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Posted in Wedding Events, Wedding Planning Tagged city club, City Club of San Francisco, planner, planning, San Francisco, Wedding Planning, Weddings 2 Comments
Making Maps For Your Wedding:
The 5 Best Details to Include
In Letterpress Wedding Invitations
Finding the exact location of a wedding venue can be a difficult task. I know I have gotten lost several times driving from the ceremony to the celebration, and this becomes an even bigger problem when you are the ‘out of town guest.’ To solve this problem, brides often ask us what kind of maps to include in their wedding invitation sets, and more importantly, what these maps should look like.
One of the members of our expert design team recently graduated from Sonoma State University with a degree in geography. I decided to ask him for some ideas, based on his immense knowledge of cartography (map making) and graphic design, what he thought were the five most important elements of a map in a wedding invitation:
1) Figure Out What is Important
The first thing to decide on is what’s important for your specific map. What do your wedding guests need to know to get to the venue? Too much detail and people get confused, too little and they might miss the location. The guests only need to be directed to one or two locations, so a detailed map of the entire region isn’t necessary.
2) Routes
What is the simplest way to arrive at the destination? Think about how your guests will be getting there, i.e., is there a major freeway or intersection everyone will have to pass through? Or will people be coming from all different directions, and distances? Remember, if you are going to have out of town guests, you may want to indicate where the nearest freeway is located.
3) Keep It Simple
This is a great rule to follow for all aspects of life, and here is no exception. You do not need every last detail, stick to the basics and essentials. Important road names, landmarks and cross streets only, beyond that and people may get confused. If a street in reality is winding, don’t worry so much about making your small map an exact replicate, give it a little bend and the guests will figure out the rest. Also, trying to fit your map to a precise mathematical scale typically requires excessive details and may actually hurt, not help, the guests to understand the directions.
4) Use Google Maps
Search for the area near your venue and print this map out. This can be used as a template to start designing from. Highlight the different routes, roads and landmarks that are important. Then whoever will actually make the map knows exactly what you want, and what route is important.
5) Style
Depending on your invitation set, you will have to decide on a specific style for your map that matches the overall aesthetic. Whether they are hand drawn, geometric, artistic or formal, the map colors and design can be constructed to match your personality and wedding theme.
Maps in wedding invitations can be a place to add extra flare or emotion. If your wedding has a whimsical theme, hand drawn maps can be particularly fun and creative (and they look great especially on letterpress invitations). If your wedding is formal, you can have a very clean, simple, straight line map or an elegant smooth map.
There are many different options and styles to choose from. The sky, or in this case the ground, is the limit!
Written by Nick
Invitations by Ajalon
View our letterpress wedding invitation gallery.
The Sweet Smell of Success
We are located in the heart of wine country. There are farms everywhere and vineyards line the hilltops. Looking out our windows at work we can see wide grassy fields, tall oak trees and beautiful mountains in the background. It is a beautiful area to live but there are certain consequences that come with this beautiful territory.
Surrounding our building complex is a rather large dairy farm. A couple times a year when the season is right and the wind is blowing there will waft in our direction a quite putrid smell of cows in action. I assume it is a mixture of manure and something in the process of processing milk. It is an organic function either way, but that did not seem to matter to Matt, our newest employee.
Being green to the intensity of the smell, he chose to wear an industrial strength painters air mask. Obviously this provided no end of amusement for the rest of us. Him walking around with the mask caused quite a stir at the “water cooler”. All in good fun though. It is not everyday that someone walks around with a large air mask at work…
This reminded me that printing can be a stinky process too. We work with messy inks and clean paper to produce a top quality product, letterpress wedding invitations. Usually toward the end of the job during clean up, a musky smell surrounds the letterpress. Though it is not as bad as the cows, it still reminds me of the sweet smell of success. Another job well done.
Written by Nick
Invitations by Ajalon
View our letterpress wedding invitation gallery.
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Highlighting Your Venue in Your Wedding Stationery
One of the most important aspects in making your wedding an “event to remember” is location. Where you choose to host your wedding, or even where you will be enjoying your honeymoon, can set the theme for the whole event. Many brides choose to carry the theme into their wedding invitation set.
If you are having a destination wedding somewhere tropical, say Hawaii or the Bahamas, you might want to choose our Malulani set, with tropical artwork drawn by a local artist, or perhaps our St. Croix set, with palm tree artwork.
