We are actually in Cali for a wedding this weekend, so I’ve asked my new favorite invitation designer and blogger, Mimi Woo of Mika78 to stop by for a visit and share some of her tips and ideas with us. Mimi is an invitation guru and a pretty fantastic designer, so needless to say, I am thrilled!
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Hi everyone! I’m so excited to be guest blogging for Style Me Pretty today! I’ve been a longtime reader of Abby’s wonderful blog ever since I started planning for my wedding back in March of 2007. I still visit Abby’s blog every single day, even though my wedding planning days are long over. I think that just goes to show what a great and inspiring place Style Me Pretty really is. (Yay for Abby and the gang at SMP!)
The one constant I hear over and over again from my clients is “I love letterpress, but it doesn’t fit into my budget”. In this crazy economy, I totally understand the need to cut back where you can. A lot of couples think they have to go with offset or flat printing because they just can’t afford letterpress and there’s no other option. Well, I’m here to tell you there are options out there, you just have to get a little creative with how you mix and match your pieces.
I totally understand the want, even the NEED, for letterpress. It’s such a gorgeous printing method; you can’t help but want to run your fingers across every single nook and cranny of each hand-pressed letter. Simply put, there’s something about the feeling of a letterpressed piece in your hands that everyone just loves. Today, I’m going to share with you some of my cost-saving tips:
Dilemma #1: I LOVE letterpress, but I can’t afford it!
Solution #1: Order your Invitation & RSVP card in letterpress with unprinted envelopes and purchase an address stamp/embosser.
The one thing many people don’t know about letterpress is that most of the cost goes into the labor, not the materials. Letterpress is an artisanal printing method – everything is meticulously printed by hand and it takes skill to produce a great letterpress piece.
Because most of the cost goes into the labor, I suggest letterpressing your invite and RSVP card and ordering unprinted envelopes. This will save you a good chunk of change, folks. For return addresses, purchase an address stamp like the ones below. These are from Lettergirl’s Etsy shop and are $34-$39 each. The great part about these is that you can use them over and over again – they’re especially helpful when it comes time to write your thank you cards! Bonus: you get the look of calligraphy without the hefty price tag!
You can also use address embossers like these from Horchow (range from $24-$29). (link: ) If you go with this style, I recommend ordering your RSVP envelopes printed, but your Invitation envelopes unprinted. The address embosser is great, but it might be too light for addressing your RSVP envelopes and we wouldn’t want those getting lost in the mail!
More to come from Mimi Woo of Mika78 so stay tuned!