Erika & Eric Are Getting Married!

Happy Friday everyone! A couple of weeks ago I completed a lovely set of wedding invitations for a wonderful couple back east named Erika and Eric! Erika and Eric designed their wedding invitations together and hired Twin Ravens Press to letterpress print them! I love the simplicity and pure elegance of this lovely one-color suite. I occasionally have potential customers ask if letterpress printing will be beautiful in just a single color, or if they really need to do two or more to make the letterpress look outstanding. Well, ladies and gentlemen, here is a stunning example of a one-color letterpress suite that I think looks gorgeous and amazing! You can see the full suite at the top, which included a horizontal A7 size invitation with corresponding gold envelope, and a horizontal 4bar size reply card with corresponding red envelope.

Erika and Eric's wedding invitation and reply card were printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton Ecru paper, which is a nice, warm color that really takes letterpress impressions well. As the groom has a chinese background, they chose the traditional wedding color for the Chinese culture: red, as their ink color. Erika and Eric used a gorgeous, decorative script face for their names and the "Dinner and dancing to follow" line of their invitation, and a nice, contemporary all-caps san-serif face for the rest of the text. They created two very pretty, ornate looking border elements for each side of the invitation, and included a traditional chinese double-happiness character in the bottom left corner of the design.

I love how that red ink just pops right off the page! It's truly stunning! We paired this invitation with a metallic, shimmery gold envelope from Waste Not Paper Company and printed the couple's return address on the flap in red ink.

Erika and Eric used many of the same design elements from their invitation for their reply card to keep the set consistent. We used the same red ink color for the printing and Erika and Eric continued using their lovely decorative script typeface and san-serif typeface, as well as the pretty ornate borders. Along with having the standard "accepts" and "regrets" lines on their reply card, they also included a section where guests could select their entree for reception dinner. These reply cards were paired with matching red envelopes that were printed with black ink, also from Waste Not Paper Company.

Aren't these just lovely?!? I absolutely love how traditional yet modern they are all at the same time, and I LOVE the splashes of red throughout the suite. It's such a great color! Erika and Eric were fabulous clients to work with and Erika told me she's heard nothing but glowing compliments on their invitations from their guests.

If you are interested in having a set of wedding invitations designed and/or letterpress printed by Twin Ravens Press, please contact me. I'd be more than happy to give you pricing and information on all of our design and printing services.

Thanks so much Erika and Eric! Congratulations and all the best to you!

Joanne & Justin are Getting Married!

Continuing my metallic ink theme from yesterday, I present to you these lovely wedding invitations I completed a couple of weeks ago for North Carolina couple who are getting married in Florida this upcoming December! The bride, Joanne, designed her invitations herself (aren't the decorative motifs at the top and bottom gorgeous?!?) and hired Twin Ravens Press to print them. We printed Joanne and Justin's wedding invitation in two ink colors: burgundy and metallic gold on Crane Lettra Pearl White paper. I love the color combination she chose and I think it's going to be lovely for a late-december celebration!

Joanne is planning to assemble her invites herself and had her other inserts (a reply card and reception card) printed digitally to offset some of the cost of her total invitation package. This is really a wonderful option if your invitation budget is tight, but you want to still incorporate a gorgeous letterpress printed piece or two into your suite. Joanne is planning to assemble all of her invites and inserts into a decorative burgundy pocket folder with a belly band! I'm sure the whole package is going to look gorgeous together!

Congratulations Joanne & Justin!

Rachel & Joseph are Getting Married!

Metallic inks have certainly been a popular choice at Twin Ravens Press for the past couple of weeks! I just finished up this invitation suite earlier this month and boy does it make a gorgeous and very elegant use of metallic gold ink and blind embossing! The invitation suite you see above was created for a lovely couple, Rachel and Joseph, who originally contacted me back in June to create invitations for their upcoming January 2010 wedding in Coral Gables, Florida! Rachel and Joseph's suite included an A7 size invitation with corresponding, lined envelope, a 4bar size reply card with corresponding envelope and 4bar folded thank you notes with corresponding envelopes. All pieces were printed in metallic gold ink on Crane Lettra 100% cotton paper in Ecru. The envelopes are Crane Lettra envelopes, printed in gold ink with square flaps.

