Be still my letterpress loving heart,  Today’s post is all about the information you’ll need on how to incorporate this old world printing technique with modern design into your wedding day.  There’s just something about holding a perfectly crafted piece in your hands, especially in this world of instant communication, that can truly enhance your wedding day style.  prom dress girl prom dress girl; The Dandelion Patch recently hosted the designers of Spark Letterpress for invitation workshops, and we caught up with founder Valerie Carson for some insight and advice for choosing letterpress designs for the big day,  Take it away, Valerie,

summer wedding dresses 2012 2012 for cheap

Photo Credit: Sara Harper Photography for Spark Letterpress

What is letterpress printing,
Letterpress is a relief printing method that has been used for centuries.  formal dresses for women formal dresses for women; short red prom dresses jessica mcclintock In our shop we use letterpress to make a nice impression into some of the most beautiful papers around.  We use commercial presses like a Heidelberg Windmill, a Boxcar base and photopolymer plates to create our work.  Each plate and color is printed one at a time.

What does the design process of an invitation suite entail,
We work closely with a client to create a design that reflects their personal style.  short black prom dress It can be a more simple revision of one of our existing designs or it can be a more complex process where we create custom artwork and new designs exclusively for their suite.

How can invitations be customized,
With our designs, we like to look at them as starting points.  Many clients change the colors and fonts and love what they receive.  Others take our artwork and mix and match it between designs or to create something new.  There are so many things we can do with our current designs that do not involve custom fees.  formal dresses for a wedding formal dresses for a wedding; I think this is definitely something that makes our line exciting, because we have the flexibility to customize to the needs of each client.

What is the typical timeline from design consultation to printing,
Since we primarily work through our retailers [like The Dandelion Patch in the DC area] Shop the latest celebrity dresses fashion homecoming dresses and red carpet dresses at Best Celebrity Dress. Dress like your favorite celebrities for less price. unique prom dresses in houston , I would say it is about one to two weeks for the design phase and then two to four weeks for production, depending on the complexity of the job.  If you purchase one of our ready-made designs, we can produce something very quickly, but typically the more custom the design, the more time is required.

Where do you begin if a bride comes to you with no design in mind,
We always have them look through our available designs as a starting point.  We try to narrow down a general style, color palette, and help them select key words or phrases to describe their wedding .  If a client can show us images of their wedding wedding day – from the dress to the cake – we can always take those cues as well to help choose a design or create one from scratch to fit their event.

trumpet wedding gowns 2012 for cheap

Photo Credit: Sara Harper Photography for Spark Letterpress

For those on a budget, what can be done to keep the price of letterpress printing down,
We recommend doing a reply postcard instead of a reply envelope for the reply card.  Also, if you can find a design that will work well in one color, that is your best bet for saving on cost.  Many of the letterpress stationery vendors are running great specials year round, so just being aware of available specials will help save.  Beyond that, we do show our designs in many sizes and configurations, and by simply asking what we can do to pare down a more expensive design we may be able to make some helpful suggestions.

What does Spark do to keep the design process eco-friendly,
Many consider letterpress printing an eco-friendly printing method.  We use a sparing amount of ink on press and print on beautiful recycled and reclaimed cotton papers.  We recycle our photopolymer plates and also make use of the paper waste (trimmings) as much as possible.  All other paper that cannot be reused by Spark is recycled.  We’re just sensible and responsible about how we run our shop to do our best to be a friend to the environment,

What are some recent trends in invitation design,
Yellow and gray or silver, as well as purples and taupes for colors.  Many couples are choosing from our vintage map collection to personalize their suite, and many more are choosing a fun liner for an added design element or pop of color.

Be mindful of the amount of time you have to produce your invitations.  Many vendors in the world of letterpress cannot pull off a quick turnaround since letterpress isn’t a speedy printing method.  Also, be concerned about the level of quality that is acceptable for you, Within the world of letterpress there is definitely a wide range of quality – in the materials and the printing.

Things to look for include the crispness of the type, short fuschia prom dresses the impression depth (this is a personal preference for how deep you want it), the consistency of color across the length of the piece, the consistency of color between the pieces they are showing, and more.  Even if you are not a connoisseur of letterpress printing, by spending some time reviewing their work you will be able to determine if it is the right fit for you,

royal blue plus size prom dresses royal blue plus size prom dresses::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Thank you so much, Valerie,  Be sure to check out more from Spark Letterpress on their website, or at The Dandelion Patch for their paper products and other goodies, The Dandelion Patch is located in Virginia in Vienna, Reston, Leesburg and in DC in Georgetown.

Looking for more inspiration or local vendors for your wedding,  Be sure to check out our galleries and vendor guide.

For more tips from the top wedding professionals in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia, visit our advice pages,

Winter season marriages are captivated me and sometimes called story like functions, With the snowfall cascading down along encapsulating all things in 100 % pure whitened, visions of indy attracted carriages and dancing by the fireside – these include extremely passionate and old-fashioned themes or templates, Antique drop and wintertime marriages made an important recovery in the year 2011 as well as the classy nation beauty continues throughout 2012, summer beach wedding dresses summer beach wedding dresses If you are looking for wintertime wedding party wedding party hues to select your style, there are several possibilities – and some distinctive solutions to choose hues for your marriage.

An advanced classic bride-to-be your wintertime wedding party hues are:

Silvery mild blue with whitened and silver decorations (think of snowflakes)

White-colored kulki wibruj ce whitened, with gem decorations

Red and white

Red, whitened and green if the wedding party is close to the Christmas time of year

Ivory, Platinum and Crystal clear decorations

An advanced low-classic bride-to-be your wintertime wedding wedding party hues may be nearly anything you want those to be Bridesmaid dresses, formal dresses and plus size bridesmaid dresses by New York designer Bill Levkoff. We have been dressing bridesmaids for over 60 years., wedding dresses for plus size wedding dresses for plus size Due to the fact whitened is definitely the base coloration of the season tea length wedding dresses , it is possible to pair it with what you may like, Some low classic colors may be drawn on the new Christmas colors: teal with pink or warm light red and grass green, If these cool hues tend not to cash loan your style then tend not to dread, we’ve another recommendation for you personally,

Locate a wintertime world, a picture that in some way talks to you, Pull out the weather of your photography that suit your needs the most and add them for your wedding party, Consider the hues inside the photo pozycjonowanie stron grab the initially some hues which entice your talent – Cheap Beach Wedding these represent the hues for your wedding party, cheap cocktail dresses cheap cocktail dresses Each and every wintertime photo isn’ summer dresses 2012 UK t the very same – so don’t even think the hues might be mundane or monotone, Not so, wintertime digital photography hues are loaded and sometimes dazzling, Below are some colors we discovered when viewing wintertime digital photography.

Cornflower blue (large with the wintertime atmosphere) in addition to Bordeaux Azure (the richer blue shown from the whitened snowfall for the bushes), with charcoal and whitened.

Fast by using a darkish orange or cobalt blue complimented by reddish all types of berries and whitened

Periwinkle, deeply mauve, tender light red and off white are underlined in the snowfall throughout a dark

Deeply berry, evergreen, pewter off white and whitened

These are generally some of the winter wedding party hues we discovered just by surfing around a lot of our favourite wintertime shots, summer party dress summer party dress girl summer dresses By tugging hues type characteristics, you’ll have color scheme that comments each other and performs wonderfully for your wedding party style.