With spring just around the corner, we are in love with all things pink right now! Pink is making a comeback in 2010, the new “it” color for the spring and summer wedding season. From blush pink to fuchsia, from shell to azalea, pink can be feminine and girly, but it can also be incredibly sophisticated and unsurpassed in elegance. All of our letterpress wedding invitations can be customized in the pink shade of your choice to set just the right tone for your event. Below, a few of our favorite pink invitation designs: Antoinette, Rangoli, Fleur de Lys, Somersby, Birds and Cameo.

Need a little more pink inspiration in your life? Check out these recent blog posts we loved:

- From Once Wed, pretty pink wedding ideas.

- On Elizabeth Anne Designs, a real wedding with a gorgeous pink wedding dress

- A beautiful Pink Sugar inspiration board on Snippet & Ink

- At Project Wedding, DIY gilded pink table numbers

- From Martha Stewart Weddings, cameo pink and black color palette inspiration

For more inspiration and to keep up to date on the latest trends in wedding invitations and stationery, sign up for our monthly newsletter.

One of our favorite recent trends in letterpress wedding invitations has been the increasing number of requests we’ve received to print RSVP information directly on the outer envelope flap. The envelope is letterpress printed with either a website address, email address or another means by which RSVPs are requested, without having to send guests a separate reply card. It’s a fabulous idea that is incredibly eco-chic because it saves so much paper, but it’s also budget-friendly, too! A couple cannot only reduce paper usage, but also save the money they would have spent if providing guests with a reply card and postage. Paired with lovely letterpress wedding invitations, it’s chic, streamlined and equally appropriate for a barefoot wedding on the beach or a black tie affair. We’re in love with these that we’ve recently printed and can’t wait to print more…

We get a lot of questions from brides who are interested in knowing about hot trends in the world of letterpress wedding invitations and what elements they can include to really let their personalities shine. In the first few months of 2009, we’ve printed some pretty fabulous letterpress invitations for creative couples mixing modern design with the old world tradition of letterpress and we absolutely love what they’re dreaming up. Here are some of the things we’re seeing a lot of these days, all of which you can use to inspire your own invitations…

Embellishments | Our Bella Figura clients are in love with adding a punch of personality to their invitations by opting for great embellishments. In particular, metallic envelope liners have been a favorite along with the personalized touch of beautiful hand calligraphy accents and edge painting has been notably more popular than ever. Some couples are opting for edge painting in elegant antique gold, a bit of a throwback to historic book gilding, while others are going for a bright pop of color, but either way, it’s absolutely gorgeous!

Bold Colors | Bright and bold color combinations are a growing trend with brides and grooms tending to be a bit more adventurous in their color selections. We’re printing a lot of fun cardinal and aquamarine, daffodil and deep aqua, forest and cloud nine, peacock and persimmon and similarly festive ink combinations.

Jewel Tones | Brides are in love with jewel tones this season with a lot ink choices revolving around colors such as peacock, cardinal, aubergine, and navy. We’ve seen them paired with neutrals, other jewel tones, metallics, and also used solo.

Green | Green has been increasingly popular as of late, particularly when paired with either a neutral, another shade of green or with navy. We’ve seen couples pairing greens of all shades with black, taupe, gray and a lot of garden and clover with navy.

Nautical Combinations | Whether it be a choice of navy and antique gold, navy and champagne or again, even navy with a fresh shade of green, nautical combinations are very popular and being used for a wide range of events from the extremely luxurious to the more casual preppy chic.

What letterpress invitation trends do you love? We can’t wait to see what the rest of 2009 brings for great personalization of gorgeous letterpress wedding invitations!

Deciding which pieces to include when deciding on your letterpress wedding invitations can be a bit confusing if you’re just starting to research so we thought it would be helpful to share some of the pieces we print most often and how you might use them. The great thing about all of these pieces is that you can pick and choose just those elements that are relevant to your event and fit comfortably within your budget, lending a lot of flexibility as you decide on your invitation suite.

