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Simple love and belly bands - how do you add names to a letterpress invitation?

Today I share a beautiful invitation designed by a gorgeous couple.

Once again, simple and elegant was the brief - and I must say, its also a tiny bit quirky!

This suite also demonstrates a neat work around for adding guests names to the invitation.

Which leads me to a common question:  How do you add names to a letterpress invitation?
Sometimes, only specific family members are invited to a wedding - Adults and not children for example or friends but not their plus one and other potential awkward situations. "Hi Aunty Carole, umm... it's just you and Uncle Harry that are invited to our wedding, not your 4 children and your 8 grand-children and 16 great-grand children... and no Bart the pony can not come - sorry...."

To letterpress individual names would be - well kind of out of the question - as you would have to have a plate made for each name = $$$, so to get around this, we suggest several things:

1. Don't worry about it, each envelope can be addressed with names eg 'To Mr & Mrs Smith' or 'To Rodney & Larissa MacDonald' or 'The Brice Family', even 'Adam and Partner' (or just Adam for that matter)
2. Leave a space on the invitation and have a calligrapher write in the names
3. Tie the invitation up with string and add a swing tag with guest's names
4. Use a belly band! (My personal fave)- A digitally printed belly band also keeps all items in the suite together and states specifically who is invited - Just so happens I have a great example of this below ;-) 

Don't forget to add a 'Name/s' line on your RSVP as well as number of guests, so that any red flags raised can be addressed prior to your event.

Another great idea for belly bands is to use them as place cards - wrap them about your menus and there you have it! (see last image)

 

A little Australian history lesson! Around the time my little press 'Mavis' was manufactured

A little history lesson!

'Mavis' my Golding Pearl Old Style #3 was manufactured in 1893, Boston, USA.  It was shipped to Sydney where it remained until I dragged her over to Perth. I thought it would be nice to research the events that were shaping Australia during the 1890's, when my little press would have been 'brand new' and in full operation!

'An Australian Native' By Tom Roberts, 1888

The 1890's

The British had only been colonised in Australia for just over 100 years!

1890
26 April - Banjo Patterson's The Man from Snowy River is published.
1891
5 January - The 1891 Australian shearers' strike begins, which leads to the formation of the Australian Labor Party.
1893
14 June - Gold discovered at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia by Paddy Hannan and two others.
1894
18 December - South Australia is the first colony to give women equal franchise with men. (See below)
1895
6 April - The song Waltzing Matilda is first performed at the North Gregory Hotel, Winton, Queensland.
 

The printing industry and its role in Australia's women's suffrage movement

Wouldn't it be awesome if my Golding Pearl (Mavis) was a press during the women's suffrage movement and it had a hand in printing 'The Dawn"? It's easy to imagine this elegant press (pictured left) being operated by suffragettes!

The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women was an early feminist journal published monthly in Sydney, Australia between 1888 and 1905.

In the first edition, Louisa Lawson, writing under the name of Dora Falconer, wrote:

"Every eccentricity of belief, and every variety of bias in mankind allies itself with a printing machine, and gets its singularities bruited about in type, but where is the printing-ink champion of mankind's better half? There has hitherto been no trumpet through which the concentrated voice of womankind could publish their grievances and their opinions ... Here then is Dawn, the Australian Woman's Journal and mouthpiece." —Dora Falconer, (Louisa Lawson) 15 May 1888 "The Dawn"

The whole journal was printed by an all female team of journalists, editors and printers. The unionists in the New South Wales Typographical Association, dis-allowed the Dawn printers membership into their all male union, in part because the women were paid substantially less than men. The association argued that the discrepancies in pay were such that men would be unable to compete, as well as arguing that the work was too dangerous for women to engage in. At one stage a member visited their offices to "harangue the staff" – only to be removed after having had a bucket of water thrown on them by Lawson. [http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/The_Dawn_%28feminist_magazine%29]

'The Dawn' January 1895

Wedding invitation digital plus letterpress - 'Off the rack' range

I designed these Letterpress invitations to be suitable for wedding, engagement, or save the date invitations even a special birthday! The product is an 'off the rack' item, meaning while it will be letterpress printed with your details, the image and style of text is left as standard to keep the costs down. There is no design or set up cost as it is template based.

The invitations are available as C6 (medium) or large 125x175mm (Large invitation size)

There are 4 different designs in the range. The digital top portion features
1. Australian eucalyptus leaves or gum leaves from a variety of Australian native flora.
2. Tropical palm leaves
3. Colorful peonies - a pretty peony bouquet
4. Elegant soft pink roses

You can purchase a Molly and Charlie SAMPLE over in our ETSY shop which allows you to see and feel the quality in real life. ROSE sample, GUM LEAF sample, PEONY sample, PALM sample.

The text below can be customized to say anything you like and is printed letterpress.
STOP PRESS - NEW ADDITION! - Also available as all digital (no letterpress)  for a super cost effective invitation!

SPECIFICATIONS: (Medium)
SIZE: A6 - 105x148mm
300gsm
100% cotton rag paper
Full colour - top illustration
1 colour - Letterpress text
1 sided

SPECIFICATIONS: (Large invitation size)
SIZE: 125x175mm
300gsm
100% cotton rag paper
Full colour - top illustration
1 colour - Letterpress text
1 sided

Samples are available for purchase in my ETSY shop HERE

Black and white letterpress wedding invitation suite

Simple and elegant are usually the 2 most common requests I get for an invitation suite. This elegant invitation definitely ticks all of the boxes. For this invitation and more, visit our GALLERY.

SPECIFICATIONS:
Invitation:
Size: C6 Insert
Paper: Gmund 100%cotton
Envelope: black with black and white rose liner

Wedding Etiquette - Who's name goes first?

I often get asked: 'On the wedding invitation, whose name goes first?'

Well, while anything goes and any which way is acceptable these days, it' s more commonplace for the bride's name to be first - it's the 'ladies first' premise.

Also, traditionally, the bride's family are the official hosts of the wedding and therefore they are inviting the guests along with the groom.

Another interesting point is when you address a married couple formally, the husband's name is always next to the surname ie Sarah and Jim Jones.

But, unless someone in your family or wedding party feels strongly about how an invitation should be worded, it's really up to you and your personal taste :-)

There are may websites that offer templates and formatted text for you to use an of course our invitation gallery offers a selection of wording styles and formats too!

Marble and Geo Letterpress invitation suite

This invitation suite was experimental. An excercise in registration and in combining a digital print with letterpress. The angles of the lines had to fit perfectly within the spaces on the digital print - a big ask when each card is manually fed into a 100yo machine! Never the less, it worked and I love it!  It was produced for the Perth Wedding Upmarket in May earlier this year purely for me. To push the boundaries of the letterpress craft and modern design and to challenge myself.

I will be exhibiting at the next Wedding Upmarket:

When: Saturday 29th August 2015
Time: 10am to 3pm
Where: University of Western Australia’s Winthrop Hall Undercroft
Entry: Free

 

SPECIFICATIONS

Invitation - 150x150mm, Digitally printed onto Crane's fl White, Post letterpress in gold ink.