Stationery Thursday: Calligrapher Spotlight

I have a serious weakness for vintage stamps on just about anything – but particularly wedding invitations.  I used them to mail my own invitations (you can find a horribly blurry photo on my blog – apologies in advance), E used them for her vow renewal invitations, and I just love the way they add an extra pop of color and personality to the overall invitation.  By now you all know that I’m a firm believer in trying to customize your invitations as much as possible so that they accurately represent you and your wedding style – and vintage stamps offer another opportunity to do just that, whether chosen thematically (like E’s baseball stamps), by color, or even by state.

The past week or so has been a sort of unintentional woodgrain week over at Oh So Beautiful Paper – all starting with these DIY woodgrain save the dates.  Although woodgrain (also referred to as faux bois) has been popping up in weddings over the past few years, it really seems to be picking up steam as a trend – particularly in wedding stationery – this year.

Some of my all-time favorite wedding invitation designs have found their inspiration in non-traditional (i.e. non-wedding) sources – from 70s folk art to music to architecture.  But one of my favorite sources of design inspiration might actually surprise you – it’s from packaging design!  So if you’re on the lookout for some inspiration for your wedding invitation design, there are three blogs you should really be reading.

This week I’m in New York for the just-concluded National Stationery Show, where I’ve had the pleasure of not only getting to know some of my favorite designers a bit better, but also getting to spend some time with fellow members of the EAD family!  E. came down for a whirlwind marathon session on Sunday, while Cyd was also down the entire week with the rest of the Smock Paper family.  There was definitely an abundance of wedding invitations across the NSS aisles, so I thought I’d share a few of my favorites from the show here:

While invitations are undoubtedly the most important element of a wedding stationery suite, it’s equally as important to not forget about other wedding paper ephemera – like seating cards!  Whether place cards or escort cards*, seating cards can help carry design elements from your invitation suite or wedding theme through to the reception and create a cohesive wedding style.  Here are a few of my favorite seating card options:

I know many of you are looking for ways to help protect the environment while still having a beautiful wedding.  So, in honor of Earth Day, I thought that I’d focus on a few of my favorite options for gorgeous, eco-friendly wedding invitations.

Seesaw Designs is one of my favorite design studios – I love their whimsical approach to design, and the entire Seesaw team are just some of the nicest people around.  Founded by Angela and Raquel, Seesaw Designs has expanded into what they like to call a “design factory” – providing design services from business collateral and packaging to letterpress notecards and wedding invitations.  I’d definitely recommend spending some time browsing through their portfolio for design inspiration, and if you’re looking for fun custom wedding invitations, Seesaw Design can help you there as well:

I love, love invitations that incorporate hand-lettering or illustration, particularly the work of Florida-based illustrator Anna Melcon Bond of Rifle Design.  Anna seems to effortlessly blend traditional illustration with folk art elements to create some of the most lovely Save the Dates and wedding invitations.

If there is one thing we love here at EAD, it’s pretty things. What we love even more? Pretty things that do something good for the world! So, naturally I was completely excited when I learned about the Amazon Conservation Association’s new partnership with Smock, designed to encourage brides to make a donation to the ACA in lieu of traditional wedding favors. For a $5 donation per guest, couples are gifted with gorgeous letterpress favor cards to share with their guests in celebration of their donation. And those favor cards? Incredibly pretty letterpress creations printed on Smock’s exclusive eco-friendly bamboo paper, printed pro bono in support of the ACA.

I love letterpress, but wedding budgets don’t always allow for letterpress or engraved invitations, particularly in today’s difficult economic environment.  For brides still seeking custom invitations, the Gocco (or now the Yudu!) can be an excellent, and more economical, alternative.  Some brides choose to go the DIY route, but for brides who don’t feel comfortable DIYing, there are a few invitation studios that specialize in Gocco-printed invitations.

Yesterday was my birthday and after a long search, I finally found and purchased a Gocco as my birthday gift to myself. I’ve basically been on the fence about purchasing a Gocco for a year at this point and naturally, by the time I realized just how much I wanted one they were completely sold out basically everywhere. Oops! Oh well, after some sleuthing and a shout out on my blog and some great tips from my readers, I found one and it is supposed to ship today. Hooray! So in the spirit of all things Gocco, I thought I’d share some of my favorite Gocco inspiration.

Studio on Fire, a letterpress studio based in Minneapolis, recently launched a blog called Beast Pieces to share photos of recent projects – and it’s quickly become one of my daily addictions.  Studio on Fire produces some truly amazing work, from wedding invitations to business collateral and, now, this lovely letterpress engagement book:

While I love browsing the wedding collections of stationers and invitation studios, one of my absolute favorite things to do is to feature real invitations – particularly custom and diy invitations.  I just love seeing the way that real couples and designers work together to produce an invitation design that represents the bride and groom as a couple and suits their unique wedding style.  Today, I want to share this lovely custom invitation suite from Paperwink – both because of its beautiful design and the lovely meaning behind the invitations:

I absolutely adore the recent trend of using silhouettes as design inspiration in weddings.  Whether incorporated as a small design detail or the inspiration for the overall wedding theme, silhouettes can be easily integrated into many wedding details, from the Save the Dates to the favors.  I’ve collected a few of my favorite silhouette designs here to help provide some design inspiration.

Last week was all about invitations, but this week I thought I’d focus on Save the Dates – an important part of any wedding planning process and one of my favorite wedding stationery elements.

Hi Everyone!  I am so, so happy to be back blogging here at EAD – and I just want to start off with a huge “thank you!” to Ami and Rebekah for inviting me to join them as a weekly columnist for the EAD Wedding Blog.

Invitations are not only an important part of your wedding, they play a major role in any party you throw! At Zenadia Design, we create couture invitations for any type of event, including bridal showers. The following invitation was designed for a Cinderella theme bridal shower.

There may be nothing we love more than classic hand lettering. Whether it’s that little moment of joy when we see a thick, luxurious hand-addressed envelope in our mailbox, or that lovely keepsake escort card from our best friend’s wedding, we simply swoon over calligraphy details both large and small! At the top of our list? Elegant white ink. Beautiful on paper from soft dove to bold black and every color in between, white calligraphy is our current crush!

I’m a complete and utter paper geek and have always drooled over the fabulous invitations and stationery from Hello!Lucky. Created in 2003 by sisters/best friends Eunice and Sabrina Moyle with a vintage Vandercook press set-up in Eunice’s garage, Hello!Lucky offers unique and modern invitations for whatever style your wedding may be – rustic, chic, destination, elegant – you name it, they’ve either got something that will work or their talented team of designers will collaborate with you to create something you love. Although they were one of the first to specialize in letterpress wedding invites, they also have affordable digitally printed designs for all types of invitations as well as day-of stationery. Check out some of my favorites below or on their blog!

Hi everyone! Christen here with part 2 of my NSS wrap-up (check here for part 1 where I discuss trends in stationery design). For the second half I want to take a look at a few trends in the actual construction of invitations, going beyond the pocketfold and plain white 80# cardstock to create something that truly stands out and sets the tone for your wedding.