The Sweetest Occasion

Woohoo! It’s that time again and, I’ve got to say, I’m really excited! I know, I know. Some of you are going to hold out until Friday to officially start welcoming in the holiday season, but this girl rolled out her welcome mat weeks ago. So without further ado, it’s time to kick off the holiday cards favorites! Some of my favorite letterpress shops and stationery lines have put out the coolest cards this year so I’ll likely be sharing more favorites than in years past to which I say, happy holidays!

{Hello Lucky at Luxe Paperie.}

{Jack & Ella.}

{one canoe two.}

{Starshaped Press.}

{Egg Press at Luxe Paperie.}

So many more awesome holiday cards to come – stay tuned!

I’m really excited today to have an awesome little giveaway for you! Invitation Consultants is giving away 50 photo holiday cards with coordinating liners and return address seals from their Red Leaf Papers holiday collection to one lucky reader! Antoinette at Invitation Consultants sent me a bundle of samples of my favorite designs to check out and I have to say, so many of their designs are just adorable, in bright modern colors that are incredibly festive. All of their holiday designs come with cool patterned backing for an extra special touch with coordinating liners, return address seals and inserts available.

To enter: Check out the Red Leaf Papers holiday collection and then comment here to tell us about the photo you’d use on your holiday cards if you won. Tell us all about it (and the special memory it evokes) between now and 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, November 28th and Invitation Consultants will be picking a winner early next week. Good luck!

{Photos by Cyd Converse for The Sweetest Occasion.}

Happy Monday, friends! Can you believe it’s Thanksgiving week already? I am really looking forward to a four day weekend and can’t wait to get home to spend time with my family. We’ll be eating at my mother’s like we usually do and it’s always my job to help with sides and sweets. I’m a little behind on menu planning this year so I thought I’d share some of the recipes I am considering. Don’t these look amazing?

{Boozy mulled cider.}

{Cookie-crusted sweet potatoes via Design Crush.}

{Chocolate hazelnut mousse squares.}

{Thin crust pear tart.}

{Molasses cookies.}

{Cranberry thumbprint cookies.}

These adorable winter wonderland cupcake kits are one of the sweetest things I’ve seen of late. They would be so cute for a holiday party and perfect for getting the kids involved! The tiny miniature reindeer just make me smile and the flags on top are just the icing on the cake. Check them out at Bakelab.

{Photos from Bakelab spied on Oh Joy!}

Last week I shared the lovely Inspired Creations video that Ambient Sky Couture Imagery put together and today I am really excited to share this sweet same day edit wedding video with you from Alla and Flavius’s wedding. I still maintain that investing in high quality wedding videography (from Clark + Walker Studio in our case) was the best money that my husband and I spent on our wedding and Ambient Sky’s work more than lives up to that hype. Their videography is emotional and modern, sure to live in the family video archives for decades to come.

A huge thank you to Scott and Amanda for sharing this with us! (RSS subscribers, please click over to watch the video!)

I love these cool, colorful business identity designs from Swiss Cottage Designs for Fresh, a culinary design firm. I enjoy designs like this that are simple and clean, finished with vibrant color and details like a great striped backing on the letterhead and a colored envelope to pull the look together. Sometimes it really is the extra little details that make all the difference and I love how Courtney has considered Fresh’s own approach to design and worked to convey that through these fun, bright stationery pieces.

{Photos from Swiss Cottage Designs.}

I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just a week away! To get your holiday planning started right, I’m happy to have the loveliest Thanksgiving downloads for you today, designed by Laura Macchia. Thinking about fun Thanksgiving entertaining ideas, we created a thank you card, little tent cards perfect as buffet signage or as place cards, and labels for sending leftovers home with family and friends. I printed the cards on bright white, 110# stock and used a bone folder to fold them. The labels were printed on label paper and I used a circle cutter to cut them out. Grab a stack of kraft paper bakery boxes with wax paper for guests to fill up with yummy treats and give them cute labels so they can label each box with what’s inside. Get the pies in the oven and you’re set to go!

Download your Thanksgiving thank you cards | Thanksgiving labels | and tent cards – and happy Thanksgiving!

{Design by Laura Macchia. Photos by Cyd Converse for The Sweetest Occasion.}

*Laura Macchia is one of The Sweetest Occasion’s awesome sponsors. This is not a sponsored post.

Just in time for the upcoming holiday seasons, check out these pretty plaid wool scarves on a spool at terrain. At 82″ long, I could find lots of lovely, unexpected ways to use these in my holiday decor. Looped along a stairway as a garland or even wrapped around a tree, they’d lend a warm touch to your holiday home. Or just use them as a cozy, oversized scarf to stay warm on cold winter days. Either way, I’m in love.

{Photos from terrain.}

Ava’s mom Alex is a fashion designer in Australia and, as it turns out, quite the party planner, too! To celebrate Ava’s second birthday, Alex planned a wonderfully girly birthday party in shades of pink and yellow and loaded with pretty little girl details like tiaras and a sweet bunny birthday cake from Sweet Tiers. Alex handcrafted much of decor on her own, purchasing paper lanterns and favor boxes from Details, Details and working with imprintables for the invitations. Isn’t this party just the sweetest? Thanks so much for sharing, Alex!

{Photos by Alexandra Vardakis.}

If you follow me on twitter you may have seen my tweet last week hinting about a big upcoming event I am planning. Today I’m excited to officially spread the word about the Boxcar Press Open Studio taking place on Saturday, December 11. Everyone is welcome! Friends, clients, fellow designers, letterpress printers, general public and the curious at heart are invited to come check out our newly renovated letterpress print shop and studio. We’ve been hard at work the last several months packing up, building new walls, moving presses, expanding our print shop and moving our operations from one end of an old warehouse in Syracuse to the other.

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at a letterpress print shop? Want to catch a glimpse of pretty Bella Figura letterpress wedding invitations up close and in person? Want to experience a day in the life at Smock? Come pay us a visit! I’ll have many more details to share in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I do hope you’ll save the date. More to come!

*Please note: I am an employee of Boxcar Press/Bella Figura/Smock. This is not a sponsored post.