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Smock travels to Virginia!

Recently we sent Kyle, our lead client coordinator, and Mariel, our lead graphic designer, down to Virginia for a trunk show with our friends at The Dandelion Patch in Vienna, Virginia. Here’s a look at their beautiful shop before guests started arriving for the event!

The Dandelion Patch in Vienna, Virginia  The Dandelion Patch in Vienna, Virginia Displays at The Dandelion Patch ,ViennaThe Dandelion Patch in Vienna, Virginia

While they were in town for the event, Kyle and Mariel stopped in to see some of our other Smock dealers — including The Dandelion Patch in Georgetown! We spotted a few cute Smock customizations in their window display.

The Dandelion Patch in Georgetown

During their stop in Georgetown, Kyle and Mariel also paid a visit to our friends at Hitched. Specializing in both gowns and stationery, Hitched had some darling displays featuring their favorite Smock and Bella Figura invitations. And how cute is that window installation!?

Hitched Bridal Salon in Washington, DCHitched Bridal Salon in Washington, DC Hitched Bridal Salon in Washington, DC

Our team also popped into Just Paper & Tea, another stationery shop in the Georgetown neighborhood.

Just Paper & Tea in Georgetown

During their trip, Kyle and Mariel made time to see Toni at The Write Image, too. Toni’s home studio boasts many albums, including every Smock album and several from Bella Figura!

The Write Image

Our team also got a peek inside the Preppy Pink Pony’s brand new location in Mclean! They’re still getting settled in, but here’s a look at their colorful new counter display.

Smock visits the Preppy Pink Pony in Mclean Virginia The Preppy Pink Pony

Many thanks to our Smock dealers who made time to see our team!

Letterpress + Foil Stamped Custom Wedding Invitations

Can we have a drum roll please?  Why, you ask?  Because we are over the moon excited for the launch of foil stamping at Smock!  These custom letterpress invitations feature silver matte foil for the bride and groom’s name, adding just a touch of shimmer to this traditional wedding set.  Foil stamping allows us to incorporate the very look of metallics onto custom printing.  So now there is truly a way to make your own wedding invitations outshine the rest.  Classic black paired with silver matte foil looks impeccable and clean cut on these.  We’d like to thank our friends at The Write Image in Rockville, Maryland for sending us this amazing suite.

inks: black + silver matte foil | fonts: graham + alice | paper: 2-ply white | printing: letterpress| liner: custom reverse champlain in black |invite size: S8SQ

smock custom foil letterpress wedding invitations

Midnight + Lavender make these letterpress wedding invitations shine!

Our great friend, Toni at The Write Image in Rockville, Maryland submitted these breathtaking Sabion letterpress invitations to us.  Our midnight and lavender inks print beautifully on our thick 2-ply bamboo paper. The couple chose to coordinate their set with two cards that were printed with the lavender front patterning and then two cards were printed with only midnight ink – which makes for a peppy look with contrasting pieces! Corner rounding and a beautiful patterned envelope liner in midnight complete this suite.

inks: midnight + lavender | fonts: poetica and therese | paper: 2-ply ivory bamboo | printing: letterpress | front patterning: sinclair in lavender |corner rounding |liner: the rousseau pattern in midnight | invite size: S8

minimally elegant letterpress wedding invitaions

Happy + Fun Letterpress Baby Announcements

It turns out, we’re suckers for a fabulous letterpress baby announcement around here and lately we’ve been printing a lot of really cool designs to help little ones make a grand entrance. They can be formal or quirky, designed to accommodate a photo (just adhere with double-stick tape) and look particularly awesome when paired with fun customizations like patterned backings, envelope liners and edge painting. Here are a few recent favorites…

Brought to us by Inscriptions on the Boulevard in Fort Worth, Texas, this custom baby announcement features our Ellie motif printed on our seamist bamboo paper in pewter and silver inks. The envelope is lined in our Seneca pattern in pewter.

The Write Image in Salt Lake City sent us this pretty customization of our Kurai design, printed in taupe and shell inks for a soft and feminine letterpress baby announcement.

This baby announcement is a custom design that also serves as a cool letterpress holiday card, printed in pewter and spring green inks. This fun design came to us from Byrd + Bleeker in Fort Worth, Texas.

From Stationer of New Orleans, this girly baby announcement showcases our Juine design in pearl ink.

