Weddingbee Blog

We picked an invitation designer/printer! But before I tell you who it is, I wanted to show you the work from all the vendors we reviewed and received quotes from. It was such a tough choice, but we are very pleased with our final decision.

* Good on Paper *
I absolutely love Lisa Wong Jackson’s work, she is very responsive to email, and her rate is very reasonable for design. The only issue for us was that we wanted to be more hands on and be able to meet our vendor in person ,and Lisa is all the way in California. My favorite design is the package she created for a couple that was about a “journey.” It’s such an original idea.

(click any image to enlarge)

* Paper Monkey Press *
Lisa works very closely with this printer and I actually ordered their sampler pack along with a set of personalized note cards. The work is phenomenal - all the paper is of the best quality and everything is so tactile.

The sampler pack I received

My personalized letterpress flat cards in hot pink. I might order a set for each of my bridesmaids as well.

* Peter Kruty Editions *
I actually got to speak with Peter on the phone and he was very friendly, but by the time I had decided on a vendor, I still had not heard back with a concrete quote. Peter Kruty Editions is featured all over one of my favorite inspiration books, 1,000 greetings (this series is awesome, I have 1,000 graphic elements as well).

* Heatherjeany *
Heatherjeany and all the homemade gocco invites I saw on indiebride and weddingbee inspired me to finally get one. Now that I have it, I haven’t had time to play with it! If you’re not as ambitious, but love gocco, contact Heather. She is awesome and super responsive. Compared to letterpress rates, this is a steal, and Heather offers really fun graphics and creative layouts. Again, it was a very difficult decision!

* Sesame Letterpress *
Another great letterpress shop based in Brooklyn. I was initially drawn to their work because of all the bird motifs and the series that was included in MS Weddings. The work is great and Breck (one of the owners) is responsive to email. They take a few days to get back to you, but I assume it’s because they’re a small team and they also teach a letterpress workshop.

* Invited Ink *
A letterpress shop based on the west coast. Along with their printing services they offer calligraphy and illustration. They were also able to offer someone who might be able to translate English to Chinese text. Again, we were hoping to use someone closer to home since the rates were about the same.

* Kenzie Kate *
Oh I love Kenzie Kate’s simple and clean designs. My favorites are the craft paper envelopes tied with ribbon or twine. But deep down, we still wanted our own original design. Kenzie Kate’s designs are all really great, but we liked different aspects of every invitation that we wanted to incorporate into our invitation and she doesn’t offer custom. The pricing is also very reasonable.

* Ceci ny *
I feel all of Ceci NY’s invites capture the personalities of the couples and their interests. Since they are based in New York, there are a lot of NY themed suites which will be very helpful when we start brainstorming. One of my favorites is a Japanese-American wedding where the invitation included a vellum overlay with Japanese text. Mr. C knows how much I love vellum! We didn’t even contact Ceci because their base price was already higher than what we wanted to spend.

* Grapevine Weddings *

Based in Boston, all of Grapevine’s invitations are fun yet classic. I didn’t get a chance to contact them, but I thought their work was great so why not showcase them as well. A nice shout out to one of my former domain cities.

And now for our selected vendor… ::drumroll please!::

In my crazy powerpoint scrapbook/inspiration collection, I had included almost all of Bird and Banner’s invitations. Mr. C and I both had the “you had me at hello” moment when we had a phone date to look at Bird and Banner’s site together. I personally loved every piece. I asked Mr. C to pick out the ones he thought I liked most and he was right! My favorites are these:

image from www.birdandbanner.com

I just love… I mean, LOOOOOVE them. I saw them first on faye and greer and just knew they would be perfect! The added detail of the fabric envelope… I could melt! I also really enjoyed talking to one of the owners, Nicole, on the phone. I felt like we clicked immediately and she was very open to ideas and thinking of ways to make the invitation our own.

After receiving the estimate, we committed to hiring Bird and Banner on the same day. We have an appointment to meet Nicole next week and I just can’t wait! She wants us to bring as much inspiration as possible (I’ve got tons of that, baby!) and she’s going to bring samples (my favorite word!). Even Mr. C is excited!

Though they’re based in Philadelphia, they will be able to meet us in New York and said that they are very flexible with out of town clients since they can FedEx just about anything from fabric and paper swatches to thread. I knew it was meant to be when within a few hours of confirming the meeting, Nicole sent me a schedule. Schedules… make my day. I know. I’m definitely a strange one.

Here is a small selection of some of my favorites. Go to their site to see more!

Since Mr. C is from Boston, this was naturally his favorite.One of the most creative save-the-dates I’ve seen

Just too cute!