We did white writing on navy for our invites. In order to get the white to be really crisp, we used white paper and did reverse print with navy ink in the negative space. It worked beautifully. I love the contrast of white writing on dark paper!

I don’t know if you ever been to Savannah but please make sure you check out the Paris Market & Brocante on W.Broughton!

http://layersofmeaning.blogspot.com/2008/03/paris-market-brocante.html

also on W. Broughton @home
the scad store & Moss on Bull St.

May I recommend not getting married in Forsyth park or in any of the squares; friends and I used to always walk by and laugh as tourists would stand around roped off sections and watch people get married. Yes all the areas are pretty but the lack of privacy is ridiculous.

A wedding in Savannah would be lovely.

Any suggestions on where to by white or light opaque ink for stamps?

This is an idea I’ve considered MANY times, I’ve just never seen white ink before!?

i think your idea is wonderful, grace.

i wish some of this outside the box creativity was more prevalent when i was planning my wedding 10 years ago.

have fun!

If it’s any encouragement, my wedding invites were charcoal gray with white writing and to this day people still talk about how beautiful they were. The darker but neutral paper with the crisp white ink really stood out. Congrats and have fun planning!

You should look at printing or gocco to do the white reverse. Like the previous person said, you won’t get really the white to be crisp or to pop with a white stamp. I tried that with my pear stamp on brown kraft paper for my save the dates and it looked nice, but it doesn’t have that “wow” factor as much.
- MM

Screenprinted also works wonderfully for light on dark. Not quite as DIY (unless you know how to screenprint) but beautiful results. Maybe Gocco would work too? Not really sure about that though….

What time of year are you getting married. I´m getting married in summer 2009 and am already worrying about/enjoying the planning of the decorations, invites and so on. The “problem” is that I find myself much more drawn to the darker, cozier wintery stuff than the light summer themes. Any tips on dark, cozy summer? Any inspiration will do, not necessarily things intended for weddings (come to think of it, ESPECIALLY things not intended for weddings). Ta!

I love this envelope and am right there with you on the light lettering on darker paper. The tree images are incredible as well :)

Harpa - I think a foresty look can be great in summer! Think of Adirondack chairs under the pines at a northeastern summer camp.

Grace - from a technical standpoint, white ink has to be pretty serious stuff, i.e. oil-based, not water-based, in order to be opaque. Therefore it will be a bit tricky to source and possibly costly. I bet your friend at Port2port can explain it much better than I can.

I LOVE Yellow Owl’s stuff - her illustrations are fabulous - and totally concur with the commenter above that recommends screen printing for white ink/dark paper. It will definitely give you a crisper, brighter look on dark paper than anything else, other than engraving. Beautiful!

What a great envelope to use for inspiration… We used silver writing on chocolate brown envelopes for my wedding , and the combination got raves.

A friend gave me a handmade set of notecards recently that used the chocolate and white combo beautifully- he painted small leaves white and attached them to the front of the card as the decorative motif. he then gave me a white paint pen to use with them. because the paint pen is quite opaque, it does pop. I’ll take a photo to send to you.

I love this color combination! Good luck on your location search…it was my favorite part of the planning process!

screenprinting is definitely the way to go. and you can use water-based screenprinting ink for this. to print a little image this size it shouldn’t be expensive at all, probably under $50 for the screen which you can use to print hundreds of envelopes. you could commission an artist to do the design, send your digital image to standard screen in ny and they’ll send you the finished screen ready to print. once the screen is made it’s not that hard to print it yourself. making the screens is the hard part. i’m happy to provide more info. i love silkscreening!

I just attended a wedding in Savannah this past weekend and it was fabulous. The couple got married at this tiny, beautiful chapel at the Bethesda Home for Boys. The reception was at Savannah Station and it was just lovely.

very cool idea for invites. White on brown always looks beautiful!

Here’s a nice one: white on brown.

I did just that for our wedding invitations, using a quilt design I illustrated and having rubber stamps made. It was wonderful, so personal, and also fairly simple! A1 stamso did a great job with my custom order:

http://www.a1stamps.com/index.php/imagequotes/

when i was printing wedding invites (on the Gocco) i did white ink all the time, and it looked so good! but i bet you could find a heavy opaque ink to rubber stamp with, too.

i love white or gold on chocolate paper also…we just got a gocco for our invites!! I am SO excited to use it.

My brother and his ex-wife (ahem) used navy envelopes with white writing. When they took them to the post office, there was a bit of a calamity about the machines not being able to “read” the drop0ut text (be prepared), but they mailed them anyway and everything worked out OK.
Aside from the marriage, natch.

hey everybody,
thanks for the nice words. the above envelope is screenprinted. but if you wanted to go the stamp relief route, you can purchase soy-based opaque white block printing ink from speedball or from here: http://www.imcclains.com/catalog/ink/akuaintaglio.html
Both would clean up with soap and water and are non-toxic. I would shy away from delicate text for such a project.

I did brown envelopes, too, and struggled with the lettering part of it. Ideally I would have hired a fantastic calligrapher but this wasn’t in the budget. I decided to spend the extra money on flowers and a first rate photographer since those are the things that last and you look at more over time. ANYWAY, the end result was that I chose to use a label/sticker on the front of each envelope. It had a decorative full color design (I did this part myself) and then I had the ability to type all of the names and addresses onto it in a pretty font. I made the invites with a Gocco, too…I just want to warn you that this process is long and stressful so make it easy on yourself. The only fight my husband and I had was over the invitations because we did them entirely ourselves. Good luck!

Harpa- Why not consider other “darker” themes. How about a deep south/new orleans “midnight in the garden of good and evil” color story with an eggplant purple as a base color. OR how about something preppier, like a more nautical theme based on Navy? Imagine a tiny navy and white polka dot! Just depends on where you tie the knot…brighter accent colors could keep it from feeling too “heavy”.

if anyone out there has an upcoming wedding and isn’t sure what to do for invites/announcements, please contact yellow owl workshop! we just got our wedding announcement design finalized and chris has completely amazed us. you won’t be disappointed!

I just letterpressed my friends wedding stationery with white onto black, the effect is semi opaque but still very dramatic.
With letterpress you can have custom plates made for a small tabletop press from any illustration as long as it has crisp lines work the best.

I just letterpressed my friends wedding stationery with white onto black, the effect is semi opaque but still very dramatic.
With letterpress you can have custom plates made for a small tabletop press from any illustration, crisp lines work the best.

Stamping white is going to be an issue. The paper will absorb the ink & you will prob. not get that clean & crisp affect you posted. I recommend engraving white on a dark stock it looks lovely & has a textured feeling to it. Or you can have a silk screen cut & then use a paint, which also will feel crisp and have a slight hand-made feel. Good luck.

The best white stamping ink is made by a company called MEMORIES.
It is a thick, opaque, dye based white ink, on a pad. I buy it off Ebay, but I am sure it’s available at all the usual sources.

grace, i love that idea. martha stewart’s white stamp ink is very good, too. i also second a1stamps.com as an option for custom stamps. i also love yellow owl workshop’s work. they are fabulous!

You did printmaking in school though, no? There are so many options once you understand basic printmaking concepts.
- MM

have a lovely trip!

You could totally do this with screen printing. Check out www.parlorrugby.com/portfolio/wedding/
There are a few examples there of light on dark, you can do pretty cool stuff with screenprinting inks.

Hi,
I did gold on chocolate brown envelopes recently, and the results were so so fabulous! See my post here: http://joiestudio.blogspot.com/2007/12/awesome-envelopes.html
More pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinapham/sets/72157604056367767/