Rachel & Joseph's wedding invitation created a really fun design challenge for me. When doing design work, it is often difficult to incorporate more than two or three different fonts without the design looking cluttered. If you check out the invitation above we were able to incorporate five (5!) different typefaces as well as some elegant and decorative scrolls and flourishes into the design while still keeping it very formal and pretty. The text of the invitation is centered in a decorative gold border and we blind-embossed the area outside of the border with a series of thin, vertical lines to give the invitation a little more texture. I love how this invitation is for a 2010 wedding, but looks elegant and classic enough to where it could be from a wedding that happened years ago. It's modern and vintage looking all at the same time! Check out this close-up to see some of the fonts and the letterpress impression better:

Above, the invitation and invite envelope are pictured together. We chose a classic, 100% cotton square flap envelope to pair with this invitation. We kept the lining of the envelope very simple - it's a light metallic solid-colored liner in a shade similar to the paper we used for the invites and envelopes. I love how this gives Rachel's envelopes an extra hint of elegance without being too decorative. The metallic in the liner paper gives off just a little bit of shimmer when you hold the envelope open in different light. I love how it adds just a little bit to the overall package without being "too much".

Here are Rachel & Joseph's reply card and reply card envelope:

These are a 4bar size, also printed on Crane Lettra Ecru paper and envelopes with gold ink and blind embossing. We utilized the same decorative gold frame and blind embossing for the reply card and kept the usage of several different, elegant fonts consistent with the invitation in this design.

Very pretty, don't you think?!? I love the little heart flourish we came up with for the bottom of this card and for the bottom of the invite. Rachel and Joseph's replies were going to be received by Rachel's mom in Deltona, Florida, so we letterpress printed her address on the front of the reply card envelopes.

Rachel wanted a really simple set of thank you cards that kept with the elegance of her invitation suite.

For these, we switched things up just a bit and instead of blind embossing the vertical lines like we did on the invitation and reply card, we blind embossed the decorative border instead. We printed Rachel & Joseph's names in gold ink in the center of the blind embossed border in one of our decorative fonts from the invitation. I like how these cards don't have to be specifically used as thank you cards since they don't say "thank you" anywhere on them. Rachel and Joseph could also use them for other correspondence after their wedding if they have extras left over. This card was also paired with a 4bar, Crane Lettra, ecru, square flap envelope. Check out the pair together here:

Rachel was an absolute joy to work with and I know that her wedding in Florida this January is going to be very elegant and beautiful!

Congratulations Rachel & Joseph!

Elyssa & Justin are Getting Married!

Back in early June I created a really fun and elegant little set of Save-the-Date cards for a Seattle couple who are getting married in Florida this upcoming January. If you missed out on seeing that post back in August, click on the link above and go check them out!

When I began working with Elyssa on designs for her invitations, she wanted to keep with the same colors we had used on the save-the-dates, but adapt the design to be a little more unique and different. Her suite included a set of A7 size invitations and 4bar size reply cards with corresponding envelopes. Check out the whole suite together at the top of this post!

Elyssa's invitation and reply card were printed on Crane Lettra 100% cotton Pearl White Paper. We utilized the same decorative scroll pattern in the design for her invitation as we used in her Save-the-Dates, but rather than having it adorn one side of the invite, used it just on a couple of the corners for a fresh, new look. The Save-the-Dates were printed in a single ink color (violet), but to dress up the invitation a little more, we added a second ink color: metallic silver. I love these colors together and think they are a beautiful choice for a winter wedding! Like the Save-the-Date cards, we paired Elyssa's invitation with a purple envelope that had their return address printed on the flap in silver ink. Check out this close-up of the invitation to see the pretty fonts:

Elyssa's reply card is a 4bar size card printed in violet ink. It features the scroll pattern running down the left side of the card and a couple of lovely scallop shells next to the accepts/regrets options. I love how we were able to include a tiny touch of ocean/beach theme in this suite for Elyssa's Florida wedding, without making the suite look all-out-tropical. Another thing I love about this card is that the "Please respond by December 8th" line is in French. What a fun little, classy detail, don't you think?!?

To add just one more splash of a different color to the suite, we chose to pair Elyssa and Justin's reply card with a metallic gold envelope, printed with violet ink from Waste Not Paper Company. Check it out:

I love how by adding a different colored envelope to the suite, we are able to add an additional color without adding to the total price by adding extra inks. If you're thinking you want to add an additional splash of color to your invitations, without adding to the price of the letterpress printing, using colored envelopes, colored invitation matting, colorful ribbons or other small colorful details, can make a large impact on your design without putting a large dent in your budget.

I'm currently working on a really fun (and decidedly unique) set of Thank You cards for Elyssa's wedding, which I will share with you here when they're done. Check back often if you'd like to see those!

Thanks so much Elyssa and Justin and congratulations!