A while back we featured the gorgeous Tara letterpress invitations that we printed for Joy and Doug’s chic New York City wedding. Today it’s an absolute pleasure to share their beautiful and glamorous celebration! Inspired by the 1930s, the bride wore a stunning vintage Eavis & Brown wedding dress and carried fun personalized details throughout the day. Complete with dancing in the streets of Manhattan, this wedding is a festive celebration of love and a lifetime of memories to come. Many thanks to Joy and Doug for letting us share their beautiful wedding with you and congratulations from all of us here at Bella Figura!

{Photo by Bella Figura.}

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Located in beautiful Toronto, Paper & Poste is a unique invitation and custom design studio specializing in letterpress invitations and creative stationery design. We are honored to call them Bella Figura retailers! For veteran paper geeks Heather Sauer and Beckee McCann, it has always been about the paper. At their other gig at The Paper Place, an innocent conversation about offering custom design planted a seed. That seed took root and grew into Paper & Poste, a private by appointment studio where they combine innovative design with a love of tradition.

Having assisted customers for years in all aspects of designing their own stationery, they found one thing was universal – the desire for something unique. Together they put together a collection of the most beautiful and memorable stationery available. Outside of work, they moonlight as a crochet enthusiast (Heather) and as a designer for her boyfriend’s metal band (Beckee). Find them at Paper & Poste.

Over the next few weeks our esteemed lead client coordinator Tiffany is going to be sharing wedding inspiration from the movies. Today, an unexpected source of absolutely beautiful wedding colors – Jaws!

One of the very few movies I cannot pass by if it’s on television – I will drop everything and watch it in it’s entirety. This color palette is sophisticated and ocean-like, proving inspiration can come from unexpected places!

{Photo from The Independent.}

These custom, art deco inspired letterpress invitations were designed by the bride, Brenna, who paid us the great pleasure of working with her on printing her wedding invitations. We printed them at a custom size so Brenna could then adhere them to a black backer, paired perfectly with black lined envelopes. They were printed in black on our ivory cotton paper. Check out Brenna’s blog Bomb’s Away for more of her super cool style.

{Photos by Bomb’s Away.}

We love this bold and modern customization of our Lush letterpress invitations. They were printed in daffodil and charcoal inks and paired with a bright colorful liner in our simple geometric pattern in garden. We love seeing how a design can be transformed with color and this is a perfect example!

This stunning customization of our Jolie letterpress invitations was printed in navy ink and blind deboss for an incredibly elegant and sophisticated look. Printed on our luxurious 2-ply cotton paper, it takes on a dramatic feel and the horizontal orientation adds an extra chic touch to this design.

It’s a great pleasure to welcome Lanie List, proprietress of Lovely Bridal, as guest contributor to our blog today! Lovely is a one of a kind bridal boutique located in New York City’s West Village neighborhood, offering an exclusive collection of bridal designs from a carefully curated group of independent (and highly talented) designers. Today Lanie is sharing a bit of wedding style inspiration, pairing fabulous dresses (all available at Lovely) with coordinating letterpress invitations. We love the idea of allowing your dress to set the tone for your celebration, be it short or long, formal or casual. Here are Lanie’s picks…

“Nicole Miller is a New Yorker through and through (even her gowns are made in NYC), which is reflected in her sleek and chic styling. This long and lean dress is sophisticated and modern, just like the skyline in the Charmed New York letterpress invitations.”

“Anne Barge designs classic and modern gowns, with clean lines that pair perfectly with Harbor Beach. We can already envision a beautiful Nantucket wedding, where the bride can gracefully slip a seashell in her pocket of this La Fleur dress as a memento of her wedding day at the beach!”

“David Fielden, a new designer at Lovely, creates gowns fit for a Hollywood starlet in a vintage film. The peacock motif always harkens back to the extravagant parties of the roaring 20s, and would fit perfectly for a vintage glam wedding. Even the detail in the peacock feathers on the Peacock Full letterpress suite has the same beautiful texture that the lace in this gown creates on the bride.”

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Over the next few weeks our esteemed lead client coordinator Tiffany is going to be sharing wedding inspiration from the movies. Today, a childhood favorite of many – Sound of Music!

Any film that can make you feel like a child 30 years after seeing it for the first time is pure magic. This photo gives me chills, as much for the utterly gorgeous colors as for the utterly gorgeous Captain Von Trapp. The perfect Sound of Music wedding color palette is soft and elegant in shades of taupe, antique gold, french vanilla, celadon, and sea mist.

{Photo from Cinema Blend.}

This customization of our Majorca letterpress invitations feels particularly regal printed in this sophisticated color combination of antique gold and wine. The design was adapted to a horizontal orientation and paired with pretty script for an elegant feel.

An ultra sophisticated customization of our Tasha letterpress wedding invitations, this customization is printed in classic black ink on our ivory paper. The look is elegant and timeless, and perfect for a formal wedding with super chic style.

Located in the beautiful coastal town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Gus & Ruby Letterpress is another all-star stationery store we’re proud to call a Bella Figura retailer. Their shop specializes in artisan letterpress stationery, gifts and paper goods, with a focus on small, independent brands. Named after their super adorable dogs, Gus & Ruby is owned by friends Samantha and Whitney, a third generation letterpress printer. These ladies are a wealth of knowledge, ideas and keen design sense. If you’re in the Portsmouth area stop by to say hello!

Q & A with Sam and Whitney of Gus & Ruby Letterpress

What’s your favorite thing to do in your town?
An ideal Portsmouth day would include a trip to the farmer’s market, a puppy playdate for Gus and Ruby at the dog park, lunch on the decks and then some delicious ice cream from Annabelle’s.

What’s your favorite past time or hobby outside of work?
We both love to cook, bake and watch reality TV. What can we say? We have high-brow stationery sense and low-brow entertainment preferences! Whitney is a multi-sport athlete (tennis, field hockey and ski racing) so she enjoys some good competition and Samantha is an equestrian and spends her free time at the stable.

Can you share a recent favorite read or find?
We both share books back and forth all the time. Recently, we both read and loved Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.

An interest, hobby, or something you’re passionate about:
Our mutual passion is definitely our dogs, Gus and Ruby. They are our muses and our furry babies.

Five things you couldn’t live without:
Gus & Ruby (we’re counting them as 1)
Our moms (who each work for us 1 day a week)
Liz (our rockstar employee)
Flatbread Pizza
Glee

Around these parts, we can’t get enough of super cool save the dates. Add in great typography and these letterpress save the dates in our Lumos design are a crowd favorite around the studio. We printed them in a classic color combination of antique gold and black, paired with metallic gold edge painting for a look that is modern Art Deco-inspired and incredibly chic.