{Save the Dates}
While not especially traditional, Save the Dates are becomingly increasing popular. Initially, Save the Dates {Cartoccio design featured above} were used almost exclusively for destination weddings, but we’re seeing a growing number of couples opting to send letterpress Save the Dates in advance of the wedding invitation to give guests a heads up on the upcoming event. Some simply list a date and location, while others might note a wedding website or specific venue. Usually couples send Save the Dates anywhere from six months to a year in advance, depending on the length of their engagement. Save the Dates are especially helpful when you are expecting a lot of out of town guests, but are by no means a requirement.

{Invitations}
Your invitation card {Mimosa is shown above} is arguably the most important element among all others and even despite the dawn of the e-card age, most couples still have a preference for traditional invitations, letterpress invitations being among the favorites. A general rule of thumb is that invitations include the date, time and location of the festivities and are sent to guests six to eight weeks in advance. Etiquette has long dictated the wording of invitations, although these days there is an increasing flexibility in how you word your invitation to guests. While we love printing traditional invitations, we also love to see how our brides and grooms get creative with language as they welcome guests to celebrate their union. With our wide range of letterpress invitation designs, there is truly something for every couple.

{Reception Cards}
Traditionally, reception cards {Deveril reception card above} were enclosed along with the main invitation and listed the time and place of the wedding reception only, while the invitation card itself was reserved exclusively for ceremony details. Reception information can easily be included on the bottom of the invitation, though some couples prefer to have a separate letterpress reception card if their reception is being held at a different location later in the evening, or if there are separate guest lists for each events. One great way to save money is to forgo the reception card, which is not only budget friendly, but also eco friendly too as it saves on paper. What’s not to love?

{Reply Cards/Postcards}
Reply cards {Lovebirds letterpress design above} as we know them are actually a modern custom, as traditionally invitations did not include RSVP information. Rather, it was customary for guests to reply with a hand written note on their own stationery. How sweet is that? While this particular practice is largely a thing of the past, we do see a number of couples printing requests for replies directly on the invitation and forgoing a reply card altogether, sometimes directing guests to a website or email address. Another common option is the choice of a letterpress reply postcard in lieu of a reply card with envelope. Again there are is a lot of flexibility with what information is included on a reply card and these days it might include not only the names and number of guests, but also meal selections and where the guests might be lodging for the weekend.

{Website Cards}
Website cards are another modern evolution in wedding stationery and are often just small cards printed with a website address providing information on events, accommodations, directions, local attractions, and miscellaneous information that might be useful to guests. While not a traditional element, letterpress website cards are very useful for spreading the word that you have a wedding website and that you’d like guests to visit. Some couples even opt to print extras so they can keep them on hand to give out when friends and family ask wedding-related questions. What a great idea!

{Directions/Accommodation Cards}
An increasing number of couples are opting to include direction and/or accommodations cards these days, especially as more couples plan destination or weekend-long events. We’re printing a growing number of directions cards and accommodations cards, sometimes one and the same, providing an abundance of really useful information for guests looking to make travel arrangements. It’s an extra element of hospitality that never goes overlooked by guests as anyone can appreciate not having to take extra time to research the best places to stay or how to get to the ceremony. It’s also possible to print directions on one side of a card and accommodation information on the other, even with letterpress, which is another great way to save money and save paper while still providing guests with great information.

{Tips for Deciding Which Pieces to Include}

- Determine the information that would be most useful to your guests given the details of your particular event and make that your focus

- Combine pieces where possible to help accommodate your budget

- Get creative! Don’t be afraid to include something totally unique or nontraditional, especially if you think it might be helpful for your guests

- Make it your own – letting your personalities shine through will always guarantee a beautiful letterpress invitation suite

We are always willing to answer questions and help you decide what invitation elements are perfect for you and your event. If you’re considering letterpress wedding invitations and wondering what pieces to include, let us know and we’re happy to help with ideas!

