We love sharing photos of the real weddings and letterpress invitations that our fabulous Bella brides send us, but we especially love when we get to feature the wedding of someone we know personally! For today’s real wedding, we worked with Lin Logan of The Stationery Company in Denver and her daughter Jennifer for Jennifer’s letterpress wedding invitations, and we are so thrilled to share details from the big day! Jennifer chose our elegant Jolie design for her October celebration, and we letterpress printed her wedding invitations in pewter and champagne inks. Spencerian hand calligraphy accents by Debi Zeinert added a gorgeous touch of elegance to the sophisticated set, which included a festive reception card and a handy info card that let guests know about accommodations, transportation, and the couple’s wedding website. We are completely smitten with this gorgeous fall wedding — read on to learn about the inspiration behind this fabulous event!

Can you share with us a bit about your wedding and your inspiration for the event?

Our absolute favorite time of year is the fall, so John and I decided that we definitely wanted a fall wedding. With so many of our friends’ weddings taking place in the summer months, we felt like having it at this time of year would allow us to really be creative and different and also give our guests an evening they would never forget during a time when life seems to move at a bit slower pace.  That really served as our inspiration for the entire event. We wanted to find a venue that truly showcased the beautiful fall colors of Colorado while also conveying a sense of casual-elegance that would make everyone feel right at home. When we came across Crooked Willow Farm, we felt no other venue could have captured all of these things more perfectly…so with that decision crossed off the list, we then began planning the wedding of our dreams in a Big Red Barn in beautiful Larkspur, Colorado. What could be more “Fall” than that?

How did you choose your invitation design & ink colors?

I think that when most of us think of fall, we think of the traditional fall color palette of reds, oranges and yellows. Once again, trying to think a bit more out of the box, we came up with the color palette of charcoal gray and butter yellow.  We felt the palette was warm and inviting and best of all, DIFFERENT! Choosing letterpress on luxurious cotton paper by Bella Figura only enhanced our vision, and they worked with us on such a personal yet effortless level that I felt no stress with regard to the invitations.  Our initial vision for the invitation was achieved.  When dreaming about how this palette would be reflected in all aspects of our wedding…from the bridesmaid dresses, the flowers and of course, the invitations, we were sold on it immediately. From there we watched all the details unfold so beautifully in sticking with this color theme. We wouldn’t have changed a thing.

What surprised you most about your wedding?

What surprised us most was how quickly the day went. We wanted to hang on every moment of the day as long as we could but all in all, each moment passed along to the next so much faster than we anticipated. What also surprised me was how nervous I felt moments before I walked down the isle. And furthermore, I was also surprised by the immediate calm I felt just moments later as I saw John for the first time and was walking down the isle with our eyes locked on one another. Read the rest of this entry »

We absolutely love it when a Bella Figura couple sends us their wedding pictures featuring their letterpress wedding invitations. Today we have the privilege to show you a Real (local) Wedding from Syracuse! Christian and Giovanna chose our sophisticated Pavilion (by Amy Graham Stigler) design in Espresso and Dusty Pink inks on our 1-ply ivory paper. They carried the floral theme all the way through with delicate hand painted porcelain vessels wedding favors.

Hendricks Chapel was the perfect location to exchange rings and vows. Giovanna’s family traveled from Italy to witness their love.

These striking photos were taken at Syracuse University – one of the many gorgeous locations in our lovely city.

Read the rest of this entry »

This past winter we shared a fabulous behind the scenes look at our print shop with you, as filmed and edited by the incredibly talented Luke Walker of Clark + Walker Studio. When it came time to find a great videographer to film my own wedding, I immediately emailed Luke as he’s become a good friend in recent months. We recently had the chance to see our video trailer and were completely blown away. It’s so exciting for me to share it here with you today…and keep your eye out for a shot of our Bella Figura letterpress invitations, too!

The opportunity for us to work with brides all the time is nothing short of joyful, but the opportunity to be a bride who works at Bella Figura? Absolutely incredible. As I’ve been planning my own wedding, it has been a sincere and immeasurable pleasure to interact with the wonderful brides we’ve printed letterpress invitations for and I’ve found myself completely immersed in beautiful letterpress wedding invitations every day. Hearing their stories, seeing their wedding photos, sharing in a bit of their sheer bliss, has been a remarkable way to prepare for my own wedding, which is taking place this weekend! Knowing how helpful and wonderful it has been for me to take a glimpse into the planning and happiness of other brides, I thought it seemed only appropriate to take this week to share a bit of my own wedding and my own inspriation.

Milk glass vases were something I knew I wanted to incorporate from the beginning.
{Photo by Punam Bean}

To kick it all off, I wanted to share this inspiration board I created several months ago now. It was by far not the first one I created, nor was it the last, but it’s definitely the collective inspiration that got me headed in the direction of how our wedding will unfold. I knew I wanted an event that was both classically elegant and incredibly fun – a little bit vintage, a little bit modern and a whole lot spectacular. Early on the color palette developed into a sophisticated array of neutrals with smudges of my favorite blue hues appearing in little whispers here and there. Attention to detail has been a priority from the beginning, including our letterpress wedding invitations I’ll share later in the week, and all of the other little elements I’ve been crafting over the past many months. Sticking to things that were beautiful, vintage, and handmade has been the running thread that has helped to bring everything together. I can’t wait to see how my vision plays out and to share photos soon.

For now, here is the inspiration board that has led the way…