Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog » Letterpress

Style Me Pretty Australia Welcomes Our Advertisers!

Dawn — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:00:33 +0000

Hello and a happy weekend to you, SMPers! It’s been just over a month of gorgeous here on Style Me Pretty Australia and what a month it’s been! We’ve been loving every second of pretty and we definitely couldn’t have done it without our fabulous advertisers, who help us to bring you all of the amazing inspiration day after day. And today I have the honor of introducing you to one of those oh-so-fabulous sponsors, who we just so happen to L.O.V.E and we know you will, too. So, give a big SMP welcome to our newest advertiser and master of all things pretty paper, Akimbo!

From Akimbo… You’re reading Style Me Pretty so I know you’re putting a lot of love and thought into making your wedding day memorable and unique to you. So why announce your special day with stock standard invitations that your guests have seen a hundred times before?

Akimbo’s quirky invitations are complemented by a range of save the dates and personalised stationery as well as those little details that will really make your wedding shine. As much thought and care is put into a clever concept as into the execution, so you know your stationery will be impressive from every aspect. I search far and wide to source the world’s best supplies and printers so you can take advantage of a variety of materials and printing methods, including letterpress, digital, embossing and foiling.

But for all that detailed, careful process, I still receive feedback from happy brides saying that the invitation design process was so easy and enjoyable… just as it should be!

Akimbo has a range of existing designs for you to browse, or if you’re after something one-of-a-kind, I’d love to chat about a bespoke design.

If you’re swooning over all the gorgeous stationery here on Style Me Pretty but don’t know where to start, be sure to download Akimbo’s free e-book to find out everything you need to know about ordering your wedding invitations.

Sign up to our newsletter to receive news about exciting product releases and special offers!

Become a fan on Facebook to join the fight against ugly stationery.

So, so, so gorgeous, right?!? Oh, how I love beautiful paper! And there is so much more inspiration to be had on their website (I just spent the last hour perusing all of the awesome), so be sure to stop on by and show them some SMP love! Welcome to the family, Akimbo! We are so happy to have you!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Akimbo, Bespoke Stationery, Custom Invitations, Digital Printing, Embossing, Foiling, Letterpress, Wedding Invitations & Stationery, welcome post
Post categories: Australia Weddings, Welcome Post

Style Me Pretty Illinois Welcomes Our Advertisers!

Dawn — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:00:15 +0000

Good morning, SMPers! And a very happy weekend to you all! It’s been just a little over a week of wedding goodness here on Style Me Pretty Illinois and, oh my goodness, it just keeps getting better! We couldn’t have done it without our wonderful family of advertisers who help us to bring you all of the amazing inspiration. And today we are honored to introduce you to one of our very first sponsors here on SMP Illinois, Prairie Flower Press! So join me in giving them a huge welcome, SMP Illinois-style!

From Prairie Flower Press… Prairie Flower Press is a custom and couture letterpress invitation studio. What makes us unique is the the marriage (no pun intended) of vintage printing techniques (everything we do is printed on a century-old Chandler and Price letterpress), handmade papers, and spectacular fabrics (mostly silk). I have always said that beautiful letterpress is like a beautiful woman… she needs no embellishment–however, if you dress her up, amazing things happen!! Put beautiful letterpress in a hand-crafted silk folio or silk box, embellished with Swarovski crystal or Midori ribbon, and it just takes letterpress into a whole different dimension! We do not create invitations… we create functional art, which just happens to invite the people you care about to a wonderful celebration–we are the opening act!

Prairie Flower Press was created two years ago by the husband and wife team of Sheree and Ted Giardino. Sheree, a criminal defense attorney, is the creative force behind the company. Her husband Ted, brings over 35 years of experience in the printing business. Together, they bring a unique collaboration of creative design and vintage printing technology to an art form.

To celebrate the launch of SMP Illinois, we are pleased to extend a 10% discount through 1/1/12 to all SMP Illinois referrals.

