About Us

The Art of Paper & Ink

We are known for clean original designs options, crisp, deep impressions, and beautiful craftswomanship-that’s right, (craftswomanship™ ; ). The keystone to our success is our creativity and unmatched personable responsive service.  And quite simply, you’ll have to talk to a human at some point in the process to design a custom order with your style and our design aesthetic.  We’re just not ready to lose the human factor-it’s needed to make art on paper.  Yes, we think that even a fine business card is a piece of art.  Admittedly, everyone here has a paper fetish.

Here’s the backstory:

In a small papermill outside London, Digby and Rose fell in love, among the reams of romance and leaves of lust. Perhaps that’s why it’s so ironic that they’re struggling to find the perfect wedding invitations. You can’t make up that kind of symbolism (or can you?).

The problem isn’t that there are no invitations available; the problem is that there aren’t any that meet Digby and Rose’s fine taste. They’re trendy. They’re educated. And they know what they want: elegance.

Rose is 25, a clumsy redhead with a degree in fine art – she hails from Berkley and hates comic sans. Digby is 35, a teacher of classical literature on sabbatical from Cambridge. He wooed Rose by quoting Jane Austen and relying on his dimples……heavily.

Digby and Rose are ready to commit to each other for the rest of their lives, but until they find the perfect wedding invitations, they can’t RSVP for their future. In fact, they can’t even pick a venue, choose a wedding planner, or move forward in their matrimony at all.

Digby always had an interest in drawing – that’s where his fine taste comes from. As a child, his father taught him how to build a house from the ground up. His father owned a prestigious high-end furniture and millwork company that manufactured and installed the interiors for high-end, luxury companies.

Following in his father’s footsteps at the age of 16, Digby could carve eagle talons holding a globe as legs for a walnut desk. He even won a statewide competition for designing a modern home inspired by a chair designed by George Nelson (1908-1986).

Digby’s first official job was working as an architectural draftsman for Disney, The MGM Grand, and other commercial projects. Shortly afterward, he discovered his passion for poetry and changed his path to classical literature. He then moved overseas to England where he received his degree from Cambridge and taught at London College.

He always carried his sketchbook and pencils and was doing so when he was on sabbatical in Moldova. This is where he and Rose first met outside the paper mill.

Rose is a sucker for a man with a sketchbook – she’d had interest in art for as long as she remembered. In grade school, when other kids were eating Play-Doh, she was creating with it, elaborate sculptures filled with detail and texture. In high school, she won blue ribbon after blue ribbon at the local art fair and received scholarship offers to several universities. She graduated from UCSB and, as her parents told her to get a job, she got a plane ticket instead. She was taking time to see the world when Digby crossed her path.

They’ve trekked the globe in search of the perfect wedding invitations. Their feet are blistered from all the walking and their fingers calloused: they practically live on Pinterest. But their search proved futile. That’s why they decided that if they couldn’t find the perfect wedding invitations, they’d make their own.

They began designing invitations and printing them with a technique that Rose invented, but they mostly rely on letterpress and engraving as their go to method to execute the most unique and personal invitations and stationery in the world. No, you’ll never see this couple suggest a photo postcard as a save the date or use a viewfinder or a Thailand made silk box with faux stones. They’ll only deliver the highest quality paper on presses that are over 50 years old. One’s even as old as 130 years. Who knows, if Digby and Rose hadn’t begun designing their own invitations, 130 years might be as long as it took them to find the invitations perfect for them.

But their story isn’t over. No, the tale of Digby and Rose is just getting started.  Sometime’s Digby doesn’t feel as old as he looks so he’s turned back the clock 20 years to express his inner self.

Fun facts:

– “Digby” comes from the name of a character in Roses’s unpublished satirical science fiction novel. (He was the head Maintenance Elf for a make-your-own-quest theme park.)
– “Rose” is the name of Digby’s aunt, who was born with an oil paint brush in her hand. It also sounds great with Digby. Try it, “DigbyRose”. Together they are Digby & Rose, our favorite couple on the hunt for the perfect wedding invitations!
– Don’t worry about bringing your future mother-in-law to your appointment, The DigbyRose team and employees are all trained diplomats and speak many languages, including Spanish, Bosnian, German and “Are you really going to pick that one?”
– When Heather was 10 she signed everything “HTG” (Heather the Great), but allowed her best friend Heather to call herself Heather the Magnificent.
– Heather’s love for the color purple has never been better expressed than through her once-favorite outfit of purple Members Only jacket, purple corduroy pants, purple velcro shoes, all worn while carrying a purple Trapper Keeper to class. Her age at the time will not be revealed.

-Out employees are known either as the firstname.digby@digbyrose.com or firstname.rose@digbyrose.com.  But don’t worry, they have all been well vetted to execute designs to the DigbyRose style.

How to work with us– Get in touch!

