Our new ribbon gate-fold invitations will be launched soon but we are so excited about the range that we couldn’t wait to give you a sneak preview.  I quickly snapped these shots outside our studio before the professional photos are taken next week.  It will probably take a couple of weeks to get this range online because it will be available in a total of 37 different colours and, as with all our designs, we do our best to coordinate the whole range of products.  This means that with so many colours and so many coordinating items there will be a lot of photography to process.

The gentle floral pattern is another feature that coordinates on all the items in this range; its delicate emboss and pealescent reflection catches the light beautifully with understated sophistication.  The texture of the emboss is best seen in the flesh and you can do this by requesting a free sample when the range is online but this is one important element that we hope to capture with the photography.

I have a list of available colours to share with you and these will all be available to view online soon.

• Black
• Silver Grey
• Navy
• Dusky Blue
• Cornflower
• New Tuquoise
• Aqua
• Petrol
• Peacock
• Orchid
• Helio
• Dusky Pink
• Shocking Pink
• Pink Azalea
• Pale Pink
• Red
• Scarlet Berry
• Burgundy
• Plum
• Blackberry
• Purple
• Moss
• Khaki
• Hunter Green
• Jade
• Cuban
• Dark Brown
• Marigold
• Gold
• Yellow
• Lemon
• Orange Delight
• Rust
• Sable
• Honey Gold
• Cream
• White

Pure Rose in Sage Green

We get a lot of requests to customise our Pure Collection and the most popular is a colour change of the Rose or Lily.  We will be introducing some of the more popular colour requests to our website soon.   Bespoke colour matching is always a challenge because the clays often dry a slightly different colour when baked so we often have to test a number of times.  We were particularly pleased with the colour match of our latest creation.  I do not recall having created a green rose before and it was quite a challenge to get the right colour rose to match a swatch of fabric from the customer’s dress.  We mixed two clays (English Garden Green and Avocado) in 50 /50 proportions to get the gorgeous sage green colour pictured here.  We do not charge extra for the colour matching service and we always send free samples for approval before we proceed with an order.  If you would like a lily or rose in a particular then please give us a call or email us and we will be happy to oblige.

I am not sure where this is going and I am hardly one to preach about community spirit.  My wife went on to remind me that I hardly even talk to the neighbours when mowing the lawn so I am not likely to be getting my ladder out to hang bunting from the lampposts.  Anyway on to those St George’s Cross wedding invitations…..

Only joking.  I am not ensure even the most fervent England supporter who is getting married on World Cup final day this year would sanction a red cross on the front of their wedding invites but they may be interested in restoring a little national pride with the Emblems range of wedding stationery from CCA.  It was by coincidence that I was adding the Emblems range to our site on St George’s day without realising what day it was.  The Emblems range does not exclude our fellow islanders and the designs feature a national symbol for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland by way of rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock respectively.  You can find the Emblems range of stationery on our site in the Name the Day collection.  Personalised wording is printed on a white insert and invitations come with white envelopes as standard.

PS.  If anyone is interested in arranging their own street party for the World Cup, Queen’s jubilee, their wedding, their cat’s birthday or any other excuse for a good knees up then these websites are a good place to start.  The Big Lunch website (a heroic attempt to revive street party atmosphere was organised by the Eden Project last year) and Street Party (a charitable organisation who promote small scale community street parties)

Love2print

There are some wedding stationery designs that you just don’t quite get the full effect of until you see them ‘in the flesh’, and this is one such design.  Whilst the photography is very good on the website for Love2print, you don’t quite get the full impact of this card unless you can see it in front of you.  I have the said design in front of me and it really is a strikingly simple and beautiful card.  The peacock feather printed onto cream card is available in dark green and burnt orange and the text is printed in the same colour which is carried through into the backing card as well to give just a hint of colour.  The gold ribbon that separates the image from the text really brings the colour to life and complements the earthy tones perfectly.  The cost of the individual invitations varies depending on the quantity ordered and have a higher discount on larger quantities, but to give you an idea the cost for 50 invitations is £133.00 which is £2.66 each.

50XP020 Jasper from CCA Occasions

This design is called Jasper and is one of the best selling designs from CCA Occasions.  CCA have recently launched some different colourways in this design which will be featured on this site in the weeks to come.  The original Olive Green design shown here is my personal favourite.  A choice of text colours are available but the Olive Green text is best suited as it matches the thick satin ribbon perfectly. 

The wording is printed on a cream card which measures 14cm square.  This is quite compact so if you have a lot of words to fit on your invitation then it could look a little cramped.  The cream printed card is neatly mounted against a  heavyweight green pearlescent board by the way of two securing tabs top and bottom.   I was expecting some adhesive to be used as well because I felt it was important that an equal margin was required between the cream card and its mount.  This was not necessary however and I was surprised at how well these two tabs hold the card securley and neatly in place.

The layered effect is finished off beautifully with a translucent wrap with a pretty green floral print that would not look out of place in a Laura Ashley showroom.  The wrap opens at the front in a gatefold fashion and this is held in place with an opulent olive green 25mm double faced satin bow.  Don’t be afraid about tying the bow because the work has been done for you.  The bows come pre-tied and cut to the perfect length with a sticky peel strip on each length.  All you need to do is wrap the bow around the card and fix it in place with the peel and seal strip.

