Woo Hoo! We received an email last night that one of our weddings was featured on the Mpls/StP Magazine Aisle File! Big congrats to Catherine, Ken and the rest of the vendors that took part in this one. Dick & Jane provided the design, letterpress printing and foil stamping on these absolutely beautiful wedding invitations. We can definitely attribute the inspiration to the venue and it looks like Olive Juice Photography did a great job knocking this one out of the park. We're sol happy to see our clients and our work highlighted for the rest of the Twin Cities to celebrate. So much love and appreciation to everyone at MPLS/StP Magazine for sharing this as your Aisle File feature!

photography courtesy of Olive Juice Photography

For a letterpress printer, there's nothing more fun than seeing a Heidelberg in the papers! So Letterpress printing and the Star Tribune?! ... well... sorta! We were visited last week by a writer and photographer from the Star Tribune. They we're researching for an article that came out last Sunday. The article was in celebration of the 1st anniversary of the light rail titled "University Avenue, Hopes are High!" The article mentioned our little shop and talked some about what the light rail has meant for us. If you haven't seen the article or are just curious about the new beginnings here on University Ave, we welcome you to visit the Star Tribune and read the article for yourself! Many thanks to the Tribune and all the supporters and small biz owners here on the Ave! - also - my friends tell me this pic makes me look old. .. boo.

Wedding Invitations in HD!

Working on a really great video collaboration. Showing folks around the shop and diving into the ins and out of letterpress wedding invitations. We'll detail some of the custom design as well as the production elements that go into creating your unique wedding invitations. Invitation paper, invitation envelopes, inks, foils, you name it! We can't wait to share the final piece with all of you! - DJL

Dig on these absolutely beautiful gold foil business cards. They're trimmed at a stylish 2.5" square dimension and printed double sided on our single-ply house stock. We just finished these super cute cards for Nicola Harger. She's a photographer based in the North Loop area and her work is absolutely stunning. Check out her site and maybe if you get a chance to meet her, you'll walk away with one of these beauties?!?!

Business cards, wedding invitations and so much more! Contact Dick & Jane Letterpress for all your Hot Foil and Letterpress needs!

Featured Wedding!

Finally got my hands on a few of the pictures from Katie and Aaron's wedding. Their wedding was featured on the Knot some time ago but I'd had a really hard time finding the pics to upload. Today I was surprised to see that the images and the original feature were magically linked to our Knot profile! Katie is an amazing illustrator and she and Aaron designed the invitation suite together. Together with Dick & Jane, we nailed down the colors, paper and final details. Everything turned out wonderfully and the pics from the ceremony/reception were just AMAZING! Have a look for yourself!

If you're in search of help with your custom wedding invitation design or letterpress wedding invitation printing, give us a ring!

We'd be glad to schedule an appointment at our storefront studio location or we can simply supply you with a quote!

The Minnesota Bride Magazine - Spring/Summer 2015 issue hit stands this month and it is jam-packed with all kinds of fantastic photos and articles. Even better, this issue has their annual Invitation review and guess who made it in!?

Woo-Hoo! I swear no matter how many years we've been doing invitations, every time I see our work in a printed publication, I get all kinds of super excited! Everyone around the shop is a buzz and our spring/summer clients are starting to come out of hibernation to begin working on their invitation suites. So much fun and great new designs in store for 2015.

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If you're considering invitations and you've got a crush on letterpress, definitely hit us up! We've got all kinds of packages to fit you needs AND your budget!  - xoxo DJL!

 

We did this fall wedding duotone set for Anastasia and Robert around this time last year. The set had been photographed and ended up being used in a few displays for wedding shows. Meanwhile, we completely overlooked adding a pic to the blog for all to enjoy. The set was based on our Spring Leaf design and produced on a natural white paper with a wonderful fall color pallet. An absolutely darling invite suite for a fantastic couple!

 

We at D & J drink coffee - lots and LOTS of coffee. And we got to thinking, why not give something back to our local coffee joint? As we started thinking about expanding into new materials, we did a test run of coffee koozies for our the nearby Round Table Coffee Works. Now the locally-roasted fresh brew looks as good as it tastes :) Keep a lookout for us - we might be around your favorite coffee cup, next!

Double sided letterpress printing. We get this question often. Can it be done? YES! But there are some things to be aware of. First and foremost, printing on side A will leave slight ghosted residual impression marks on side B. We can certianly dial back the impression to minimize these marks but that sort of defeats the purpose of letterpress, don't you think?? So you still want to double side your print and you want a nice, notable impression? No problem. Our best suggestions would be to either print on a duplex sheet (2 sheets glued together  back to back to create a thicker sheet) or our 2-ply (double thick stock direct from the mill). Both will allow for a very nice impression with little to no damage to the reverse side. Pictured below is a job we recently finished which includes an example of double sided letterpress printing on 2-ply paper. Note the impression marks from each side are practically invisible.

*One additional advantage to the 2-ply is that if you are considering a painted edge, the extra thick stock yields great results!

