The same hands that will draft every version of your design, feed each sheet of paper into the press, painstakingly assemble every detail, personally hand your suites over to the postal service, and hold yours through every step of a task that can easily become overwhelming without the right guide.
Your Invitations are in good hands.
On the Virtues of Paper
A Note from your Stationer
Dear Couple,
It wasn’t so long ago that I was in your shoes: in the throes of wedding planning, wondering which details I was agonizing over would matter to me in a few years' time. I can report to you that years later, our wedding invitation is what I look at the most.
It is displayed in our dining room and we see it every day. Each personal touch we incorporated is a time capsule of the joy of our wedding and the promises we made to each other.
Now, it's my mission to hand-print beautiful, meaningful wedding paper for couples like you so that you walk away from your day with a memento that inspires all of the heartfelt feelings that my wedding stationery gives to me.
Warm Regards,
Sara
How it All Began
I earned my degree in the History of Art from the University of Michigan and worked on fine art collections and exhibitions before pivoting to take my freelance graphic design work full time in 2021.
A Wedding
Designing my own wedding invitations introduced me to the art of letterpress and the satisfaction of taking my work off of the screen and creating something with my hands.
The Start of a Studio
I acquired my own antique press and launched B&H in 2022, marrying my design work to my love of history, printmaking, and the objects that transcend a moment in time.
the Press
The press itself is one hundred years old, 1500 pounds of cast iron, and still prints like it was made yesterday.
I print on a Chandler & Price platen-style press. It's a jobbing press, meaning it has always been used for short-run projects like invitations, announcements, and stationery.
My favorite fun fact: the inventor of the platen press claimed to have gotten the idea from Benjamin Franklin, who appeared to him in a dream.
Designing for Letterpress
The letterpress printing process begins in the design phase. Every design element is chosen with the strengths and limitations of the printing method in mind.
Letterpress loves typography, line work, and small ornament illustrations. I love to draw inspiration from historical typesetting and antique printers' catalogs: there was a time where graphic design revolved around suitability for letterpress!
Custom Plates
Your custom design is made into photopolymer plates - a separate one for every piece and ink color. The plates act as highly detailed stamps that press the design into the paper.
Preparing for Print
Much happens before printing can begin. The press requires regular maintenance, including oiling all of the moving parts.
To prepare for a new project, I load the rollers, ink the press, and install the plate. Then the process called makeready begins: fine-tuning the placement, alignment, ink coverage, and impression depth to get the best possible results.
Printing
I feed each piece of paper into the press, one at a time. For most of my designs, I forgo the motor and turn the flywheel by hand, as I prefer to work slowly and precisely.
Printing on handmade paper with natural edges means that every sheet is different than the one before, so I individually align every sheet to my design in order to create the best possible effect.
Debossing and colors
I love to incorporate blind-debossing (pressing the design into the paper without ink) or secondary colors into my designs, and with every new plate comes a repeat of the process.
I clean the press, set up the new plate and ink color, and begin again feeding every sheet into the press one at a time. This time, the registration process (matching up the plates to each other) is doubly complex as I must align the design to what has already been printed.
Quality Assurance
Letterpress is an imperfect art form, and much of its beauty comes from the natural variation from print to print. That being said, I inspect every piece that I pull from the press to ensure it meets my quality standards.
A Few Tidbits About Myself
I share my quiet, artistic life in Michigan with my wonderful husband Sebastian and two beloved cats, Pippin and Moose (who sometimes keep things just shy of quiet, in reality!).
Favorite Movie
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Favorite Artist
Édouard Manet
A wildcard
I LOVE Spider-Man!
Favorite Holiday
Christmas! Find me at Greenfield Village's Holiday Nights every year ❤️
Ready to Begin?
Inquiry Form+
It's a Pleasure to
Make Your Acquaintance
I am pleased to connect with you about your dream wedding stationery suite. Please leave me a note using the form below with a few details about your event and I will be in touch shortly, or email me directly at [email protected].
Kindly note that B&H has a minimum investment of $4,000 for custom wedding stationery, regardless of quantity.
