Bride Designed Wedding Invite Suite

We get asked all the time if we can print designs you send us.  Of course we can!  In fact, we’d love to!  All pieces in this fabulous suite were designed by Ottawa bride Tarah Hunter.

There are so many options to bring your suite up a notch.  Printing on the back of the invite, rounding corners, mixing fonts, patterns printed on the envelopes; these are all options Tarah chose for her suite and they all worked perfectly together!  The whole suite was printed on Crane’s Lettra 220lb paper except the menu which was done on 110lb.

A few tips if you plan on designing your own wedding suite for letterpress: Keep it simple-1 or 2 ink colours works best, line art only-no screens please, use a Vector based design program such as Adobe Illustrator, and no hairlines or teensy fonts please!  🙂

If you are interested in having your designs printed by us, just shoot us a message and we would be more than happy to answer any of your questions!

Tea Length Wedding Invitation

Since we haven’t posted in awhile, I wanted to give everybody a real letterpress treat – an invitation suite we printed last year.  This was our first time printing in Hawaiian and our first tea length invite.  The whole suite was designed by the bride Brytani Bedard, one half of the talented Wishtree Invitations & Stationery company in Ottawa Ontario.  Brytani wanted her invitation to be beautiful and unique, and it certainly was!  The invitation is tea length (3 3/4″ x 9″), RSVP is a double-sided postcard and the program is square.  She also designed sweet little table cards so the guests could write messages to the happy couple during the reception.  Customizing your invitation suite to suit your needs and taste is not always an option but when you design them yourself, it is!

All pieces are printed on Crane’s Lettra 100% cotton paper and we letterpress printed a blind (no ink) pattern and then the text in gorgeous Pantone 7532.  We always talk about the challenges we face with letterpress printing and this time it was the ink.  No matter how hard we tried, we could not get that shade perfect!  Thankfully, we were able to get on the phone and order a pre-mixed tin for the job.  We still have lots left if you love this colour!

We believe when it comes to your wedding, everything has to be perfect.  This invitation suite is perfection!

If you are looking for a letterpress printer for your wedding invitations, please contact us, we’d be happy to give you a quote!

Why Wedding Invitations Are So Important

Last month while at the UPS Store shipping out a package to a client, I witnessed something I just can’t shake from my memory.  A customer was using the copier to have her wedding invitations printed…. bold black text on top of a tie-dye-like background,  printed on glossy 8.5 x 11 stock.  I was frozen with horror for a few seconds, should I say something, wait, my mouth won’t move…need….air.

Now, I do understand being on a tight budget-I’ve been on quite a few in my life, but come-on! Gloss paper? Tie-Dye?  There are so many inexpensive options out there to invite people to your wedding….the phone being one that comes to mind.

But what I really want to talk about is why the wedding invitation is so important.  A lot of couples today open up a big book or go online and pick a mass-produced design and then get it digitally printed in a far-off land.  It’s checked off the to-do list. But they don’t consider what the design says that the wording does not say.  For example, a guest receiving an elegant invitation will assume it’s black-tie, whereas a fun, brightly coloured invitation will mean casual dress.  Don’t assume that just because you are getting married at Posh-a-la-Posh Hotel that your guests will know it’s formal dress-they won’t.

If you did not send out save-the-dates then the invitation is also a symbol of you as a couple and the first impression before the Wedding Day.  It should reflect your style, personality and the theme (if there is one) of the wedding.  You don’t want your guests to just know where and when but also what kind of day it will be.

Your wedding invitation should be a beautiful keep-sake for your family and friends because it reminds them of you and your beautiful wedding.   I have personally decided not to toss only 2 wedding invitations I have received, one was handmade with lovely coloured papers and really reminded me of my friend and the other was letterpress printed on thick handmade paper with the couple’s monogram at the top.  The rest, like the angel-bear, like the glued-on string of plastic pearls, like the shimmery giant silvery bouquet, like the faded-out pic of a couple kissing-all gone to the recycle bin.

I know it can be overwhelming with all the other planning that needs to be done for a wedding but it just takes a moment to decide to send out an appropriate yet unique wedding invitation instead of a confusing, tacky photocopy.

And there are only a few simple things to remember when choosing a design and a printing method.  Your wedding invitation design should:

1. Take into consideration the location and time of the wedding.  ex. on a beach, in the winter, outdoors in a park, in a church

2. Match the colours of your wedding  ex. what are your bridesmaids wearing? what flowers are you using? what is your decor going to look like?

3. Reflect your personalities and interests  ex. are you and your partner  fun-loving?  artistic?  sports enthusiasts?  cowboys?  nature-lovers?

A good graphic designer or printer can help you pull all of these details together and create the perfect, beautiful invitation to your wedding.

So if you don’t want the same invitation a thousand other couples used, shoot us over an email for a quote!

Lovely Special on Letterpress Save The Dates

For all of you romantic couples who got engaged on Valentine’s Day we have a special offer for you!  Until the end of March we are offering Letterpress Save The Dates Cards for $1.25 each!!!   Our letterpress Save The Dates are 4 x 6 (A2) single card and will be printed in one ink colour on Crane’s Lettra 110lb 100% cotton paper in your choice of bright white, pearl white or ecru.  We have matching blank envelopes for.25 each and for .50 each we will print your return address on the back flap in the same colour as your design.  You can submit a design of your own or we can design them for you.  If you order save the dates from us when you are ready to order your invitation set we will also give you a 10% discount.  There is a minimum order of 50 cards and extra charges do apply for metallic inks, specialty papers, extra ink colours and embellishments.

Don’t wait & contact us for details!!

*** Sorry Everyone – Deal is over but stay tuned for upcoming specials! ***