To us, the connection between sender and receiver is always personal. For customers looking to add an extra personalized touch to their paper goods, we offer custom services. Want to create one-of-a-kind stationery that has you written all over it? Looking for bespoke wedding invitation suites as special as your big day? Planning to really wow with holiday cards custom-made to reflect you and your family? Our small band of designers, illustrators, printers, and wordsmiths will work with you one-on-one to create the letterpress goods of your dreams.
Custom Gallery
How It Works
FILL OUT OUR REQUEST FORM
Be as detailed as possible. We may reach out with additional questions.
GET A PROJECT QUOTE
You’ll receive a detailed quote that includes cost and timeline.
WORK WITH A DESIGNER
We’ll work with you one-on-one to bring your project to life.
DELIVERY
Our proofing, printing, and delivery process ensures you’re delighted with the finished product.
BESPOKE WEDDING INVITATIONS
We love working with couples to create the perfect suite of paper goods that expresses the unique aesthetic of your special day. Work with our designers to create a memorable, one-of-a-kind wedding suite to help you and your guests get excited for the big event. We recommend starting this process at least 20 weeks ahead of your wedding date to allow plenty of time for design, printing, and mailing. Spots are limited and our schedule fills up quickly, so book early! You can also find Smudge Ink on Postable if you're in need of a quicker turn-around or if you have a more limited budget.
Typical Timeline
Average design time is 4-6 weeks, plus 4-6 weeks for printing and 7 days for shipping
Typical price range for 75 five-piece suites:
$1600 - $2600
Includes an invitation, reply card, info card, reply envelope, and outer envelope in every suite
CUSTOM PROJECTS & DESIGN SERVICES
Let your imagination run wild—we love bringing your paper vision to life through custom projects. This can entail anything from adding a custom inside greeting to one of our existing letterpress holiday cards to working directly with our designers to create custom stationery. Have a unique idea for a business card or holiday card that you’d love to have letterpress printed? We offer hourly design services for your letterpress printing needs. Not sure if your project falls under this umbrella? Just ask us. We’re friendly and we love brainstorming ideas and possibilities.
LETTERPRESS PRINTING
If you’re a business, wedding suite designer, or maker with a design already in hand, but need an expert letterpress printer for the job, we can help with that, too. We’ll make sure your design files are printable and take care of ordering the printing plates.
Not sure if your project falls under this umbrella? Just ask us. We’re friendly and we love brainstorming ideas and possibilities.
THE DETAILS
INK
Choose from our 56 color house palette. Request a sample to see how the colors look when letterpress printed. You can also opt for a custom ink color for a fee of $25 per color.
PAPER
Our house paper for custom projects is luxurious and thick. If you have a specific paper in mind, we can order it custom or make letterpress-specific recommendations. Request a sample for the full experience.
DESIGN
From custom illustration and design elements to the font that expresses your unique style, no detail is too big or small.
Feeling inspired? Get in touch to start your custom project.
Ready to get started?
Fill out the form below to request a sample, learn more, or begin a custom order.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How many colors can I use for my letterpress project?
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How many colors can I use for my letterpress project?
A one-color letterpress design will be the most cost effective option. Both the design and printing processes are simplified when printing in just one color and you still get the impact of beautiful letterpress. This is a very elegant option and one that is common for both weddings and business cards!
Most often, we do two-color design and printing. With the power of skilled design, just two colors can look like 3, 4, or even 5 colors. The second color can act as complement or accent to the first, resulting in an impactful and beautiful finished product. A second color does impact the final cost because the printing process is, essentially, doubled. It also generally calls for more complex design.
We have done a few three-color letterpress designs. We only recommend this option if three colors are essential for your design and you have a larger budget.
Full color printing: If you’re looking for a very colorful option, we’d be happy to discuss the ways in which we can combine letterpress and full color, flat printing. Another way to add a pop of color is to special order a colored paper or colored envelopes to accent your project.
Can you print in full color?
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Can you print in full color?
All of our custom printing projects must include some letterpress element, but we often combine letterpress with full color, flat printing to achieve the best of both printing styles. See above.
What changes impact budget the most?
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What changes impact budget the most?
Design time usually has the biggest impact on the final cost. Design time increases with the number of pieces in the project and number of changes during the design phase. Keep in mind that complex, detailed illustrations require more design hours than simple illustrations or text-only layouts.
The more specific you can be about your design preferences, the better.
Increasing your final print quantity by 5-10 generally has a minor impact on the total cost. The more pieces you are printing, the bigger impact an increase will have. For example, if you have a 5 piece wedding suite, increasing the quantity by 10 for each piece means we will print a total of 50 additional units.
Why does it take so long?
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Why does it take so long?
While we love working one-on-one with clients, our primary business is designing, producing, and selling our line of greeting cards. Letterpress printing is a very hands-on process and it takes time to do it well. To ensure that we give each custom client the beautiful end-product they deserve, we allow plenty of time so we can work the projects into our daily design and print schedules as seamlessly as possible without holding up any of our other work and causing our staff to burn out.
How can I help speed up the process?
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How can I help speed up the process?
- Be as detailed as possible when submitting your inquiry (fill out the form above).
- Have all of your information ready to go! If you want a wedding suite, have a document ready with all of the text for each piece. This includes everything from the exact wording you’d like to use on the invitation, to the return address for the mailing envelope.
- Share reference and inspiration photos with us so we can understand your vision.
- Schedule a free consultation call as soon as possible (after filling out the above questionnaire).
- Understand and be honest about your budget so we can make the best design and printing recommendations.
Do you provide Day Of Wedding materials?
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Do you provide Day Of Wedding materials?
Sometimes. Our design calendar fills up quickly and it can be very challenging for us to accomodate projects with tight turnaround times like most day-of items. We will only consider working on day of materials for existing wedding clients for whom we’ve printed wedding suites. Day-of items will not be letterpress printed.
Do you work with businesses?
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Do you work with businesses?
Yes! We have worked with businesses to print business cards, holiday cards, letterhead, menus, packaging, and more. Most businesses come to us with their own designs and we guide them through making them letterpress-friendly.
Do you offer design services without printing?
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Do you offer design services without printing?
Not usually. In some cases, we will do design work for other businesses. Please get in touch if you’d like to explore this option.
Can I add a custom greeting to the inside of a holiday card I see on your website?
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Can I add a custom greeting to the inside of a holiday card I see on your website?
Yes - we have a 100 card minimum! The holidays are very busy for a greeting card company so make sure you put in the request as early as possible (it’s never too early!). We will happily customize your cards for you if we have room in our schedule. Letterpress cards will have a letterpress inside greeting. Full color cards will be flat printed (no letterpress). Prices vary.