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 (my bridesmaid and personal wedding designer) 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 my own personal touch so it would look like my handwriting.

Finding the right letterpress was by far the hardest part. After all, I had to figure out who to trust with my invites. MY INVITATIONS! The very first impression my guests will have of the big day... It will set the tone and get people excited about the upcoming big day!!!! IT"S A BIG DEAL!! hahaha. so that may be a LITTLE dramatic, but that's what happens sometimes when Mr. P says things like "What's the big deal? Just pick one." :P

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 or stopped responding once they heard my budget, 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:


My invites just went out in the mail last week and I can't wait to share the full invitation suite with you all! I also just got back from ten days in Spain so I'm still putting together the post :D