Weddingbee PRO
You probably already know that around here, printing gorgeous letterpress invitations makes us absolutely giddy. With that said, when Smock had the opportunity to print the letterpress invitations, escort cards and menus for the recent Modern Bride Trendsetters Awards Dinner, it was a sincere honor and so much fun! Printing beautiful things is what makes us excited about what we do everyday, but being able to print the invitations for such a fabulous event, honoring amazing wedding professionals we truly admire, was especially exciting.
Behind the scenes here, one of the things we get most excited about, in addition to fabulous letterpress, is our participation in a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. Bella Figura and Smock subsidize CSA memberships for all employees so a large percentage of us take advantage of the opportunity to have fresh, local, organic produce delivered to our door - quite literally, in fact, as the Downtown Syracuse delivery pod is here at the old warehouse turned artist's haven that we call home. Once a week a local organic farm, Grindstone Farm, delivers incredibly fresh and delicious veggies and herbs to us, typically within just a few hours of being picked.
Having shared my recent bridal shower, I think it's time I show you my wedding dress, don't you? It has been an interesting process and in the end I absolutely love my dress. Frankly, it surpasses any expectations I could have had going into the hunt and the best part may just be the price tag…but we'll get to that in a minute.
I think it's important for me to note that dress shopping was not something I was particularly looking forward to and, in fact, I waited nearly five months after being engaged to start the process. The reasons for this are numerous but it basically boils down to two main issues - (1) I have recently lost a significant amount of weight, and I was worried about going to try on dresses and being disappointed. The last thing you want it go through all of that effort to be anything less than ecstatic with how you look. (2) I really really did not want to spend a lot of money on a dress. Some things were really important to me when planning our wedding (a fantastic venue, great photography and incredible invitations, of course), but a wedding dress was not high on my list of priorities…even though I am completely smitten by basically everything Jim Hjelm has ever created.
{Dress by Jim Hjelm}
A couple of weeks ago, the Smock team packed up and headed to New York City for the National Stationery Show for what proved to be an incredibly fun and exciting week. As I shared with Weddingbee PRO readers in advance, we launched three new letterpress wedding invitation designs and our new custom Social Occasions album at the show and it was so rewarding for us to meet people from around the country, people we work with daily from afar but rarely have the opportunity to see in person. It was such fun for us!
Like Bee, the Smock/Bella Figura team is headed to the National Stationery Show next week, and we are so excited! Smock will be unveiling three new additions to our custom letterpress wedding invitation designs, all of which I absolutely love. I wanted to share a special sneak peek with Weddingbee PRO readers, because I know so many of you are in love with beautiful paper just like us!
{New Smock letterpress wedding invitation designs - Cindrel, Sabion and Dorset}
Our new letterpress designs introduce front patterning and also showcase Smock's exclusive calligraphy fonts, Smock Clermont and Smock Spencerian, based on the beautiful calligraphy of our master calligrapher, Debi Zeinert of Blooming Quill. The new designs also play with matching offset patterning with 1-color letterpress printing to allow brides of all budgets to design beautiful letterpress invitations that are as unique as they are.
Read more…
Not surprisingly, we get a lot of inquires about invitation etiquette when we are working with couples on their wedding invitations. Because these questions are so common, I thought I'd share some of the most frequently asked etiquette questions we encounter. When in doubt, we often to turn to many of the same etiquette experts Kimberly shared before, including Crane's Wedding Blue Book and Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette by Peggy Post. If you're feeling lost, consider consulting a couple of different sources and then selecting an option that feels most in line with your personalities and your specific family dynamics.
{How can I include my deceased parents on the invitation?}
It is perfectly acceptable for a bride or groom to want to include the name of a deceased parent on their invitations and, more importantly, perfectly understandable. One thing to note is that you should select wording that does not give the appearance of the invitation being extended by the deceased parent. A good option is something along the lines of -
Jane Marie Smith
daughter of Mary Ann Smith and the late Joseph Smith
and
Michael Robert Williams
son of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Williams
request the honor of your presence at their marriage
Or this option if the deceased parent is that of the groom -
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Smith
together with
Mrs. Emily June Williams
request the honour of your presence
at the wedding of
Jane Marie Smith
and
Michael Robert Williams
son of
the late Mr. Donald Williams
In addition to printing our own letterpress wedding invitation designs for couples, we are also more than happy to print custom designs upon request. Sometimes that will entail printing a design created by the couple, and other times that will mean working with them to create a design that is inspired by their ideas. Either way, it's a fun opportunity for us to print something truly unique and personal to a couple, which we absolutely love.
Designing for letterpress is a bit different than designing for other printing methods. So I wanted to share some tips for creating your own invitation design in a letterpress-friendly way, if you're looking to go with letterpress invitations, but still looking to add that DIY touch to your design.
When I shared my ideas for fun eco-friendly wedding favors a while back, I was excited to get some great feedback, including an email from our designer, Beth Ann, when she saw the post. Beth Ann worked with one of our Bella Figura brides, Stewart, a while back on letterpress favor tags to include with the tree saplings they were giving as favors at their wedding. Stewart was delighted to share a photo of her favors with Weddingbee readers, and shared with me the wonderful inspiration behind their fabulous wedding favors.
We get a lot of questions from brides who are interested in knowing what the hot trends are in wedding invitations, which designs are best sellers and what elements they can include to really let their personalities shine. In the first few months of 2009, we’ve printed some pretty fabulous letterpress invitations for creative couples mixing modern design with the old world tradition of letterpress, and we absolutely love what they’re dreaming up. Here are some of the things we’re seeing a lot of these days, all of which you can use to inspire your own invitations…
Beyond just our letterpress wedding invitations, a lot of our clients love working with us because of our extensive eco practices and our genuine dedication to the environment. We recognize that an increasing number of brides and grooms are looking to be more eco-conscious in their wedding planning and wanted to offer some suggestions for seeking out wedding vendors that are truly eco-friendly. If you’re seeking to limit the impact of your event on the Earth, opting to work with wedding vendors who are fully committed to being as environmentally friendly as possible is an important part of doing so. While “green” tends to be a common trend these days, for us and other like-minded wedding professionals, being as green as possible is our way of life. Not sure where to start or how to identify true eco wedding vendors? Here are some things to consider and to ask potential vendors when speaking with them:
- Inquire about third party certifications and/or seals of approval from environmental organizations such as Green America, Green Hotels Association, Greener Photography and others
- Check to see that the vendor has a formal waste reduction/recycling policy in action as well as policies in practice to help reduce energy consumption.
Read more…
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Cynthia Converse, Syracuse, NY
Vendor: Invitations
Website: Bella Figura
About Me: Bella Figura is a wind-powered, eco-friendly letterpress shop committed to the fine artisanship of letterpress printing and the environment. Along with our sister company, Smock, we print our wedding invitations and stationery on only the finest luxury cotton and bamboo papers to ensure the most beautiful of prints in sight and to the touch, while working tirelessly to do our little piece for the good of the earth. We are hopelessly in love with our abundant collection of cast iron presses, farmer's markets, fall in Upstate NY, creating beautiful heirlooms for our brides, businesses that do good for the world, calligraphy, spending time in nature, contributing to the greater letterpress community, our rambling studios in a converted warehouse turned artist's haven, and our two year old in residence. Turning invitations into art on paper while dedicating ourselves to the environment is not what we do, it's who we are.
