Bella Figura calligrapher Debi Zeinert shared this close up look at her amazing work, a video that features her various calligraphy styles. Her elegant calligraphy can be found in her wedding invitation designs, and her calligraphy accents can also be found in other popular Bella designs (such as Loretta Formal and Calligraphy Monogram). In addition to beautiful, hand-calligraphed letterpress stationery and invitations through Bella Figura, Debi is also available for calligraphy addressing through her business, The Blooming Quill. Your envelopes, escort cards, and other wedding day stationery pieces can all be hand-done to match your letterpress printed suite! Check out this video to see Debi in action, and for more details on working with her, visit her website.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve found ourselves completely blown away by the thoughtfulness and generous spirits of the couples we’re honored to call Bella Figura brides and grooms.  We think it’s so cool when a couple opts to forgo the traditional guest favors and instead makes a donation to a worthy nonprofit. To encourage this large-hearted trend, in early 2011 we started offering free letterpress favor cards to those couples making a donation to nonprofit organization doing good for the world. Here are just a handful of the many favor cards we’ve printed for couples worldwide this year…

Our Deveril design; donation benefiting The Humane Society of the United States.

Our Tara design; donation benefiting Clean Ocean Action.

Our Nautilus design; donation benefiting the Reproductive and Child Health Alliance in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Our Florian Script design; donation benefiting CHU St-Justine. From the couple, “The CHU St-Justine is a well renowned children’s hospital in Montreal and our donation will be given toward funding R&D activities. We both believe that children should be allowed to enjoy their young lives and play outside with their friends rather to be stuck in a hospital room. We hope that our donation will help the team of doctors find a cure to many of today’s illnesses that primarily attack young children.”

Our Deveril design; donation benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

Our Erte Beach design; donation benefiting the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Our Keswick design; donation benefiting the Rochester chapter of CASA – Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children. From the bride, Rachel -  “CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children. CASA volunteers are “appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system…Volunteers stay with each case until it is closed and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home”. We wanted to donate to CASA for many reasons. Firstly, I am a CASA volunteer. I’m passionate about child advocacy and will be starting law school this fall. Also, Rochester’s CASA chapter has recently suffered massive budget cuts. What better than to give to an organization that helps children find home as we begin our home.”

Our Modern Calligraphy design; donation benefiting the Autism Society of Wisconsin.

Pretty impressive stuff, right? Want to get in on the action? Here’s the small print: the free favor cards must be printed with a minimum $500 order; our favor cards are place card sized; cards are letterpress printed in the design and ink colors from your order; we’ll match your highest quantity—for instance, if you order 200 invitations, we’ll offer 200 free favor cards. We’ll also extend our many thanks for inspiring us.

While we love bold, modern designs, sometimes it’s the simplest of letterpress wedding invitations that are the most elegant. Take this version of our Modern Calligraphy design for example. It’s printed in espresso on our ivory paper with coordinating espresso edge painting and an espresso envelope liner for a look that is incredibly chic and timeless.

If our array of calligraphy letterpress wedding invitations didn’t tip you off, we’re big time calligraphy fans around here. There is just something so pretty about hand lettered calligraphy when it’s letterpress printed on our cotton paper. In this case, it’s our Modern Calligraphy design printed in navy ink and paired with an envelope boasting a cheerful fuchsia liner. It’s the perfect blend of traditional and modern elements, yet so simple and sophisticated. We just can’t get enough.