An envelope arrives in the mail, the address hand-lettered or in beautiful type; anticipation sets in. The envelope is eagerly opened. This is the first taste your guest has of what will be your celebration.
You bring your sense of design, tradition, and meaning to the whole event, beginning with the invitation. Peggy Davis works with you, as she has with hundreds of customers, to design your invitations, bringing her personal touch to the printed work. Peggy works successfully with people all over the country by mail, phone and e-mail to create unique, personal invitations.
A selection of invitations are shown here. Click on the images to see it in a larger size. Colors may not be the same on your screen. The designs are available in many ink colors, paper colors and textures.
Your Choices in the Design Process
Peggy will guide you through the steps to create your invitations. These include:
• Cover or border design: chosen from a printer's album, from Peggy's previous work, or a new design she creates with you. This design can be applied to other items such as program booklets, benchers, centerpieces, banners, etc.
• Inspiration from tradition: A verse from a traditional source is often the central element of an invitation design. A verse may include a child's name for a birth announcement, from Songs of Songs for a wedding invitation, from the Torah portion for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah . Other languages, using Roman, Hebrew or Cyrillic alphabets may be used.
• Lettering or type: Choose hand-lettering styles or calligraphic fonts. Hand-lettering provides a more personal, immediate touch to the invitation, and can be adapted in shape and form in a way that type cannot. Typeset text may be the effect you would like and is less expensive.
One thing that makes Peggy's invitations stand out is that even her typeset invitations have the look of hand-work. She uses one of two personal Hebrew fonts created from her own hand-lettering, and offers selected English fonts designed by calligraphers.
• Finishing: enclose the whole set in a pocket folder, add layers of colored paper to frame the invitation card, choose the shape of the invitation card, create a custom envelope liner.
• Paper: choose from many sizes and shapes; samples are available. Recycled, textured, with fiber or flecks, shades of white, off-white, ivory or other colors with smooth, linen or textured surfaces, or embedded with flower seeds. There are many ink colors available.
• Printing: Raised ink, in one or two colors, full-color digital printing or letterpress printing.
• Envelopes: The return address is usually printed on the back flap. Peggy often hand-letters or digitally prints the names and addresses on the envelope fronts.
• Digital invitation: You can commssion the art work for a digital invitation, in which case you will receive the art work by e-mail in the resolution that you request.
Cost and Time
The cost varies widely, depending on the choices of materials and complexity of the design. Peggy will work with you to meet your needs and your budget. A detailed estimate will be prepared for you once a plan is developed. The price for 100 sets of invitations, envelopes, RSVP cards/envelopes and thank you notes can range from $300-1200 . Other insert cards, place cards, table numbers and more may be ordered. Pocket invitation sets start at about $600.
It is helpful to start the process three months or more before you want to mail the invitations.
How to Begin
As you look through the examples here, you may find something that appeals to you or which you'd like to adapt. You may find examples of styles, designs or symbols elsewhere, in a book, a greeting card, a magazine or on-line. Any such resources can be helpful in the creative process. Call Peggy at 413-624-3204. Based on your conversation and any material you provide, she will send you sketches, and with your further comments, a sketch will be refined to your satisfaction. Then she will create a digital version of the final art, which will be e-mailed to you for approval before being sent to the printer. The printer will ship the invitation or announcement sets directly to you.
Now you can begin this fascinating journey!
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