Design Contest Winners
by cardsandpockets

2025 Invitation Design Contest Winners

Another Year of Celebrating Creativity & Craftsmanship!

One of our favorite times of year has come to a close—the Cards & Pockets Annual Invitation Design Contest—and once again, our gifted contestants did not disappoint. From the moment our contest was announced, submissions started flowing in from professional designers and DIY creators alike. We loved seeing the incredible range of talent and creativity of the many “stationery makers” who submitted entries, showcasing what’s possible when exceptional materials meet passionate, innovative stationery designers.

After weeks of poring over beautiful photographs of a wide variety of styles of wedding invitation suites (and some very difficult decisions), we’re thrilled to share our winning wedding invitation designs. These aren’t just beautiful invitations. These winners exemplify thoughtful design, creative color choices, and intentional material selections. Each explored the full potential of wedding stationery—pushing boundaries by combining our premium cardstock selection with specialty printing techniques like letterpress and foil stamping, then elevating their presentations through pocket invitations, sleeves, gate cards, laser-cut details, and inventive product combinations. Bravo!

What You’ll Discover in This Gallery

This gallery is more than just a showcase of beautiful designs. We’ve gathered personal insights from each invitation designer about their creative process, detailed “design recipes” listing key Cards & Pockets products used (with direct links so you can recreate or adapt their approach), and a closer look at what makes each design special. Whether you’re a professional wedding designer seeking inspiration or planning your own DIY wedding invitations, these winning designs show you what’s possible with quality materials and a creative vision.

Finding Your Own Style

The diversity of styles represented here, from bold and modern invitations to soft and romantic wedding suites, demonstrates something we believe deeply: there’s no single “right” way to create beautiful stationery. These winners each found their own style and their own approach to making invitations that perfectly capture a moment, a mood, a celebration.

So sit back, relax (maybe grab a snack and/or a warming drink), and prepare to be inspired. These designs represent the best of the best—the result of creative people having access to the best premium papers in the world, custom envelope shapes & sizes, and the freedom to experiment with unique wedding invitation ideas. Congratulations to all our winners… we are inspired by you and we look forward to this time next year when we get to do it all over again!

Want more design inspiration? Follow our winners on social media (links below each feature) and explore our complete color collection to start planning your own unforgettable invitations.

Have a custom design idea but not sure where to start?

We’ve got you! Our team is here to help guide you through those first steps and bring your vision to life. Let’s make something awesome together!

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The Professional Category Winners

FIRST PLACE: GOLDEN PAPER HOUR

A Note from the Designer

“Inspired by an old world European feel, I combined letterpress and embossing to create a suite for this couple who were married at the Conservatory at BlackBerry Ridge in November. We loved using a variety of colors to compliment their suite!”

Follow Golden Paper Hour

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Suggested Products to “Complete the Look”

Second Place: Nico Creative

A Note from the Designer

“Alyssa and Austin came to me with a desire for stationery that would stand out, something their guests hadn’t seen before. Clean lines, unexpected shapes, and a mood that balanced dramatic contrast with sophistication. They embraced every suggestion, every sketch, every sample, and brought their own thoughtful insights into the process. Our meetings were effortless, full of creative energy, and always collaborative. Their suite is one of my favorites.”

Follow Nico Creative

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Suggested Products to “Complete the Look”

Third Place: Haley Brown, Fine Watercolor & Stationery Suites

A Note from the Designer

Haley specializes in whimsical watercolor artwork that pulls from the essence of her clients. She works closely with each couple, ensuring that their wedding stationery represents the couple and what’s to come at their event itself. For this particular suite, Haley worked closely with her clients to create a stunning gate fold of their New York City venue. When guests open the custom gate fold, they are met with a stunning watercolor ballroom scene with the bride and groom twirling, guests mingling with cocktails, and are greeted with all the cozy, whimsical feels of a stunning winter wedding in the heart of Manhattan. Haley watercolors every aspect of each suite from her sunny studio in North Carolina, where she creates everyone’s favorite pieces of paper.

