We finished our wedding invitations!!!
imgur.com/a/rAcHk
imgur.comPosted Feb 26, 2015, 4:02 AM UTC
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imgur.comWow, they're great!
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Thanks! Watching her create designs and layouts like this seems like some sort of wizardry to me.
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Thank you! :)
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I designed everything about these invitations and we letter pressed them ourselves using seed paper. The impression is a little difficult to see due to the black ink, but I assure you, it's there.
It was a very stressful week cutting the paper and learning how to letter press. I broke the platform that gets sent through the press and I had to get that fixed before we could continue which cost us a day. BUT it was all worth it because they look and feel beautiful. They're exactly what we both had envisioned and it was a project we did together!
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FYI: By "seed paper" she means that the paper is handmade and embedded with wildflower seeds. Which is kind of awesome.
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That's the best thing ever. So cool!!
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Right, I can't wait to plant the RSVPs we get back!
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This makes your idea even better. Seriously, so many kudos.
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Very cool! How did you letterpress print them? Did you do it yourself on a heavy duty press or did you use the plastic fiskars press? The ink coverage is pretty nice for a fiskars press if so! I'm a letterpress printer so I'm always very interested in how people get to their final product.
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We used the Fiskars press with boxcar plates, a Speedball roller and Lifestyle ink. I dislike the plexiglass platform because it wiggles a little and it broke (granted I put too much packing in it, but only by two sheets of card stock). I would have liked the impression to be a bit deeper. But I didn't want to break more shit.
It was a fun experience though and We will do it again. Now I'm interested in checking out some legit machines.
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We were a little too liberal with the ink at first, but after some experimentation we were able to get the coverage almost perfect. We both like the little spots and imperfections on them though, it gives them some individuality and character.
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I was paranoid about getting too much ink on them, but my first one looked great, so I kept on doing what worked.
The little imperfections make them special. I was in a competition with myself to get a perfect print though.
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Can you tell me a little about your letterpress set up and how you designed the plates? I'm doing some research and there's just so much
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I can give you better details when I get home, but we used a Fiskars press, Boxcar plates and the Lifestyle Letterpress kit.
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u/CapnM designed the plates and then worked with Boxcar Press to get them made for us. Apparently they are incredibly helpful. We used a Fiskars Fuse for the actual letterpressing. There was a learning curve, but she figured it all out quickly. I'll let u/CapnM give you all of the down and dirty details later tonight when she gets home, but this and this can give you some good information in the meantime.
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Fiskars 100770-1001 Fuse Creativity Sys Start Set
Current $92.00 MWave (New)
High $219.78 Amazon (New)
Low $82.99 Amazon (New)
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My fiancee provided some helpful links earlier and below are some more that Boxcar sent me.
L Letterpress Printing Techniques from Boxcar Press
At-Home L Letterpress Printing Tips
We purchased the Lifestyle Letterpress Kit which we used with the Fiskars Fuse. We also purchased a 6" Speedball brayer to apply the ink, we read many places that the small brayer Lifestyle provides is crap and doesn't apply the ink evenly. I purchased a cheap picture frame for the glass and used that to apply the ink to the larger brayer. We used the smaller plastic surface provided to squeeze the ink onto and transferred it to the large glass using a putty knife to ensure we didn't get too much ink on the brayer or plate. Clean up is the worst part so I only wanted to do it once.
Many times I got ink onto other parts of the plate, but I used baby wipes to clean it up and keep the paper clean. We used a regular height table to set the press on, but I highly recommend using a counter or something counter height because bending over gets rough on your lower back after a while.
To design the plates I used Illustrator so everything was vector and easily editable. Everything needs to be 100% black when submitting to Boxcar and no likes should be under 0.35 points - any thinner and you may not get a clear imprint. You'll want to create a PDF using the "Press Quality" preset when submitting your files for plates. If you have any questions, email Boxcar. They were so very helpful and nice, they went above and beyond to help me with any questions. They even looked over my files before I submitted them since I hadn't ordered plates before.
My finacee did all the research for what to purchase, he's at whiz at such things. I'm glad he did it - There's something amazing about seeing my designs come to life with our own efforts!
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Oh, sister. I hand letterpressed mine too. The process for husband and I was AWFUL. The learning curve was so steep. It was just terriblle!
Did you feel the same way? I hope you didn't for your sake!
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Getting the paper depth right was my concern, I stacked too much up and it snapped the plexiglass top. Other than that is was smooth sailing and relaxing in a tedious way.
We're definitely doing it again, possibly for Christmas cards. I may also do a friend's wedding invitations too.
