Our new ribbon gate-fold invitations will be launched soon but we are so excited about the range that we couldn’t wait to give you a sneak preview.  I quickly snapped these shots outside our studio before the professional photos are taken next week.  It will probably take a couple of weeks to get this range online because it will be available in a total of 37 different colours and, as with all our designs, we do our best to coordinate the whole range of products.  This means that with so many colours and so many coordinating items there will be a lot of photography to process.

The gentle floral pattern is another feature that coordinates on all the items in this range; its delicate emboss and pealescent reflection catches the light beautifully with understated sophistication.  The texture of the emboss is best seen in the flesh and you can do this by requesting a free sample when the range is online but this is one important element that we hope to capture with the photography.

I have a list of available colours to share with you and these will all be available to view online soon.

• Black
• Silver Grey
• Navy
• Dusky Blue
• Cornflower
• New Tuquoise
• Aqua
• Petrol
• Peacock
• Orchid
• Helio
• Dusky Pink
• Shocking Pink
• Pink Azalea
• Pale Pink
• Red
• Scarlet Berry
• Burgundy
• Plum
• Blackberry
• Purple
• Moss
• Khaki
• Hunter Green
• Jade
• Cuban
• Dark Brown
• Marigold
• Gold
• Yellow
• Lemon
• Orange Delight
• Rust
• Sable
• Honey Gold
• Cream
• White

Introducing ‘Sweethearts‘, the latest of our new designs for 2011.  The inspiration behind this design is unashamedly romantic with the two hearts linking together signifying the bond of marriage.    These cards are a small work of art with  handmade linked hearts in gold or silver plated wire attached to ribbon and pearlescent beads used to sew the ribbon to silk paper with either gold or silver thread.  This is then mounted onto high quality 300gsm natrelle card with gold or silver foil printing and completed with 135gsm inserts.  We are certain that there is something for everyone with this new design as it’s available in 29 colours and can be finished in gold or silver to suit your colour theme perfectly.  The colours available are black, silver, old gold, chocolate, snow white, eggshell, ice blue, larkspur blue, royal blue, purple, lavender, violet, pale lilac, pink, baby pink, perla, cerise pink, raspberry, burgundy, red, brick red, tangerine, orange, yellow, light yellow, apricot,  lime, emerald and hunter green.  Yes indeed, we have been busy!

Pure Rose in Sage Green

We get a lot of requests to customise our Pure Collection and the most popular is a colour change of the Rose or Lily.  We will be introducing some of the more popular colour requests to our website soon.   Bespoke colour matching is always a challenge because the clays often dry a slightly different colour when baked so we often have to test a number of times.  We were particularly pleased with the colour match of our latest creation.  I do not recall having created a green rose before and it was quite a challenge to get the right colour rose to match a swatch of fabric from the customer’s dress.  We mixed two clays (English Garden Green and Avocado) in 50 /50 proportions to get the gorgeous sage green colour pictured here.  We do not charge extra for the colour matching service and we always send free samples for approval before we proceed with an order.  If you would like a lily or rose in a particular then please give us a call or email us and we will be happy to oblige.

Collisons give you control over the following design elements :-

• 15 Wedding Invitation formats
• 2 Types of Board
• 10 Patterns
• 30 Colours
• 2 Bows
• 2 Tassels
• 2 Buckles
• 19 Ribbon Colours
• 24 Typefaces
• 12 Invitation Wordings

When you put all these choices into the design pot you end up with a staggering 550 trillion different invitation combinations.  If you are getting dizzy at the thought of this then don’t worry because Collisons have made things easy for you by way of a simple 5 step process which you can follow once you have chosen the basic wedding invitation format.  The first 4 images in the gallery below show you the options available. The remaining images show you the different card formats to choose from and gives you an idea of what gorgeous designs can be created in the Infinity Collection with just a little imagination.

Empire Raised Ink Wedding Invitation

Raised ink is a clever effect that is produced by adding an extra step into the traditional printing press process.  Rather than let the ink dry on to the card or insert the freshly printed material is fed through a machine that sprinkles fine powder on to the wet ink.  Excess powder is shaken off and then the cards are then fed through a heater that fuses the powder granules with the ink to create a raised effect to the text. Raised ink wedding invitations are cheaper than letterpress wedding invitations because the latter involves producing a special impression plate and a more skilled printing operation.   Many of our customers even prefer raised printing over letterpress because the cards have a luxurious feel afterwards.  The raised ink is silky smooth and is a joy to touch as well as admire. 

