Pressing Letters

I always knew that I wanted to letterpress my wedding invitations. Every time I see letterpressed invitations or cards, I love to touch them, smell them, and drool over them. I was determined to have letterpressed wedding invitations at any cost... well except for a high price tag. I had the time and the interest to learn how to letterpress myself, and so began my mission to learn how to letterpress, being the ultimate DIY bride that I am. 

The day finally arrived to create my beautiful wedding invitations... and boy was it way more work than I expected, but it was oh so worth it. The journey began over 5 months ago, as a final project in the design class I took fall semester. After tweaking the design for quite some time I was ready to go to print. 

I decided to take a letterpress class at the International Printing Museum in Carson, CA. There we learned to set type, and went over the basics of letterpress printing. I had a lot of fun, and the best thing I got out of it was making the connection with my instructor who turned out to be my letterpress mentor.

She worked with me through every step. From working the design, to setting up the plates, to renting machine time, to mixing paint. She was very patient and meticulous, and really took the time to make sure that my design was going to render professional looking invitations. Thank you Madeleine and thank you to Two Piglets letterpress shop for helping me along through this journey...

Spiro and I worked for 7 hours straight in the shop one afternoon, and I spent probably over 30 hours designing and tweaking documents to create the perfect invitation. I am incredibly happy with the results, and hope that everyone else will enjoy them too!