We know you will adore them as much as we do, so make sure to stop by their website and show them some SMP love and support! We are elated to have them as part of our Style Me Pretty family! Welcome!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2011. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Custom Invitations, Illinois, Illinois Weddings, Invitations, Letterpress, Prairie Flower Press
Post categories: Illinois Weddings, Welcome Post

Tennesse Wedding From Wiley Valentine & Three Ring Media

Eddye — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:00:55 +0000

Our second wedding invitation feature from the lovelies at Wiley Valentine is one of their most luxurious letterpress designs. Just look at these images. Paper like this ~ as Abby would say … swoon!

from Rachelle at Wiley Valentine …
This is the couple!! How fun that you did a post on their engagement shoot. They are adorable. The couple are organic farmers, so they wanted this to play into the design without being overly obvious. They were really drawn to neutral tones (a trend we are seeing a lot of lately) as well as vintage elements. We had so much fun infusing farming into a sophisticated letterpress invitation. If you look closely you can see the carrots, wheel barrel, watering cans among others! Such a fun job. These invitations were hand letterpress printed on 100% cotton paper, and the invitation was on an extra heavy stock so we could print it on both sides. There was also a colored envelope liner We worked with our retailer in Nashville, TN Social Graces on this job.

. . .

To see where these beginning pieces of the wedding puzzle led, we have a short Cinematic Trailer from Little Black Book member Three Ring Media Weddings.

from Three Ring Media:
We had the pleasure of shooting Lauren & Paschal’s wedding at her organic farm just outside of Nashville TN. They met through one of Paschal’s long time friends, who was laying gravel on the road outside of Lauren’s farm. This friend knew that the two had a lot in common, the least of which included organic farming. He called Lauren up a week later to ask if he could bring Paschal by to meet her, and see the farm. Lauren accepted, and her conversation began to plant the seeds of a life long commitment between her and Paschal. These two farmers agree that patience is one of the key values they admire in one another. But patience wasn’t necessary during their early courtship. In less than three weeks, the two had decided that they had each found their lifetime companion. Watch their story and learn how a chance meeting at the end of a gravel road can lead to a love that is organically grown.

Paschal & Lauren’s Cinematic Trailer from Jeremy Doublestein on Vimeo.

. . .

Our congratulations to Lauren and Paschal and many thanks to Wiley Valentine and Three Ring Media for sharing this charming wedding with us!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Letterpress, Three Ring Media, Wiley Valentine
Post categories: Little Black Book Blog, Wedding Cinematography, Wedding Invitations & Stationery

From Inspiration to Invitation by Paisley Quill

Abby Larson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:00:59 +0000

You guys are all probably familiar with our From Inspiration to Reality feature, right? You know, where we turn one of your inspiration boards into a real life photoshoot, chock-a-block full of steal-worthy ideas. Well, we took that idea in a slightly different direction with today’s From Inspiration to INVITATION feature, with Molly Myers of Paisley Quill steering this super creative wheel. A few months back, Molly asked each of you to help her decide between two fabulous inspiration boards and from your comments, she would choose one lucky bride to receive a custom letterpress wedding invitation suite inspired by the chosen board. So cool, right. Well, we’re back today with Molly’s finished project and when I tell you that it’s good, I am pretty much coining the understatement of the year.

And here is the invitation that the board inspired…

{click here to see lots more pics}

From Paisley Quill…I chose Katie to be the lucky winner of this giveaway because, I personally love the retro look and colors of the board, even thought it wasn’t the popular choice. But is seems like she really has an eye for detail and appreciates those subtle design elements that could easily be incorporated into an invitation. Her wedding is a weekend long event at a camp in Oregon. It is a very fun and natural setting that compliments all of that green!

After speaking with Katie further, She really liked the image of the pine trees on the milk bottle, that is kind of where the whole concept started. I hand drew the trees and floral images. I wanted to do a fun, swirly font to compliment the swirls on the tray that she liked, so I contacted Debi Zeinert of the Blooming Quill for the calligraphy. She was kind enough to donate her services for all of the calligraphy you see in this suite. I had Andrew of Heritage Printers do the letterpress, and one of my favorites, the red edge painting!