Chris and John came in a few weeks ago wanting an invitation to gather friends and family to formally celebrate their marriage. That said, they were definitely in search of a more casual feel so they came up with the idea of having a garden party! Did I mention John owns an absolutely wonderful landscaping company? Needless to say, their garden/yard is a real treat. Chris also wanted to integrate a font styling that had an architectural feel without being too fussy. We sat down over some samples, chatted about the neighborhood, and came up with this amazing duotone green on green leaf format which in its completion, really struck a chord. Many thanks to Chris and John! - pictured here pre-final trim.

This is another customer submitted design which became a favorite of the season around the shop. The layout clearly observes the typical rules of invitations with things like hierarchy, balance,  weight and a gentle hand. On the other hand,  the groom and brides names are completely different fonts, there are at least 4 + different fonts being used and the card was cut to a custom size for specialty envelopes. I won't say what company the designer works for by day but I will say her work combines fashion and the outdoors on the daily. Being this was a Wisconsin wedding, It's clear this is a case of the bride and designer being a fantastic match! - reflex blue on fluorescent white single ply.

We had the opportunity to create this wonderfully beautiful quilted letterpress wedding invitation a few weeks ago. We started by pressing the quilted texture into the 2-ply sheets with no ink. Then we followed up with a dark grey ink and gold foil on top to really drive it home. It's almost hard to capture in photographs how refined these are. My dirty fingers aren't helping either I suppose! Contact us today for your more info on letterpress or custom foil invitations!

Many thanks to Steve and Ang - xoxo - DJL!

We wrapped up these amazing invitations recently and still can't get over them. Our Hollywood design really shines with this combo of gold foil and fuchsia ink. Dick and Jane offers very competitive foil pricing, inquire for more info!

Now Boarding all Brides and Grooms. Nickie came to us with a really cool opportunity to do a Plane ticket themed wedding invitation set! We sat down together and went back and forth over all sorts of design options. We settled with 1-color on a #10 card with all the info and a ticket stub perforation running down one side (similar to the wild tickets from a few months back). I was in a rush but I did manage to snap a few pic with the camera phone before they were picked up. Have a look. enjoy! Thanks for visiting the letterpress blog!

Kristen and Nicholas are super-ultimate Minnesota Wild fans.  When they approached us with the idea to turn the standard wedding invitation into something a little more edgy, the idea wheel started churning.

We thought: only a die hard fan would allow hockey tickets for their wedding invitations.  But not only were Kristen and Nicholas completely receptive to the idea--they loved it.  The gloves were off! To put it mildly, the ticket concept was uniquely them.  Few other invitations we've designed here in the letterpress shop can compare to the intensity of these. Two-color, color overlays, a little trapping and perforation along one side for that ticket stub look; These invites have all the bells and referee whistles!

We want to thank the couple for their creativity, trust and willingness to be a little more daring than the norm.  The results of this round of printing were incredible and wouldn't have been possible without their team spirit.  The popularity of this invitation has surpassed all our expectations, wildly popular among sports fans, travel aficionados and Minnesota natives.

Visit the letterpress blog for more sweet hi-sticking invitation awesomeness!

We were very excited when approached by Kelsey to create such a modern invitation suite. It's a modern kind of love! They were married at the wonderful Mass Museum of Contemporary Arts and they wanted their letterpress invitations to fit right in. We incorporated an exquisite type style and blocked type setting combined with a blind emboss of a giant coil. Why a coil you ask? Great question. Anyone who has visited the museum's event space will immediately recognize this item as the same 10ft copper coil that greets guests as they enter the through way. It was a kind of prequel for what the guests were to anticipate. We absolutely love this set and are so very proud to add it to our letterpress blog. Many thanks to Kelsey for being so inviting to creativity with this one. xoxo - DJL

Another fabulous design submitted by Bill Coombs. Bill is a local designer who flies somewhat under the radar. He specializes in Wedding Invitation Designs and creates some really fun stuff. Bubblegum Pink and Navy ink on a super heavy weight 4" coaster stock. These coasters always suck up a ton of ink so we had to add a couple things to the to get it flowing just right. If you're looking for letterpress coaster, let us know. We can do both circle and squares, 3.5" or 4" or custom sizes/shapes as needed!

Visit us this weekend at the Wedding Fair and pick up your $50 coupon good towards any order placed by December 1st 2010! We're also offering a drawing for 100 FREE Letterpress Wedding Invitations or Save-the-Dates w/ matching envelopes. Your Choice! We hope to see you there.

Check out bestweddingever.us. It's a wedding blog created by one of our long time friends and now client. Dick and Jane Letterpress just completed their letterpress wedding invitations which were designed by groom, Matthew White. Tiffany's Blue, and Dr. Pepper. Nothing Better. Many thanks to Matthew and Nicole for giving us the opportunity to assist in letterpress printing for their wedding day.

That's right folks. Dick and Jane Letterpress is on Facebook! If you're considering letterpress wedding invitations or save-the-dates, be sure to "like" us on Facebook. Why - you ask? Dick and Jane Letterpress releases limited offer coupons and discount specials exclusively through our Facebook group page. SO... if you're thinking about letterpress and love a stellar deal, Join today! xoxo - DJL