made with love paperie and design studio

Jacqueline + Jason

Jacqui and Jason came to me earlier this year for their May 16, 2009 wedding. They wanted something modern for their invitation and Jacqui absolutely love letterpress! At the time, I was looking into printing on fabric bags and have been researching on various fabric bags. I casually mentioned the idea of possibly having a fabric bag to enclose the multiple wedding pieces they have and Jason loved that idea! The entire design process was very inspiring and in the end, I decided to use some of the designs I came up with for their invitation set for my wedding line!

The invitation, reception/rsvp card, wedding entourage, and accommodations+direction set were bound together by a pink sheer fabric sashe and brown ribbon. Everything was put into the printed fabric bag. Initially, we were going to mail it out in transparent envelope but because of postal regulations where with the addition of the visible fabric bag, the post office said they would have to count the envelope as parcel instead of envelopes. The postage rate difference would have been $.50 more per envelope! We decided to put the fabric bag inside a white envelope instead. It's a nice surprise for the guests to open up the envelope :)

The entire wedding set includes the invitation set, thank you cards, place cards, table no. cards, favor belly band, circular enclosure sticker, menu, cocktail menu, candy buffet menu, and of course, the program! Besides the wedding invitation set, everything else were flat or digitally printed.

Congratulations Jacqueline and Jason!

Noelle + Yosef

Noelle and Yosef came to me early last year for their May 23, 2009 wedding. They were very prepared in terms of what they were looking for: pattern (damask), brown, and Tiffany blue. Because they had envisioned layers in their invitation set, they decided to start early because of all the assembling that will need to go into each piece of the invitation. The opal invitation paper is glued onto the Tiffany Blue card stock and all of that is glued onto the brown enclosure--that's just the invitation! Imagine doing that for the rsvp, directions+accommodations, reception, and wedding entourage cards! In the end, we loved the turn out for the invitation set. Noelle later came back to me to complete their wedding look with: rehearsal dinner cards, stamp design that goes onto the invitation envelopes, thank you cards, menu, and program! I don't have pictures for all the pieces (again, very slow in my documentation process...) but I absolutely love how everything turned out!

Congratulations Noelle + Yosef!

Cynthia + Stavros

Cynthia came to me a week before Christmas asking me to custom design her February 2009 wedding invitation. At first, I thought she meant 2010, but quickly, I realized she was not wrong and her wedding was indeed in two months! It was a rush job especially with Christmas and New Years, it was very hard to figure out which printer is open during the holidays. Luckily, my trusted letterpress printer was open over the holidays and we were able to get all her invitation materials printed! The place cards, thank you note, menu and program were flat printed since we had a little more time on those pieces. I just got around to taking pictures for this project (very behind on documentation...)

The reception was at the Adler Planetarium so we were inspired by the cityscape.

Paper, Oh Paper

Made with Love works with different types of paper for announcements and is constantly searching for different types of paper to test on the letterpress.

One of Amanda's favorite paper to print on is Crane Lettra. It's 100% cotton. Some might even say it's environmentally friendly as it requires 0% trees! The feel of Crane Lettra is exquisite. So lovely that when Amanda's husband handed out his personal card, printed on Crane Lettra, to a friend, the first thing he asked was "whoa, this feels really nice, what is this?" Lettra takes the ink very well and the colors comes out crisp.

Another paper choice that Made with Love likes to work with is Stardream or Curious Metallic papers. They make the ink that sits on the paper look sparkly as well!

One of Made with Love's current experimentations is printing on wood veneer. Amanda is looking into sustainable wood and bamboo choices for her invitation lines.

MWL Printing Methods

One of the most important decisions made for your wedding invitation is the printing method. Made with Love uses the following printing methods for all their announcements: Letterpress or Offset (Flat) Printing.

Letterpress is one of the oldest methods of printing (think Gutenberg's-bible-old). Traditionally, printers produced letterpress prints by using cast metal type or plates. Now, the printers can produce polymer plates with raised images and allow the ink to touch only the raised area. The inked image is then pressed onto the paper. This creates a debossed textural feel to the page. Our letterpressed work is printed entirely by hand on an antique press; subtle variations in ink coverage, impression, and color are normal and makes each piece unique in its own right. These small variations in your wedding piece are what makes letterpress so beautiful.

Offset (Flat) Printing is one of the less expensive ways to print your wedding set. It is when the ink appears to lay flat on top of the paper. The process involves a metal plate being made from the design and the plate being put on the press. The image on the plate is then transferred onto the paper. The advantage of offset printing is the accuracy in printing PMS (Pantone Matching System) colors.