it's beginning to look a lot like people are getting ready for their weddings next summer...

While the end of the year tends to be a quiet time for weddings, it's a great time to get your Save the Dates out for your weddings next summer! Six months prior to your event date is a good rule of thumb to alert guests of your upcoming wedding, and if you're planning a destination event, you might look at sending Save the Dates even sooner, especially if attendees will need to book travel or if your event is over a holiday weekend.

Save the Dates can coordinate with your invitation suite and offer a glimpse into your vision for the wedding, or you can use engagement pictures for something fun and modern. We encourage brides to include a wedding website on the save the dates so you can update information as needed prior to the big day. The website can also serve as a tactful way to communicate registry information to your guests since those registry cards they GIVE you at the retailers are a serious etiquette no-no.
(Bed Bath and Beyond - what are you thinking?)

Looking to save some money on postage? You can print a small save the date and slip it in with your holiday cards! Contact us today to get started!

**Candy Dots letterpress Save the Date card in fuchsia and tangerine from Paper Mill Designs**

Calligraphy Invitations now available!

{Isabelle Lynne Signature Designs invitations from L to R: Charmed, Majestic, Majestic detail, Chic, Modern, and Elegance.}

One of the many things we've been working on this winter is launching our new line of invitations with the lovely and talented Jennifer Gillespie of Calligraphy By Jennifer. Right now we offer five different designs under the Isabelle Lynne Signature Designs brand and we're excited to be adding more options in the future! Each style is available in letterpress or digital print and we have coordinating pieces to accompany the designs as well--everything from coasters, menus and programs to save the dates, place cards and everything else! Hand-calligraphy really enhances the invitations and looks beautiful and luxurious especially in letterpress. Contact us today about working on a package for your event!

Holiday cards featured!

Would you believe when I stopped in to Target the day after Halloween they already had Merry Christmas decorations all over the store? True Story. I am not ready for everything Christmas on November 1st. After Thanksgiving, then I'm all for it.

So...our holiday cards are available for purchase and we're so excited to have them featured in today's House and Home section of the Kansas City Star Newspaper (page E5.) It's like we're famous(ish)! Everything is available for purchase through our etsy store and our Cyber Monday discount applies through midnight on 12/30. Happy Shopping!!

Black Friday - Cyber Monday Specials!!

Oh my goodness-how is it already Thanksgiving week? The past few months have really flown and I'm hoping that holiday shopping panic mode doesn't set in for a few more weeks! While I've never braved the crowds on Black Friday, I am a huge fan of Cyber Monday! So, we're very excited to participate in a Black Friday through Cyber Monday promotion with lots of other great retailers, especially other Kansas City etsy businesses!

We're offering 15% off all orders placed Friday through Monday, including personalized items. Our suitcases are already a big hit and great for holding doll clothes, craft items, new baby gifts or anything else and it's always great to keep stationery sets on hand for hostess gifts and emergency presents! Take a look here for other KC Etsy businesses's specials and great ideas for everyone on your shopping list. Some of my favorites are this coin pouch from ni-chern designs and of course this adorable button from shawnanonna. That's right, redheads rock! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and I hope everyone finds great shopping deals over the next few days!

tea for two?

Look at these lovely single cupcake stands I saw on Bakerella's blog. (have you been over there?  swoon!)   Puts me in the mood to throw a wonderful tea party!  For one of my wedding showers we had afternoon-tea at the Fairmont Hotel Oak Room (now the InterContinental).  There were a variety of teas and multiple petit-fours and my mom and her friends all got to wear big fancy hats.  (Not a good look for me.)  

Anyway, for my next tea party I would order these fantastic tissue flowers from PartyPom's etsy shop and some of these fancy little cupcakes from Cake Girl (here in KC!)  My sister Abigail booked them for her upcoming wedding and the samples were delicious!  She also has a peanut butter buttercream frosted cupcake that we're dying to try!  

Featured at Emmaline Bride today!

Thanks to Emmaline Bride for featuring our "Eat, Drink and be Married" letterpress coasters on their Nine New Handmade Finds today. Check out their website for great handmade products to personalize your wedding from companies across the country! Check out the beautiful facinator hairpiece from Belles & Crystals! Makes me want to get married all over again!

uploads galore!

