com)

The Knot

Last night we attended a festive party hosted by The Knot . It was a celebration to say thanks for all their vendors that help make their magazine & website so fantastic. Mary Beth misses all the fun living so far away! We learned many interesting facts about our clients and what they are looking for when searching for their perfect team of wedding vendors. The Knot chose the impressive SF Design Center as the perfect showcase for a unique celebration. If you are looking for a jaw dropping venue for your wedding this is a must visit!

Our fabulous friend Michelle Walker and I hammed it up in the photo booth provided by Shutter Booth . You can cram a lot of guests into one of these things for some candids you'll be sure to enjoy. The food prepared by Thomas John Events was absolutely delicious. A variety of amazing seafood concoctions filled us up perfectly. Their presentation and friendly staff were an added bonus.

Floral design by Spiral Hand made us want to start to decorate more with unique flowers and unexpected arrangements. Their work was so lovely we wanted to take a few home with us...we didn't though! Promise!!

And as luck would have it I stayed long enough for the raffle only to WIN a spa treatment at the Hotel Vitale . Another tempting option to host your wedding day festivities! I give winning up to the fact that our business card must have felt all too enticing in the raffle box. Deep letterpress impression on 100% cotton paper...yep..had to be the card because I never win anything!!

Thanks again The Knot for a fantastic event! We look forward to our coverage in the Fall Winter issue of the New York Metro. We'll be sure to blog about it.

Love is in the Stamp!!

During my random searching of some of our favorite bookmarked blogs I just stumbled across these! OMG. These are the coolest stamps we have seen in a long..long time. When the United Postal Service gets it right you don't have to spend oodles & oodles on your custom stamps. (Which I hate to say it...is not that often). Hats off to Jeanne Greco who designed this wonderful pair.

Mary Beth's heart goes pitter-pat when she comes across a well designed stamp and I'm sure this one will stop her in her tracks. It is her dream that we will one day be commissioned to design a stamp. Until then we'll have to get our fix by supporting those that do it well!

Attention all brides! Rush out and buy as many of these as you can for your invitations. They will go with any style and are wedding palette friendly. Want to read more about the designer and her concept behind the design? Go to our friends blog at Mohawk Paper, Felt and Wire for more discussion.

Maribel

We were honored to be asked by one of our favorite consignment shops in Oakland, Maribel, to participate in a local designer showcase! The lovely ladies, Anne & Sophia are such wonderful hosts and adorable girls. They have great taste and it shows in their selection of purses, designer dresses and mouth watering jewelry.

We were teamed up with Morgana of M.E.Moore who makes such addictive jewelry pieces it's hard to decide on just one. That's why my jewelry box is filled with her creations. You can just put on jeans, a t-shirt and one of her one of a kind necklaces and you'll receive compliments galore!

It was a joy to meet Maria of This is Calliope as well. She makes the most adorable children's frocks. It makes you wish you had a little one - sort of! Maria is finally introducing a . . .wait for it. . . adult line! Now you don't have to try and squeeze yourself into a 3T dress and call it a shirt! You can find her pretty much every Sunday at the Temescal Farmers Market.

Our line was so well received Maribel is keeping our display up until the end of the day Friday, May 15th. If you haven't stopped by yet you should! 3251 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610

Doing good work

The fine people over at Mohawk Paper started a new blog Felt & Wire that is so worth reading for anyone interested in good design and all things paper! We were excited to be mentioned in their recent post about Thank You notes; since that is one of the things we do best.

We are also very honored to be chosen by Mohawk Paper to create the postcard & thank you cards for the next "Strathmore Show" contest. Read more about how to enter your fabulous work on their Homepage

Check back to see what we come up with for their postcard design!

Trunk Show Triumph

A big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped by our trunk show this weekend. It was a huge success and our customers left smiling with armfuls of petite journals, monogrammed note sets, gifts for Mother's Day as well as beautiful paper to wrap them with!

Along with the delicious stationery available, everyone enjoyed scrumptious Arizmendi pizza, rich Ghirardelli chocolate and sweet bubbly. You wouldn't think those things all go together but they tasted just fine~

We had many requests to continue our trunk shows, especially through the holidays. We think we'll enjoy throwing a few more before the end of the year so keep in touch!

A special thank you to our dear friend Michelle Walker of Michelle Walker Photography for documenting the day.

Picnic in the Park

The weather here in California is absolutely gorgeous today! It reminded me of this invitation we did for Odessa & Mikel. They had a casual day filled with their closest friends and family. They were married in a local park between two huge sequoia trees with their guests huddled in close. The reception showcased a local restaurant, Bakesale Betty, that has earned a cult-like following for their fried chicken sandwiches and homemade strawberry shortcake that is to die for!

The couple chose not to have a reply card so their guests could "save a tree" and reply online. They splurged instead on an over-sized invite and a third color that made the illustrative nature of the invitation come to life. The reference to intricate vintage packaging and the brides' choice of bold colors created a beautiful, elaborate design that makes you want to look twice!

Get bold with color!

We love it when a bride is colorfully courageous! Fuchsia & navy look amazing together and really pop on a crisp white sheet. Kacey chose the Cosmos design from our Exclusively Online Collection. She is one of the lucky brides that took advantage of our promotion through Style Me Pretty!

Want to see more of our EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE invitations? Available only through Peculiar Pair Press these designs are perfect for brides planning a destination wedding. Whether located at a private vineyard or an ocean estate, you will find the right style for your special day. You can see them here on our blog by clicking the "exclusively online" or the "style me pretty" tag to the right. Thanks for looking.

Cool Finds

This is Amy, the Hypochondriac half of Peculiar Pair Press. I just had a wonderful idea to share interesting things with ya'll and with Mary Beth now that she's all the way in New York (has been for awhile.boo hoo)! She and I will trade things we find that we want to share with each other and you get to take a peak! How cool is that!! We will label them as "cool finds" should you want to follow these posts.

