You really cannot get anymore romantic than this String Calligraphy letterpress wedding invitation customization submitted to us by Social Graces in Nashville, Tennessee. The whimsical style of Harrison hand calligraphy, by Patricia Mumau, looks weightless in pale gray and shell inks. It’s airy, sweet, and oh so lovely! The Bella Figura team fell in love with this design’s soft simplicity – so we just had to have it place second in our design contest.

Erin, from Social Graces, surprised us with STUNNING photos from this wedding (thank you, thank you) and we were all blown away! The invitation fit this bride’s vision perfectly! From the detailed lace dress to the luscious, monochromatic flowers, this wedding looked like a dream!

Alisha, the beautiful bride, fills us in on her and her husband’s perfect wedding day and how they chose the String Calligraphy Design:

“Picking out my wedding invitations and paper goods was one of my favorite parts of the wedding planning process! I’ve always been a sucker for art, crafts, and design, so choosing the perfect invitations for my wedding was a very fun experience. The look I had in mind for our wedding was something whimsical, rustic, organic and vintage. While searching for the perfect invitation to reflect our farm wedding, I fell in love with Bella Figura’s String Calligraphy and couldn’t settle for anything else! The invitation that I chose struck me because of simplicity, uniqueness, and whimsical feel. I loved the softness and romantic touch that the pale gray and shell color inks gave off. The colors reflected our wedding color scheme perfectly – a soft palette of pale pinks and grays.

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Working with Union Street Papery in San Francisco, California is always AMAZING!!! Stacey and her staff are the best people EVER! They are not only savvy business women, but are genuinely kind people – and they are all HILARIOUS. Love them! When you combine a wonderful dealer with a design like Vendage, from the utterly fabulous Kamal Patel, you are bound to create magic. The Vendage letterpress invitation customization features elegant hues of champagne and charcoal along with Debi Zeinert’s hand calligraphy accents in Spencerian. By eliminating the bird motif from the original design and using a vertical layout, this customization becomes romantic and sophisticated.

The beautiful bride, Emily, shared some words with us regarding her gorgeous suite!
“The design of the invitation was meant to evoke a summer garden party with a hint of modern design elements to make it current. Annadel Estate is a lovely winery located in Sonoma, but more than just a winery they have acres of rose gardens on the property. When I saw the floral print I knew it was perfect.”

… so perfect that our staff at Bella Figura chose Emily’s design as the third place winner!!!

A view inside Union Street Papery.

inks: champagne + charcoal | fonts: garamond | paper: 2-ply white | invite size: a-7 | calligraphy style: spencerian by Debi Zeinert | liner: the rustic crosshatch patter in charcoal

This design won third place in our Bella Figura design competition for the first half of 2011. This twice-a-year competition recognizes outstanding and inspired design submitted by our beloved dealers.

Hey letterpress fans – Happy Birthday indeed! Nothing celebrates another year passing better than a party invite like this customization, courtesy of the lovely ladies at Social Graces in Nashville. When planning her mother’s 70^th birthday party, Gretchen wanted an invitation reminiscent of retro Broadway movie tickets. Social Graces altered Jessica Tierney’s Popular Country design to take maximum advantage of the beautiful Norah script by combining it with the Bennington and Popular fonts.

Espresso was the perfect ink to pull off the “old-timey” feel, and the corner rounding embellishment solidified the desired effect of bringing us back to simpler, carefree days of youth.

Madelyn, we hope your 70^th year is as beautiful as this invitation!