We’ve noticed a lot more clients choosing letterpress reply postcards over the traditional reply card + envelope for their wedding invitations. We’re all for this trend – it’s more eco (less paper!), and also helps keeps budgets down and keeps letterpress more affordable. Reply postcards cost less to letterpress, and you also save a little bit on the postage. We’ve also seen a huge movement to do 2 color letterpress designs as 1 color (see below for some examples) – a great way to keep your costs down as well while keeping letterpress in your budget. While reply postcards are slightly less formal than reply cards + envelopes, it’s still totally appropriate for even high black tie events. Remember, we’re talking about letterpress postcards on a luxurious cotton paper — they’re still really, really lovely, and we know all of your guests will have trouble parting with them!

Here are a few of our favorites, starting with the Boutique letterpress postcard.

The Champagne letterpress reply postcard — this is usually a two color design, but turning it into a 1 color piece helps keep costs down too.

The Vintage letterpress postcard.

The Deveril letterpress reply postcard.

The Somersby letterpress postcard – another 2 color design that looks lovely in one color.

Lastly, the Nonpareil! This is usually a two color design also.

Incorporating calligraphy into your letterpress wedding invitations strikes us as one of the season’s best wedding trends. Actually, calligraphy has been a popular design element for, oh, several hundred (or thousand?) years, but we’ve been seeing calligraphy a whole lot in our favorite wedding invitations this year. Though script fonts are great, nothing – absolutely nothing! – compares with hand lettered calligraphy, where every single letter is a totally unique work of art. Bella Figura’s calligrapher is the amazingly talented Debi Zeinert, who has been making our letterpress brides so happy for years now.

So for the next few posts, we’ll focus on some really gorgeous calligraphy invitations. Let’s start with this Nonpareil invitation – it’s honestly one of the prettiest things we have ever seen! And what an inspired customization too (check out the Nonpareil original invitation here). It’s true, we’re letter junkies over here, but check out the calligraphy accents: look at that A! The M! Just lovely. Clients can choose from about 10 different styles of calligraphy, but this style (the Clermont style) feels perfect: modern, elegant, with a little bit of cool. Also note that both the reply information AND reception information is on the invitation itself – it’s eco (less paper!) and keeps cost down too (no reply card/envelope/reception card to worry about!). Colors are black & fuchsia – so perfect!

We think it’s smart to do the thank you note and coaster in 1 color, to keep costs down. If you’re trying to save money, keep the 2 color design for the invitation, and do the rest of the pieces in 1 color.

Learn more about letterpress calligraphy designs at Bella Figura, or about having your envelopes addressed by our calligrapher as well.

To further celebrate the Somersby design, here is a letterpress save the date in super sweet colors: daffodil & pewter. These shades of yellow and gray just joyfully sing about all that is good in summer to us. We’ve been hearing a lot about the beauty of gray lately too and you know what? Everyone raving about that color is absolutely right. Gray is sophisticated, warm, and perfect for letterpress invitations right now.

Excuse us if we gush about the colors of this letterpress wedding invitation (in the Somersby invitation design) but — we are in love with these colors! The inks are perfect and stylish and sophsticated shades of pink: papaya & fuchsia that play off each other and interact in this lovely way. And check out the reply card – mainly papaya, but with a line of fuchsia (wow!). Monochrome colors will be a hot wedding trend for 2009, we’re predicting. You choose a color, then choose shades of those colors, and then everything looks perfect together. Monochrome colors offer a clean, eye-pleasing look, and make choosing flowers, decor, and even bridesmaid dresses easier (choose any shade of pink, for instance!). Monochrome letterpress wedding invitations are (trust us) also very, very pretty. Enjoy!

Here’s a sweet keepsake letterpress coaster that would fill any guest with joy. The design is from our Majorca letterpress wedding invitation suite. (see more photos of our letterpress coasters here)

The Deveril letterpress wedding invitation has been one of true loves ever since we first printed the sample — it’s a customer favorite too, and we love seeing how clients customize the design. For the next few days, we’ll highlight some cool variations of the classic Deveril invitation design. We’ll start with a really fun idea – printing each piece in an invitation suite using a different color ink – the invite in navy, the reply card in garden, the reception card in fuchsia. It’s such a great twist on the usual 1-color letterpress invitation — fun, festive, but still really elegant.