Here’s the basic information that we’ll need-
1. When is the big day?
2. Do you have any design inspirations or a theme you need help cultivating?
3. Where is the venue?
4. How many invitations do you need?
5. What have you budgeted for stationery?

Invitation Costs-

Pricing varies depending on the quantity, the size of the paper, number of colors, type of paper and finishing. The most basic set of 1-color letterpress invitation, 1 color reply card, and envelopes with 1 letterpress return address is about $1,800 for a quantity of 100. Other options will depend on the number of pieces, printing type, and custom design details.
Once we understand what it is that you need, we can send pricing options for different combinations! More on invitation pricing.

Timing-

-For original custom invitation design work, plan on anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months for the design process, depending on how complicated your design is going to be. We are happy to work in person, on the phone, or through email.
-For designs we already have that just need customization or personalization (changing colors and/or layout), the proofing process can be done in as little as 5 days.
-Once your final digital proofs are approved, production time can be 3-5 weeks, depending on your set and whether you are picking up in our studio or we are shipping to you.

It’s your invitation!

Take your time, our goal is to create fantastic invitations you will love! The proofing process is based on your input, and we can often show you different versions to choose from. Our normal ordering process includes 3 set of design proofs before any additional design fees are applied. Customization is usually including in pricing and if it’s not, we’ll let you know why and how much it will cost before we get started.

What our customers say about us is priceless (for everything else there’s advertising).

TESTIMONIALS

“The invitations are everything I hoped for and more. They have been roundly recognized as the most beautiful wedding invitations anyone has ever seen. I really, really love them. Corrie September 2017

“Digby & Rose were absolutely amazing to work with and I recommend them to all my friends. I used them for both my wedding save the dates and invitations. They were able to take my design vision and translate it into absolutely stunning letterpress pieces – they have a great eye for design and are up on the latest trends and techniques. Throughout the design process they were patient after we went back and forth through multiple design reiterations and proofs. They left no detail untouched! All the while, they were able to work within my budget that I had set up front and lay out options for me so I could make informed decisions on how best to spend my money. Heather Noss is an absolute joy to work with – she is patient, creative, responsive and will go out of her way to make sure that your invitations are 100% perfect. Even the envelopes they printed were stunning, and I had a number of people ask me if they were handwritten (they were printed digitally). I have received many compliments on the invitations thanks to them!”Natalie 1/29/12

“LOVE, LOVE, LOVE

I just finished working with Digby & Rose on my invitations for my upcoming destination wedding, and I could not be happier with the way they turned out. The invites just went in the mail and my family and friends are already raving out the design and the quality.

Heather is wonderful to work, she is extremely responsive and very professional.
I would highly recommend Digby & Rose to any bride.” Danielle 2/7/12

“Super helpful in helping us create our invitations. She was able to accommodate us after we just walked in off the street, without making an appointment. She was able to listen to our ideas and come up with a design that was in tune with everything we wanted! The proofing process was super easy, our invites went to the printer in very little time. She has a keen eye for details and is easy to work with. We highly recommend her!” Emily 8/28/11

“For some reason, invitations were hard for us. We couldn’t find anything we really liked… until we stumbled upon Heather randomly via Twitter. Heather was great to work with. She was quick with responding to emails and making changes to the invitation design. She designed a custom invitation for us that went perfectly with the wedding. She had the invitations to us on time and in perfect condition. We received so many compliments on the invitations and are really glad we found her. We couldn’t be any happier with the invitations!” CherriTerri519 8/28/11

“HTG created a custom botanical design for our wedding invitations and they are spectacular! She was patient as we tweaked the shape and personable as we sorted out the colors. And clearly she is a perfectionist when it comes to the final product. We’ve had lots of “wow, your invitations!” comments, and could not be more pleased. Everything was on time, and on budget, too. Plus she offered some great tips on calligraphy for the addresses. I hope to work with her again!” Renee 7/06/2010

“I ordered the Ocean Wave invitations from HTG with last minute’s notice because my previous wedding invitation idea fell through. She turned them around as fast as I could email her the information she needed. And they are SO beautiful!!! They are ABSOLUTELY amazing. No photos do them justice. They look classy and elegant with a splash of fun. I went with her original chosen fonts which looked fantastic, and we changed the colors of the wave a bit to match my color scheme. Also the paper she used was of great quality–thick and sturdy but with a soft texture. She took care of everything–she was completely on top of it and gave me lots of options and advice throughout the whole process (a whopping total of 4 days). I can’t wait for people to tell me how gorgeous the invitations are because I guarantee I’m going to get a lot of compliments.” Kris Tangi 7/15/2010

“Extremely impressed by the beauty and quality of our invitation suite! So glad we ordered the thank you notes too! Heather is an incredible artist and so attentive to each customers’ needs. THANK YOU!!” A different Rose 7/01/2010