Oh So Beautiful Paper

A few weeks back, reader Alyson left a comment about her letterpress wedding invitations – so I jumped at the chance to ask her a few questions.  Alyson worked with an up-and-coming designer to create a gorgeous blue + white pocketfold invitation suite, which included the main invitation, map enclosure, and rsvp card with a matching letterpress return envelope.  Alyson has been kind enough to share her invitations with the rest of us here, so let’s get right into Alyson’s gorgeous invitations!

From Alyson: I knew from the start that I wanted pocketfold invitations, and was fully intending to print them myself on my inkjet printer in order to save money.  But after reading countless blogs that featured letterpress invitation suites, I soon realized that I could never go back to the idea of printing my own!

One day, while perusing the Weddingbee message boards, I found a post by Phyllis Wong, offering to design and print invitation suites at cost because she was building her portfolio for her new company, Sweet Paper Studio.*  My heart skipped a beat when I read this, and I immediately wrote to her inquiring whether she could do letterpress.  Luckily for me, she had worked out a deal with Don’t Press Me Letterpress Studio, so that’s how we got our letterpress invitations for a steal.

The design process was my favorite part.  Phyllis came up with a concept, after I described some ideas I had and gave her some key words that I was trying to convey through the wedding theme, and we worked from there.  Luckily, Phyllis was receptive to having me be very involved in the design process and tailoring each detail in the invitation suite, all the way down to the fonts and formatting.  Phyllis was wonderful and very open to my feedback and suggestions.  I was thrilled with the results and would highly recommend her work, as well as Don’t Press Me, to anyone.

I ordered the pocketfolds in Persian Blue and Invitation mats in metallic Cornflower from Cards & Pockets, who were very reliable and have a great selection.  The monogram was ordered through I Do Originals and I made the stickers on the front of the invitation myself using a Xyron machine.  The ribbon was purchased from Joann Fabric.

In the end, I feel that the invitations reflected the mood I was trying to set with our wedding: fun, polished, and sophisticated, but not too stuffy.  The invitations were a labor of love – I had pangs of separation anxiety as I handed them over to the postal worker to be mailed.  I learned a lot from doing it myself, resulting in the opening of my own Etsy shop, and highly recommend it to anyone who is even slightly interested in “diy-ing” their invitations!

Thanks so much for sharing your invitations Alyson!  They’re absolutely lovely – I love the way the blue and white palette and clean lines give the invitation suite a crisp and modern feel, but definitely without getting too formal.  You and Phyllis did a wonderful job with the design process!

I went a little photo-happy while taking pictures of Alyson’s invitations over the weekend – all the photos are posted on my flickr page if you’d like to check them out.

{all photos by me}

*Alyson and I tried to find a link for Sweet Paper Studio, but didn’t have any luck – so Phyllis, if you’re out there, let us know and we’ll be happy to update with your link!

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