Saturday, April 20, 2013
Painted Edges, Thick Soft Paper and Letterpress
When you’re searching for luxury invitations and just haven’t found one with the right touch of color, consider painting the edges of the paper. It’s done by hand by people who love stationery and creating those unique touches. The process is simple, but tricky. All you need is an ink roller and a steady hand. No machinery required. Although, if you want silver or gold foil leaf on your edges, it may get a little more complicated.
Water Color Technique with Letterpress Text and Green Painted Edge
Creating water color designs on thick cotton paper has improved thanks to innovations in digital printing on thicker papers. These invitations were printed digitally from the original design, with the addition of letterpressed text and a dark green paper backer. The painted edge in a fresh spring green was the final touch. The goal was to create a whimsical water color invitation based on a children’s book set in a garden.
Coral Painted Edge Stationery
A wedding invitation created with antique gold ink script font and a touch of color added to the edge. When you want a hint of pink but not too much!
Gold Painted Edge Stationery
For this luxury wedding invitation we created for a ceremony held in Rome, Italy, the couple wanted something as lavish as their event. We used museum board (4-ply museum board-it’s twice as thick as the 220LB paper) and created a dimpled texture with a letterpress. The invitation was topped off with a copper foil stamp with a custom crest with the couple’s initials.
Red Ink Stationery Edge
This invitation was inspired by a wine bottle and a red, white and black wedding theme. The red painted edge gave it the touch it needed to pull the invitation set together, and was tied together in the end with a deep red belly band.
Silver Foil Gilded Edge
Why stop at a regular painted edge when you can have actual shiny foil gleaming at the edge of your invitation? This beauty was done in shiny silver foil, but foil options come in many colors, from gold to blue to fuschia!
Lilac Painted Stationery Edge
Hot Pink Stationery Edge
Painted edges can add $175+ to the price of average wedding invitation set per piece. For a perfectly elegant luxury wedding invitation, consider using a nice calligraphy font printed in letterpress on a formal size invitation of (6X9) and for a touch of color, paint the edges. For something truly special, carry that theme throughout the set and paint the edges of the RSVP card and all the other inserts. To go over the top, you can use the painted edge color as the envelope liner or use the same color as the RSVP return envelope.
To create your own painted edge invitation set, contact us and one of our designers will be happy to discuss a project with you.
Posted in Custom Letterpress Designs, Painted Edges, Wedding Resources
Saturday, March 2, 2013
When it comes to planning a wedding, budgets can often go from modest to extreme in no time at all. Many brides and grooms keep an eye on the bottom line, even when it comes to the smallest expense. But it’s important not to become ‘pound foolish and penny wise’ when it comes to prioritizing where to spend your wedding budget. Invitations and wedding stationery can be one area which is often seen as an easy way to save a few pennies – but cutting corners on such a fundamental part of your wedding is short-sighted. Your invitations are not only the first view your guests will receive of your wedding style, but besides your photos are your main keepsake that will need to last you a lifetime.
The Value in Letterpress Invitations
The amount spent on invitations, reply cards and related correspondence or wedding stationery is nothing when compared to how much a wedding party will spend on clothes, drink, decorations, photographs and just about everything else. And while it can be easy to see the value in splashing out a bit more for the best wine or the finest cheesecake, too many wedding parties overlook the role your invitations can play. This is especially true when it comes to springing for letterpress invitations, which do cost more than those printed with laser printers or offset printing methods. But while letterpress may be an older form of printing, more time consuming and expensive than newer technologies, it delivers not only a touch of old world class, but an image of enduring tradition and an instant keepsake for both you and your guests.
An Elegant and Lasting Impression
Letterpress invitations are designed to give an amazing impression – literally. Since they are printed by old world pressing techniques they have indented lettering and a heavier, creamier feel thanks to the ability to print on a wider range of thick cotton and other papers that is not possible with digital printing. The lettering and imagery imprinted on a beautiful and dense paper really stands out and creates an impactful and inspiring message. This makes letterpress invitations a perfect fit for keepsakes in your Wedding Album; it can also give all of your guests the best first impression of your wedding long before the magical day. Letterpress stationery is the little black dress of wedding correspondence – it goes with absolutely everything! No matter if your wedding theme is modern, retro, traditional or bohemian, the high-quality of letterpress stationery complements any style and enhances everything it touches.
The correspondence and stationery you use for your wedding will become a part of your own memories, the memories of your guests and will more than likely become a part of your wedding album. It’s one of the tangible parts of your wedding story – one which includes not only the photographs you’ll take that day, but the keepsakes which become a part of the celebration itself. As one of our clients once remarked, “No-one is throwing this one away!” Using letterpress stationery and invitations will ensure that the memories you make are timeless and will be worth their weight in gold!
Posted in Wedding Resources
Monday, February 18, 2013
Every detail in a wedding is something people tend to agonize over. Partly, it’s just human nature to want every detail to be perfect and, of course, many people are keeping an eye on the bottom line as well. Although invitations make up a small part of the overall cost of a wedding, many couples are a bit surprised when they learn how much professional, letterpress invitations can cost.
Professional, high-end letterpress invitations have become more popular since the 1990s, when people began to place a higher value in the overall quality of items as opposed to just the final price. Offset and digital printing may have made printing easier and more widely-accessible, but they simply cannot match the quality and craftsmanship of traditional, custom, letterpress printing.
What is Letterpress?
Letterpress is the act of relief printing and, until the later half of the 20th century, it was the leading way everything was printed – from books to invitations. Printing with letterpress means placing individual letters on a press and then pressing the paper against the type. When offset printing was introduced in the 20th century, it made the process quicker thanks to advanced technology. Later, digital printing took it to the next level and made printing accessible to everyone. This meant printing services were able to lower their prices and now it’s possible to get invitations fronted for mere pennies – so why bother with letterpress? bahis siteleri
What You’re Paying For with Letterpress Printing
Letterpress printing is, quite simply, beautiful. Letterpress printing involves a vast array of equipment – from the individual letters and type blocks to the ink, press and paper stock. What’s more, it involves a level of skill and quite a bit of time both for the printing process itself, as well as the experience needed for someone to become a skilled printer.
Although the rise of digital and offset printing have become popular, traditional letterpress printing has seen a real revival in the United States, UK and Canada since the mid-1990s. Letterpress printing offers a level of quality not matched elsewhere and, perhaps most importantly, it allows for a great degree of control when it comes to fine typography.
Finally, there is the sheer impact of a letterpress invitation. The act of letterpress printing leaves a distinct impression on the paper itself. Often a thicker, creamier paper stock is used for letterpress invitations and, as a result, once printed, people can run their fingertips over the invitation and literally feel the impact of the press. It brings a new tactile dimension to invitations which goes a long way to making them a richer part of the celebration.
Choosing to use letterpress printing for your wedding invitations is a choice of quality and style over bottom line pricing. While it’s possible to make nice invitations using digital or offset printing, letterpress brings an added dimension to the invitations – literally. These hand crafted, unique and tactile invitations can truly set the tone for your entire wedding as the first impression your guests will get of your wedding and the entire celebration.
Posted in Wedding Resources