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you lucky little jerk ;) our experience was an absolute nightmare! can i ask what ink you used? what roller type? how big were your invites themselves? did you go over once (roller big enough to cover all the text) or did you need ink the plate in sections?
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We used black Lifestyle oil ink so they would dry fast and we purchased a 6" Speedball brayer (we read multiple times that the small one was crap). Our invites are 5x7" and the RSVPs are 4x6", the brayer covered pretty well, but I rolled it over in a few directions to make sure everything was evenly covered. I squeezed ink onto a small surface and transferred small amounts with a putty knife to a larger surface (kinda like patching drywall) so the brayer wouldn't get too messy.
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I love the RSVP card!
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Haha, I was unsure about it at first, but my fiancee said we should go for it. We prefer life to be humorous and unexpected.
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Beautiful!
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Thanks! I especially like how every one is different.
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I would FOR SURE plant this card in the ground and watch it grow!
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That's what we're planning to do with the RSVPs that we get back.
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Would you like some scraps to try? I haven't thrown anything away.
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love everything about these! So gorgeous! Did you do the paper yourselves? How did you learn to letter press? Looks awesome, congrats!
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We did a ton of research before deciding to letterpress. It was pretty daunting at first. This is a great primer to start your letterpress education. We did not make the paper ourselves. I wish we'd had time, but it was down to the wire. We bought some handmade paper from here and it was everything we hoped it would be.
edit - Also this has some good information.
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thank you for the info!!! I'm gonna take a look at it all when I get home!
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Thank you so much! The paper we bought, although we're both interested in learning how to make it now.
Learning to letterpress was done through YouTube videos and I just dove in. I figured fucking things up was just part of the process. I did break the plexiglass plate, that sucked. I know what I did wrong though! Its a pretty simple process, roll ink on, press invite and repeat. There are little nuances of course, but it's just trial and error.
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got it! Looks great! congrats
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Where did you come across that paper? I had no idea that even existed! These are absolutely fantastic, great work!!
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Yeah, I would love to know where she bought that paper (if she did!) Looks handmade though
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Agreed, it reminds me of when we made paper in my 3rd grade art class (but this looks way better and isn't blue!). I googled it though, it seems pretty simple to make, and I think she mentioned only expecting 30, so she probably wouldn't have had to make too many (not like, 150 invitations).
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We actually pressed about 75 invitations and also used the same paper and pressed another 75 RSVPs. It was a couple days of steady work, but they are worth it. (I'm the soon-to-be husband.)
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Not OP but have been considering using seed paper for either invitations or menus and this is the site I had bookmarked.
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AWESOME thank you!!!
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My pleasure! I like this site because they have pre-made items or just the paper. When in October are you getting married looks like we are almost date twins? I LOVE Key Largo, that will be an amazing spot at any venue :)
(ninja edit cause my wording was awkward lol)
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I used Porridge Papers if you want to check them out too. They have 19x25" sheets which would certainly be large enough for a menu.
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Thanks! I will definitely check them out.
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It is handmade paper, and we bought it from here. It's beautiful and has a great feel.
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thank you!!!
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Actually, we have lots of scraps left. If you'd like we'll send you a few so you can feel it and check it out in person before deciding to buy any. You can just PM u/CapnM or I your address and we'll toss them in the mail.
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It is handmade paper from Porridge Paper in Nebraska, I believe. I bought 19x25" sheets and cut them down.
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I had no idea either! It's from Porridge Papers, they have a few colors. I was in awe when we came across it. Plus the wildflower aspect of it fit perfectly with the design I created!
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We got the paper from Porridge Paper, the quality is great!
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These are badass. Love it!
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Thank you!
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Hey date twin! Those are fabulous!
Also, you make me aware of how incredibly un-easy-going I am. Sent out invitations months ago (the wedding is out of town for virtually all guests) and RSVPs are "due" Sunday, although I technically need my count for caterer's 4 weeks before the wedding.
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It's just our nature for the most part. We invited a lot of out of towners, but we don't expect them to come. We did send out save the dates in October though so if they wanted to make plans they had time to do so.
All of our vendors are either friends or friends of friends so it's pretty easy working with them.
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I think it's great that you're being relaxed. Means no over stressing about pointless things!
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There's certainly some stress, but not over who's coming and all that jazz. So I have that going for me at least.
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THESE ARE INCREDIBLE. I simply love the wildflower seed packet idea. Wonderful!!!
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The seeds are actually pressed into the paper itself, which is really cool. We'll be planting the RSVPs that we get back, so what would have been trash otherwise will make a nice wildflower patch.
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Thank you! That gives me the warm fuzzies. I've always been concerned with not wasting resources and once we saw this paper we knew that was what we needed to have. I'm excited to plant them and see what beautiful flowers they produce!
