Behind The Bones: Lea and A.J.'s Catskill Wedding

Working with Lea and A.J. turned out to be a MAJOR highlight of 2019 here at Lovelybones Paperie. I grew up with Lea in upstate New York and knew that the two of them were looking to create some legitimate magic for their Summer wedding. One look at the venue’s website and I was in LOVE. The Deer Mountain Inn is a one-of-a-kind venue - it’s timeless and romantic, and completely breathtaking through and through.

We took the charm of their wedding venue and created an elaborate letterpress suite to represent their big day. Bold pops of color paired with whimsical floral elements brought out the relaxed Summertime vibe they were looking for and the end result was even better than we had imagined! With so many colors and different pieces, I knew this would be my most intense project to date and I couldn’t wait to get started.

Keep on scrolling for some photos taken along the way and read up on each stage of my process!

Next, check out more final images from their wedding day! Lea and A.J.’s Meadowy Mountaintop Wedding

Before inking the press, I ran my first plate to make sure everything was lining up properly and that the impressions were even throughout the entire design.

Those white pieces holding my paper in place are gauge pins. Traditionally, you really only need 3, but I sometimes opt to use a fourth for peace of mind during multi-color projects.

The next day, I mixed my second color and ran everything through Boo. The registration was super tight so I took my time and inspected basically every piece as I went.

Next color…LETSSSSS GO! The end was (kinda) in sight! I ran this fourth color on the invites and itineraries and then finished off the two-color rsvp cards.

I did a blind floral impression on these half-moon pocket enclosures and despite the packing being a little tricky they turned out really pretty!

Each Pantone color that I use on press is mixed by hand using the appropriate base colors according to the formula guide. First up was Pantone 7563 U!

YAY. I LOVE THIS COLOR. My first inked proof was beautiful! I double-checked that the alignment and impressions were still all good and then went ahead to finish the run.

I hit a minor roadblock with the third ink. It looked a bit more neon than I wanted so I ended up mixing 3 extra colors, ran proofs and worked with Lea to choose an alternative.

I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS INK DUO. I was honestly bugging out with excitement about these rsvp cards. They were sooooo vibrant and yeah, I LOVE THEM.

This is only about half of the guest names! The mini envelopes took me hourssss because I had to register every single one but they were a cool personal touch at the wedding.

TA-DA! After a few minutes of working my inks together, I’ve got my intended color choice. It’s what I like to call a beautiful antique coppery-gold!

Here’s another shot of the first ink color that I pressed. After I finished the invitation run, I pressed the gold plates for all of the rsvp cards, detail cards, and itineraries!

Registration was becoming trickier and trickier now that I was running the third ink color. I worked slowly and was becoming a bit obsessive about double-checking each piece.

Here’s a shot of the wedding weekend itineraries before I added the fourth color to them. Similar to the invites, registration was getting crazy!

I reused the floral pattern plate from the pockets on the back of these mini notecards. The backside featured a table number and handwritten note from the bride and groom!