Last Sunday I made my way through the Alameda Flea Market. It was a beautiful day and there were a million people there. On one of the last rows in the first aisle..2 hours into my search I stumbled across this adorable poster. I was very very sad to learn that she had sold all of the other numbers separately. I wish things like this would never get broken up; it's so sad!! Luckily there was 1 left for ME! The number 3 with fantastic circus elephants. It's a "Number Readiness Poster" for teachers to teach number recognition. All printed in the USA by silkscreen it looks like.

Don't you just love the colors and the texture of the 3...ahh how I wish I had all the others in my hot little hands. Enjoy MB!

Separated at Birth: Thank-You Cards

Featured TODAY on Cookie Magazine's website is our very own creation of Custom Kid Thank You's! Nurture your child's creative side and teach them good manners at the same time by ordering their very own thank you notes.

You can submit your child's drawing and we'll turn it into custom lettepressed notecards for an extra special Thank You! There are a variety of paper colors, ink choices and typeface options for your to choose from. For more information on how to order please send us an email to info@peculiarpairpress.com with "custom kid thank you's" in the subject line!

Chronicle Books : Paper Patisserie

For those of you who don't know we've been honored to have partnered with Chronicle Books on a total of SIX projects. Each one more exciting than the last we encourage you to check them all out on their website ! It's never too early to start to think about Mother's Day! So if your mom is crafty like ours are she'll appreciate any of these items.

Got the Knack?

Stephanie over at the knack posted about our stationery line at 3am this morning! Busy girl! Head on over to her blog to read more about what's new & what's hot. We were so smitten with all the nice things she had to say about our line we're going to just put her words here....

"I have a lot of notes to write, thank yous to send and general warm wishes to distribute this week.

And I'm doing it all on beautiful Peculiar Pair Press stationery.

Created by graphic designers Mary Beth Fiorentino and Amy Elizabeth Hayson, this exquisite line has everything you could want in stationery. It is elegant, refined, pretty and timeless.

Their designs are intriguing and completely original. Even the name for their colours are unqiue- bark, beet, carbon, creamsicle and fresh - how can they not make you smile?

The card range covers all the occasions - thank you, happy birthday, happy bday kids, congrats, special day congrats, sympathy, get well and gift enclosures.

I love the Nature Series, which includes a beetle, frog, shell, moth, rooster and octopus. the series was inspired by things such as collections of vintage documents, entomology and silver-tone photography. They are simply wonderful.

And even their Blank Cards are stunning. Calligraphy swaths over botanical images creates a truly lovely image. And of course, the writer in my just can't enough of these!

I send a ton of thank you cards every month, so I am grateful for the alluring Thank You Boxed Cards. One set has a laurel wreath and the mix of Bergamot and Saffron has great visual impact. Another has picnic bloom and the tiny flower print is so sweet. It would make a great wallpaper...

And I am truly swooning over the Petite Journals. Striking colours, calligraphy designs that swirl and twirl across the covers, these make amazing presents, but be sure to keep some for yourself! These are way too beautiful to just pass along!

Peculiar Pair Press makes luxurious cards and journals that will impress any recipient!

I'm off to send some right now!

Posted by the knack at 3:00 AM"

Thanks Stephanie! So happy you loved our line enough to share.

Destination Wedding Planner

Alison Hotchkiss of Alison Events teamed up with our favorite book publisher Chronicle Books and the talented photographer Thayer Allyson Gowdy of Little White Dress to create an ultimate guide to planning a wedding from afar!

It's a fabulous book filled with so many wonderful ideas and suggestions that Alison has put together over her many years of successful destination wedding planning. Chronicle Books did a amazing job with the design and layout while Thayer's photos are so captivating that we can't stop flipping through the pages. Enter to Win a "Dream Honeymoon Vacation" at Jade Mountian Resort, St. Lucia. Valued at over $11,000 by visiting Chronicle Books where you can also order your very own copy.

We were honored to offer our "expert" advice for her invitation section and were recently asked to design the invite for a small private book release party coming up soon! We'll keep you posted on the event and will be sure to share pictures of the good times.

Real Simple Weddings 2009

Sara & Evan's custom wedding invitation was recently featured in Real Simple's Wedding Book! Seeking to help brides narrow down their invitation search they suggested simple categories for you to connect with.

Our design listed under the "whimsical" category is described as being used "by Couples who love to stray from convention-think clever type treatment's, unique materials and unexpected embellishments."

Are you looking for a unconventional invitation for your big day? We can design a custom invite to suite any personality type. Check out our website for more custom examples!

The Knot: Spring Summer 09

Don't forget the details! We partnered with Anne at Mira Aster to create these gorgeous, modern table numbers that you'll definitely want to find another use for after the wedding! Lettepressed summer yellow blossoms grace the border with hand sewn edges and an appliqued 8 takes center stage. A delicate thread of the contrasting thread holds this card in a tented position. Please contact us should you want these delicious cards for your own wedding!

Style Me Pretty Exclusive Launch - 50% OFF! Final Release

Above are the last three invitations from our new Exclusively Online Collection that Abby has released over the past few weeks. We can't thank Abby enough for getting this information out to all of you. Check back at Style Me Pretty often for incredible ideas and inspiration for your special event.

If you scroll down and review earlier posts, you will see that there are a total of 13 designs in this new collection. If you are interested in more information and pricing, send us an e'mail at info@peculiarpairpress.com. Please include the names of the invites that you are interested in viewing, and if you would like an estimate, don't forget to include the quantity that you will be needing for your big day.

Remember the promotion is good until February 15th, 2009. Enjoy!