Wedding Invitations Ideas Blog » Inspiration board

Piccolo Press – Quality Letterpress Wedding Invitations

Sam — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:30:36 +0000

We are absolutely delighted to introduce the latest wedding stationery studio to join the Wedding Invitation Shop community! Piccolo Press is a traditional and specialist printing company, established by Tim Honnor in 1985. It has an enviable reputation, producing both traditional wedding invitations and contemporary wedding stationery of exceptional quality. The Press is highly recommended by Debrett’s Guide to Correspondence and approved suppliers to Royal Warrant Holders, HM Forces and Diplomats.

In 2009 they were proud to have been commended by “Print Week” as Social Stationery Printer of the Year”. They were also winner of the VOWS Award (Voted Outstanding Wedding Stationery Supplier)

The look and luxurious tactile feel of an embossed or letterpress image into a thick high quality card, speaks for itself. These cards, mainly hand fed and printed in small runs are far different from the mass production of so many cards. The finish and boards used really do have to be seen to appreciate their superb quality. Whether letterpress, thermography, engraving, diestamping, blind embossing, plate sinking or foil blocking, you can be sure of exceptional quality wedding invitations and stationery. If you are confused about all of these printing techniques, and which to choose, we will be publishing a handy guide tomorrow with the help of Tim Honnor from Piccolo Press.

Piccolo Press offer an entirely bespoke service, so if you have an idea for a design, they will work with you to see your ideas transformed into beautiful wedding stationery. Contact Piccolo Press directly to find out more about how thay can help you to design your perfect wedding stationery.

Design of the Day: The Beauty is in the Detail …. How one bride designed her own invites

Sam — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:41:00 +0000

Earlier we featured our ‘Design of the Day’ – a gorgeous letterpress wedding invitation which was designed by the bride herself – Shelley Rodgers of ‘The Beauty is in the Detail’. Shelley has kindly been in touch and wanted to share with you how she came up with this lovely design. Although Shelley is a graphic designer herself, she shows just how, with a bit of thought , you can design your own unique wedding invitations with that personal touch ….

Shelley – “Originally my plan was to make these myself – I have a decent printer – know my way around a computer and am known to be a little crafty – but after researching other peoples invites on flickr I came across some beautiful examples of Letterpressed invitations by Bella Figura.

This led me on a search to find a UK based Letterpress company – it wasn’t long before I came across the wonderful Blush Publishing! The ever diligent and eternal night owl Mark Moran was extremely helpful and patient whilst I dithered about what design I wanted. Originally I had planned a funky square invite with motifs representing myself and Wayne. Wayne would be easy – an xbox controller (!) and maybe mine would have been a pair of scissors or a needle or a mouse? But as the wedding plans took shape and the vintage element really kicked in I just had to work this into the theme!

Quickly I decided on a 1950’s postcard style and used an example from the fantastic resource which is deviantART to use as my inspiration. I really wanted to incorporate my own artwork for this and knew deep down that computer graphics would look too stiff so I dusted off my sketchbook and got to work . .

Once the artwork was finished, I scanned it, tidied it up in Photoshop then turned it into paths for Illustrator where I could work on the text. I have always loved the look of old fashioned typewriter fonts, they remind me of my art school days when I used my old Olivetti to create many a bizarre text based piece! But I also love the trendy carnival style fonts you see a lot these days. Every waking minute I spent trying to get the look and the wording right – I even sent what I thought was the final proof off to be printed with several errors in my haste and bleary-eyed state!

But shortly after everything was finalised Mark and the clever bunch at Blush turned my design into the loveliness which is below. Even the cute wrapping added to the wonderful experience which is letterpress!”

Letterpress Wedding Invitations: 10% discount offer

Sam — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:38:14 +0000

There is nothing quite like receiving a letterpress wedding invitation with its wonderful, tactile finish. I’ve always wondered why Letterpress wedding stationery has not been as popular here in the UK compared to the US, where the old printing technique is certainly one of the most popular wedding invitation styles. Recently though I’ve noticed quite a marked increase in the number of companies offering this beautiful, high quality printing.

The Letter Press of Cirencester is certainly not new to the market, they have been printing superb quality letterpress wedding stationery since 1986 and the quality of their products really does need to be seen to be believed. They have recently launched some wonderful new designs for 2010 to add to their, already fabulous, collection.

