Bella and her family worked with our friends at Ipanema Press on the design of these foil and letterpress sweet sixteen invitations for her Oheka Castle celebration. The ladylike palette of tea rose and taupe letterpress was accented with pearl foil, used to add subtle shine to the falling snowflakes. The submitted silhouette of the venue, whimsical hand calligraphy from Debi Zeinert and custom pastel pink envelopes all added to the charming, princess-like feel of the suite.
letterpress inks: tea rose + taupe | foil stamping: pearl shine | font: berthold script | paper: bella cotton white 1-ply + 2-ply | envelopes: submitted | Ipanema Press | customization #36964
We’re seeing more and more couples using design elements and maps to highlight their wedding locality on their stationery. We helped Heather and Benjamin incorporate palm trees, sea shells and a custom map of the Florida coastline into their destination wedding invitations, using our Leyton design as inspiration. They kept their invitation classic and formal but added a striking foil stamped envelope liner and black reply envelopes for a dose of sophisticated color.
letterpress ink: black | foil stamping: gold shine | fonts: natura + jubilant | paper: bella cotton white 1-ply + 2-ply | envelope: bella cotton white + bella black | digital + foil stamped liner: classic color pattern in black + custom map pattern in gold shine | Bella Figura NYC | customization #34090
Ashley and Kevin worked with us at our flagship store in Manhattan on the design of their letterpress and gold foil floral wedding invitations for their Oheka Castle wedding. Using our Delambre Classic design as inspiration, they chose a palette of desert and tawny foil to enhance the romantic flourishes of Sarah Hanna’s hand calligraphy. Their envelopes opened to the prettiest dusty pink and tawny floral liners.
letterpress ink: desert | foil stamping: tawny matte | hand calligraphy: victoria style | paper: bella cotton 1-ply + 2-ply | foil edging: tawny matte | envelope: bella cotton white pointed flap | digital + foil stamped liner: classic color pattern in dusty pink + elegant garden pattern in tawny matte | Bella Figura NYC | customization #31568
We offer plenty of envelope liner patterns that range from modern to floral to whimsical and everything in between – but we love it when couples have something more personal in mind. We can work with any high quality image (300 DPI or higher) to create personalized envelope liners featuring your engagement photo, a photo of your venue or an image that personifies your wedding.
Rebeca and Joseph used a sweet shot of the two of them as an envelope liner to compliment the neutral palette on their customized Irving suite.
Cara and Brent had two special locations they wanted to feature in their wedding stationery, and they did so by lining their outer and inner envelopes with photos from both locations. Their outer envelopes opened to a photo of a serene setting in Vermont (where they met) and their inner envelopes opened to the Chicago skyline (where they’ll marry).
Using their Laguna Beach venue as inspiration, Blair and Ricky added drama to their typographic invitations with a black and white photo of the California shoreline.
Many thanks to our friends at Magnificant Milestones and Urbanic Paper Boutique for helping these couples personalize their wedding suites with photographic envelope liners!
We are thrilled to welcome calligrapher Ted Clausen to the Bella Figura family and introduce two of our newest designs featuring his hand lettering. Ted spent a number of years studying with a long list of impressive and generous teachers, including Lloyd Reynolds, Herman Zapf, J. Savaren, D. Dehn, and Donald Jackson, scribe to Her Majesty the Queen. He studied typeface design in this country and at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland. “I worked for a number of years designing type before ultimately deciding to leave the ‘constructed letter’ in favor of the handwritten one,” says Ted. “And that’s where I still am, still learning, still liking your ‘M’ better than mine, and still loving the act of watching that pen dance across the paper.”
Ted’s Middleton suite is perfectly polished and the epitome of traditional elegance. Graceful hand calligraphy letterpress printed in classic black with the deepest impression is complimented by a gold foil stamped liner printed on a metallic paper for a truly royal presentation.
On our Viola design, we paired Ted’s calligraphy with a timeless font for a look that feels classic but not stuffy. We printed on our ultra thick 3-ply smooth cotton paper and added a vintage print liner from our library for added drama and sophistication.
Ted is available to address envelopes and place cards, too – how gorgeous does his lettering look on our new colored papers and envelopes? You can contact Ted directly for scheduling and pricing.
