I was dead-set on the idea of letterpress invitations for my wedding — I love their clean & elegant aesthetic and felt it to be an important detail in setting the stage for the event. But for a small wedding like ours, which included fewer than 50 guests, how could we possibly justify the average cost of $ 400 for one little plate? Enter Christie at Blue Cole Press. We learned about Christie’s services through my sister, who took classes from her at The San Francisco Center for the Book. You can see some of her work on her Etsy site(not sure if those Painted Ladies coaster sets are still visible — if not, I’ll tell you that they were *totally* adorable and would make awesome party favors). She’s local, and we communicated via email & phone before picking up the final product in person. We asked for 50 prints of our invitation, a reception and an RSVP card, and the return address on the back of the invitation’s envelope. All this she did for about three-quarters of the price of ONE plate at other print shops. Seriously! No lie! For a small additional fee, Christie also did the graphic design for our invitations — something I, in my already-fried wedding-planning state, was grateful to pass off into her trusty hands. She took our calligraphy originals and prepped them for the press perfectly. Importantly, Christie was unfazed by all the back-and-forth discussions about ink color, image size, paper stock, and what have you that are all part of the biz. She’s cool as a cucumber. We received so may compliments on our invitations and now we have those beautiful letterpressed wedding keepsakes that I’d imagined. THANKYOUCHRISTIE and Blue Cole Press!