Follow Haley Brown, Fine Watercolor & Stationery Suites

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

The DIY Category Winners

First Place: Lexie and Avery Creative

A Note from the Designer

“Our invitations were meant to set the tone for our entire wedding – so we put so much love and care into designing every single piece. Avery and I are both creative so we loved working on the vision for these – I am a watercolor artist and graphic designer and Avery is a photographer. We designed each piece and I hand-painted all of the details on the cards. One of my favorite parts was the vellum liner, which was a watercolor painting of our venue that opened into the full invitation suite. Our wedding venue was a conservatory, with glass walls enclosing the reception space that lent itself perfectly to a vellum liner that matched the feel of our wedding. Inside, the floral details and our wedding logo matched the actual flowers at our wedding. The cards were printed on watercolor paper to give a hand-painted feel and were enclosed inside a sorbet yellow envelope embossed with our wedding logo (we had a custom embosser created for this purpose). The RSVP envelope was a forest green to pair with one of the main colors of our wedding. All of it was enclosed in the vellum liner and stamped with hand-melted wax seals that we had a lot of fun putting on each invite. We truly felt like every piece of this told our story, felt like us, and were so excited to find the perfect envelopes and vellum liner to complete it all at Cards and Pockets!”

Follow Lexie and Avery Creative

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Suggested Products to “Complete the Look”

Second Place: Eliana Hamilton

A Note from the Designer

“Designing the invitations for my best friends was such a meaningful project. They wanted a modern & minimal design to set the tone for their wedding weekend. The bride found a beautiful invitation online with a showstopping pocket design as the focal point, and we knew we had to recreate it. Bringing the groom’s detailed floral pattern idea to life was a hand-drawn labor of love that I was so happy to work with Cards & Pockets on! We wanted to create the perfect shape to show a sneak peek of the invitation, and C&P made it so easy. The final print was absolutely stunning! Add monogrammed wax seals, a laser-cut pocket, and creamy tassels? Dreamy.

From the clean, sophisticated type to our girl Teacup’s adorable paw-trait, every detail was made to feel intentional, luxe, and very them. The whole suite came together beautifully!”

Follow Eliana Hamilton

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Third Place: Christina Myal

A Note from the Designer

“This idea ended up being such a fun way to make our invitations feel unique and far more expensive than they actually were to make… DIY! My husband is Brazilian, so planning a destination wedding in Brazil made total sense for us, and that’s why the passport and boarding-pass theme felt so natural. Our guests also got real use out of the luggage tags, which made the whole suite feel practical as well as pretty.

Because it was Brazil, I wanted everything to feel bright and saturated. Cards & Pockets’ color selection is perfect for that — having their envelope and paper swatches on hand really helped us narrow down our palette. Instead of a traditional monogram, I designed more of a branded logo that carried throughout the wedding. Our guests loved it — it wasn’t just our initials, but a graphic element that felt intentional, modern, and flexible across all the pieces. It also meant people actually wanted to keep the items after the wedding, because it didn’t feel like a typical monogram, but more like a cool little piece of the trip.”

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Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Bonus Category Winners

Best Laser Cut Design: Weronika Marton

A Note from the Designer

“One of my clients wanted my art all across her suite- her gate fold inside was the ballroom featuring all their guests twirling under big NYC windows and chandeliers, and the outside is the venue itself in NYC. This was a suite filled with my original art and illustration, perfectly situated for an elegant NYC wedding. It was a pleasure creating this, thank you for printing the gate fold and details card!”

Follow Weronika Marton

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Suggested Products to “Complete the Look”

C&P Choice Award: Rachel Spreng

“I loved creating our invitation suite from the ground up for our wedding in August 2025, using Cards & Pockets materials as the canvas for something truly personal. I paired the Opal envelopes with Versace wallpaper liners to give the first impression a refined, unexpected elegance. Each insert was designed by me and custom-cut on my Cricut to achieve the layered shapes and silhouettes I envisioned. Everything nestled into a hand-crafted pocket folio and was tied with a velvet ribbon with our monogram. The process was entirely DIY and such a joyful part of bringing our wedding vision to life.”

Follow rachel Spreng

Cards & Pockets Products Used:

Suggested Products to “Complete the Look”

Well, that’s a wrap on our 2025 contest winners!

Be sure to follow these talented designers to see more of their beautiful work. Coming together as a creative community gives us the opportunity to learn from each other and be inspired.

Thank you to everyone who submitted this year. Your creativity pushes us to keep innovating and creating the papers, colors, and services that help you do your best work. We can’t wait to see what incredible designs next year’s challenge will bring.

Want to start creating with the same premium materials our winners used? Explore our complete collection of cardstock, pocket invitations, gates, sleeves, wraps, custom envelopes, and specialty printing services. And don’t forget… samples are always available so you can see and feel the quality before you commit.

To all our participants and winners, thank you for sharing your creativity with us! We look forward to next year.

<3
The Cards & Pockets Team

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