Marc Friedland on Sprucing Up the Official Oscar Envelope

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• George Clooney? Jean Dujardin? Brad Pitt? We'll find out on Sunday who receives this coveted envelope.
• It's all in the details.
• The envelopes are surprisingly hefty.
• A sample of the Marc Friedland-designed, Academy-approved evites available on www.postmark.com.
• Marc Friedland and Oscar.

Yesterday, the 84th Academy Awards' official retail sponsor JC Penney invited us to an exclusive peek of this year's setup, where we met a slew of Oscar magic-makers, like Wolfgang Puck. In addition to previewing Puck's luxe bites for the Governors Ball following the show, we also had a chance to chat with LA celebrity invitation connoisseur Marc Friedland, who designed this year's official Oscar envelopes and announcement cards.

Friedland's coveted stint started last year, when the Academy approached him to re-imagine their outdated awards materials. "Prior to 2011, they never had an official envelope," he tells us. "I knew that it needed to be as iconic as the statue, so I created something that could be a keepsake in its own right." The custom envelope is handcrafted from high-gloss metallic gold paper stock with red-lacquered lining that features the Oscar statuette hand-stamped in satin gold leaf. Fancy. "If you really think about it, the most ubiquitous phrases of the Oscars are 'The Oscar goes to...' and 'The envelope, please.' Now, Oscar has an official sidekick."

Click through our snaps to take a closer look at the envelopes, and peruse Friedland's first-ever collection of Academy-approved evites here for all your Oscar viewing party needs.
· Marc Friedland Couture Communications [Official Site]