First Anniversary: paper

Ages ago, someone made a list of traditional presents for wedding anniversaries. We all know that 40th wedding anniversaries are honored with silver stuff, and for the 50th we give gold. But would you ever think that tradition dictates a gift of bronze or appliances for the eighth anniversary? As stationers, we at Lunalux are particularly glad that the first anniversary is acknowledged with gifts of paper.

So when David Hale came into our store and asked me to work on personal stationery for his wife as a gift for their first anniversary, I was both happy to help and impressed that he was honoring the tradition of giving paper to his wife Meghan on their first wedding anniversary. I hand-wrote an elegant note explaining that we were at her service to create custom stationery to her liking, and David gave that card to her on their anniversary. During subsequent meetings with Meghan, we considered many different motifs, fonts and color combinations. Ultimately we decided on a design that honors her Irish heritage: a shamrock pressed, without any ink, deep into thick white paper (we sometimes refer to this as “blind embossing” even though it’s really not), with her name printed in gold ink. We also printed the same shamrock on bright green A7 envelopes. In the end, Meghan was thrilled with her personal stationery, and we give David a gold star for his thoughtfulness!