DIY Save the Dates are done! (pics)

[newbie124]

YAY! We finally finished the Save the Dates and hotel inserts (and our Thank You notecards)!

My sister created the design, and my friend and I letterpressed them ourselves over the weekend. I went to UPS over lunch and started hand cutting them w/ a manual paper cutter since I don''t really trust Kinko''s. I was there for over an hour and only finished cutting 9 sheets! You could definitely say these were a LABOR of love...

Hopefully I can finish cutting the rest over this week so they''ll be ready to mail off on Monday. I''m so excited!!

 

[blondie23]

LOVE LOVE LOVE them. I too hand cut everything because I didn''t trust kinkos but I did have kinkos print them!

Looks fabulous! great job!

 

[v!v!]

those are very, very pretty! nice job. i absolutely love them!

 

[newbie124]

Thanks, blondie and v!v! I didn''t initially think I''d be able to DIY the wedding stationery but am so glad we decided to.

Here are a few more!

 

[newbie124]

A close up where you can kind of see the indentation

 

[newbie124]

And here are the custom stamps we''re going to use--it''s a picture of our two furballs

 

[lindsaylove]

I love these... so beautiful! You did a great job! Love the yellow.

 

[shop_girl]

Newbie,

Very nice! Love the personalized touch with the stamps!
Where are they from?

What are your wedding colors? I am thinking about doing chartruse yellow, but thought it might be too trendy. Mines next summer.

 

[shop_girl]

silly me- just read that you created them...
you did the letter press yourself- please explain what this entails. was it hard.....might be something i should look into
they look very professional

 

[newbie124]

Date: 7/21/2008 5:54:06 PM
Author: shop_girl
Newbie,

Very nice! Love the personalized touch with the stamps!

Where are they from?

What are your wedding colors? I am thinking about doing chartruse yellow, but thought it might be too trendy. Mines next summer.

Thanks, shop_girl! The stamps are from zazzle.com. I did some comparison shopping and their prices were slightly cheaper than other companies. I also googled around and found some free shipping coupon codes.

Our wedding colors are going to be primarily yellows and cream. Maybe with a hint of brown/antique gold. I wanted something very wine country-inspired for the save the dates to set the tone. The invitations, though, may be a little different. Haven't gotten around to designing those yet

 

[newbie124]

Date: 7/21/2008 5:57:17 PM
Author: shop_girl
silly me- just read that you created them...

you did the letter press yourself- please explain what this entails. was it hard.....might be something i should look into

they look very professional

No prob. I actually thought you were asking about the stamps

Well, my friend actually took a how-to class at this studio that owns these old-fashioned letterpresses. After you take a course, they let you come in and rent the press. Nearly everything was hand done...

I''m not sure if this is the exact process on all cases, but it starts out w/ the design files, which are laid out and sent to be created into film (outside company does this). Then you take the film negative and create the "plates" that are used to press the design into the paper. That was all done by others before we came in to press, so I didn''t see that process.

At the studio, we decide on our colors, mix the ink ourselves, then ink the press, stick the design plate on and then, using the machine, roll the paper over the plate to get the impression. Also, for each color in the design, you have to create a separate plate and ink the press separately. It''s not hard, but it is a lot of manual labor, which I can see is why letterpress stationery can be so expensive.

I can see how this could easily become addictive once you get the hang of it. My friend is actually considering creating custom stationery suites as gifts for her BMs, which I think would be an awesome gift. Big time commitment, though!

 

[Gypsy]

Oh they are SUPER lovely! I love them! I AM JEALOUS OFD YOUR STAMPS. Okay, there I admitted it. Pea green with envy. Maybe I'll do them for the Thank you cards since I mailed the invites out this weekend.

Newb... did you decide on a florist?


ETA: I've got some yellow flowers and inspiration pics saved up BTW. Let me know if you need anything, I seem to recall we've already done some brainstorming for you (I LOVE YELLOW for weddings!).

