#marcandemma2015 - a wedding amongst the vines

As the days get longer and Spring approaches, I look back with warm memories of my sister's wedding in September. The GG studio became wedding HQ over the Summer months and we were tasked with making it a very special weekend for all to remember. The weekend was based around St Tropez; Friday night, sunset cocktails overlooking the bay, Saturday, a Pampelonne beach party, and Sunday, the wedding, amongst the vines.

Choosing colours - Oyster & Olive

For the invitations, I thought an oyster card and olive green ink would fit perfectly. The envelopes were on a thick oyster paper with a stunning olive green lining and had our calligrapher's signature romantic writing on the front. It was tricky to work out whether to use olive green or black ink for the calligraphy but after several test runs, we found that black names and addresses were a good contrast to the olive text, and most definitely easier for the postman to read.

Black ink calligraphy with olive text

The invitation itself was a thick folded card with engraved text. We employ special techniques to ensure that the spine doesn't crack on such a thick card and that there's a strong indentation on the reverse of the card, and finish it off with a standard plate mark (the indented border). To hold the inserts, we created a little pocket with blind embossed initials of the engaged couple, and then a staggered effect for the information card, map and beach party invite. The reply cards were tucked into the back of the pocket. A lovely personal touch was the illustrated map. These are proving very popular with our clients at the moment.

Blind embossed initials on little pocket

We screen printed the map onto canvas bags and filled them with a number of goodies to welcome the guests to their hotels: sunglasses and wristbands branded with the couple's logo, welcome booklets and a number of French snacks. The finishing touch to the bags were the personalized tags.  

Goody bag

Sunglasses and wristbands branded with the couple's logo

We had a couple of Instagram props made up for the beach party. Emblazoned on it was the hashtag #marcandemma2015 - guests could use the hashtag so that they could check out each other's photos.

The beautiful couple and their instagram props

Another cute idea was placing the escort envelopes (the little cards which tell you which table you are sitting at) into corks. Inside the envelopes were little cards referring to the table numbers. For the table numbers themselves, the calligrapher drew out large numbers in our olive green ink. For menus, we usually like to double them up as place cards. On a thick card, with a platemark and coloured edging, we detailed out the menu, and had the guest name written on the top.

Escort cards

It really was a special weekend and such fun to try out different ideas.

The London Symphony Orchestra

The LSO is one of the world's leading orchestras and earlier this month they celebrated the 70th birthday of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas at the Barbican Centre, London. Along with this celebration was a dinner at St. James's Palace.

We had the pleasure of printing and designing the stationery for this honoured occasion which included the invitations, place settings and programmes. One of our illustrators produced beautiful illustrations of Buckingham Palace and St.James's Palace, all printed on a watercolour stock. Grey calligraphy added the finishing touch. 

Two programmes designed for a concert at Buckingham Palace, in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen, and a dinner in The State Rooms at St James's Palace

At GG Print we really pride ourselves on attention to detail and we were really happy with the end result.

Michael Tilson Thomas and The London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican Centre

The written word

With a fantastic team of calligraphers at our studio, and me behind my Mac, my handwriting is often out of sight. When it comes to taking notes or scribbling a little thank you I'm horrified at the results. So last week I was very excited to attend a masterclass 'How to: Dramatically Improve Your Handwriting' with professional scribe and lettering artist Cherrell Avery put on by the 'How to: Academy'. With a few little tweaks, Cherrell had me slowing down and creating legible text.

                                                               

                                                             Green & Stone, Chelsea

Today I've been sitting at my desk thinking about my posture, the way my paper slants to the left, the speed at which I write, and most importantly, the not-so-impressive biros that I write with. I popped down to Green & Stone at the weekend and bought myself a beautiful Sheaffer pen. Although I won't be a professional calligrapher any time soon I should be on my way to having better handwriting with the tips and advice picked up.

Calligraphy at GG Print