This stellar custom invitation suite was submitted to us by our good friend Jessica at Judy Paulen Designs in New York, NY.  With the perfect design elements on the invitation, this only quietly calls for attention-and we just love that!  We absolutely adore the soft, subtle ink palette which is the perfect match to the couple’s fabulous venue in Chicago, Illinois.  The neutral and conservative pairing of our dove and pewter inks look positively remarkable!  And then there’s the metallic platinum envelope liner providing the perfect color contrast.

inks: dove + pewter | fonts: smock harrison + carrington stripes | paper: 2-ply white | printing: letterpress | liner: metallic platinum| invite size: S7

We were so thrilled when Lily Kesselman (the amazing photographer behind this next real wedding) shared her images of Katie & Jack’s gorgeous New York wedding. Katie worked with our friends at Judy Paulen Designs for their elegant Haddington wedding invitations, which were printed in midnight ink on our white bamboo paper.  This wedding is overflowing with preppy sophistication and we can’t get enough of it!

Katie and Jack were married at the Convent of The Sacred Heart on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. After the ceremony, the couple rode to their reception in style in an iconic vintage taxi, while the guests and bridal party headed to the reception on chartered Greyline double-decker buses – complete with champagne and a tour of the city!

Merging the design elements of Haddington and Rhon, Alyssa from Judy Paulen Designs shows just how to balance a letterpress wedding invitation set.

Particularly stunning was the pale blue of our Lake ink used as an envelope liner which complimented the Pewter of the design and text, making an elegant wedding invitation.

inks: pewter + lake | fonts: bickham swash + bickham script | paper: 2-ply white | invite size: S-8 | liner: ganval in lake | printing: letterpress |  edge painting: lake

This design won an honorable mention in our Smock design competition for the first half of 2011. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired designs submitted by our beloved dealers.

New York City friends take note! Next week we’ll be hosting two incredible trunk show events with our friends at Judy Paulen Designs. In addition to other fabulous promotions, we’ll be offering 25 free letterpress invitations when you buy 75+ and our resident design experts will be on site to help you dream up something one of a kind for your wedding stationery. Come out and say hello! We’d love to meet you.

Monday, February 7th
5pm to 8pm
1282 Third Avenue
212.737.0037

Tuesday, February 8th
4pm to 8:30pm
Bloomingdale’s 59th Street, 6th Floor
212.705.2833

Today we’re excited to share this lovely custom letterpress wedding invitation design, second runner-up in our latest Smock Design Contest. Brought to us by our good friends at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s, it features a colorful mix of color and pattern that we just adore. The letterpress invitations were printed in mango and espresso inks and the inserts were letterpress printed in slate and espresso inks. All of the pieces were backed in our champlain pattern in mango and the envelopes were lined in champlain printed in reverse, white on mango.

Our special guest judge, Kristen Magee of Paper Crave says of her pick for second runner-up, “This suite oozes class without being staid, and the fantastic color choices and patterns give it a very modern feel. I also love the playfulness of the language on the reply postcard and rehearsal card. But the detail that put this invitation in my top three is the incredible patterned envelope liner. Love it!” Thank you to Kristen for helping us out with the judging and lots of love to Judy Paulen Designs for sending us this beautiful design!

While in New York City last week for our Kate’s Paperie events, we took the time to visit many of our favorite Smock retailers! We have lots of photos of our events with Kate’s to share, but first we wanted to share a little glimpse at the rest of our travels across Manhattan and Brooklyn. Our first stop was The Village Invites on 43rd where we spent time chatting with Linda, Adrienne and Jaye. They have the prettiest assortment of great gift wrap and big spools of ribbon that make us dream of wrapping the loveliest of holiday packages.

Being Halloween week, there was no shortage of costumes to be found throughout the city. Here, Lindsy poses with a great Big Bird costume and with a creepy skeleton in our hotel lobby.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we’re excited to announce the winners of our most recent Smock Design Contest! Our friend and paper blogger extraordinaire Kristen from Paper Crave did the honor of selecting our first place winner and runner-ups from among our favorite recent customizations, sent to us by our beloved Smock dealers. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing full details and photos of all our honorees here on our blog so don’t miss it. In the meantime, a big thank you to all of our awesome Smock dealers!

FIRST PLACE WINNER – Salutations in Charlotte, North Carolina

Brought to us by Salutations in Charlotte, guest judge Kristen says, “I love that it’s feminine without being too feminine,” about our winning design, a stunning customization of our Kurai wedding invitation.

FIRST RUNNER UP – Luxe Expressions in Atlanta

Saying that “…the vibrant colors and bold pattern make this such a fun invitation” we loved Kristens’s pick for first runner up, a custom 40th birthday party invitation design for our friends at Luxe Expressions in Atlanta.

SECOND RUNNER UP – Judy Paulen Designs in Manhattan

Kristen’s choice for second runner up is a custom letterpress wedding invitation brough to us by Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan. She loved it because “the fantastic color choices and patterns give it a very modern feel.”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

In addition to our three winners, we’re recognizing seven additional designs that inspired us to no end. We extend a heartfelt thank you to our friends at the following stores – we are continually awed by all you do!

Houston Invitation Service in Houston

Salutations in Charlotte

Details in Philadelphia

Perfectly Personal by Jen in Chappaqua, New York

Epitome Papers in Edina, Minnesota

Social Graces in Nashville

Byrd + Bleecker in Fort Worth

We’ve got fabulous news for New York City brides and grooms! Tomorrow we’re holding a 1-day only trunk show at Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s that is not to be missed! Trunk show attendees will receive 25 free letterpress wedding invitations and reply cards in addition to their choice between our existing letterpress invitation promotions – either free envelope printing or free letterpress save the dates!

In addition to this fabulous 1-day promotion, trunk show attendees with get to meet with Smock design experts and enjoy complimentary wine and snacks. We’d love the chance to meet with you and talk about how Smock can design the perfect letterpress wedding invitations for your celebration – we look forward to seeing you there!

Like the first honorable mention from Judy Paulen Designs in our recent Smock Design Contest, we were completely thrilled at the opportunity to print this unique customization of our Burstell letterpress wedding invitation design. Using custom inks in a brilliant green and vibrant pink, it’s paired with a chic custom folio for a total package that is nothing short of show-stopping. Mixing our payette pattern on the exterior and our sinclair pattern on the interior, the folio is bright, modern and playful. Folio inserts included a fabulous letterpress events card detailing all of the weekend wedding events for the convenience of guests, particularly appropriate for this destination wedding in Jamaica.

Once again, thank you to Judy Paulen Designs for dreaming up this exciting customization – it was such a pleasure for us to print these fabulous letterpress wedding invitations!

The first of two honorable mentions in our Smock Design Contest brought to us by Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in New York, we’re completely in love with this chic customization of our Engadine letterpress wedding invitation design. It’s printed in elegant wisteria and pewter inks and features our playful Etienne and Shaw fonts for a finished design that is the perfect blend of traditional elegance and modern sophistication. The set also includes a really lovely letterpress reception card that makes the most of a play between the script Etienne font and the clean look of the sans serif Shaw font. It’s minimal and simple, but still fresh and completely chic.

Thanks so much to our friends at Judy Paulen for sending us this beautiful customization!