Southern Weddings

First, I apologize in advance for the tardiness of my recaps!  Y’all seemed to like my tweets from the show (thanks for the love!), so I figured I owed you a few more from-the-floor shots, even if they are a few weeks late. 

So yes, the show was amazing. Gorgeous paper products galore, but also the nicest people around.  I know I’m going to sound like a broken record below as I introduce individual booths, but suffice to say, everyone I met was overwhelmingly wonderful.  Can’t wait to do it again next year!

First up was Yellow Owl Workshop and Austin Press, both part of the Aesthetic Movement display.  I loved their chalkboard booth, as well as their cheeky cards and cute rubber stamps.  Bonus!  Yellow Owl’s stamp sets come in adorable muslin bags.

Right off the bat I’m going to say this recap is ABSOLUTELY not in any logical order, but next we have Elum Designs.  This booth took me a bit by surprise.  I had always thought of Elum as a very well-respected letterpress company, but, well, I hadn’t heard too much about them in the blog world lately and thought they might have been resting a bit on their laurels, so to speak.  However, their album blew me away!  Seriously.  Their bright and colorful booth was one of the best I visited all day, and it was hard to stop myself from taking a photo of almost everything in it.  My favorite was the more affordable Umi line, and you can see that right here (check out Stitched, in the bottom right, below!).

I was very excited to see the debut of the brand-new wholesale line of a great friend of SW, Miss Emily Ley.  She was showing with the English Paper Co booth, and everything looked fabulous!  You can check out Em’s beautiful site here and her fun blog here.

I’ve been a fan of Linda & Harriett’s cards for a long time, but was excited to see the new, more limited direction Liz is now headed in.  Plus, her booth was gorgeous!  Keep an eye out for her 2011 letterpress calendar, debuting soon.  It was also fun to meet the ladies behind completely new-to-me lines, like Andrea from Gwyneth Paige Couture Letterpress.

Speaking of fabulous booths… Mr. Boddington’s Studio could definitely be counted in that number!  I thought their patterned envelope liner shingles were so clever (almost as good as their cupcake card!).

A few more of the exciting products I previewed: clockwise from top left we have shaped place cards, the new Jonathan Adler line by Lifeguard Press, the preppy + customizable MacBeth Collection, Lilly Pulitzer by Lifeguard Press, and a sample from Wallies.

Besides seeing the actual paper products and meeting the people, I loved seeing all of the creative ways the creatives decorated their booths.  A sampling of my favorites, including Regas, Avie Designs, Wild Pulp, and Egg Press.

Last but certainly not least (in this installment!), we have Rifle Paper Co and Smock + Bella Figura.  I had a great time talking to Anna, the genius behind Rifle Paper.  We’ve been corresponding for a few months on a fun project she’s collaborating on for the next issue, and it was great to finally meet in person!  The Smock booth was also a favorite.  I got to ogle their gorgeous, colorful products, meet Cyd from The Sweetest Occasion, and have my name lettered by Smock’s amazing calligrapher, Debi Zeinert of The Blooming Quill.  It was amazing to see her work!

That’s all for now!  I’ll be back soon with more.  In the meantime, I’d love to know — who’s your favorite stationery designer? Do you find it impossible to choose, too, or is that just me?

P.S. The best part about the stationery show?  I got a press pass.  What?  I’m not going to lie to y’all just to make myself sound cooler!