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

8XP000 Butterfly Invitation Detail

The other element that is quite unique for this design is the beautiful textured coral insert.  It matches the front of the design perfectly and has a butterfly print that whisps across both sides of the insert.  It looks stunning when printed in deep pink ink (included as standard in the personalisation).  We thought it was so important to show this detail so we added the two shots in this blog post to our website as supplementary images to the day invitation picture.  No amount of photographic detail can take away from the look and feel of a posted sample which is why we provide them for free at Olivia Samuel but it can help a customer when narrowing down their choice of design. 

We recently imported this design from old website to our new site and we also copied over the reviews from previous customers who had ordered it.  Not one reviewer gave the design less than 5 out of 5 stars.  Its a winner in our view too but that is not say we don’t have any other excellent butterfly wedding invitations on show.  We are in the process of setting up a themes section on our site.  The butterfly wedding invitation theme is the first to be categorised and you won’t fail to spot the new Pure Butterfly design from Chapter One or indeed the Butterfly Style design from The Letter Press of Cirencester, both of which will feature on this blog very soon.

8XP000 Butterflies Unique Insert

The nearlyweds - Not a 70's sitcom but a funky range of Invitations

I have to be honest, I have never been much in favour of vector art graphics for wedding stationery. I often see the bold lines and shapes of vector art on free image stock websites for which looks like as though they have been drawn up by a student in their first week of graphic design class. With wedding stationery I often find this style from print shops because they realise that you can easily scale a vector graphic from a Place Card to an Order of Service without losing quality.

Anyway, after that moany start, I will continue by saying that The Nearlyweds do not fall into the dodgy vector art category and are a shining example of what can be achieved with computer aided design. Their vector art is some of the most original I have seen and perfect for the bride looking for some chic, funky wedding stationery.

At first I thought the printers at The Nearlyweds were trying to conserve their materials costs by limiting the ink pallette to pink, white and black. Pink is all you see see when you visit their funky web site. What you might not realise until you delve a little deeper is that all the designs are available in different colourways which is a welcome sight. Some of their designs are a little too cutesy for my liking and remind me of the Bubblegum brand of stationery that Collisons have recently (and thankfully) discontinued, but the bold shapes and style of their butterfly and floral designs work very well. Best of all is that all designs have the added bonus of allowing the bride and grooms names to be printed on the front to make your design set truly unique.

Free samples are available from The Nearlyweds however it does not look as though you can specify exactly which sample you get. I think that their reasoning behind this is that because card stock and print quality is probably the same across all designs then individual samples are not necessary.

Sophisticated stationery for a Wedding Abroad from Sweet Graphics. Paddington Bear would have approved I feel.

We have found it…. a set of wedding stationery for an overseas wedding that does’nt have a single cartoon aeroplane or tropical island on the front. This ensemble of stationery from Sweet Graphics is subtle, chic and beautifully coordinated.  The name of the range is Journey and the invitation shown above is printed on a champagne irridiscent 400gsm card stock.  One side shows a passport stamp design and the other side a chic suitcase design in champagne and ivory.  It is the extra touches that bring this design to life and the continuation of the passport stamps on the envelope means that your guests will be opening your invitation in anticipation.  Unlike many other wedding abroad designs this set adds romance to the wedding celebration and does’nt looks like you are wrapping your nuptials up in a bargain break package holiday.  

You can get a matching invite, reply card and personalised envelope for £4.00 which I think is a great price and if you wish to continue the coordination there is an information card, save the date, menu, place card, thank you and seating plan in the same set.

And just to whet your appetite as to some of the goodies in store here are a selection of my fave Oh So Cherished Guest books.

It is unusual for wedding suppliers to discount so heavily at this time of year because with wedding stationery especially it is peak season as many brides will be looking to get their invitations in the post for Spring and Summer weddings.  The Cardlab offer is only open until 23rd Jan so you need to move quick.

These shocking pink Hen invitations are fun and daring and the Stag invites are more subtle in black and, in my opinion are all the more sinister.  Perfect!  Both actually have a choice of silver or black ink for the front hen or stag motif and the preprinted name, place, location and RSVP text inside but I think the choices pictured above work best.

The Doo – Gerbera Set
A funky Cerise Pink version – I like the intentional soft focus (or more specific out of focus) effect on some of the text and particularly the flower itself. It creates the illusion of depth to the card.  

Comet and Cupid – Pink Gerbera
The matching cerise organza ribbon adds a soft touch this striking pink Gerbera range of wedding stationery.  Comet and Cupid have added just about every coordinating item under the sun in this collection but I am not sure I would choose the whole lot – your guests may get a bit dizzy by the end of the day.

Millbank and Kent - Pink Gerbera
We are moving away from the bright cerise shades now towards a more traditional pink.  ‘Traditional’ is perhaps the wrong word here because the style is still very much contemporary.  This self titled design is from the Millbank and Kent ‘Fresh Blooms’ range which reads a bit like a botanical encyclopedia because as well as Gerberas you will find just about every other conceivable type of wedding flower you can think of (and a few you have probably never heard of)

Cammar Designs – Santa Monica
Now I am cheating a bit with this one.  Cammar designs actually decribe this flower as a Raffia Daisy.  I guess they are right but I thought it was a Gerbera at first sight and unless you are inviting Alan Titchmarsh to your wedding I dont think any of your guests will argue with you.

The Handcrafted Card Company - Guild Gerbera
It would be unfair to say I have left the best to last.  This one just happens to be my favourite from those I have featured.  I guess I am not quite brave enough to go ‘full on’ contemporary.  I think this design strikes the perfect balance between traditional and contemporary.  Also, you know you are in safe sands for the matching Table Plan too, as I featured this company before and was particularly impressed with the finish on what is all too often the ‘let down item’ in many a stationers portfolio

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 !

For a completely eclectic range of wedding stationery, many with a  real retro feel like this one, check out Bijou Woo.  As you can tell from the company name, they don’t do dull or ordinary.  This 50′s Retro range combines sweet pink polka dots around the border with a tattoo style heart in the bottom right corner and costs £135 for 30 invitations.  If you are looking for something different yet want to save money, they have a collection of 3 designs that are sold in packs of 20 for £25 that are pre-printed (like party invitations) so you fill in the details on the dotted line.  Just be careful when filling in pre-printed invitations that you put all the correct details in, when you have filled out 48 invitations it is easy to write the wrong time or date (like your birthday) and have Great Aunt Ida turning up at the wrong time!

Dreamy heart clouds with your names printed in them sit on floral and spiral designed card to give a pretty and romantic wedding invitation from Pink Tulip.  The fully coordinated stationery is shown in six colours on their website, but if you have a specific colour you would like your stationery, then for a £10 charge you can send them a swatch and they will match it for you.  The pricing is split into quantity bands with the cost for 50-74 cards being £2.50 each for the wedding invitations which includes a white envelope.  Table plans are very reasonably priced at £18, so if your looking for unique and contemporary wedding stationery that can be tailored to your liking, have a look at their website.