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With the help of the expert associates at our flagship store in Manhattan, Allison and Michael transformed our Woodland design into rustic summer wedding invitations for their New York City nuptials. They changed the orientation, softened the color palette and added design elements from other pieces throughout the Woodland suite to further personalize their stationery. A custom map helped out of town guests navigate the big city and a jute pocketfold helped keep all of the particulars in order. We digitally addressed their jute envelopes in navy to coordinate with their navy envelope liner, too!
letterpress ink: navy | foil stamping: rose gold shine | fonts: salzberg + henry | paper: bella cotton white 1-ply + 2-ply | pocketfold: jute | envelope: jute | liner: classic color pattern in navy | digital envelope addressing: navy | Bella Figura NYC | customization #32411
Misha and Michael worked with our friends at RSVP Today to create these stylish and elegant fireworks wedding invitations for their summertime wedding. Our fireworks motif in rose gold foil added a touch of sophisticated fun to the otherwise classic typography in timeless black letterpress. We digitally addressed their guest list in coordinating fonts on our metallic opal envelopes.
letterpress ink: black | foil stamping: rose gold shine | fonts: danube + didot + moravia | paper: bella cotton ivory 1-ply + 2-ply | envelope: bella cotton ivory | RSVP Today | customization #32508
Today we’re excited to share a guest post from a real Bella Figura bride: Renee Walsh, founder of Wiithyu! Wiithyu is a great new service designed to make wedding planning fun and easy, with the option to make it collaborative, too (invite your mom, your bridal party, and anyone else who’s helping plan your big day!). Manage wedding checklists, customize wedding templates and collaborate and plan with your whole wedding party. Since Renee is an expert when it comes to making the wedding planning process fun, easy, and straightforward, we’ll let her take it away with some planning advice for ordering your wedding invitations!
Selecting your wedding invitations is one of the tasks you’ll have the most fun with while planning your wedding! Like your wedding, it too is also a multi-step process requiring a good bit of organization and coordination. Here are our tips to help you prepare and enjoy everything from designing your invitation all the way to mailing them.
Do your research: Before you call your invitation specialist, do some research to help figure out what kind of invitations you want and the general style you’re going for. Look at photos, order samples, and narrow down to your favorite choices – we like to recommend picking your top 3. This will help direct the conversation you have when speaking with your stationer to create your perfect invitation.
Ask away: Not sure what kind of envelope linings are available? The difference between paper weights or inks? Your printer will, and they’re more than happy to answer any and all of your questions. Your invitation is the first glimpse your guests will have of your big day, so make sure you’re asking what you need to to get what you want.
Be prepared: We recommend finalizing your guest list at least 2 weeks before you go to your printer – this way, you won’t have to pay for additions after your order is complete, or for excess invitations that won’t be used. If you’re having your envelopes digitally addressed, make sure you have full names, titles and complete mailing addresses, and use the template provided to you to save time. If you plan to work with a calligrapher for your envelope addressing, make sure you book that service in advance, and find out how the calligrapher needs your list formatted.
Review & repeat: “Checking it twice” is not just for Santa Claus. Make sure to review and proof every single piece in your order, and do it more than once. Final approval is always your responsibility, so once you say OK, it means OK.
Measure twice, mail once: Take a fully assembled invitation set to the post office and have it weighed before purchasing your postage – you’d be surprised where a few cents can creep up. Once you know the measurements and the weight of your invitations, you can select the appropriate postage and even customize it!
https://youtu.be/tZyJQf7Imm0
Assembly required: Assembling your invitations is the most fun DIY project during planning. A well-organized and systematic approach is best. Your invitations will be labeled and packaged by piece. Set up a clean work station and take your time. This is a great opportunity to check your guest list with the guest envelopes to make sure everyone and everything is accounted for. If you’re short on time and it’s in your budget, you can take advantage of assembly services – Bella Figura offers this service, as do many stationery boutiques!
Ship shape :Take your invitations to the post office and wait in line – it’s worth it, we promise. It’s better to have a postmaster take your invitations directly to be hand canceled than to leave your precious pieces in one of the drop-off bins. This ensures that every piece of mail is submitted at the same time and doesn’t get crimped or damaged.
Have fun & enjoy: Don’t forget to have an invitation addressed to you and yours. It’s so much fun receiving meaningful mail and to get your own wedding invitation is just as exciting. Receiving all of your reply cards is like getting a present every day – you’re going to love getting them and saving them as keepsakes to look back on.
Many thanks to Renee for these helpful tips! Be sure to check out Wiithyu for more planning inspiration!
We were deeply saddened to learn that calligrapher Kelle McCarter passed away last week. Kelle has worked with Bella Figura as a designer and calligrapher for years, and also developed two exclusive calligraphy fonts for our sister company, Smock. Kelle’s husband Shawn asked us to share her obituary with our community – Kelle was always so eager to learn about others, but rarely talked about herself. We hope those of you who are grieving Kelle’s loss along with us appreciate this glimpse inside her life.