 

[CJ2008]

I love the yellow! They look GREAT.

And I love, love, love the stamps! What are the names of the little furballs?

 

[Sha]

Very nice! Love the colour.

 

[newbie124]

Date: 7/21/2008 6:42:52 PM
Author: Gypsy
Oh they are SUPER lovely! I love them! I AM JEALOUS OFD YOUR STAMPS. Okay, there I admitted it. Pea green with envy. Maybe I''ll do them for the Thank you cards since I mailed the invites out this weekend.

Newb... did you decide on a florist?

ETA: I''ve got some yellow flowers and inspiration pics saved up BTW. Let me know if you need anything, I seem to recall we''ve already done some brainstorming for you (I LOVE YELLOW for weddings!).

Thanks, Gypsy! Yeah, the custom stamps are fun It would cost too much to also do them for the invites (I''ll probably just find a pretty stamp at the post office), but I at least wanted to use them for the save the dates.

We haven''t decided on the florist since we haven''t made our trip out to CA yet (end of next month!) So far none of them have emailed to say they got booked by someone else for the same day, so I have my fingers crossed. I did just get an email today from Katherine about her new website! MUCH better than the old one, I must say

If you have some more yellow photos to share, I''d love to see! I''m planning to collect as much as I can and then print all of them out at work to bring with us to the vendor meetings...so the more I see the better!

 

[newbie124]

Date: 7/21/2008 6:47:13 PM
Author: claudinam
I love the yellow! They look GREAT.

And I love, love, love the stamps! What are the names of the little furballs?

Hee hee...the furballs would be Annie and Sebastian (Annie''s the little grey tabbie and Sebastian''s the big orange one

 

[CJ2008]

Annie & Sebastian! How cute! So Annie''s the one staring at me through the avatar?

I have an orange cat too. Everyone always tells me orange cats are very affectionate (which mine is). Do you find that to be the case with Sebastian?

 

[zoebartlett]

I LOVE them! They look beautiful, and I love the color you''ve chosen.

 

[newbie124]

Date: 7/21/2008 7:10:07 PM
Author: claudinam
Annie & Sebastian! How cute! So Annie''s the one staring at me through the avatar?

I have an orange cat too. Everyone always tells me orange cats are very affectionate (which mine is). Do you find that to be the case with Sebastian?

Yep, that''s Annie in the avatar!

You know that''s funny about the orange tabbies. He really is the sweetest cat I''ve ever had/encountered. Annie''s a cutie, but can get a little feisty, but Sebastian never bites or scratches. He run straight up to strangers and start rubbing against their legs. You can even rub his tummy and all he does is stretch out and purr When FI is on the couch, Sebastian loves to jump up on FI''s stomach and start kneading with his paws and then will curl up and just lay there, purring. It''s sort of become their routine

 

[Kim N]

Oh, they are gorgeous and so professional! Love them! The stamps are adorable too.

Your explanation of how you letterpressed these yourself was very helpful. I''ve never known that I had the option of doing this myself! Is it difficult to find a company that creates the film and the plates? Is that company separate from the studio where you actually did the work? Could you give a ballpark amount on how much it is for the film and the plates, and the cost to use the studio to mix the ink and press the stationery?

 

[CJ2008]

Date: 7/21/2008 7:36:26 PM
Author: newbie124

Date: 7/21/2008 7:10:07 PM
Author: claudinam
Annie & Sebastian! How cute! So Annie's the one staring at me through the avatar?

I have an orange cat too. Everyone always tells me orange cats are very affectionate (which mine is). Do you find that to be the case with Sebastian?

Yep, that's Annie in the avatar!

Hi Annie! What a cutie.

