Leigh found Lunalux while searching the internet for wedding stationery that is both sophisticated and earth-friendly. She wanted invitations printed on 100% recycled paper but didn’t want them to look crafty. It was a fun challenge to work with a long-distance client who had very specific needs! Leigh found a shower invitation on our website that was almost perfect (click here to read our post about it from last February). She loved the composition, but knew that her botany-wise relatives would hassle her for using seasonally inaccurate dogwood blossoms on invitations for a August wedding. Because all Lunalux invitations are custom-designed to suit our individual clients, I assured her it would be no problem to replace the dogwood with a different floral graphic. I created an illustration of trumpet vines and sourced heavy 100% recycled card stock and envelopes from Michigan’s earth-loving French Paper, staying in touch with Leigh every step of the way via phone and email. The trumpet vines are incorporated into the invitation, RSVP cards, thank-you notes and place cards in deep, saturated shades of orange and turquoise. When Leigh received the finished product, she was thrilled – and we were thrilled by her enthusiastic thank-you. “The invitations are perfect! Now everyone will see that is IS possible to have environmentally friendly invitations that are elegant.”

Looking for unique wedding invitations? Click here to read more about our design and letterpress printing services.

Even though it’s practically a holiday, I’m enjoying a bustling and productive day in the studio. Planning to work late, even! We’re expecting a little visit from Blue and Jack, a couple whose unique wedding invitations we printed earlier this year. They’re having a night-before-the-wedding party at the dance studio next door (hello, Four Seasons), and might pop in for a visit before they get their champagne on. The bride and groom live in London, but are enjoying Independence Day nupltials at the James J. Hill Library in downtown St. Paul. The bookish locale inspired wedding invitation booklets with their names pressed into the cover, and pages for the invitation, travel information and response card. Extra booklet covers will be repurposed as covers for the ceremony program (Blue took care of the detailed interior pages) and thank-you notes. We also printed two A2-sized envelopes – the bride’s parents’ address was used for the invitation envelopes, but Blue and Jack’s London address went on envelopes for the thank-yous.

The booklet is made from three folded cards, printed in navy blue and saturated yellow on 100% cotton Lettra cover. The last page, an RSVP postcard, was micro-perforated for easy removal. We nested the pages together and gave the assembled invitations a face-trim. With such thick pages in the booklet, interior pages jutted out of the cover a bit; this final post-assembly trim left the finished piece looking more, well, finished. Blue took on the Herculean task of hand-stitching over 100 invitations. I tried to stitch a few together for sample albums and photo shoots, but kept pricking my finger and messing up the snowy white cover. So our sample shown here is bound with a slim satiny ribbon along the spine.

I’m really proud of how this invitation turned out. Blue and Jack get lots of credit for coming to Lunalux with the idea of a booklet invitation, and for giving me a nice balance of articulate direction and creative freedom. The finished invitation feels substantial and special, and looks like it was meant to be letterpress-printed. The unexpected format executed with classic typography turned out to be perfect for their wedding in the stacks. The ornamentation is bookish, but the exaggerated proportion of the dingbats on the cover add a modern touch to an otherwise simple, classic composition.

With Taylor & TJ’s wedding reception planned at the Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Jackson Street Roundhouse, the blushing bride wanted train-themed invitations for their big day. Our challenge was to create a suite that would cultivate nostalgia for old railroad culture without explicitly incorporating trains, train tracks, and engineers with their tell-tale caps – we’re talking wedding stationery, not invitations to a little boy’s 4th birthday party! After poring over pictures of early-1900′s steam locomotives and train-related ephemera, this simple suite took shape. The icon on the top of the invitation, which includes the couple’s names, wedding date and wedding location, was inspired by old railroad logos. The typeface for their names was chosen because of its similarities to style of numbers painted on many old engines. Each of the three cards (inviation, reception card and RSVP postcard) were letterpress-printed in black ink on pearl white 100% cotton Lettra cover, and paired with metallic copper envelopes. The back of the response cards included a request for the guests to jot down a personal message or image for the couple. We love the vintage feeling of the finished invitation, and the basic black and white color scheme. Like all of the invitations we create, this one can be customized for different events. Imagine how great it would look printed in a combination of red and black inks, or on a rougher material like chip board. Thinking about custom invitaitons for your wedding or other event? Click here to read more about our design and printing services, or browse our blog archive to read about other invitation packages we’ve created.

We started working with Kate and Nick late last year, when they ordered a bunch Lunalux quote postcards to use as their save-the-date announcements. They got in touch with us again a few months later, excited to work on custom-designed invitations for their Big Day. With little direction aside from “We like glads,” we developed a few different concepts for the New York couple to consider. The winning design features a bunch of gladiolus in full bloom, exploding from the base of the invitation. The vibrant violet and green inks, letterpress-printed in natural white wove-finish card stock, are ideal for a summery wedding. The full set also included RSVP postcards and matching thank-you cards. Click on the photo above for a larger view.

The postcard they used for their save-the-dates featured a quote by poet James Tate. This design was originally created as a Valentine’s Day promotional postcard back in 2006, but all these years later, we still adore the lovey text unexpectedly paired with an image of an old rooster weather vain. The ruby red and cyan blue inks really pop off the bright white card stock. It’s gratifying to know that it was re-purposed as a wedding mailer, and think it was upstaged only by the invitations that followed!

Click here to read more about our graphic design and printing services. Or browse our blog archives to see other recent wedding stationery projects.

In honor of Earth Day, we’re highlighting our most recently printed “green” wedding invitation. We first worked with this couple months ago when we created passport-style save-the-dates to notify guests of their Canadian wedding ceremony and Minnesotan reception (check out this post from last September for a picture, and to read more). The over-the-top announcements were a big hit, but Leah and Jeanie wanted a more traditional, uncomplicated package for the invitations themselves. We letterpress-printed invites and RSVP cards in green and brown ink on French Paper’s cream chordtone cover, a 100% recycled heavily textured stock. The brown-bag kraft envelopes are 100% recycled too. We also printed notecards with just the tree icon, for the couple to use as thank-you notes and social stationery post-nuptials (piggy-backing the thank-you cards in this way minimized the amount of materials used for the project, and saved the couple a bit of dough). The gritty, organic materials were a perfect fit for this earthy design, and felt like a good match for these down-to-earth brides-to-be.

Do you love these invites almost as much as you love the planet? Give us a call, we’d love to print some for you! As with all of our invitation packages, this design can be customized to suit your needs. Click here to read more about our custom wedding stationery, or browse the blog archives to see other invitations suites we’ve created.