Jun 28, 2010

High-end paper shop, Haute Papier, comes to LeesburgBy Hannah HagerLoudounTimes.com

When Sarah Walsh was searching for invitations for her wedding five years ago, she was disappointed she couldn’t find a customized design.

Within a month, Walsh and friend Erin Miller started Haute Papier, a couture paper boutique specializing in personalized wedding invitations, stationery and social correspondence such as letterheads.

Working out of a studio in Georgetown, in Washington, D.C., they got their start hand-drawing designs and touted them to friends. By word of mouth, the pair have established a reputation for designing and printing invitations people can’t find elsewhere, Miller said. Prices range from $8 for note cards to $160 for a 100-piece stationery set to nearly $500 for a 250-piece note card set with two-color letterpress.

As their business has grown, they’ve decided to open their first retail shop on Wirt Street in Leesburg.

Miller said their designs are inspired by what they see in nature. For instance, one bride planned to marry in Arizona, so the women designed a pattern with cactuses and infused a clay color reflecting the stucco homes in the Southwest.

But their love of paper doesn’t stop with weddings.

“Paper has it all,” Miller said. The design aspect is beautiful because there are so many uses for it, she said. A technique she enjoys is cutting out a single design from a larger paper pattern and creating a three-dimensional version.

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