Letterpress of my very own!

After months and months of looking at wedding invitations, I finally decided to create my own design. I really wanted something unique, personalized and whimsical. Basically, it needed to be something that I felt would reflect the feel of our wedding. I kept telling Laura that I wish I could just hand write a invitation to each of my guest. Finally, we decided that I would hand write my invitation and then send it out to a press and have it letterpressed! Genius, I know! The design part didn't take that long. Laura used her fancy-pants design program to figure out the lines and spacing. Then I traced the invite and gave it a personal touch.

Finding the right letterpress was the hard part. After all, I had to figure out who to trust with my invites. I considered a number of options: Mercurio Brothers, Thistleberry, White Aisle, Wild Ink Press, and Parklife Press. First, I emailed them all to confirm pricing since I was requesting an irregular number of invitations (65) and wanted to submit my own design. Unfortunately, a few of them never even responded to my email so they were immediately cut from the list. Then I cut all the places that were out of my price range.

Once I had my top three I sent another email requesting samples and asking follow-up questions. (doing my due diligence and all...). I finally picked Travis at Parklife Press. He asked me what I was looking for and sent me a free selection of samples. Best part, I gave him the wrong address by accident and once I realized my mistake, he over-nighted a second set of invitations! He was fabulous, not only did he respond quickly to all my emails but they were personalized and casual responses (nothing canned or overly formal). I felt that he would be easy to work with and I could definitely trust him with this very important responsibility.

Let me just say, I was right! The invites turned out beautifully. My fabulous invitations came in just three days before I left for Amsterdam. I was so busy moving (packing, cleaning, etc) that I forgot they were coming! What a pleasant surprise :D

Here's a little peek: