Dreaming of a destination wedding tucked between the hills of Tuscany? My personal fantasy includes rolling hills, a curvy cypress-lined road leading up to a stone villa and acres of olive groves.

I'm hoping to translate that vision into our upcoming wedding (being held a bit closer to home.) Fortunately, there is no shortage of inspiration to be had, starting with the Olea Invitation by Egg Press. A letterpressed olive branch conjures up thoughts of golden landscapes and delicious meals and rustic romance. Much of our cocktail hour will be held outdoor where arrangements of loosely gathered flowers and linen tablecloths will no doubt serve to steady endless bottles of imported red wine. The menu is the easiest place to honor Italy with iconic staples such as foccia bread, prosciutto, risotto and tiramisu (but only if it's perfect.) Nothing is worse than a sad Tiramisu.

For more Italian inspiration and wedding details, check out my blog, Perfect Bound.

Photo credits: InStyle and photographs by Marcus Nilsson via DesignSmack, Luisa Beccaria's Italian Villa as photographed in Elle, bride and groom by Italian Wedding Photographer, Olea Invitation by Egg Press via Minted, church by Putnam Hart for Bene Magazine.

I just finished scoring all the designs in our very first Freshly Minted design challenge series - a challenge centered around Photo Save the Date Cards. To the designers who entered this contest, I am inspired by your collective talent and originality - the quality of your designs we received was outstanding. It takes a lot of courage to put your design out there for commentary and scoring. Good luck! Everyone here at the Minted office in San Francisco can't wait to see who the winners will be.

A big thank you to Bee Kim of the Wedding Bee Network for finding the three real-life couples (Holly & Dustin, Rene & Yvonne, and Laurice & Alex) who were the inspiration for our challenge. Bee has graciously agreed to break the tie if there is one. For our readers, want to help determine the outcome? Vote here. (please be constructive in your criticism.)

In readying Paper + Cup, the most recent addition to our online lineup, Melissa and I made an exciting discovery – we have some celebrity couples disguised in our midst. The tip-off came while working with the lovely Elizabethian collection samples, where a certain Miss Julie Capplan is engaged to marry a certain Mr. Roman Montag. Their ceremony location? None other than fair Verona. I guess there’s a happy ending in store for these two star-crossed lovers on Minted. But will Tybalt be getting an invite? We’re also graced with a little Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman action, some popular 50’s characters, and a royal couple or two. And can you guess who this one is? Tricky, tricky…

There are all kinds of things that inspire me and that are the central inspiration point for any given wedding board that I create. Sometimes it's a season, or a specific flower. It can stem from a real bride's vision, or even from a children's storybook! And sometimes an inspiration board will come from one image that stands out. That's the case with the inspiration board below, which pulls from one of Rene Gruau's beautiful fashion illustrations. The image, which is at top left in the composition below, instantly provided both a palette (light and dark gray, blush pink, orange, black lines) and a mood (elegant, romantic, with a hint of the modern). Visit my blog Snippet and Ink for my daily inspiration boards.

Top row from left: Rene Gruau illustration via Agent Lee's flickr stream, dress by J.Crew, gray bridesmaid dresses from Details Details, photo by Meg Smith

Row 2: champagne tower from Brides, monogrammed cardigan from Martha Stewart Weddings, gray dress by Elizabeth Dye

Row 3: Morgan Le Fay dress from Brides, calla lilies from Red Ribbon Studio, cootie catcher from Martha Stewart Weddings, ring by Kuoting

Row 4: Dogwood wedding invitation by Egg Press, lounge area by Laurie Arons, ring bearer from Love Luck and Angels, flowers from Jupiter Images

Hello everyone, it is with great excitement that we unveil Minted, after a huge amount of hard work on the part of our team. Thank you to Melissa, Kate, Will, Josh, Chris, Urvish, Kamran, Joslyn, Alex, Carlos, Mike, Viraj, Jim, Kelly, Jen, Manuel, Katy, Reuben, Allison, Taylor, Erika, Robert, Angie, Drew, and everyone else who was involved in our launch.

We founded Minted to make the best designs in custom stationery available to consumers everywhere without having to sacrifice convenience. We offer 16 of the best ‘indie’ stationery brands, most of them exclusively online. If you have suggestions for us, please write to us at feedback [at] minted.com or call us at 1-888-828-MINT.

Since we have just launched Oblation Papers & Press on our site, I wanted to share with you a personal party invitation I created with Oblation, one of the brands we offer on our site, a few months ago. This was for my husband’s birthday dinner, a small dinner for our families that was held at Boulette’s Larder, a restaurant at San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Building. Michael is from Seattle, so I decided to choose Oblation because they are located in the Pacific Northwest and they print on eco-friendly paper. We selected Oblation’s ‘Atrium’ wedding invitation and changed the colors a bit – I felt that the grey color for the text was more masculine – and I was thrilled with them. At left, you can see the original wedding invitation, and at right, you can see our party invitation.

I’ll be writing more soon.

Best,

Mariam

Hello! I am so excited to be contributing to the blog here at Minted.com, and hopefully you'll find some inspiration in my posts. My regular blog spot is Snippet & Ink, where I post daily wedding inspiration boards. I'll be posting some inspiration boards here, too, along with other ideas and thoughts on inspiration and pretty planning.

It seems that many brides are very concerned with planning a wedding that is unique, and unlike any other wedding every held before it. While I can appreciate the desire to have a special day that expresses a couple's personalities, I also think it is easy to go over the top in trying to be different. Green and white is a color combination that I return to again and again, and it's not especially avant garde in the wedding world. But they are classic, and though inspiration boards might share a color palette, or even a season, they are each distinct from another. The truth is, your wedding day will be unique because you and your fiance are unique! And even if you choose a season, or a venue, or a color palette that has already "been done," it can still be personal and new.

Below is my most recent "green and white" inspiration board, with some hints of the palest blue and a slight magnolia theme.

Top row from left: magnolias in glass vases from Jupiter Images, mason jar votives from Hatch Creative Studio, seating card photo by Suzy Clement. Row 2: pickup truck photo by Tiffany Aicklen via Elizabeth Anne Designs, gray suit photo by Mallory Samson from Brides. Row 3: "English Garden Invitations" by Egg Press, dress by J.Crew, magnolia photo by Victoria Pearson, cake by April Reed. Row 4: church photo by Mark Staff, tables from Ariella Chezar, pear lemon fizz from Martha Stewart Weddings, hairpin by Jennifer Behr.

Being a Brooklynite myself, its hard to not have fallen in love with the stationery designs of Paper + Cup. Minhee and Truman have come up with truly playful and innovative designs for brides who just won't stand for "run of the mill" invitations. In addition to amazing wedding sets, they also have a wonderful collection of cards for any occasion, personalized stationery, and notebooks [I bought a few of these for my bridesmaids as gifts!]. If I could buy every paper product from them, I'd be a happy girl! (To read more of my posts, please visit my blog, Brooklyn Bride.)