Invitations: The Final Product!

It is the moment I have been waiting for for SO long! I absolutely love our invitations and could not wait to share them with you! These were a true collaboration between so many wonderful artists - our letterpress printer Kristin of Twin Ravens Press, our incredible map maker Crystal Kluge, our calligrapher Fran of Little Flower Calligraphy (for wording in the invitation and also our envelopes), and our Hebrew calligrapher Jerise. I found each of these artists (with the exception of Crystal) on Etsy, and I cannot begin to recommend this site enough. You can literally find someone for everything, and I have been incredibly happy working with each person - and anything that I haven't found, I have been able to find here on the 'Bee!

So you're like, enough already, give us the goods...and without further adieu:

Just a warning: this post is chock full of pretty pictures. (It pained me to blot them out even a little but you can use your imagination!) All pictures sent to me from the amazing and talented Kristin from Twin Ravens Press.

Here is the first thing that our guests saw on the back on the envelope. They would carefully, carefully open the seal (yeah, right) to reveal...

An envelope lined with pretty petal embedded lotka paper ("Wow, what a neat detail," they would notice) and then...

This pretty blue booklet with a dried pressed flower on the cover! "I can't wait to see more!" they would exclaim.

The first page is a traditional Hebrew poem, often used during weddings. The words in English are:

Again may these be heard in the cities of Judah
And in the streets of Jerusalem
The voices of gladness and voices of happiness
The voice of bridegroom and bride

And a close up of the writing - this page alone features the talent of three different artists! Kristin of Twin Ravens Press dress the flowers (and did the letterpress), Jerise did the Hebrew Calligraphy and Fran of Little Flower Calligraphy did the English calligraphy. I love how well all the styles came together.

They would turn the page to find the information. "Oh how lovely! I can't wait until June!" was their enthusiastic response.

And a close up here because it is just so beautiful! The same three artists came together here. We chose to use three colors to make this page pop.

Ah, the map. Crystal Kluge is responsible for this lovely little surprise! Our guests will now remark how whimsical this map is, and how they love getting to know us just a little bit better this way. Coming soon, you'll see how we use this little guy again!

Hm, the accommodations page. Our guests will surely book their hotel rooms just as soon as they read this!

The RSVP card! Pretty even on its own, it is going to be the inspiration for our thank you cards, which are in the works.



I loved the light blue envelope with the RSVP card, just another pop of color and a little addition of interest. Of course our guests saw this and said, "Oh! I must send this back right away!" Right...

And the final piece to our set. Not to be forgotten, the directions page is a lovely way to end the tour through our invitations.

So here is the whole suite, just as our guests laid them out when they received them, I'm sure ;)
In honesty, these so far exceed my expectations, I could not be happier with the way that they came out. I was able to work with so many talented artists and truly make our invitation dream a reality. I wouldn't change a thing!

We were very conscious in our choices, though, that we made for this suite. Stay tuned for Invitations: Paper Choices.

Did any of your wedding projects exceed your expectations? Share your happy stories!

Invitations: Envelope Sneak Peek

Many moons ago it seems, I showed you my save the dates and I mentioned I would be working with the same Etsy seller, Twin Ravens Press, on the invitation suite. Kristin at Twin Ravens has been unBEElievable to work with, and I would recommend her to anyone for letterpress and totally unique invitations, business cards, and whatever else you can think of to letterpress! I thought you might enjoy this little peek at the envelopes and the letterpress process! (All photos by Kristin and sent to me)

The paper for my envelope liners, before
This paper is natural lotka paper with embedded flower petals

The envelope liner in the die-cutter machine

The liners after being cut

The envelopes fully lined

The letterpress

The printing plate for our return address with the blue ink on it

Our envelopes going to meet the printing plate

Our envelopes coming off the printing plate

And the finished envelope!

I'm so happy that Kristin sent me these pictures, and I could share a tiny sneak peek of what's to come with you!

Do you have a great vendor that you'd like to recommend? Have any of your vendors gone above and beyond to keep you involved throughout your engagement?

Save the date!

About 8 months out from the wedding, we decided to order and send the save the dates. We had chosen a date and booked the venue, and we wanted to make sure that our guests marked it down on their calendars! I thought for sure that I wanted to send an adorable save the date magnet from VistaPrint like the one below:

(source)

I even went so far as to actually design and fill out the whole save the date. I was a day away from ordering. And then...I found Mrs. Bear Cub right here on Weddingbee and her amazing invitations. I just fell in love with the sustainability and the creativity that she used on her invitations. Her inspiration was very similar to the vision that I had in mind for my own invitations, so I checked out Twin Ravens Press to see what they had going on. And I fell in love. I called Kristin and thus began an epic journey of creating custom letterpress save the dates and invitations!

Save the dates were up first. I knew I wanted to use plantable seeded paper, but I wanted to keep them simple and straightforward, since the invitation was going to be much more elaborate. Here is what we came up with:

You can see more pictures and a blog post over at Twin Ravens Press

The paper is wonderfully textured with the seeds, and the letterpress printing. The colors came out great, and everyone loved the tiny picture of us.

I included a little note with them that explained that the paper was embedded with seeds, and all you need to do it lay it under a bit of soil, water, and watch it grow. Many of our guests have already done this and told me that they are sprouting. A word of advice: you may want to suggest that you guests plant it after they receive your invitation (as was our intention). Many of family members were so excited by the idea that they planted it right away and then had to call my mom and ask for the date...oy!

Coming soon - invitations! Kristin and I went back and forth for months to create a unique (and totally inspired by Mrs. Bear Cub) invitation that I cannot wait to show you!

Did you make save the dates? Did they come out the way you originally planned?