I love letterpress printing. Everything from wedding invitations to holiday cards, baby shower announcements to Bar Mitzvahs, letterpress add an extra special texture and emotion that everyone can see and feel.

Part of the amazing qualities of printing with letterpress is the paper. Cranes Lettra 110# tree-free (100% cotton) paper feels amazing. It has a life and character of its own. The instant you touch a letterpress printed invitation you know that you are holding something special. The thick paper harkens back to an age of parchment and old documents that hold an extra special value in today’s world.

A lot of brides -to-be hold the misconception that this terrific paper can only be used for letterpress printing. But this is just not the case. Traditional offset presses can be used to print on Cranes Lettra paper, offering the same quality paper as letterpress printing. It is a great way to make sure all of your invitation set pieces feel the same even if you mix and match offset or letterpress printing.

So if you want to use letterpress to print your invitation but your RSVP or Map is printed on an offset press, know that you can still use the same quality of 110# Cranes Lettra cotton paper for those parts of the invitation set.

Written by Nick

Invitations by Ajalon
View our letterpress wedding invitation gallery.

When it comes to your wedding invitations there are a lot of designs, styles and printing methods to choose from. Depending on what you want your invitation set to look like, it is important to understand the differences that each method provides. While there are some price differences, the advantages, appearance and overall quality of your invitation can also vary greatly depending on how you choose to have them printed.

To help you make the right choice when it comes to your wedding invitation set, I am going to give you a brief overview of the different methods of printing:

Letterpress

Letterpress printing is a timeless art that harkens back to an age of craftsmanship, elegance and uniquely creative designs. It creates a distinct impression into the paper that no other printing method can provide. Also, advances in the industry allow most letterpress printers to create just about anything that other more ‘modern’ technologies allow.

Rana 1 Letterpress Wedding Invitation Design

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Offset Printing

Standard offset printing can also be used to make your wedding invitations. The color range is limitless and the end result is a conventional, yet beautiful, invitation. Also, printing other elements of the invitation set such as the RSVP, Map or Thank You card  with offset is a great way to decrease the cost of printing an extraordinary invitation with one of the other, more dynamic techniques.

Sakura Letterpress Wedding Invitation Design

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Thermography

Thermography printing was created to emulate engraving. Thermography is a method that employs offset printing, and while the ink on the invitation is still wet, powder is sprinkled on and melted to produce the raised effect. This creates a noticeably textured surface.

Foil Stamping

While most brides do not typically create their entire invitation set with foil stamping, I would be lying if I said that has never been done. However, usually foil is used to highlight names, monograms or invitation themes. There are countless colors to choose from (no, you do not have to choose just gold or silver) and the shimmering difference that foil stamping provides is instantly noticeable.

Avani Letterpress Wedding Invitation

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Digital Printing

The technological advances in the digital printing industry are shocking. The least expensive and fastest way to make your wedding invitations, high speed digital printers produce great results. They are especially useful if you wish to have a photo included in your invitation set. Likewise they work well to bring down the costs of wedding invitation sets by creating amazing RSVP and maps where letterpress, foil or thermography is not necessarily needed.

Jacqueline Wedding Invitation Design

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Written by Nick

Invitations by Ajalon
View our letterpress wedding invitation gallery.