If you really want to set this design alight then I would recommend choosing the raised ink option which should only cost around an extra £15.  The Olive Green ink looks stunning when printed in the raised thermographic ink.  It may add an extra couple of days on to the delivery time but it is well worth the wait and extra cost.

When the finished card is assembled with its ribbon in place then your guests will probably slide the card out of the translucent wrap.  This seems a little surprising but for some reason when you have the card in your hand it seem more obvious than undoing the bow.  This is no bad thing because if your guests did undo the bow then they would ruin the look of the card because it would be very difficult to tie it back together so neatly.

There is a great range of coordinating items in this range :

50XP020 – Day Invitation
50XP022 – Evening Invitation
5QXP021 – Order of Service
5QXP027 – Menu
5QXP028 – Order of Day
5CXP025 – Thank You Card
5CXP024 – Reply Card
5ZXP023/X – Personalised Place Card
5ZXP023 – Non Personalised Place Card

This design is currently discounted at Olivia Samuel.

Damask Invitation

This classic looking pocket wedding invitation from CKK Wedding Stationery is beautifully understated in sage green damask but is bought upto date with the addition of three mini gems for the tiniest amount of bling.  The colour is perfect for a country garden wedding but works well for any season.  The pocket invitations cost £2.50 each and are available in many colours with a fully coordinating range of stationery available, the table plans look particularly stunning.

I have mentioned my passion for Letterpress time and time again on this site and have been keeping a close eye on San Francisco based design outfit Hello Lucky since my article on the Letterpress movement in the States back in May.

Well, Hello Lucky caught my eye again in the lastest copy of Cosmo Bride (aug/sep) with a beautiful range of calla lily letterpress wedding invitations.  I have grabbed these images from their blog post about the Cosmo Bride commission.  This was a bespoke design which commands a fairly big price tag at £722 for 100.  If this is out of your budget do not be disheartened and take a moment to view their standard letterpress designs, many of which are a lot cheaper.   Also, the site is shared with their US operation so with pricing in dollars and the current exchange rates as they are right now it favours UK shoppers.  As a rough guide pricing tends to increase with the number of colours used in the design because unlike a modern printing machine individual colours need to be done separately when letterpressed. 

Ah,  my Letterpress dream has reignited again.  I am now off to persuade the wife to let me convert the shed into a vintage print shop.  Maybe I should just do it in away ….  I mean she never goes in there.  I wonder if there are any bargain Heidlebergs machines on Ebay… I’ll be lucky !

When I first saw this Floral Script design from Christian Graffiti is reminded me of the Jasper invitation that we featured earlier this month.  Both designs feature a translucent wrap that opens at the centre with the wording printed on a card inside held together by a ribbon bow.  What I particularly like about the Christian Graffiti design is the swirling pattern on the cover which has taken its influence from Turkish fabric patterns.  It has a more contemporary feel than the Jasper design and the choice of ribbon colours means that brides are not restricted to any particular colour theme.

The card insert is flat ink printed as standard and the only pricing on their website starts at quantities of 100.  I am hoping that they are able to offer lesser quantities because there are not many couples who require this number of invitations for their wedding.  I have asked Christian Graffiti for clarification and hopefully they will post their comments on here shortly.  A raised print (thermography) or engraved text is also available for an additional cost.  You can request a free sample of this design from the Christian Graffiti website

The flower motif detail in this invitation is cleverly cut out of the cream top layer to reveal the chocolate brown card beneath.  It is this layered approach that defines many of the invitations in the ‘Papercut designs” collection from Sasson Invitations.  Browns and Greens are very popular at the moment and the combination of a moss green background with chocolate brown layered card and ink creates a very appealing ensemble.

What is not immediately obvious on the Sasson website is the option to have a different motif with this design.  Whilst the flower motif pictured above does suit the natural and earthy colours of this style very well many couples will wish to choose a different motif to personalise the card further.  I particularly like the two letter monogram motifs in the selection to the left which lets your guests know that your invitations are truly unique and have been created only for you.

Pricing for all Sasson invitations is very simple.  There are only three price bands of which this design is mid range and then pricing depends on the quantity required.  For 25 to 75 invitations the price is a very reasonable £3.85 each.  I am curious to discover that there is also a price band for under 25 invitations with no obvious restriction on minimum order quantity.  Something tells me that they are unlikely to personalise just one or two invitations for £4.20 each.

The ever popular Jasper design above has been a real winner for CCA Occasions when it was launched a couple of years ago as part of their new Xpressions collection.  Well in August this year the Xpressions album is relaunching and Jasper is getting a family of colourways with coordinating ribbons to expand the range.  Here is sneak glimpse of the new designs but we will keep you informed of stockists as soon as they are available. The pricing will be the same as the olive green Jasper design.

The new codes will be as follows :
Chocolate with Chocolate Ribbon – 8XP360
Chocolate with Cream Ribbon – 8XP370
Pink with White Ribbon – 8XP380
Pink with Pink Ribbon – 8XP390
White with White Ribbon – 8XP400
White with Black Ribbon – 8XP410
White with Silver Ribbon – 8XP420