Many newlyweds search for sophisticated, modern photo cards to celebrate their first holiday season as a married couple. We asked designers to up the sophistication of this category. The challenge is to create a design that is modern and fresh, but that incorporates a photo of the newly married couple.
Prizes: $1000 for 1st place winners; $250 for 2nd place winner; $100 each for 3rd, 4th, and 5th place winners. All top 5 designs will be sold at Minted.com, with the winning designers receiving 5% of net sales of the products sold, in addition to the cash prizes. David Turner, the co-founder and principal of the renowned design firm Turner Duckworth, will be choosing a separate $1000 judge's prize.
Here are the three real-life couples that served as inspiration for the designs.
To be married: October, at The Newark Club in Newark, NJ
Holiday Tradition: ‘’sharing the oplatek’’ at Christmas dinner
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"We met in college a few times and then re-met a few years ago at a party at this great old-school bowling alley. Flash forward a couple of years, and we now have a delicious one year old daughter named Chloe. She’s a yum! We’ve been in “everything-baby” mode for the last year and really haven’t had the opportunity to spend a lot of alone time or celebrate our love because – as it should be – the focus has been on our daughter. But now, we’re ready to shift some of that focus onto us. We’re both goofballs. We’re green and mean. Well, we try to be eco-friendly, but frankly we’re not really mean.
I’m from Poland and one of my favorite Christmas traditions is sharing the “oplatek”. (It’s pronounced oh-pwa-tek.) It’s this little edible wafer that we share before dinner. Once each person at the dinner table breaks off a piece of the original wafer, he/she then turns towards the nearest person and then each person, again, breaks off a piece of the other one’s wafer. During the breaking of the wafer, we reminisce about good things that happened during the last year, and well wishes are shared between the two people for the New Year. We go around the table to each person until everyone has broken off a piece of your wafer. I love it! Typically, everyone’s a little teary-eyed at the end. It’s such a nice way to start off the holiday. I can’t wait for the first time Chloe shares her wishes with us…. It’ll be pretty cute."
To be married: October, at R.H. Phillips Winery in Esparto, CA
Holiday Tradition: their tree lighting ceremony and secret family fudge
Ken and I met on a popular online social networking site. He accidentally searched for one of our favorite bands in the wrong search field and my profile popped up - I happened to have a song from said band playing on my page. He decided to email me to beg for access to my blog by stating, "I'll make all your Narnia dreams come true." This is beginning of our quirky love story - and best describes our offbeat sense of humor - he had me at Narnia.
Every Christmas Ken and I look forward to our annual Tree Lighting Ceremony - it marks the true beginning of the holiday season at home. We put on some Bing Crosby and the Charlie Brown's Christmas album, string the white lights on our real Christmas tree (no fakes here) and drink mugs of eggnog with a splash of rum while we place the ornaments. If it happens to be one of the years that we're away from home visiting my soon-to-be-in-laws, Ken's mom and I will spend hours in the kitchen making peppermint bark and my favorite - the secret family fudge."
To be married: October, at Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, NC
Holiday Tradition: ''Christmakkuh,” unusual ornaments, and Santa Burgers
"We are both English teachers and met in our English class in high school (cue collective "awwwww"). We both enjoy reading (obviously), cooking, the outdoors, crafts (uh...wait...that's just Laura), 80s music, and corduroy.
Our families both have a lot of very distinct traditions, so we are excited about blending them and creating our own as we start our own family together. Not only are we blending different family traditions but different holiday traditions as well. Ian's father's family is Jewish and his mother's family and my family are Christian. We haven't fully gone the route of Christmakkuh, but it's getting there (who can deny yummy latkes?).
My family watches A Christmas Story all day long on Christmas (it's cheating if you only watch one showing) and makes Santa Burgers (a la Gilmore Girls) for Christmas Eve dinner. Ian's family always gets a real Christmas tree, and going up to the mountains to pick it out and chop it down is always a fun experience. Ian's mom collects unusual Christmas ornaments. One of our wedding gifts will be to pick out 12 of our favorites. I am sure we will be the only family with a tree decorated with demented elven rock stars, pirates, and popsicle sticks that make a Star of David - but that is so very us.''