On November 13, 2016 our world lost a beautiful and courageous spirit in Kelle Anne McCarter at the age of 51. She is survived by her husband, Shawn Wesley McCarter of Castle Rock, Colorado, and her parents Jerry Don and Judith Anne Mobley of Dewey, Arizona. She is also survived by Hallie Loy McCarter, Jamie and Margie McCarter and their family of Midland, TX and Kevin McCarter of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay – all who embraced her as their own. Kelle was born March 2, 1965 in Chicopee, Massachusetts and moved to Midland from Clovis, New Mexico in 1972. She won the Women’s West Texas golf tournament twice during her teens, a feat reserved to only a couple of future LPGA stars. Kelle graduated from Midland High School in 1983 and then attended New Mexico State on a golf scholarship where she was an All-American Scholar and she received her BA and MBA.
After university, Kelle went to work with her father and the PGA Tour to redesign the TPC golf course in Cromwell, Connecticut. With the completion of the redesign, Kelle and her father embarked on a 15 year project to develop the Sand Creek Country Club community and Coffee Creek Center in Chesterton, Indiana west of Chicago. The sustainable development of the Coffee Creek Center and restoration of Coffee Creek earned the honor of being selected as one of the top 24 developments in the world. During this time, Kelle was on the board of the Chicago Golf Association and was director of the Northern Amateur Golf Tournament which has produced several PGA tour players.
At her twentieth reunion at Midland High School, she reconnected with Shawn McCarter and they were married in September 2006 at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Friends and strangers alike observed the absolute devotion and love that Kelle and Shawn shared for each other. They embodied the idea of soul mates so many long for.
When Kelle moved to Denver, she began pursuing her other life-long interests of graphic design, the written word, designing paper goods, and calligraphy. She was an invitation designer and calligrapher for Bella Figura Letterpress and Crane Paper Company, and her work has been profiled in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, People magazine, Inside Weddings, Brides magazine and Luxe interiors + design. She was a lifestyle contributor for REstyleSOURCE – a beautiful online design site in collaboration with Where Women Create magazine, supporting local shops and artists across the country. Kelle also published an art magazine called Paperswell: modern design ideas for paper goods and weddings to raise funds for the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies.
Kelle was truly a renaissance woman, reveling in the outdoors, competing on the golf course, creating opportunities for others, starting businesses, helping others, supporting women-owned businesses, and collaborating with and supporting other artists in their pursuits. As a friend has stated so appropriately, “Heaven just became much prettier…I can’t wait to see what she does with the place.” Kelle was extremely passionate and caring for her “girls”, two rescued golden retrievers, and her deep friendships from childhood until now. She was a graceful, gracious, selfless and elegant soul as well as a true southern belle with a sharp wit, the vocabulary to match it, and a wonderful sense of humor.
Kelle’s ashes will be spread at their Colorado ranch in a small ceremony with family. If you care to share your comments about how Kelle touched your life, please use the hashtag #rememberingkelle on Instagram, or visit the MHS 83 Facebook page to join the hundreds of people in her wonderful circle.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making donations to the Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies or your local First Tee Golf Program.
Our friends at Ipanema Press submitted the floral artwork to us and we paired it with one of our prettiest font combinations to create these watercolor wedding invitations for Christie and Zachary. We made an allover pattern for the envelope liner that tied in the floral artwork and used pale pink reply envelopes supplied by the store for another soft, romantic touch.
letterpress ink: charcoal | digital printing: cmyk | fonts: vessa + jubilant | paper: bella smooth cotton 1-ply + duplexed 2-ply | liner: custom pattern in cmyk | envelope: bella cotton white | Ipanema Press | customization #32558
Crystal and Jason decided on modern floral wedding invitations for their Bali wedding and worked with our friends at Union Street Papery to customize our Lark design. They went with a custom combination of pale lavender inks with tawny matte foil and kept everything organized for their guests in a coordinating metallic opal pocketfold that featured the Lark floral motif in foil. Their custom diecut program and menu were printed in the same digital and foil combination.
Designer Jessica Downs is November’s Designer of the Month – be sure and check out her other designs and save 10% through November 30!
foil stamping: tawny matte | digital inks: cmyk | fonts: marilyn + moravia | paper: bella smooth cotton white 1-ply | foil edging: tawny matte | metallic pocketfold: opal | foil stamped liner: diego pattern in tawny matte foil | envelope: bella cotton white | Union Street Papery | customization #32088
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Julia and Thomas worked with our friends at Lion in the Sun to create these custom letterpress ginkgo wedding invitations for their spring wedding. A monochromatic palette of pool and deep blue was used throughout the suite, including the custom envelope liner inside our steel blue envelopes.
letterpress inks: pool + steel blue | font: chloe | hand calligraphy: supplied | paper: bella cotton white 1-ply + 2-ply | liner: custom pattern in pool + deep blue | envelope: steel blue | Lion in the Sun | customization #32203
