Calligraphy – Bluebird Studios

I first discovered Bluebird Studios a few weeks ago via Snippet & Ink, but only recently got around to exploring their work in greater detail. 

Rebecca Trawick is the talented calligrapher behind Bluebird Studios and has done some truly beautiful work.  Rebecca has worked with invtation and letterpress studios including Good on Paper and Paper Monkey Press.  These are a few of my favorite examples, but you can also find more of her calligraphy here.

I love that letterpress studios are starting to use more calligraphy and handwriting.  I love fancy scripts and typefonts as much as anyone else, but there's truly something special about letterpressed calligraphy.

{I wish I had handwriting this lovely…}

Rebecca is also an illustrator, collagist and painter who uses found materials, paper ephemera and other vintage items to create one-of-a-kind works of art and illustrations.  You can see more of her lovely artwork here.

Vane + Chad’s Modern Brooklyn Wedding Invitations

This week, I’ve asked one of my very favorite wedding bloggers – the amazing Vané from Brooklyn Bride – to share her invitations with us!  As I’m sure you all know, Vané had a distinct modern and Brooklyn-inspired aesthetic for her wedding this past April.  Vané worked with Viñas Design to letterpress her invitations in a crisp green and white color palette, and with Betsy Dunlap on the calligraphy for both the invitations and table signs.

From Vané:  Since the wedding had a distinct Brooklyn theme, it was only natural that iconic Brooklyn and NY images were used on the invitations and all paper goods. We (Jaime Viñas of Viñas Design and I) used some photos I had of the Brooklyn Bridge, the wheel from Coney Island, and a water tower outside my window for some of the pieces.

Brooklyn-Bride-green-white-modern-letterpress-wedding-invitations

The map of Brooklyn came from our save the dates, and the bagel was actually scanned on a scanner and brought down to size.  Having them letterpressed was great because all the sesame seeds on the bagel popped up.

Brooklyn-Bride-green-white-modern-letterpress-wedding-invitation

For the font, Jaime used Neutra, which was great because it was designed by the architect Richard Neutra (and my husband just happens to be an architect!), and he used the perfect shade of green for everything on the crispest white card I’ve ever seen…the pieces had such a presence just with their thickness, I loved it!

Brooklyn-Bride-green-white-modern-letterpress-wedding-invitations-calligraphy

I love the way the invitations coordinate perfectly with all the other elements from her gorgeous wedding:

Thanks Vané for sharing your beautiful invitations with us!  Invitations by Vané and Viñas Design, calligraphy by Betsy Dunlap.

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

{all images by Bethalee Photography via Brooklyn Bride}

Place card & escort card ideas… continued

As promised… here are a few more ideas for place cards and escort cards!  First up – escort cards hung from a clothesline have been a staple of outdoor weddings for the past several years, but are also really easy to customize to suit your wedding style and theme:


{images above by Bethalee Photography via In Style Weddings, from brides.com via Snippet & Ink}

Instead of hanging escort cards in the air, these escort cards are attached via miniature clothespins and twine along a flat table surface:


{via Wedding Paper Divas}

One charming wedding featured escort cards in the form of a handwritten note to each guest from the bride and groom – such a wonderful and personal touch!


{via Bird Dog Press}

If you plan to work with a calligrapher for your place cards (or even plan on doing the calligraphy yourself), stamps are a great way to dress up standard tented place cards. Paper-Source carries a great selection of stamps featuring floral patterns, animals, and other designs, but you can also try searching ebay for vintage stamps.


{via Bird Dog Press}

If you’re not planning to use calligraphy, try Kathryn’s suggestion of using individual rubber stamps to spell out guests’ names, or try using an every day object, such as these old playing cards, and label them using pre-printed or hand-written names on store-bought labels:

Stamppc_2

Playing_card_pc
{both via Snippet & Ink}

Continuing the rubber stamps idea, I’ve always held a particular fondness for this constellation idea, as well as using small bunches of lavender as escort cards:

  

Martha Stewart Weddings

Last for today, in addition to making fun Save the Date cards, post cards can also serve as a fun option for escort cards, with guests’ names and table number written in place of an address:


{via Elizabeth Anne Designs}

I’d love to hear your ideas – what are you doing for your escort cards or place cards?

{images via their respective sources}

Kristina + Brock’s Modern Black and White Wedding Invitations

These invitations from Kristina at Lovely Morning are just beautiful – the ribbon, the honeycomb pattern, the blind impression, the calligraphy, it all just works so well together…

black-white-modern-blind-impression-letterpress-wedding-invitation

blind-impression-modern-wedding-invitation

black-white-modern-calligraphy-wedding-invitation

Invitations designed by Kristina and printed by Aardvark Press – with gorgeous calligraphy by Jenna Hein.  I love the contrast of the white calligraphy on black envelopes!  You can follow the entire process here, here, and here.

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

{image via Lovely Morning}