True Love Story: Peggy & Ron

Ron and I met on an October evening at a Pizza Hut in our senior year of high school.  My friend Diane had won a bet - involving the purchase of a pizza - with her friend Jim concerning a high school basketball game between our two rival high school teams.  Jim had no car, so his friend Ron was giving him a ride to the Pizza Hut in hopes of sharing the pizza with the winner.  Diane did not want to go alone and begged me to go with her.  I hated blind dates, but this wasn't a date, she said, just a pizza celebration.  Well, Ron walked into that Pizza Hut that evening and it was love at first sight for me.  (I never believed in love at first sight until I saw him!)

Four years later, I called Ron on the phone and asked him to please marry me.  He had the nerve to ask who he was speaking to on the phone!  That's one reason I love him so much - he always makes me laugh.  Ron has been my very best friend for 37 years.  I am lucky with a capital "L" to have him as a most loving husband.

Vacation Time

Summer is finally here!  I hope you are all enjoying your summers.  I’m sure they’re filled with many fun wedding preparations; designing invitations, cake tasting, dress shopping, etc.  As for me I’m taking some much needed family time.  I’ll see you all again in August.

Invitation Spotlight: Simple Vintage

This invitation is exactly what the title of this post states, simple vintage.  It is a simple invitation in every way; it’s black and white, uses one font, even the wording is traditional and (yep, you guessed it) simple.  The image at the bottom of the invitation evokes feelings of Jane Austen and her many love stories, transporting you to a time where true love was sweet and everlasting.  Boring?  I think not.  It’s simple, clean and classic.  Personally, I love it.  But what about you?

Real Wedding: Rosemary & Lyle

Since this month has been all about vintage weddings, I thought it would be fun for our Real Wedding post to be images from an actual vintage wedding instead of a vintage themed wedding.  So I was super excited when I was interviewing my Grandmother for this month’s True Love Story post and I stumbled across her wedding album.  My grandparents were married on November 23^rd, 1955.  Here’s their wedding day in pictures.

Invitation Inspiration: Vintage

There are many different ways to give an invitation a vintage feel.  Invitations considered vintage can range from completely classical vintage, recreations of old invitations to modern invitations with vintage elements thrown in.  Here are just a few of the ways we’ve brought vintage to an invitation.

(Listed after each invitation are the elements of the invitation that give it its vintage feel.)

Muted colors, Grey Lace, & Detailed Peony

Etching Detail in the Flower

The Many Fonts

 Birds and Birdcage

Worn Photographs

 Simple, Elegant Chandelier

Black & White, Stressed Photographs

Printing with Foil Stamping

I thought it would be fun to learn about another style of printing.  So, today we are learning about foils stamping.  Foil stamp printing is pretty much what its name implies.  It’s a method of printing where a heated die is stamped onto metallic foil, with paper lying underneath, adhering the foil to the paper in the design of the die.  This style of printing is used to create shiny designs and graphics on invitations, as well as other materials.  The most common place foil stamping is seen is on book covers.

A brief history of foil stamping:

Not one person invented foil stamping.  Instead, foil stamping has evolved from similar processes dating back hundreds of years ago.

·         Ancient Egypt: Over 4,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians, would hammer gold until it was only 0.0001 mm think.  They would then use this gold leaf to decorate coffins, arms, thrones, and mummies.

·         Middle Ages: Monks would use primitive printing machines and beat gold to classify their books.  First they would emboss the book’s leather cover with the printing machine and then the beat gold was added to the impressions on the book by hand.

·         19^th Century:  In order to simplify the previous method, used by the monks, gold was fixed on to paper and entire rolls of gold paper were created.  Finally heat was used to release the gold from the paper rolls and transfer it to the intended surface.  However, the imprint on the intended surface was still made prior to transferring the gold.

·         20^th Century:  Finally everything came together to make the foil stamping process we know today.  And because gold is expensive, metallic foils were produced and take the place of beat gold in the stamping process.

Above and below is a beautiful example of a foil stamped wedding invitation designed by Leslie Vega of Leslie Vega Design.  Leslie did a beautiful job showing off the elegance that can come from using foil stamping on wedding invitations. 

Photo Credit:  All photos were taken by Leslie Vega Designs and used with permission.