Weddingbee PRO
As an earth-loving company, we love to see couples incorporating eco-friendly elements, large and small, into their weddings, so I wanted to share some of my favorite ideas for eco-friendly wedding favors. At Bella Figura we recognize and appreciate that every small effort counts, so I really love these ideas for expressing appreciation to your loved ones while helping to limit the waste that might be generated by other more traditional wedding favors.
{Potted herbs in buckets by Kelly MacPhee via Snippet & Ink; Herbs in terra cotta pots via Intimate Weddings}
I love the idea of using potted herbs in cool containers to serve as both centerpieces and guest wedding favors. Not only is the look completely pretty and the fragrance sure to be delightful, but you’re working to reduce waste all around as there is no packaging to be discarded and no centerpieces left to go to waste.
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Deciding which pieces to include with your wedding invitations can be a bit confusing if you’re just starting to research, so we thought it would be helpful to share some of the pieces we letterpress print most often and how you might use them. The great thing about all of these pieces is that you can pick and choose just those elements that are relevant to your event and fit comfortably within your budget, lending a lot of flexibility as you decide on your invitation suite.
Here are a few great ideas from Smock’s client coordinator Tiffany Field that will help keep your letterpress invitation costs down, while still giving you really wonderful letterpress wedding invitations.
Take a 2 or 3 color design down to 1 color
Many of our 2 and 3 color designs look equally impressive when printed in one color. Fewer colors mean fewer runs through the press which equals less expense. Our designer BethAnn is amazing at this – she knows just what to add and take away so that your design looks just as inviting as its more colorful counterpart.
Splurge on a 2 or 3 color design for the invitation and opt for 1 color accessory pieces
If you absolutely cannot live without a multi-color invitation, opt for your other pieces (reply card, directions card, reception card, etc) to be printed in 1 color. You will get the same impact with your invitation while saving considerably on your additional pieces.
Downsize and use a smaller size card (e.g. a reply card size for save the date)
Some budget savvy friends of ours came up with this idea for their clients’ save the dates and birth announcements, and the idea has really taken off. This is one of my absolute favorite cost cutting options – they are such a sweet little size!
Eliminate the reply card all together and put the contact information on the invitations
This idea is becoming more popular with brides who are not just minding their budget but the environment as well. Printing your reply information in the bottom left hand corner of your invitation is an acceptable alternative that can save you money.
One of the things we love most about the craft of letterpress printing is that it is not an exact science. It’s an art. No two prints are exactly alike, but rather full of character and subtle variations of inking, color and impression that make each piece as unique as it is lovely. Our printers are true artisans who have honed their craft over the course of many months and years of printing, learning, experimenting, and teaching. Each print is closely inspected for quality and if our highest of standards are not met, we will reprint a piece to ensure it’s nothing short of spectacular.
As letterpress printing is a bit of a lost art, we recently produced a short video to offer an inside glimpse into our printshop and to see one of our vintage Heidelberg Windmill presses in action. We love how it captures the spirit of our shop, where every piece we create for both Bella Figura and Smock is crafted in-house. Our team of printers works together to continually improve and advance the art of letterpress and we just had to share a sneak peek into what they do to create the beautiful stationery we lovingly provide for brides around the world. We love this video as it was a true labor of love on behalf of Bella Figura/Smock co-founder Harold Kyle who took the time to add videographer and video editor to his long list of credentials (in addition to letterpress guru and many others) in order to offer this exclusive look into what we do. Enjoy!
Letterpress Printing, Bella Figura Letterpress Wedding Invitations from Harold Kyle on Vimeo.
{The wedding of Elizabeth & Felicia // Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, California // Circolo 2 letterpress wedding invitation design in champagne and pewter}
Our client coordinator Andrea had the great pleasure of working with Elizabeth (Eaz) to help choose the perfect wedding invitation for her ultra luxurious event. At first, Eaz was a bit skeptical about working with us exclusively by email and phone, but we are so happy that they did! Upon receiving their letterpress samples, Eaz and Felicia opted for the fun Circolo 2 design printed in champagne and pewter. The invitations coordinated perfectly with the charger plates they used and helped influence incredibly beautiful and personal details throughout their wedding. The couple infused their day with meaningful details that make it one of our favorite Bella Figura weddings to date.
We’ve been fans of the Nest for awhile -they’re a great nonprofit who gives micro-credit loans to women artists in developing countries, and they’re funded by products sold on their web site. And we love to donate our letterpress printing and design to causes we believe in. So we were thrilled to design and print (pro bono) these lovely letterpress cards, to help the Nest with their donation campaign (the design is based on one of our new letterpress greeting cards).
We’ve noticed a lot more clients choosing letterpress reply postcards over the traditional reply card + envelope for their wedding invitations. We’re all for this trend - it’s more eco-friendly (less paper!), and also helps keeps budgets down and keeps letterpress more affordable. Reply postcards cost less to letterpress, and you also save a little bit on the postage. We’ve also seen a huge movement to do 2 color letterpress designs as 1 color (see below for some examples) - a great way to keep your costs down as well while keeping letterpress in your budget. While reply postcards are slightly less formal than reply cards + envelopes, it’s still totally appropriate for even black tie events. Remember, we’re talking about letterpress postcards on a luxurious cotton paper — they’re still really, really lovely, and we know all of your guests will have trouble parting with them!
Here are a few of our favorites, starting with the Boutique letterpress postcard.
What’s going to be hot in the letterpress wedding invitation world for 2009? Well, we looked into our crystal letterpresses and our first prediction is…
Edge painting.
designs pictured below, starting in the upper right, going clockwise // Avant with cardinal edging // Festoon with pool edging // Urbanity with silver edging // Irving with fuchsia edging // New Calligraphy with cardinal edging // Birds with navy edging
What is it?
Today we are beyond thrilled to be joining the ranks of the other amazing vendors that make up the Weddingbee PRO family! It’s such a pleasure to get to blog for all of you and to share a glimpse into what makes us tick. Here at Bella Figura, we’re a small company with a big heart. Along with our sister company, Smock, we are wholly passionate about and devoted to the art of letterpress and committed to the environment. Located in a rambling old warehouse in downtown Syracuse, NY now inhabited by an eclectic band of artists, we are as dedicated to the earth as we are to our clients and the preservation of the fine art of letterpress printing. We happily donate 1% of all sales to environmental causes via 1% For the Planet and are pleased to have received Green America’s Business Seal of Approval.
A glimpse into our print shop where everything we create is lovingly printed in-house.
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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.
