Happy 2nd Anniversary To Us! (Vintage Anniversary Cards 1940's-1950's)

Good morning!

Daaaah, dah na na na, daaaah, daaah... do you hear those distant strains of Mendelssohn's wedding march? Don't worry, it's not an aural hallucination-- it's my two year anniversary today, marking seven hundred and thirty crazy wonderful days married to my partner in crime and life, Matthew. We've been together since 2008, and as corny as it may seem, these past two years sharing a last name along with everything else have been two of the very best. Since we said "I do", we've traveled to Paris (twice!) and Oxford, both landed new and better jobs, and spent just about every day trying to keep climbing slowly but surely up that ladder to adulthood. I hope the next year holds a few more milestones in store for us (Baby? Dog? House? Ski-doos? Two of those I'm dead set on, haha), but whatever it brings, I'm glad I've got my bub by my side for the journey. :)

Some of my favorite snaps from two years ago.

Today, I thought I would mark the very special occasion with a series of vintage anniversary cards! I was looking for one to post on Facebook (as is my wont) and came across so many I liked I thought I would turn it into a blog post. Come check 'em out, kids, they're pretty adorable! You can click on any of the hyperlinks to see either the Ebay/Etsy listing or web source from which is was culled (where would we be without the internet?).

Allons-y!

1) Vintage Wedding Anniversary Greeting Card Sea of Matrimony

I love this card's third wheel, the birthday suit'd cupid, who looks alternately bored and busy through the four panels of this extended-sea-metaphor anniversary card. I also like the inexplicable change of clothing through the course of the narrative-- the sailor mister begins barechested, gains a mariner shirt somewhere along the way, and ends in a more formal collared shirt in the last panel, while the girl keeps a consistently cute red shirt dress on until changing into a long, poufy-sleeved evening gown for the finale. But overall, could this card be cuter? I love the watercolor meets Dick Tracy coloring and illustrations, and the cheeky little cupid would be perfect if someone would only give him some pants. You know what would be neat, would be to have these in the original illustrations of these, which you know have to be out there somewhere. Before seeing examples on Antiques Roadshow and in the movie Loving (George Segal plays a commercial illustrator in 1970), I never thought about how somewhere there's some original art these cards would have to be based on!

Grade: A- (for cherub-related nudity) 

2) Vintage Used Anniversary Greeting Card Birds Bluebirds Silk Ribbon Silver Foil

You should have seen the original version of this post before I culled down the cards to a reasonable number for the post-- there must have been ten cards with bluebirds on them that I'd chosen! I guess with the whole idea of "bluebirds of happiness" and "lovebirds" you're bound to have duplication of ideas (and not to mention, I am bird-biased :) ). At any rate, I'm not always a fan of the verse-card (especially versus the funny-rhyme card), but the birds on this were so beautifully geometric and vibrantly colored, I couldn't help myself. Could they be cuter? Also Matthew has an almost pathological weakness for cutie/sweetie little illustrations, so this reminded me of him.

Grade: A+ for art, C+ for verse.

3) Early 40s Vintage Wedding First Anniversary Greeting Card Couple Paper Insert

It's not our first anniversary, but I about died when I saw this card:

The newspaper comes out for a bonus message! [shrieks with delight]

And then the inside has a sweet sentimental message, two dressed-to-the-nines mid nineteen thirties' people, and adorable typography. This may be my favorite card out of the bunch. It feels like one of those Joan Crawford MGM glamorama pictures in greeting card form, and if that's not something I love, I don't know what is.

Another thing that struck me perusing these cards-- isn't it interesting that a large number of people used to send anniversary cards out? I mean, reading these and others, you might expect to get one of these from your kids, and maybe your friends and extended family? I think nowadays, it's NICE to get a card or some kind of remembrance from your parents (my MIL sent us a Jacquie Lawson e-card this morning, for a 21st century example), but other family members or friends I wouldn't expect to go out of their way to remember the date. It's hard enough to remember YOUR OWN anniversary (which is why I built a song aide-memoire to the occasion for extra help, haha...all I have to do is remember the Earth Wind and Fire lyrics from our first dance!). At any rate, the "Dady Joe + Mother" signature on the newspaper is so sweet I could die.

Grade: A+++++++ for EVERYTHING, I WANT THIS CARD.

4) Vintage Greeting Card Anniversary Kitten Cat Good Luck Keepsake

This card appeals to me because it combines voodoo right alongside the cute/kind sentiment of an anniversary card.

JK, it's not really voodoo, but it IS a weird little human-shaped good luck charm made out of beads accompanied by this caption:

The repetition of "Sitting pretty" three times in the text of the card makes me wonder if it's some kind of incantation to ward off/garner evil wishes? And IS the cat wearing a witch's hat? As someone who takes spooky very seriously, I am very into this card.

Grade: S-P-O-O-K-Y +

5) On Your Anniversary Two Fold

This one was just cute, what was I supposed to do. Something about 1900's-1940's illustrations seems so strange at the same time as being whimsical, and I like the butcher paper texture on the card colored with such primary colors.

Grade: B+ for cute-i-tude and A+ for dog fashion.

Last but not least:

6) Swell eggs:

Anthropomorphic cards might be MY FAVORITE kind of cards, and I like that this one takes it a step further with such a forties'/fifties' turn of phrase. "You're a swell egg, you know that, kid?" sounds like something Spencer Tracy would say grudgingly to a teenage copy boy in his newspaper office in a 40's movie. Wait til you see the inside:

And it's even for a second anniversary! PERFECTION.

Grade: A for puns and eyelashes on lady egg.

In summation: H-A-P-P-Y A-N-N-I-V-E-R-S-A-R-Y to me and to my cute little mate. Two years down and another sixty some odd to go! <3 p="">

Which one of these is your favorite? I can't choose, like I said, they're ALL amazing. Do you exchange cards/gifts for your anniversary? Does anyone outside of your parents send you cards/remembrances for the same? I'll tell you later in the week about our anniversary trip this past weekend and all the goodies we found in Kentucky...wait 'til you see our loot! :)

Gotta get back to the grind, but have a fabulous Monday-- I'll talk to you soon!