Weddingbee

Once I started thinking about making our wedding invitations, I became obsessed with letterpress. I’m often guilty of confusing wanting something with needing to have it, and I NEEDED letterpress. Cost be damned, I had to have it!

( Mmm, letterpress. How I love thee. )

OK, so I normally wouldn’t allow myself to be entranced with something as cost-prohibitive as letterpress… I prefer to throw away money on consumable items like food and music. But lucky for me, Mr. Cherry Pie and I know two people actually who own old-fashioned presses. Both of them were happy to make our invites for us at a steep discount from market prices!

After talking with them, we decided to work with our friend Kristin (aka Ms. Fox, from my “How I Met Mr. Cherry Pie” post). She has recently started a little letterpress business on Etsy.com called Twin Ravens Press. We’ll be her first wedding and she’s really excited to work with us. She’s so excited that she’s been a wealth of absolutely innovative ideas, not just for our invitations but also for how we can incorporate our letterpress theme into the rest of our wedding.

I had already been brainstorming concepts for our invites based on our rustic, fall theme and incorporating the following details:

• One, two, or three colors, depending on what is feasible (burgundy, sunflower yellow, and/or chocolate brown)
• An “organic” detail such as a sunflower, dandelion, wheat, dahlia, raspberries etc, printed or embossed large and off-center
• Simple text keeping with minimal use of calligraphy and block serif fonts like zapfino/copperplate
• A design that is minimalist with only the use of a larger graphic element (like a flower)
• Something that carries over well into other uses like programs, menus, table numbers, guest book, napkins, etc

Of course it’s not as simple as just designing the invites, we have to work on the RSVP cards, informational inserts, pocketfolds, sashes, etc… Agh, so much work! The invitation design process has, so far, been the most stressful and involved part of wedding planning. I guess I should be glad for that- I could be working with nightmarish vendors. I’m lucky I have artsy people on my side.

I spent a while hunting around online for design inspirations that resonate with my brainstorm above. I put together a little collage of my favorites:

(Unfortunately, I made this a while ago and I didn’t think to save the image sources. I am a bad bee. Sorry!)

If you click on the image above, it will take you to a large version in a new tab or window, which may make it easier to follow along. Here’s what I like about the invites above:

• I’m fond of the the color schemes in numbers 2, 7, 6, and 10. I like the contrast of the sunflowery yellow with brown or black text, and burgundy comes out nicely on text.
• I like the trifold layout in numbers 1 and 4, and the way the design element continues on multiple pages. I like the text and image treatment on #1 a lot, but I’m not really fond of poppies. I don’t like the treatment on #4 as much but I think the pull-off RSVP card is kind of cool– unless it results in people ripping the invitation. It might be neat to be able to save on envelopes and postage by creating a tri-fold invite that is self-sealing and can be posted without an envelope (imagine addressing the back of the invite)… then the RSVP card could be posted and addressed and torn off. Voila, no envelopes required!
• The grass in #5 is pretty and quite organic… I like the idea of doing something similar with wheat
• The embossed look of #3 really appeals to me. It’s possible we could do something like this with the a dandelion
• I love the design and colors of #2 and #6… I also do like the little RSVP and info cards. They’re cute. The flourish design in #6 might be too “fancy” for our wedding, but it is pretty
• I really love the design on #7, enough that I’m tempted just to copy it. It’s simple and elegant and even the text treatment works very well
• I love the giant & symbol in #8 and its simplicity is appealing
• I don’t like the flowers or color in #9 as much but I do like the idea of using a symetrical layout behind the text in a lighter ink, as is printed on the invitation in the center, and using darker ink with the same design on other elements
• I think the sunflower in #10 is great- we could do something similar, or use another flower… I have a thing for big, bold designs, and they letterpress well

Any ideas for us? What motifs make you think of Montana in the late summer?

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