You know that's funny about the orange tabbies. He really is the sweetest cat I've ever had/encountered. Annie's a cutie, but can get a little feisty, but Sebastian never bites or scratches. Hmmm...I should tell mine this. He is incredibly affectionate, but he does get the crazies and we do get into fights and he bites my ankles. The funny thing is most of his teeth were removed (he had problems with them) so he bites me with his GUMS and it STILL hurts! ahah He run straight up to strangers and start rubbing against their legs. You can even rub his tummy and all he does is stretch out and purr When FI is on the couch, Sebastian loves to jump up on FI's stomach and start kneading with his paws and then will curl up and just lay there, purring. It's sort of become their routine How cute! Mine does this too - he hugs everyone, too...

 

[newbie124]

Date: 7/21/2008 7:46:42 PM
Author: Kim N
Oh, they are gorgeous and so professional! Love them! The stamps are adorable too.

Your explanation of how you letterpressed these yourself was very helpful. I''ve never known that I had the option of doing this myself! Is it difficult to find a company that creates the film and the plates? Is that company separate from the studio where you actually did the work? Could you give a ballpark amount on how much it is for the film and the plates, and the cost to use the studio to mix the ink and press the stationery?

No problem, I''m happy to share!

I think the trick is finding a place that has presses and will teach you how to use them and let you rent the studio. The place my friend went to is a little independent place, but you could also check local community or arts colleges. We have a college downtown that also has a letterpress studio and you can take classes, but I think they start the course out on a more basic level (like teaching typography) before getting into the nitty gritty of how to press and my friend just wanted to get to the part where she could learn how to make her own stationery.

I think the how-to class she took was maybe around $200. Then to rent the press is $12/hr. The film was done by a local place that was recommended by the print shop, so I think if you found a studio, they''d probably hook you up with the right people for that. As part of the class, my friend actually learned how to create the plates from the film herself. However, the plates have to sit a day before you can start pressing and we didn''t have time so we just paid the studio to make the plates for us (about an hour long process). The film and plate materials cost about $35 and it was $45 to hire the studio people to make the plate. The nice thing is that the plate dimension is about 16"x11" so you can fit several designs onto one plate then just cut them up before pressing. My friend was able to get one 3-color 5x7 Save the Date plus a Thank You note onto one plate (and maybe one other hotel insert). My Save the Dates were smaller and also 2-color, so I could also fit a 2-color hotel insert plus the Thank You.

The day of, we were at the studio for 5 hours. HOWEVER, it probably could have only taken 3 except that it was a rainy, humid day, so we had to wait forever for the cleaning oil to dry off the press between switching ink colors. So, in total, I ended up spending just under $150 for the entire letterpress process (from film to print), not counting cost of paper. It will probably be another $80-100 to do the invites, assuming my friend makes the plate herself.

Overall, I''m anticipating spending about $300-400 for 60 sets of Save the Dates, hotel inserts, invitations, RSVP cards, escort cards (thinking about pressing a design into the corner), including paper and envelopes. Not bad for custom letterpress!

I may also decide to press our programs and menus, but haven''t decided yet...I''d probably have to order more paper

 

[jcrow]

you did a great job newbie!

i've looked into letterpressing myself many times. problem is i'm in a small town. BOO. bigger cities rent out presses, have classes, etc.


and because it's something i'm passionate about... i wanted to add that although the beginner typography class may not been up your friend's alley, it's something other's should seriously consider, especially beginners

there's so much to learn when it comes to type and design.

but clearly, you two did a great job! i love the colors!

 

[WishfulThinking]

They look so professional- great job! I love the design and the colors, and how cool that you made them yourselves! That is very special, and I am sure your guests will appreciate that you took the time and effort to make something so beautiful to invite them to your wedding. I know I would be honored!

 

[Kim N]

Wow, thanks for the detailed information, newbie--I appreciate it!

It does sound very labor-intensive, but your end result is fantastic. You and your friend did an incredible job!

 

[sap483]

Wow, they''re beautiful, and so professional. I love the kitty stamps too!

 

[Anna0499]

I *love* the yellow...such a happy and festive color. You''re also getting married on my birthday, so I''ll have to keep checking all your posts!