The Bridal Show

This past Saturday we participated in the Bridal Extravaganza put on by our friends at The Bride and Groom at the Grand America Hotel   It was great meeting with a  new brides and talking over the details of their wedding.

I thought I would write a blog post that answers some of the variety of questions we received yesterday at the show.

What do you have to offer that is different?

In my opinion, your wedding invites should set the tone for your event.   Our clients are ones who are looking for that very thing.  They want their guests, when they open their invitation to have a sense of  who they are as a  couple and the kind of event they will be hosting.  Whether you are getting married on a mountain or on the beaches of Hawaii, your invitation is the first taste your friends and family will have of your wedding.  We have a wide variety of preset designs and also enjoy working with the clients who want a custom masterpiece.   

What is letterpress printing?
Letterpress printing is an elegant and stylish printing technique that has been around for hundreds of years.  It involves printing the invite design simultaneously while it debosses the image into thick, soft paper.  Each invite is printed one at a time and each color is run one at a time.   Letterpress work is unmatched in terms of quality and feel.  It gives a crispness and visual definition to the final process.  Because it is so labor intensive, letterpress is much higher in cost than traditional offset printing.


What is digital printing?
Digital printing is a common printing technique in which in colors can be run at once.  Invites are run large format or high volume laser or inkjet printers The print is flat to the touch and invites can be printed quickly in large quantities. It is a great alternative for clients who love great design but don't have the budget for letterpress.

What are your prices?
We have a variety of invitation sets to fit many different clients.  Depending on your budget, you may opt for our custom letterpress collection which starts at $1500 per set or we also have our digital collection that starts around $750 a set.

How much time do you need to order and print?
Proper ettiquette suggests you should mail your invites 3-5 weeks in advance.   For letterpress jobs we recommend 1 month for design and 2 weeks for print.  For digital jobs we recommend 2 weeks for design and 1 week for print.





We look forward to speaking with you regarding your invite needs.  For questions regarding consults and pricing,  please email here 

ashley letterpress

kari letterpress

nichole letterpress

avery digital

ava digital

lucille digital

  

I love writing and receiving thank you notes.  Sometimes I think it is a lost art form.   I purchased the note cards and envelopes from my favorite place Paper Source.
I decided to design and print these custom envelope liners along with custom labels to add a special touch.

all wrapped up

December is finally here! And I couldn't be more excited. One of the best parts of the holiday season is picking out the wrapping paper. PaperSource is overflowing with to-die for prints. I can hardly choose between them, they are all so fabulous. Here are a few of my favorites:

 

I absolutely love the gnomes they came out with this year. They even have little kits to make gnome ornaments. Adorable:

 

I have always been a sucker for birds and woodgrain prints. Put the two together, and I am smitten:

 I think these two would be so killer with some bright green velvet ribbon:

 

 I adore the use of the bird sillouette against the realistic spruce branches on this one:

baby announcement: the twins

When Liz and BJ found out they were expecting twin boys, they couldn't have been happier. Liz is one of my closest friends, and so I hosted a baby shower for her at my home. She loved the invitations for the shower so much, she asked me to just modify them for her announcements as well.

We invited our closest group of girl friends to help celebrate the long awaited and upcoming arrival of Liz's little men. Even though this group of girls get together quite often, I still wanted to doll the place up a bit for the occasion. For decor, I simply hung several streamers from the ceiling to help center in the table where we would be eating dinner and spending most the evening. I folded origami birds for each place setting and also hung a few from the streamed ceiling. With lots of candles and kermit mums, it was a simple, but a cute set up.


Yesterday, Liz and BJ just had a new baby girl, Lauren Emily. She is pure heaven, and I'm already brainstorming new ideas for her upcoming announcement. Stay tuned.

The Shower Invitation 

The Baby Announcement

The Shower

baby announcements: lilybelle

The inspiration behind Lilybelle's announcement card came from artwork that was hanging in her nursery room. Her mom wanted to frame the announcement next to these pre-existing art pieces, so we thought a large "L" alphabet card would be a nice addition. 

We used a larger replication of the pattern from the L to be the envelope liner. We loved the attention to detail Lilybelle's mother gave the announcement, by using a matching hair flower in the photo, white photo tabs to hold the picture on the back, and a butterfly stamp in similar colors to help tie everything together as a whole. The announcement was mailed out in the papaya envelopes.

We think the announcement and miss Lilybelle couldn't be any cuter. 

Inspiration

One of my favorite things about writing for our design blog is discovering content and finding inspiration through a variety of sources to share with our readers.  There are so many great blogs out there and I thought it would be fun this week to share 3 of my very favorite as of late. 


So here they are....


Oh Happy Day  is a a recent discovery of mine that Emily shared with me.   It is run by a party planner and letterpress printer from San Francisco, California.  It is full of great tips, party + wedding ideas, trends, and DYI projects.  I love spending time checking out her blog and facebook posts.  She also is an inspiration because she decided to move with her family to Paris France for the year.  I just love people that aren't afraid to change things up and try something new.

Our Best Bites is a great food and recipe blog, and if you haven't heard of them, maybe you have been living under a rock.  Their recipes are so very tasty and simple.  It is run by two wives and mothers who just love to cook!  They have also written  a fabulous cookbook. “Best Bites: Mormon Moms in the Kitchen.”


Their story is fun & inspiring and can be read here.  My favorite recipe as of late is their Creamy Pesto Pasta. Yummy!

Design Sponge is my newest discovery.  It is a design blog run by Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney I found her new book on a recent trip to the greatest store in the world Anthropologie.  I seriously get so happy when I am in there I can barley stand it.   Her blog and book are full of great home decor ideas, tips and trends, party and event planning and much more.  She also runs the D*S Biz Lady Series which is an organization for women who run design based businesses.    Be sure to check her out on facebook as well.

hello lovely: a favorite letterpressed invitation set

No matter how many times I see and feel a piece that has been letterpressed, I still feel like I'm swooning. The gorgeous texture of the design and ink pressed into the paper is something I will never tire of. And I couldn't love more, the way bride Rachel's Zackrison's invitation turned out. 

Wanting to keep within the French bed and breakfast theme she was incorporating into her wedding, we designed up this elegant invitation set. Rachel also found this amazing resource for vintage stamps to use on each envelope. I absolutely love these, and never want to throw this envelope away!

We also designed up several signs to place at different areas of the reception. I am overjoyed when brides allow us to think beyond just the invitation set for ways to brand and doll up their wedding. Welcome signs are a great beginning to wooing your guest upon first arrival. If you are having your reception at a hard to find location, welcome and directional signs can help excite your guests upon their arrival while also reassuring them they have found the correct venue. It's the extra little touches that put things over the top and make it look well thought out and amazing. 


Some other ideas for signage could be for the table your guests sign in, dessert and buffet tables, name cards, or the "heritage of love" table like Rachel and Ken did. Here they posted photos of their relatives on both sides who had married, parents, grandparents, great grandparents. 

And last of all, don't forget to design out the thank you cards now. You will be that much more prepared to begin thanking your guests for sharing your big day and for their generous gifts, once the dust has settled and you and your newly wed spouse are back down from cloud 9.

Rachel and Ken's wedding was amazing and each detail was so well thought out. We were happy to be a part of such a beautiful day. 

 (reception photos courtesy of the fabulous Jonathan Canlas)