Smock Design Contest – Rhon Letterpress Wedding Invitations from The Write Image

The second runner-up in our Smock Design Contest is this inspired Rhon customization, a beautiful suite of pieces in tangerine and taupe, from The Write Image in Salt Lake City. Smock’s Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, fell in love with the sophisticated color palette and the use of our beautiful Smock Spencerian calligraphy font. With the leaves changing rapidly in Upstate NY, we think it’s the perfect letterpress invitation set for a charming fall wedding.

Smock Design Contest - Rhon Letterpress Wedding Invitations

Smock Design Contest - Rhon Letterpress Wedding Invitations

The letterpress reply cards feature 1-color letterpress, printed in taupe. Not only is it really chic, but it’s also a great option for keeping letterpress more affordable. We always suggest this as a great way to save money without losing a bit of style.

Smock Design Contest - Rhon Letterpress Reply Card

And we all know that nothing says “thank you” quite like customized letterpress thank you cards to coordinate with your letterpress invitations. These letterpress thank you notes are especially beautiful and definitely among our recent favorites to print. (See more of our favorite letterpress thank you cards.)

Smock Design Contest - Rhon Letterpress Thank You Cards

Thank you so much to our friends at The Write Image for sending us this beautiful letterpress customization! We’re winding down on revealing the winners of our Smock design contest so stay tuned – the last two honorees are absolutely incredible customizations!

Smock Design Contest Winners Announced

Here at Smock, we absolutely love working with our fabulous Smock dealers. We are continually and endlessly inspired by the customizations they dream up and love printing fabulous letterpress invitations, save the dates, escort cards, programs, social notes, business cards and so much more for their clients. In order to recognize the incredible adaptations of our Smock designs that we have been printing in collaboration with our stores, we recently honored ten breathtaking customizations that captured our imaginations and made us smile with glee as we printed them, packaged them up and sent them off to happy clients around the globe.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be sharing each of the winning customizations, but we wanted to share a sneak peek of the many lovely letterpress creations that have had us oohing and ahhing for months…

Smock Design Contest Winners

A big congratulations and a heartfelt thank you to the stores we worked with to create these incredible designs…
Real Card Company in Seattle
Alphagraphics in Chicago
The Write Image in Salt Lake City
Wordshop in Denver
Arabesque in Naples, Florida
Kate’s Paperie in Manhattan
RSVP Studio in Toronto
Judy Paulen Designs at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan
Paper Love in Brooklyn

Custom Rhon Save the Date

Here at Smock we’re true believers that there is no better way to set the tone for your wedding than with incredible letterpress save the dates. These lovely save the dates, our Rhon design, are no exception. Brought to us by our friends at The Write Image in Salt Lake City, they feature taupe and tangerine inks in a horizontal orientation that makes for a design that is both really fun and totally chic. These letterpress save the dates also showcase one of Smock’s two calligraphy fonts, Smock Spencerian, in a petite reply card size for a truly special and unique way to kick off a wedding celebration. We love it!

Rhon Letterpress Invitation

The Rhon letterpress wedding invitation in pewter + sky blue loveliness

Here’s a great customization of our Rhon letterpress wedding invitation (check out the original Rhon here). The inks are a cool pewter and sky blue (pewter is such a great color to letterpress in!), and the san serif font really gives the invitation a modern elegance.
Rhon letterpress wedding invitations - blues and grays - by Smock
What a great idea to print the letterpress invitation in two terrific colors, and then letterpress the reply card in a single color. This keeps costs down and keep the invitation very, very special. This invitation was sent to us by our friends at the Write Image in Rockville, Maryland.
Rhon letterpress reply card - by Smock
Want to see other Rhon customizations? Check out the Rhon save the date letterpressed in pewter (a perfect color!) and raspberry; a Rhon letterpress Bat Mitzvah invitation; the Rhon wedding invitation in pewter and grass; and the Rhon letterpress invitation in a custom neutral ink + eggplant. Rhon continues to be one of our best selling letterpress invitation designs this year!

Sweet custom letterpress stationery – gold edging!

This was a great idea we hadn’t seen before — custom letterpress stationery in the size of a reply card. It seems the PERFECT size to us — sweetly intimate, and just enough room to write a nice personal note (but not too much room!). An extra bonus: it uses less paper than larger social stationery cards (eco!), which also makes it less expensive (nice!). This letterpress stationery is in our Haddington invitation design, using our Smock Spencercian fonts (based on our favorite calligrapher’s penmanship). And the gold edge painting! Oh, gold edge painting makes us swoon — we would like to edge everything we could in gold right now. It adds such an elegant finish to a card. Sent to us by our friends The Write Image in Rockville, Maryland.
Sweet letterpress custom stationery - by Smock
Gold edge painting on a letterpress thank you note - by Smock