Sorrento Raised Wedding Invitation

Whilst we have taken time to categorise designs that are printed in raised ink as standard it is worth pointing out that many of our other designs can also be printed in raised ink as an optional extra.  This is true of many of the designs in the CCA Occasions selection.  When applicable the cost is only an extra £15 and is well worth the extra.  The finish is something that simply cannot be achieved in even the most expensive laser or inkjet printers so you can be sure that your wedding invitations will have a truly professional look.

Pure Lily White Wedding Invitation

If you have a particular colour theme in mind then when we provide a custom service whereby they will try to colour match the lily to a bridal fabric or colour swatch that you send them. We will send you a sample wedding invitation with the customised lily. The best thing about this service is that there is no extra cost.

Dusk Pink Calla Lily Tray ready for baking

Each lily is carefully made by hand and has a hole directly through the middle to hold the silver wire stem of the flower. Rather than the brash yellow stamen of a real calla lily Chapter One have chosen a contemporary approach that works perfectly. The silver wire is twisted at the top to create a beautiful flourish and the sharp bends beneath are shaped to form the leaves. The silver wire works perfectly against the crisp 300gsm white Accent board of the card.

There are many items in the Pure Lily range and no attention to detail has been spared. This is especially the case with the invitations that have a silk paper mount on which the wire lily is attached. The silk paper has 4 white pearl beads hand sewed into the 4 corners to frame the lily in a simple border that is delicate but not too flouncy or ostentatious.

The invitations in this range are individually boxed which are perfect for two reasons. There is a protective cover in the lid  which protects the delicate lily in the post. The box is also a treat for your guests making it more like opening a gift than an invitation and providing them with a box to keep the invitation for years to come.

Calla Lily Place Cards from Olivia Samuel

As well as the beautiful wedding and evening invitations there are a further 11 items in the range so that you can create a truly coordinated look throughout the whole wedding.

The full range includes :-
Wedding Invitation, Evening Invitation, Order of Service, Order of the Day,
Menu, Table Plan, Table Name Cards, Place Cards, Napkin Rings, Favour Boxes, Guest Book, Thank You Cards, and Save the Date Cards.
You can pick and choose which items you require depending on the level of coordination you wish to achieve.

A favourite of mine is the Negative Strip design from CCA which was added this morning.  This design stands out from the others in that it allows 5 photos to feature on the front of the card.  Most of the other designs just feature a single image or two (one each of bride and groom).  With the 5 photo negative strip design many of our customers choose to feature photos of themselves as children and then an up to date photo of each of them.  The 5th photo then completes the set with a close up picture of the happy couple cheek to cheek.  It creates a simple, short romantic storyboard.  This is just one example of course and the choice of photos is entirely yours.  A photo of the church or venue is another popular choice, or photos of your children or pets. 

CCA Negative Strip in White or Cream

The great thing about all the own photo designs is that it allows the customer to be a little creative with their invitations whilst still keeping a professional overall design and finish.  Most of the invites in this section are printed on a high end digital press and surpass anything that can be achieved on a home color inkjet or laser printer.  When supplying digital images it is important to remember that they can only be reproduced at the quality provided and we recommend a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.  We can always help and advise with the choice of quality of image so don’t worry if you are unsure your pictures will make the grade, we will soon let you know.  If you do not have digital images then you can send us original photos for us to scan for you.  We always worry about precious photos being sent in the post so whenever possible send a reprint  and use Registered or Special Delivery post for peace of mind.  We do not charge any extra for reproducing your photo digitally and we usually target a 600 dpi output scan for best quality.  We will return any photos to you on request.

Chocolate 8XP150 and Vanilla 8XP470

 We are pleased to announce that the Chocolate Brown design now has a new colourway.  Like a dollop of refreshing finest vanilla pod infused Italian Ice cream the Vanilla design above is a worthy partner to the finest Chocolate  Fudge cake in the restaurant.  The vanilla cream design is more subtle than the deep chocolate brown colour of the original and will serve most colour schemes very well.  The same gold foil personalisation is retained and looks beautiful against the cream card. 