Katie had seen some of the timelines that I have done in the past on my blog and requested that we do that instead of a regular reception card. It is the longest timeline I have done, but by far my favorite and it is an added personal touch for the bride and groom.

I wanted to incorporate some of the other colors that Katie liked, such as the plums and pinks. I did this with the envelopes liners. Using images from nature, such as wood grain, florals and ferns. The finishing touch were the vintage stamps. I had so much fun picking out ones that would match!

I also crafted some accessories especially for the shoot. Drink stirrers in the same patterns as the envelope liners and s’more kits, complete with your own roasting tools!

Invitation Designer: Molly Myers, Paisley Quill or BLOG / Printer: Andrew Harrison, Utley Borthers / Calligraphy: Debi Zeinert, The Blooming Quill

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 23 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Camp, From Inspiration to Invitation, Letterpress, Molly Myers, Paisley Quill, Red and Green, Wedding Invitations & Stationery
Post categories: From Inspiration to Reality

Wedding Invitation Giveaway by Hello! Lucky

Abby Larson — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:40:01 +0000

It’s pretty awesome to click on SMP and see a giveaway for wedding invitations, right? Well, let me just sweeten the pot and tell you that the hosts of the giveaway are none other than the cute, cute girls at Hello! Lucky…one of our all time favorite stationery brands. Their work is a little bit vintage, a little bit modern…and more than anything, it’s simply gorgeous. And if it’s possible to top the wedding invitations that we already know and love, well, they might have done just that with their newest digital designs.

In celebration of these absolutely perfect 2010 designs, Hello! Lucky is giving away a set of 100 digitally printed invitations and reply cards (with printed envelopes) to one VERY lucky SMP reader. To enter, simply choose your favorite design from their collection (letterpress or digital) and leave a comment below. We’ll choose a random winner this Friday, the 29th of January.

Lots of luck to all! This is kind of a killer prize!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 620 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Giveaway, Hello! Lucky, Letterpress, Wedding Invitations & Stationery
Post categories: Contests

Bali Wedding by Leo Patrone

Abby Larson — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:28:59 +0000

It’s official. I am freezing. And checking out the weather around the country, I’m thinking that you are too. So, I thought we could all use a little bit of a warm up and I know that this wedding by Leo Patrone will do just the trick. So, meet Manda and Nick. The cute, cute, CUTE pair tied the knot on the island of Bali this past October in a wedding that was as gorgeous as it was hugely personal. With a nod to both their Eastern and Western cultures, the wedding was the epitome of a destination wedding done really right.

And Leo’s photographs…well, let them just speak for themselves.

Our inspiration was definitely the location – Bali! It has great food and beaches, and we wanted to highlight all that Bali has to offer. We love the beach, but for our wedding we didn’t want our feet in the sand. The Bulgari, a seaside clifftop hotel, was the perfect combination of Balinese design and dramatic ocean/beach views. We really did not have to do any extra decorating, since the hotel grounds were gorgeous enough by itself.

Our color theme was purple and grey, and we tried to integrate those colors wherever we could, including our shoes (mine were purple, Nick’s were grey), handmade ribbon sticks that guests waved as we walked down the aisle, and our invitations, which we made with our homebuilt letterpress machine.

The invitations were definitely one of the hardest and most time-consuming parts of our wedding, but one of our favorite details. We wanted them to be clean, modern, and have the letterpress look. So Nick built a machine using a design from the web, and after some modifications we started to get the hang of it! There were definitely times when we wanted to give up, but we are so happy and proud of the results.

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bali, Destination, Destination Wedding, indonesia, Leo Patrone, Letterpress
Post categories: Casual Elegance, Destination, Destination Weddings

Wedding Invitations by Mr. Boddington’s Studio

Elaine — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:00:21 +0000

If the DIY projects that we put together for you weren’t enough to inspire, this next feature will most definitely get the wedding excitement brewing. We are so very delighted to introduce the new collection of wedding stationery from the fabulous Mr. Boddington’s Studio in NYC. Everything about this quirky little design studio is charming… their invitations, their website, even their name is catchy. But of course it’s their gorgeous paper creations that really have me smiling. They’re a little cheeky, a little vintage, and a lot beautiful. These are so good you might want to consider designing your wedding around your invitation.

