At Smock our goal is to ensure that our brides have one of kind invitations for their big day. With that in mind, we often accept custom artwork to pair with our wide variety of fonts and letterpress (or offset) print in our luscious ink on our luxurious bamboo paper. The artwork submitted to us by Peabody Papers in Grandview Heights, OH once compared with all of the above, blew us away!

The 3-color offset invitation was printed on both the front and the back in pewter, slate and gold inks. The juxtaposition of the flat yet colorful imagery with the black letterpress text created such a dignified look. The subtle hint of masculinity is impeccable. Well done Peabody Papers. Well done!

Meg, from Peabody Papers had the pleasure of working with the happy couple and says, “Working with Shawna has been so much fun! She wanted to convey a sense of elegance while evoking thoughts of champagne bubbles. I drew the “bubbles” and decided that I would use the block for their names vs. a more traditional treatment. The last piece to come together was the kalogram – 5 sheets of proofs! It payed off though as she loves it and is using it & the dot design throughout the reception at the Statehouse. I have a degree in printmaking and enthusiastically convinced her that Smock letterpress would be the most beautiful printing option!!! She really loves the invitations – thanks for everything!”

Excellent thinking Meg!!! Champagne kisses and Caviar Dreams to you!

inks: black + pewter + gold + slate | fonts: cameron + indigo  | paper 2-ply white | invite size: S-8 | printing: letterpress + offset | edge painting: pewter | corner rounding

This design won third place 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.

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!

The next honoree in our Smock Design Contest is this custom save the date that we printed for our friends at Saluations in Charlotte, North Carolina. This is a double-sided design that we offset printed in peacock and seamist inks on our 1-ply bamboo paper. Salutations’s self-proclaimed Chief Style Officer Holly shares, “This save the date is my favorite so far! This was a collaborative effort with a fabulous bride who had a great design sense. We started with a vintage duogram. Inspiration was then drawn from the Tallulah design in the Social Occasions album, as well as the champlain pattern that she saw on a Smock box we had in the store from an order that had just arrived. It was so exciting to see the design ideas crafted into a beautiful reality by Smock’s wonderful designers and printers!”

Thank you so much to the team at Saulations for bringing us this incredible customization – it’s one of our very favorite save the dates!

Earlier in the week we shared a little sneak peek of our Smock display at The Wedding Party this past weekend. Today we are back with more gorgeous photos from the lovely Jen Huang so you can see even more of the inspired vendors who were a part of this magnificent bridal event.

First up is Jen herself and the beautiful display of her photography and wedding albums she brought with her to the show. Jen’s work is modern yet timeless and her personality is so sweet and charming – we loved spending the day with her!

(If you think you recognize this white rose wedding cake from Sylvia Weinstock from the winter issue of Martha Stewart Weddings – you’re right! It was on display at The Wedding Party for all to see.)

One of our favorite displays at the event was the gorgeous spread of cookies, macarons, cakes, cupcakes and other treats from One Girl Cookies.  Everything was so pretty it was almost hard to eat. (Almost. Trust us, we did sample many many treats that day.)

In addition to pretty cakes and cupcakes, there were also gorgeous flowers in soft shades of pastel and blush pink. Fluffy rose centerpieces and rose scented-candles were scattered throughout the space creating a lovely sensory experience visitors won’t soon forget.

And there were even more cakes and sweet treats. These red velvet cupcakes feature cute little cupcake sticks from For Your Party – colors and designs can be customized for any event.

We loved the vibrant bouquets and floral arrangements from Stone Kelly Events & Florals. The rich jewel tones were in contrast to the a lot of the other pastel flower creations throughout the show and the punch of color was really beautiful.

Another favorite were the party decorations on display from Confetti System. The shimmery pastel metallic colors were so festive and a really fresh look. We’re looking out for this look to be a new trend in weddings for 2010!

Of course, no recap is complete without an obligatory photo of the Smock team. Here is Lindsy and I as we finish up prepping our space for the event and look forward to meeting lots of enthusiastic brides. Thanks to our new friends at Sperry Tents for snapping this quick photo for us!

A big thank you to The Wedding Library and the awesome staff at the New York Palace for your warm hospitality and for pulling together such an amazing event. We loved being a part of it!

{All photos from Jen Huang unless otherwise noted.}

Over the weekend, Smock participated in The Wedding Party hosted by amazing team from The Wedding Library at the New York Palace Hotel. It was incredibly fun to be a part of this beautiful bridal show event and to get to meet so many brides just embarking on their wedding planning adventures.  The day was officially kicked off with Darcy Miller of Martha Stewart Weddings speaking to brides about current wedding trends, including a few highlights of her own wedding, followed by event planner extraordinaire Colin Cowie. Later in the day, brides were invited to visit the incredible showing of talented wedding vendors (including Smock!) and to watch a breathtaking Vera Wang fashion show. We have so many photos from the event to share later in the week, but first up we wanted to give you a little sneak peek of our Smock display.

We rented furniture from Taylor Creative Inc. so we could invite brides (and even a few grooms) to sit down and flip through our albums while snacking on tasty Tate’s chocolate chip cookies. We brought a collection of pretty milk glass vases and containers, stacks of our signature Smock boxes and simple accessories like vintage doilies and then pulled together a long table displaying just a small handful of some of the most beautiful Smock customizations we’ve had the pleasure of printing in recent months. On our way to the Palace on Saturday morning, we stopped off at a cornerstore on 50th and grabbed huge handfuls of flowers that we arranged in assorted sizes and shapes of containers to add a little extra pretty to our space – it smelled so amazing! Lukcily, we shared a room with the wonderfully talented Jen Huang who took these photos for us to share with you.

We have a lot more photos to share later in the week – stay tuned!

{Photos by Jen Huang Photography.}