Garden Party Wedding

I wish I could tell you all what I REALLY think of this wedding suite, but it's just not possible with words (I know, it's sounds crazy to tell you I can't explain it in words...in a blog). Instead, I want you to imagine a child walking into the largest candy store in the world. Envision the sparkle in the eye, and the drool at the corner of the mouth. Add in some mild twitching, the inability to move a single step forward, backward, or in any direction entirely and hands sort of hanging there, like a monkey. Yeah, that might give you an idea.

When my good friend, Liz, came to me to help her design and press her garden-party wedding invitations, I almost fell over when she gave me free reign. I immediately thought of the book I found at an old book store that had detailed drawings of flowers from a botanist in the 1500's and compiled the florals in a fresh and flirty design. Hey-- remember these florals from their first debut? They are one in the same! Now, I have to be honest, these wedding invitations actually came first, but were held back from the blogging world until now for the mear reason that I wasn't happy with my blog design before and wanted these babies to REALLY pop.

Everything was letterpress printed in 220lb duplex Pearl White Crane Lettra paper (it's the thickest paper I have ever seen, really, and takes an impression like you would.not.believe). The navy ink... was a challenge. As I mentioned in a previous post, Lettra soaks up more ink than the most absorbent sponge in the world; I also didn't account for the fact that this design is huge- plain and simple. The 5x7 invitations had just about 1/3 of sheet covered in florals which essentially means that much more ink being soaked up. I actually ended up printing everything twice because the colors just weren't right. Note to self, don't do that again with the 220lb paper. The silver ink was added on a whim in a quick chat between Liz and I on gmail chat-- and the best decision we could have ever made. It really makes these invitations stand out!

Do you want to see one of my favorite pieces-- the rsvp. It's a 6x4 post card with the florals on one side, and the goodies on the back. It's beautiful, and I almost wish we could include 2 in each invitation package so folks could keep these forever. Everything will be packaged in a calligraphied navy inner envelope and an opalescent pink outer envelope. Hello, gorgeous. Just like the bride, Liz, who practically keeps JCrew in business.

You had better believe I will be hiding out in the bushes for this beautiful wedding. Liz is one of the smartest and funniest girls I know- and has some SERIOUS design taste. I couldn't be more happy for her and her Fiance, Joel!!

Wedding In Southern Massachusetts

I almost wish I could share the eMail strings between me and Karyn; she is one of the brightest, most beautiful, and happiest people I have had the pleasure to meet! When she and I decided to meet and discuss the prospect of letter pressing her wedding invitations- she came with her entourage of her fiance, Craig, Mother, and Father. They were all so kind, polite, and the type of people you could just wrap up in your coat and take home with you. All so perfect! And... might I add, the nicest folks in the world to drive all the way from Southern Massachusetts to meet me in my neck of the woods- Framingham. We met at a Barnes and Noble, perched in the magazine department with my computer, external hard drive, paper samples, and a TON of ideas.

I have to admit here...Craig is the mastermind behind the perfect flourish, all I did was help recreate it (lucky for me, I noticed it's a series of fonts!). It's beautiful-- and one of my favorite things to print with Gable; there is something about those crisp little lines hitting the paper that's not even funny.

We decided to print these on Pearl White 110lb Crane Lettra paper, and mounted the invitation on Night 5x7 cards from the Paper-Source, and response envelopes to match. Those were printed in silver ink. I LOVE navy and silver. It's quite possibly my new favorite combination of colors to print with. See the response card? Yeah, it's awesome. It's actually that perfect flourish design sort of on steroids- and I can't get enough of it! The pearl outer envelopes were printed in the same dark navy ink (perfectly mixed to match the Night cards we were using). We even printed 2x2 favor tags!! Oh-- those are my second favorite piece of this suite, mostly because all of their guests get to take home a little bit more of the letterpress-goodness!

Congratulations Karyn and Craig!! I wish you both all the best-- thank you!!

Hello, Yellow!

Hello, weekend! Weekend- Yellow, Yellow- weekend. Now that you two have met, let me just tell you what Yellow has done for my weekend: Fullfilled it.

There is something about the color yellow that can make the most unfriendly of folks turn that frown upside down. It's bright, it's cheery, it's clean, and it's on the verge of a 'dangerous color.'

When Miss Stephanie reached out to me and gave me a few photo suggestions of what she wanted-- she really only stated one thing: it has to be yellow. She even stated in a note to me: "It just relays happiness. What's better than that?" Um. No, nothing is. Love this girl!

These invitations were super fun to print. The damask print towards the top was custom designed based on photographs that Stephanie had found online, and the inspiration for the chandelier and lamp post- all Miss *Remember that post about the chandelier nearly aiding in my suicide? Thankfully after Atticus and the stuffed moose saved the day, these invitations were much more enjoyable to print!* and even included my first pass at full-print bellybands (... that story is for another time, but those bellybands and I had a LONG bonding experience, ha!).

The invitation suite was printed on Crane Lettra 110lb Pearl stock, and paired with the most perfect yellow envelopes one could ever find. We're currently working on the rehearsal dinner invitations- and I can't WAIT to show you all those!

Congratulations Stef and Jon!

Practice, Practice, Practice!

It's true what they say, Practice Makes Perfect! Yes, I myself hate those cliche phrases, but in this case, it's 100% true. I've learned a couple things through this design that I would like to share with you all.

1) This, my dear friends, is my baby brother & his Fiance's rehearsal dinner invitations. I had full intentions to design this, print it, and send them on their merry way (only to receive one in the mail very soon- YES!) until I realized that... this may actually be happening. My baby brother (and when I mean baby, I mean to say we're practically Irish-twins with less than 11 months separating us, but still, he's my younger half...) is getting married. It's an interesting prospect. I was just married- it didn't effect me that I would be moving on, but in this case, he actually IS moving on. Perhaps to another state-- a FAR FAR AWAY state. It's going to be weird. I'm none the less happy for them, but... well you get the idea.

2) This design may go in history as the most simple yet hardest to print design. Ever. Yes folks, it's true- I went through 65 pieces of paper to get 30 good prints. Want to know why? DO YA? It's that chandelier. That beautiful, dangly, and deceptively murderous chandelier. Whats that you say, Professor Plum in the bathroom with the chandelier? Yes folks- I nearly broke down crying over that black, hand drawn, monstrous thing. I wasn't getting ANY solid prints no matter how much ink I used (and lettra is NOTORIOUS for drinking ink) or dampening of the paper I did. Ugh. Of course, I prevailed. I should rather say that Atticus prevailed. He, being one of the greatest loves of my life, brought his new stuffed moose-toy into the studio and lovingly layed it near Gable while I was furiously printing. Of course, I had to remove the moose before serious damage was done, and in doing so, left an already once-printed invitation on the press to reach down and grab the precariously perched moose (as an aside, I am very careful about things moving around while I print- it's a dangerous machine, and I don't play games with safety in the studio...). Atticus is so nice to leave such gifts. The press made a double impression on the same invitation.

When you hear a joke that starts with a Great Dane, a Stuffed Moose, and saving the day-- listen. It's based on a true story.

The invitations were finished shortly after and I'm so happy for my baby brother!

Congratulations Mike and Caitlyn-- See you soon in Tampa! Please! Boston is freezing and the husband won't let me turn the heat up!