em’s first birthday invites

I’m so excited to finally share with you the invitations we designed, letterpress printed + mailed out for our daughter’s first birthday party! After a bit of brainstorming, Kacey and I decided to make Em’s party a celebration of her firsts. The first time she giggled. Her first word. The first time she sat up. First time she crawled. Her first food. First steps.

I wanted her invitation to be interesting plus a little keepsake for each recipient. So, I designed multiple parts. The largest card is a certificate. The smaller pink card is her party invitation. We included a picture of the birthday girl, put it inside a glassine envelope and bound all the parts together with pretty metallic + cotton twine.

Below is a closeup of the certificate. This was a three color print job. A dark pink, a light pink and gold for the text. It was stamped, well letterpress printed really, with “First Year Certified.” Lots of her milestones and the dates for each were listed.

em's first birthday invites

I turned Em’s first foot + hand prints into graphics so that we could letterpress print them in a pale pink ink on each card. Fun fact? They are printed in the actual size of her first foot + hand prints.

em's first birthday invites

Each envelope was adorned with pretty pink and cream vintage stamps + an envelope wrap. Since we only needed to print a small number of invitations, we letterpress printed each envelope wrap with our return address plus the address of the recipient.

A closeup of the parts all grouped together inside the envelope.

Em's First Birthday Invite

I love how her invitations turned out. They’re exactly as I pictured them in my head. And, I love the idea of the certificate so much that I’m going to be designing + letterpress printing similar first year certificates to sell in our little shop soon!

25 Responses to “em’s first birthday invites”

  1. Amanda // April 18, 2011 at 6:46 am

    Wow – they’re gorgeous! I love the little certificate – too cute!

  2. Maya // April 18, 2011 at 9:19 am

    Absolutely stunning!

  3. People St. Clair // April 18, 2011 at 11:17 am

    these invitations are absolutely lovely

  4. kelsey // April 18, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    These are the cutest thing ever!! I absolutely love them!

  5. kimberly michelle // April 18, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    as I said before, these are breathtaking! What a treasure to have for sweet Emily!

  6. Kelly | Glamour This // April 20, 2011 at 11:13 am

    As i’ve said before (twitter) I love these. they are amazing and such a great keepsake for Emily. I think they will be a hit in your shop! :)

  7. abby // April 21, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    These are absolutely adorable.
    What a great job you did!

  8. Elizabeth // April 21, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    These are AMAZING!!! Great job!

  9. Leslie // April 25, 2011 at 7:09 am

    I just wanted to let you know that I love your blog and your work. It’s really elegant and beautiful and I enjoy coming here just to look at it and swoon. My son will be 1 at the end of this month and your invite is great inspiration. Thanks for sharing!

  10. [...] concept and the wrap label on these adorable first birthday invitations from Duet Letterpress sold me, but I also love the way the entire suite is wrapped together by [...]

  11. em’s first birthday party « // April 27, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    [...] We celebrated Em’s first birthday a few weeks ago. As you may remember, we created a theme of “a celebration of firsts” and crafted these invitations + first year certificates. [...]

  12. cindy // April 27, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    Absolutely love this and what a wonderful keepsake for everyone!

  13. Gisela K. // April 27, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    Most fine,well done,beautiful,thing I’ve ever seen. Bless our baby…

  14. Jessica // July 5, 2011 at 3:04 am

    This is amazing… please do make the certificate available in your shop. I’d buy it in a shot!

  15. therese rogan // December 27, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    I looked in your etsy shop and didn’t see the invites. I would LOVE these!

    • julie // December 28, 2011 at 10:10 am

      Hello + thanks for your comment! Unfortunately, since these invites were custom designed, we do not offer them in our shop. However, in the near future, we hope to offer similar fill-in-the-blank style “year of firsts” certificates in our etsy shop!

  16. therese rogan // December 28, 2011 at 11:53 am

    do you think you would be able to do a custom set if I was able to provide the hand/foot prints in a digital form? I don’t need them until mid April, I’m just so in love with these :)

  17. recent work // curious lawson invites « // January 16, 2012 at 11:59 am

    [...] loved the invitations we designed + printed for our little Em and wanted something similar in the style of his party. His [...]

  18. Celebration of Firsts | Ink Paper Hearts // February 23, 2012 at 8:29 am

    [...] more production details, please visit Duet Letterpress. [...]

  19. Jessie // February 29, 2012 at 9:32 am

    Amazing! What a lovely little bouquet of memories. Well done!

  20. shop update // first year certificates « // August 27, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    [...] one of our most requested items is available in our little shop! Similar to the certificates we created for our daughter’s first birthday, these fill-in-the-blank First Year Certificates [...]

  21. em’s third birthday invitations « // April 23, 2013 at 4:49 pm

    [...] lots of thought, we decided to throw Em a pixie party! Like her first two birthday invites, I wanted to include a picture of the birthday girl and a little something fun [...]

  22. LoveLeigh Invitations LLC happy things. // February 14, 2015 at 12:32 pm

    [...] this pretty pink first birthday package by duet letterpress includes a certificate of firsts, first giggle, first word, first food, [...]

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