Or, if there are special architectural features of your venue, you may want to incorporate them into your invitation set. For example, our South Beach set was modeled after the art deco style of Miami’s South Beach Raleigh Hotel.
Customer Creations – Using your own creative elements (Featuring Kira)
Many brides have a very specific idea of exactly what they are looking for when it comes to the design of their wedding invitation set. Some are looking for certain colors, others, certain designs.
If you are one of those brides, and you haven’t found what you are looking for yet, then let us help you create the wedding invitation set of your dreams.
One bride we recently worked with wanted to use the ruby color from her bridesmaid’s dresses in her letterpress wedding invitation set. We used a ruby colored second layer behind the invitation, a ruby colored envelope liner, and ruby ink, which created a beautiful set.
Your assistance in the creative process can go far beyond just color. If you have a specific font, or special artwork you would like to use, let us know and we can include it in your set.
Posted in Letterpress Invitations, Weddings Tagged customization, envelope liner, invitation, Letterpress Invitations, wedding Leave a comment
Details, Details – Choosing your wedding invitation set elements to best suit YOUR needs
There are so many elements to choose from when it comes to our letterpress wedding invitation sets. How do you decide exactly which elements will be best for you?
Our standard set includes the wedding invitation, envelope, and rsvp postcard. You may also want to include save the date, rehearsal invitations, direction cards, accommodation cards, menus, programs, favor tags, and place cards. If there is a special element you are looking for, we are more than happy to work with you on any other element you may want to include.
I recently attended a wedding where the bride and groom chose to go very simple, with just the invitations, envelopes, rsvp postcards, and save the date cards. They chose to carry the simplistic idea all the way through the wedding with minimal decoration and flair, yet, I thought it was very elegant in its simplicity.
Other brides have made use of other elements as well, including direction cards, accommodation cards and place cards. One bride and groom even had thank you cards included in their set.
Posted in Weddings Tagged favor tag, invitation, Letterpress Invitations, save the date, wedding Leave a comment
New Letterpress Wedding Invitation Designs!
We’ve completely reformatted our gallery pages and added 18 new wedding invitation designs. The new gallery allows you to view multiple angles and elements for each design, with close-ups of invitations, response cards, envelopes, monograms and more. The new pages also featured detailed design descriptions with specs on the printing techniques and special treatments for each invitation set. Click here to check out the new gallery.
Here’s a sample of a few of the new designs:
This bride-designed invitation set combines a Victorian floral motif and unique fonts to create a stunning invitation experience for her guests. The second paper layer in a rich, ruby color frames the invitation and ties in the bridesmaid’s dress color.
This elegant letterpress invitation invokes thoughts of gentle tropical breezes and soft, warm beaches. Whether you’re planning an exotic destination wedding, or just want to create a tropical-themed wedding, this design is just the ticket. With a change of ink colors and fonts, this motif can either formal or whimsical.
This delightful letterpress wedding invitation features a bold, quilt-inspired motif. A richly colored end-opening envelope and unique RSVP postcard will make this invitation stand out.
Posted in Letterpress Invitations, Weddings Tagged gallery, invitation, Letterpress Invitations, monogram, wedding Leave a comment
Why chose letterpress invitations for your wedding?
Your invitation sets the expectations for your special event. The design you choose-with its paper, style and wording-communicates more than just the time and date of your wedding.
Using letterpress gives you the option of using a wide range of paper, including handmade, organic, and tree free. Probably, no other form of imaging on paper allows you to utilize such a wide range of choices. The classic feel and finish of letterpress papers take us back to an era of quality and craftsmanship that is not often found today.
You actually see and feel the impression of the type into the paper. This is not some process where a machine runs at such speed that parts are just a blur. It harkens back to a time when excellence was the desired result, not expediency.
Posted in Letterpress Invitations Tagged dogwood, invitation, Letterpress Invitations, wedding Leave a comment
Making the Most of Your Monogram
Monograms are a beautiful, classic way to personalize your letterpress invitation. But that’s just the start. You can use your monogram to tie in all aspects of your wedding. You can use your monogram on everything from your invitation set, wax seal, menu, even have it projected on your dance floor.
When you have your monogram designed by Ajalon Printing & Design, we’ll give you the digital file of your monogram for you to use on your wedding web site, or even after the wedding we can print personalized thank you cards or stationery.
Do you have a unique way you plan to use (or have used) your monogram? Let me know.
Posted in Letterpress Invitations, Weddings Tagged custom monograms, invitation, monogram, wedding Leave a comment
