This incredibly cool custom letterpress wedding invitation suite came to us from byrd & bleeker in Fort Worth, Texas. Enclosed in a folio featuring a custom leaf motif in tangerine on the exterior and our sottern pattern in saffron on the interior, the invitations were printed in eggplant with a reply card printed in taupe. A double-sided events/website card was printed in tangerine and taupe inks for a beautiful fall color palette rich in pattern and texture. We love this beautiful custom design – thanks to our friends at byrd & bleecker for sending it our way!
Today’s incredible Smock Design Contest honoree came to us from Epitome Papers in Edina, Minnesota. It’s a custom letterpress wedding invitation design with an elegant botanical motif printed in blind deboss and grass ink with sky edge painting. It also boasts our Clermont hand calligraphy by Debi Zeinert for a total package that is amazingly sophisticated and pretty. Thank you to the folks at Epitome Papers for bringing us this fabulous design! 
Today we’re delighted to share another honoree in our recent Smock Design Contest, brought to us by Social Graces in Nashville. This design is a pretty customization of our Cindrel letterpress wedding invitation design, printed in pewter and cloud inks. With hand calligraphy accents, this design is as elegant as it it is beautiful. A big thank you to our friends at Social Graces for sending us this lovely customization!
One of our awesome Smock dealers, Paper & Chocolate in Dallas, Texas worked with Amy and Aaron on their gorgeous Smock letterpress wedding invitations in our Haddington design for their upscale Las Vegas wedding. We’re so excited to be sharing a little look at their beautiful wedding with you today! (And you can read more about Paper & Chocolate from a past blog feature, too.)
When asked to describe her big day, Amy shared, “Since most of our friends and family are scattered across the country, we decided to have our wedding at our personal favorite vacation spot, Wynn Las Vegas. We were not interested in having Elvis marry us, but instead, taking advantage of the beautiful scenery of the resort, where there was something for everyone. The theme of our wedding was old Hollywood glamor with a modern twist.
I fell in love with purple Vanda orchids and green Cymbidium orchids, which set our color palette. Wynn Las Vegas does an amazing job with floral design, and they provided the flowers, catering, and cake.
Our Smock invitations set the tone for a fabulous black tie event. The ceremony was held on the terrace of the Margaux Ballroom, overlooking the Wynn golf course and a giant waterfall. Guests then moved into one half of the ballroom for cocktail hour, while the terrace was converted into a candlelit area for visiting.
After cocktail hour, Wynn opened draping to dramatically reveal a seated dinner with immaculate service. Harbor Lights West provided the 8-piece band, which made the dinner and dancing reception spectacular. It could not have been a more luxurious and memorable day.”
Thanks so much, Amy and Aaron, for sharing your beautiful celebration with us – this is not your average Las Vegas wedding and we just love all of the glamorous details. Congratulations from all of us here at Smock!
{Photos by BluDoor Studios.}
Brought to us by our friends at Bennett Schneider in Kansas City, Missouri, this custom letterpress wedding invitation design features a cool pairing of pewter and chartreuse inks and features the Graham motif from our Social Occasions album. The reverse side features a pretty chartreuse backing in our champlain pattern with a perfectly coordinating envelope liner in champlain in pewter. These invitations are modern and fun, and set the perfect tone for this reception at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
We’re excited today to introduce you to the latest letterpress wedding invitation inspiration from Smock! Now available at a Smock dealer near you, we’re happy to unveil our latest design – Piedmont. A sophisticated and fun new take on modern wedding invitations, the Piedmont suite features a whimsical graphic pattern printed in blind deboss letterpress and boasts Smock’s exclusive (and new!) Bescal calligraphy font, a vibrant hot pink patterned backing and a striped envelope liner in our sherbrooke pattern. Piedmont also introduces our new square invitation shape, also available as inserts and reply cards.
On trend with the latest styles for upcoming 2010 and 2011 weddings, we’re also thrilled to introduce six gorgeous new ink colors; violet, peach, hot pink, aquamarine, pumpkin and royale. These colors are bright, vibrant and perfect for celebrations of all shapes and sizes.
We’ve already hinted about our two new exclusive calligraphy fonts, Harrison and Bescal, created by world-renowned type designer Richard Kegler featuring the hand lettering of calligraphers Patricia Mumau and Kelle McCarter. (Read more about the calligraphers here and here.) They join our existing calligraphy fonts by calligrapher Debi Zeinert, Spencerian and Clermont, as part of our exclusive font collection available only through Smock.
For all of the latest inspiration from Smock, visit your local Smock dealer!
These letterpress save the dates are printed in classic black ink on ivory paper in our Sabion design, featuring a pretty dotted border. The envelope is lined in our Seneca pattern in black for a timeless, elegant look. A big thank you to Salutations in Charlotte for sending us this beautiful customization!