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FYI--you may want to edit your wedding website link from the first pic.
These are really fun invitations!
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I guess she missed those. Oh well, no biggie. Thanks for the compliment!
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Thank you, I missed that one in the excitement of getting them up. I really like the free spiritedness of them myself!
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They look great! And also - I'm not crazy - well, or we're both crazy! April 11th as well, and we just sent out our invitations on Tuesday, and our RSVP date is one week before yours. We also didn't do Save the Dates. We have about 125 people coming, 90% from out of town... People keep calling me crazy, and I'm just like calm down, it'll all be okay... My mom is the southern etiquette queen and she did all the planning/sending. She isn't worried, so I'm not either.
*EDIT: You probably don't care about my advice, but being the daughter of a southern etiquette queen, I do have to say that it does make my eye twitch a little because you've included registry info in the invite suite.
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I thought the timing was just right, glad I'm not alone!
We don't talk to many people on a regular basis and I didn't want anyone to be hounded with questions, so I included it. We're in the west though and almost anything goes here. The south seems like a charming yet confusing place, I'd like to visit some time.
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Yeah. Like I said, my mom is doing all the planning for mine, so she decided the timeline. I guess "traditionally" they are only supposed to be sent out 4-6 weeks before. Who knew?
You know your guests better than I do. Since my mom is the planner for mine, that definitely wouldn't work for her - she's planning for the phone calls asking where we're registered - we don't even have a website.
I'm actually in the PNW now, but grew up in the South (both FH and I are from the down there). I still don't understand all the little rules. I just bought stationary with FH and my names on them with our address for thank you notes. I told my mom and she was like - you can't send those until after the wedding - you're rubbing it in people's faces that you already live together. I didn't even think of that. I still don't understand, as we own a house together and everyone knows... so confusing sometimes...There are some cool places for visiting in the South, though. For visiting only...
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Those look amazing.
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Thank you, I designed five others but I think this one suits us perfectly.
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They are awesome. Ummmm are you just sending them out? I'm having heart palpitations just thinking about that since my daughter's wedding is 4.11 as well. Her RSVPs are due ummmm Sunday.
Edit: Read comments so I see your answers. You are EasyGoing! My heart is still racing tho.
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(Soon-to-be husband of u/CapnM here)
We try not to sweat the small stuff. The people that want to show up will show up and hopefully have a great time. We aren't going to be upset if it turns out to be a small party. The important thing is that I'm about to marry an incredible woman who makes me a better person. Everything else will work itself out.
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My fiancee got to this before I did. :) We don't expect many out of town people to show up and we sent them save the dates so they could plan accordingly. I have a feeling if we sent out invites that early our friends would forget! We plan to have a spectacular day and we will be delighted to share it with whoever shows up.
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Hey almost date twin! I LOVEEE these.
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Thank you. Your date is right around the corner!
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These...I need these! Seriously, great job and looks like I'm researching the heck out of letter pressing and seed paper!
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Handmade seed paper - it's the same paper that we used. This is a great primer for deciding if letterpress is right for you. It was a steep learning curve to do these, but in the end we're very happy that we did.
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I'm glad we could inspire you!
I love the texture of the paper with the imprint, a blind press would look stunning on this paper!
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Actually, we have lots of scraps left. If you'd like we'll send you a few so you can feel it and check it out in person before deciding to buy any. You can just PM u/CapnM or I your address and we'll toss them in the mail.
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Love the letterpress and seed paper :) Your design is cute, too!
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Thank you so much. Designing for myself is so much harder than a client, I love so many styles!
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omg, I am in the same boat. I'm a graphic designer and I run a printing company - trying to decide what I want to do for mine is impossible!!
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I considered hiring someone lol, but being a designer you're expected to make your own. I have yet to create business cards for myself... But when I do, they'll be on seed paper!
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Thank you!
Nah, our ceremony site said they only need a weeks advance notice (crazy, right?). My Mom is a member at the lodge where we are having the reception, which can fit up to 100 people, we expect 30ish and we can decorate the night before.
We'll plan for 30 and see where the numbers are before we put in the final order for food. Oh, our caterer is "Carlos the Taco Man", everything is pretty laid back.
Awesome invitations!!
I hope you don't have to hunt too many people down! It took me a few weeks after my rsvp date to round up all the stragglers.
If they don't respond I'll assume they're not coming. I don't have the time to track everyone down.
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We are planning a party pretty much. We use to have them often a few years back, so it's just on a larger scale this time, but with a wedding ceremony prior. Friends, drinks, food and music and it's a guaranteed good time.
Shenanigans.