I'm still working through the updates to our website but in the meantime I'm uploading our pending product shots to flickr and some to our facebook page too for everyone to see. If you don't see your project listed I'm still working through all the proofs and will be adding more shortly!

Real Weddings: Megan and Brian

For Megan and Brian's wedding last June, we incorporated a deep purple and chocolate brown into the design of their stationery suite. That color scheme continued for their 06.07.08 (hard to forget that anniversary!) elegant outdoor wedding. Hosted at a private residence outside of Lawrence, Kansas, Megan and Brian's big day was a great celebration of the start of their lives together.

Now, I'm getting to work on some shower invitations to celebrate the new baby Irvine arriving in the next few months! Congrats Megan and Brian!

Fab new finds at the Bridal Fair!

We had a great time at last weekend's bridal fair and were able to chat with a ton of new people. Congrats to the winners of $100 off one of our letterpress packages. We met some new vendors as well--1154 Lill Studio down on the Country Club Plaza is a great spot to make a bag for your next special occasion or to host a shower for your bridesmaids! The bags come in all different colors and prints (check out their gorgeous display from the show!)

Envelopes by Ann is a local calligraphy studio and I loved her samples of the white ink on color envelopes. To top off your envelopes, I like these monogram stamps from Perfect Postage to coordinate with your invitation design.

The newest addition to Paper Mill Designs

Thought it was about time to introduce the newest member of the Paper Mill Designs staff--Miss Avery Isabelle! (You can click on the picture to enlarge and see her "Blue Steel" look.)

She was born April 1st and is already a hard worker (child labor? shmild labor.) She especially enjoys helping her mom do design work and looking at the pretty Mac Book Pro. (Who wouldn't?)

We had great fun putting together her cherry blossom announcements and had crinkle confetti all over the house. Tying bows on all of the candy cigars kept me busy for a few hours as well! We love the chocolate brown boxes and the soft pink ink and even made custom mailing labels in a sage green. We also made letterpress baby thank you cards to match her letterpress birth announcement-we've heard they're all the rage--even if Mom does the writing.

Contact us today if you want to get started on announcements for your new little one. We are having so much fun with our previous brides coming back to work with us for their children!

upcoming changes to our website!

We're working on making some changes to our website to better display our options and custom projects from previous clients. A big first step in moving forward was hiring a photographer to do some product photography for us! Sarah Maxey Photography did a wonderful job of capturing the texture of our papers and the impression of our letterpress projects and we're so excited to be able to feature her work! You can check out her blog for some more of our shots and adorable family and baby shoots she's done. For those of you in the Kansas City area, she's running a great special if you book by July 31st--$75 for a session fee and you get an image release and CD with all of your pictures for printing. Contact her today--baby pics, engagement sessions, family pics, whatever. And......be on the lookout for more updates at Paper Mill Designs!

Lipstick and Flower Stems inspiration board on Inventing Weddings

{inspiration board courtesy of inventing weddings}

Many thanks to Inventing Weddings for featuring our sage green Olivia letterpress invitations in one of their latest inspiration boards. How cute is that little clutch as well? All of the items featured can be found on etsy and Inventing Weddings has the direct links for all of the items. They are posting a ton of inspiration boards so it's a great place to get ideas. Check them out!

real weddings: chris and claire

{photo credits clockwise from top left: 1, 2, 3, 4}

A lot of clients aren't sure what to expect when it comes to working with a custom stationery company. What exactly does custom mean? For us, it means we want to work with our clients to make sure that not only do they love their stationery, but that it coordinates with their overall vision for an event.

A perfect example of this is the stationery package we created with Chris and his lovely fiancée Claire. Chris is a friend from high school. When he proposed to Claire, he had a ring custom-designed from Visionary Jewelers, another friend of the couple. When I began working with Claire, she floated the idea of having her stationery design inspired by her ring. After rounds of proofs, I think we found a great representation that compliments the beautiful detail from the ring. We ran their invitations and thank you stationery on our antique letterpress in beautiful navy and kelly green ink.

Enjoy these beautiful photos from Chris and Claire's wedding by the talented Leda Vander Laan of LVL Photography. Congrats again to the happy couple!