Gold Foil Personalised Insert

When you order this invitation in either the Chocolate or Vanilla designs you will receive a pdf proof of your personalised wording in your chosen typeface (we think Typeface 419 pictured above works best for this design) .  You can make as many changes to the proof as you like and on each change a new proof will be sent.  When you approve the proof a special polymer impression plate is made which is used to press the gold foil on to the card insert.  This is gold foiling at its best and beats many of the toner foiling wedding designs that we are starting to see enter the wedding stationery market with the advent of cheaper technology.  To see for yourself visit our site for a free sample.

8XP000 Butterfly Invitation Detail

The other element that is quite unique for this design is the beautiful textured coral insert.  It matches the front of the design perfectly and has a butterfly print that whisps across both sides of the insert.  It looks stunning when printed in deep pink ink (included as standard in the personalisation).  We thought it was so important to show this detail so we added the two shots in this blog post to our website as supplementary images to the day invitation picture.  No amount of photographic detail can take away from the look and feel of a posted sample which is why we provide them for free at Olivia Samuel but it can help a customer when narrowing down their choice of design. 

We recently imported this design from old website to our new site and we also copied over the reviews from previous customers who had ordered it.  Not one reviewer gave the design less than 5 out of 5 stars.  Its a winner in our view too but that is not say we don’t have any other excellent butterfly wedding invitations on show.  We are in the process of setting up a themes section on our site.  The butterfly wedding invitation theme is the first to be categorised and you won’t fail to spot the new Pure Butterfly design from Chapter One or indeed the Butterfly Style design from The Letter Press of Cirencester, both of which will feature on this blog very soon.

8XP000 Butterflies Unique Insert

Vegas Invite - You are Invited

Retro Red Vegas

A guided tour has to start with the iconic Vegas sign in lights, which is a common choice of design from many wedding stationery designers.  I have chosen to showcase the design above  from You are Invited because it is available in a number of colours.  Once the invites are ordered, the company also offer Menu cards, Order of the Day/Service, table plan and place cards.  I think your guests may have a migraine by the end of the wedding celebrations if you choose the full compliment, but one or two items from the set will certainly set the scene.  You will find another couple of variants on this style on the You are Invited website, including a more subtle red retro version which I think looks much more stylish.  Mind you, that could just be an indicator that the a full on Vegas wedding isn’t really my cup of tea.

Las Vegas - I Do Personalise

Another Vegas sign but this time with the lights switched off.  The novelty with this one is in the custom personalisation.  I Do Personalise is brought to you by the same printers as the CCA Occasions design that we feature on our own Olivia Samuel site.  The designs are digitally printed and given a mirror gloss finish – pefect for some Vegas glamour.  This design really does put your name up in lights and the bridal couples names can be changed and proofed instantly on the I Do Personalise website.  Unfortunately, there is no variation in design between the other items of stationery in the set but then, as I mentioned above, maybe you only want to stick with the Vegas theme for the invitations anyway.

We Go Together Custom Design

This Stars and Stripes theme is a custom design from wedding stationery designers We Go Together.  Rather than have a stock portfolio of designs their approach is more personal and they will work with you to create a unique design just for you.  I love the two red stars representing I assume the married couple and the striking use of white on red text of the invitation wording to form the stripes of the US flag. 

Vegas Invitation from Dinkie Dynamo

After a little more research I discover a colleague here on the gallery actually blogged about a Vegas invitation a couple of years ago.  So this design from deserves another quick mention here.   You can read the full Gallery write up here

Vegas Zazzle Invitation Montage

We will round up this article with a montage of designs from Zazzle.  Zazzle is basically a printing company that showcase designs from thousands of designers.  They basically let the designers focus on their creative side by outsourcing the print and fulfilment.  Because Zazzle deal with all sorts of industries the one thing you may find is a lack of expertise in the wedding area and you may be limited somewhat by their online personalisation tool.  That said they have a large range of Vegas style invitation designs so it is worth a look.