New for 2010 and recently unveiled at the National Stationery Show, we are excited to introduce you to the second of our two new calligraphy fonts exclusive to Smock! Calligrapher Patricia Mumau of Primele Studio created our new Harrison font, a bold, fresh calligraphy lettering style that we showcased on our 2010 NYIGF invitations. Patricia worked alongside our internationally recognized typography firm to create her amazing new font and we’re proud to show it off! All of our calligraphy fonts (now four in total) are available with no additional calligraphy fee when you order custom letterpress stationery from Smock. Visit one of our awesome Smock dealers to see samples!
Today it is our pleasure to welcome Patricia to the blog for a little Q + A session. Welcome, Patricia!
How did you become interested in calligraphy?
I was studying in Rome at the time, and I came across a street vendor selling antique mail to collectors – old letters and postcards, amazing postage, meaty papers – and all with the most fascinating handwriting. The penmanship was imperfect but graceful, for everyday and yet lucidly personal. I wanted to capture that candid natural hand in a contemporary calligraphy and began experimenting.
What tools does someone need to start learning calligraphy?
Patience, creative freedom, access to a library, a pen nib and holder, and a bottle of ink in a irresistible color.
What was the process like for designing a font for Smock?
For my part, I created gobs of handwriting samples. I took time to consider the nuances of my mark making – the way I dotted my “i”s, the curve of my question mark…
What do you think makes hand calligraphy so special?
Some projects really need that look of handwritten typography, and having access to handwriting styles on demand with calligraphy fonts makes a great addition to a graphic designer’s toolbox. But however useful, fonts can’t do everything. When it comes to spot phrases that require a bit of artistic flare and incorporated flourishes, hand calligraphy is the better fit.
What was the first lettering style you learned?
Classic American Cursive in 2nd grade. I am glad to have put those “Q”s masquerading as “2”s behind me.
Are you right or left handed?
I’m left handed, which made things interesting at first as I was learning. But with a bit of trial and error I figured out techniques that worked for me.
What’s a normal workday like for you?
#1) Coffee. Next I usually go over what’s on the docket with my sister Rachel who manages the studio’s projects. I do most of my addressing in the late morning and early afternoon, and work on design projects such as invitations in the later part of the day.
Other than invitations, envelopes and place cards, what other fun things do people have hand-lettered?
I’ve created logos, transcribed letters, and designed calling cards. Currently I’ve been creating a lot of hand-lettering for return address stamps.
What is your favorite letter in the alphabet to calligraph?
A capital “Z”, all the way.
What fictional character would you be and why?
Virginia Lee Burton’s Little House. I’d like to think that while the world is constantly changing all around me, that I’d remain true to the builder’s intentions…and maybe someday make a move to a fantastic landscape and get a new coat of paint.
Where do you look for inspiration?
Mid-century picture book illustration, piped birthday cakes, American folk needlework, Swiss graphic design, opening credits to films from the 40’s and 50’s, Swedish decor, happy thoughts.
What is your favorite book of all time?
A Hole is to Dig by Ruth Krauss
How long have you been doing calligraphy professionally?
I started marketing my services late summer of 2009, so a little over a year now.
Primele consists of you and your two sisters, does everyone have a say in the design process?
We all bring our own strengths to the table. For me it’s the hand-drawn typography and illustration. I also tend to work a lot with the initial concepts and designs. Rachel does most of the work once a design is brought into the computer. She’s our Adobe software guru who makes everything graphically perfect. At different times throughout a project we’ll run it through the-kimmy. Kim has an amazing eye and a sensitive design palate, and her perfected taste acts as a kind of editor to my sometimes too-funky ideas.
A while back we featured Andrea and John’s penguin motif letterpress save the dates, which we printed for our friends at Union Street Papery in San Francisco and today we’re excited to share their invitations! The charming custom penguin motif is carried throughout the invitation suite, letterpress printed in grass and midnight inks. Both the invitation envelope and the cute letterpress escort cards feature envelope liners in our Seneca pattern in grass, making for a fun, preppy look. Thanks so much to the folks at Union Street Papery for working with us on such a cool design!
A bit of news this morning for all of you facebook junkies out there – Smock is now on facebook! We’d love to have you stop by and “like” our page where we will be updating regularly with beautiful new things we’re printing, promotions, updates, new products and more. In fact, right now you can check out our page for photos of our newest eco stationery and paper goods, available at retailers worldwide and coming soon to our website. We will also be posting about events and promotions happening at Smock stores nationwide and internationally so don’t miss out on all of the fun! Please share your photos and your comments – have something you’d love to see on our facebook page? Email us at press@smockpaper.com and we’d love to hear from you!
