james, Author at GG Print

Monograms

We’ve recently been designing a lot of monograms for our bespoke wedding and party invitations. Wedding monograms are a great way to personalise your wedding stationery especially when going for a simple and traditional design. It can be me transferred onto other items of the wedding and be used as a running theme throughout. As well as invitations, monograms are also great for other stationery types such as correspondence cards and logos.

Left: Wedding monogram engraved in a metallic silver
Right: Wedding monogram thermo printed in grey
Left: Wedding monogram thermo printed in metallic gold
Right: Wedding monogram engraved in navy blue
Left: Monogram on a party invite, engraved in white ink onto red card
Right: Monogram for a company, thermo printed in a metallic bronze

A wedding amongst the vines

We look back with warm memories at Laura’s sister’s wedding in St Tropez. The GG studio became wedding HQ and was tasked with making it a very special weekend for all to remember; 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, we thought an oyster card and olive green ink would fit perfectly. The envelopes were made from a thick oyster paper with a gorgeous 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 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.

Jazzing up your dress code

We often get asked by our clients for some ideas of alternatives to the traditional ‘black tie’ or the more relaxed ‘smart casual’. So here are some fun themes:

Something Chic

Beach / Summer / Provence / Riviera / Evening / Cocktail / Sassy

…with a twist / with a touch

Black tie with a Gatsby twist / Black tie with a touch of floral
Lounge suit with an 80s twist / Lounge suit with a touch of Safari
Cocktail with a rainbow twist / Cocktail with a touch of beach

Other Ideas

Circus Glitz / Glitter and Sequins / Tropical Glam / Cowboy Casual / Wigs in Space / Secret Garden / Jungle Fever / Masks and Capes / Sparkles / Black Tie No Tie / Bollywood Best

Classics

Black Tie / Black Tie Optional / White Tie / Lounge Suits / Beach Formal / Cocktail / Festive / Smart Casual

Whichever option you choose, we will make sure to create the perfect stationery to highlight the theme of your special event. You can browse more of our designs here.