Mr. Boddington’s also has a fabulous new line up of engagement/rehearsal dinner, bridal showers, and thank you notes… all just as sweet and chic as the wedding invitations.

A little bit about the collection from owner, Rebecca Schmidt Ruebensaal…

Through the past year, Mr. Boddington traveled around the globe collecting all sorts of musings to inspire his new collection: vintage wedding invitations from Bombay, typography from Shanghai, preppy fabrics from sailing camps in New England, pine needles from Eastern European forests… and the list goes on! He also bent an ear towards what the most fashionable brides chatted about in connection with their wedding correspondence… it appeared that they were chasing not only smart paper designs but those that may save them some pennies.

Wedding, engagement, rehearsal dinner, bridal shower invitations, save-the-dates and thank you notes are offered in both letterpress and flat matte printing. All letterpress is printed on one hundred percent cotton paper (tree-free), and the flat-matte using rich, slightly saturated color palettes. Envelope liners are hand-cut and tailored to each piece of correspondence.

It’s not easy to do playful and elegant… and it’s even harder to do it really well, but Mr. Boddington’s Studio has it down to an art. All of their work is sophisticated and fun… the silhouettes, the envelope liners, the fabulous fonts, I love every square inch of these charming little pieces.

So, get your bookmarks ready, Mr. Boggington’s (seriously adorable) new website and blog are full of even more invitation eye-candy. Enjoy!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 18 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Letterpress, Mr. Boddington's Studio, Vintage, Wedding Invitations & Stationery
Post categories: Wedding Invitations & Stationery

Giveaway by Sarah Drake!

Abby Larson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 22:20:48 +0000

We have a REALLY fun, totally fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants giveaway for you guys. Sarah Drake, one of my favorite invitation designers, is looking for one lucky bride to help her with a brand new invitation design…called, “love letters.”

Before we unveil the invitation, I wanted to share some of the history behind this invitation. The inspiration with a little movie called Harold and Maude.

credits, clockwise from right : Elizabeth Messina Photography, Harold and Maude movie advertisement, Bari Zaki custom vintage stamps, Sarah Drake Love Notes.

From Sarah…

This 1971 movie is my favorite love story: unconventional, a little dark, and deeply sweet. It inspired our personalized stationery, Love Notes, back in 2006. Then, we decided to take it a bit further, taking our love of all things vintage, the uniqueness of written correspondence, vintage stamp collections, and unabashed declarations of love and combined them into a new kind of invitation.

Okay, now for the absolutely gorgeous, completely appropriate new design which will use letterpress printing charcoal ink on imported Italian paper …

Believe it or not, this is exactly what wedding invitations used to be. Sweet, personal, handwritten notes that left guests feeling utterly touched and hugely special. So here is the deal.

Sarah is asking that you guys send in your own personalized wording…something that captures your personality, style and the sentiment of your wedding. You can either leave a comment right here OR if you feel more comfortable, you can email your wording to Sarah at info{at}sarahdrakedesign{dot}com.

She’ll then choose 1 lucky reader to receive a set of 100 invitations with printed envelopes, 100 response cards with envelopes AND 100 thank you notes. The invitation is tidied up with a string and a wax seal, also included in the giveaway. In a nutshell…that is HUUUUUGE. To see the FULL SUITE, click right here!

Here’s the catch. You MUST have your wording in by the end of day tomorrow. That’s 6PM on Friday the 31st of July. This means that your final, final wording for your invitations has to be submitted by Friday, as it’s going to the printer on Monday. Sarah can help you finalize it if you are unsure. But, if you aren’t basically ready…don’t play! Sarah will choose the winner on Saturday.

Good luck to all! We’d love to feature the final design on SMP when all is said an done!

© Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog, 2009. | Permalink | 25 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Giveaway, Invitations, Letterpress, Sarah Drake, Wedding Invitations & Stationery
Post categories: Contests, Wedding Invitations & Stationery