The Wedding Invitation Shop is very proud to work along side the Letter Press and we are able to offer bridal couples a 10% discount on the entire range of beautiful stationery. They offer a full service, covering engagement announcements,wedding and evening invitations, reply cards, orders of service, menus, place cards and thank you cards.

Their service is individual. The designs are based on simple classical styles, which you can either adopt as they are, or use as a starting point for your own designs. They are able to add or adapt any of the features shown on the website: plate sinking, using decorative motifs, borders or ribbons, different ink or typefaces. These can all be mixed and matched to create a special look, unique to your wedding.

Please visit their website to view their full range of wedding invitations. You can order a free sample either directly from them or from us. Once you have decided upon your order just contact us by email to place your order and receive your 10% discount. Take a look at some of their wonderful new designs below:

A unique ‘icy’ Wedding Invitation Idea

Sam — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:35:22 +0000

We LOVE receiving great, unique wedding invitation ideas here at the WIS, so when James from the marketing and design company Beanwave left a comment on our site I just couldn’t resist sharing his ‘icy’ design for a truly unique wedding invitation. This is what James had to say about a rather unusual design request – for his own wedding! ♥

From James at Beanswave:“Wedding invites are not something Beanwave have been asked to do before, but when the brief was “we’re getting married… in the Ice Hotel in Swedish Lapland… there’s also a second reception/party in England a week later for those that can’t make it to the Arctic Circle… we need invites… and they can be as creative as you like”, then that’s the kind of job that gets the juices flowing at beanwave. And the client? Well that was me and the soon-to-be Mrs Bristow, so they had to be good.

An invitation to any event should set the tone and give recipients a sense of anticipation and excitement. Our idea? Let’s create an invite that reflects a ‘wedding of two halves’, and post it in a box of snow. Simple.

So in October 2009 each of our guests received a box through the post. The outside address label contained the quote:

“A snowflake is one of nature’s most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together”

Upon opening the box, each recipient received an avalanche of snow-like polystyrene balls over-spilling from the box. Then inside, under the ’snow’, they found an invitation card with a photo of a heart carved from ice.

On first opening, the card revealed two sides – one for the Ice Hotel Wedding the other for the Woburn reception. The card then opened out again to reveal a montage of bride and groom photos from childhood through the years.

The other detail was using appropriate lyrics from Beatles songs. These were subtly printed on the cards using spot varnish so they could only be seen when light catches at the right angle. The reason for this was that we had booked a Beatles tribute band for the reception, but wanted to keep them as a surprise. (This theme was also carried through to the reception where the table names were Eleanor, Sadie, Rita, Lucy, Prudence & Martha!)

Although they cursed us when still finding little balls of snow for weeks later, the reaction was great, recipients really loved this unusual, modern wedding invite. Both days were fantastic occasions, the Ice Hotel was an amazing place, and the Upbeat Beatles were a massive hit. Happy days indeed.”

Heart Wedding Invitation Ideas – Inspiration Board

Sam — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:55:25 +0000

Happy Valentine’s Day to all of our wedding couples and designers! To get you in a romantic mood why not take a look at our latest inspirations board for some great ideas for heart wedding invitations. Try adding heart embellishments to your invitations or incorporate hearts of different colours into your print design or motif for contemporary wedding invitations. You could also die-cut hearts into the card and back with satin ribbon for a luxurious, romantic effect. Here are some of the invitations our wedding designers offer to help you say it with your heart!

Little Angel Weddings

Entwine design Invitations

Purple Mountain Designs

Purple Daisy Cards

Little Angel Wedding Invitations

Natural Design Wedding Invitations

Purple Mountain Designs

Bee Happy Wedding Invitations

Little Angel Weddings

Pink Wedding Invitations – Inspiration Board

Sam — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:29:47 +0000

Wedding invitations always look pretty in pink! Take a look at our latest colour inspirations board for some great ideas for pink wedding invitations. Try pale pinks for a romantic, feminine, fairy-tale feel or go for a bold statement with vibrant fuschia and hot pinks! If you really want to be bold, your entire invitation can be a combination of pink shades – add black for added wow factor! Try accents of pink combined with creams, chocolate and other neutral colours for a more subtle statement. Here are some of the invitations our wedding designers offer to make your wedding day perfectly pink!

Little Angel Weddings

CCA Occassions

Purple Daisy Invitations

Bee Happy Designs

Rednel Invitations

Entwine design Invitations

Wyte Wedding Invitations

Els Design

Thanda Creations Wedding Invitations