emmajostationery

new year, new attitude

emmajostationery — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:05:02 +0000

I didn’t really have any New Years resolutions as such but my main aim this year (besides creating lovely stationery for my lovely couples) is to conquer my fear of photography!

As anyone who knows me and has witnessed my attempts to photograph my work before, will know its not a pretty sight! Just the thought of taking a few shots of my designs makes my heart sink mainly because I know it will be hours of stress, time outs, and thinking ‘how the hell do I work this camera?!’ I will spend hours taking photos, then even longer trying to choose which ones are ok and then go on to photoshop them for at least another day. After one of these mammoth sessions I will have about 3 photos to show for my efforts and I always think ‘oh dear, I can’t put them up for everyone to see!’ so I don’t.

Well, no more! I have booked a beginners photography day course that will teach me about my camera and how to use it. So instead of me avoiding using my camera at all costs I will be aiming to photograph regularly (weekly?!) which means much more blogging to show you all the lovely stationery that leaves the studio everyday, updates on facebook and I’ve just this minute received my invitation from Pinterest which is a great source of inspiration. So keep your eyes peeled and hopefully we will see some progress very soon.

p.s. I took the photo above today with my new positive attitude but I’d rather not say how long it took me…

grab a copy of you and your wedding!

emmajostationery — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:59:55 +0000

I just couldn’t wait to see this month’s issue of You & Your Wedding on the shelves and it’s finally here! I am absolutely thrilled to see Emma Jo part of the beautiful black and white reception feature showcasing our Rosalind and Victoria Collections. As well as our stationery, the November/December issue is full of inspiration, advice and give aways so grab a copy quick!

Feature includes -

Rosalind Thank You Card

Victoria Invitation

Victoria Place Card

As well as a coordinating black and white striped envelope liner

tips when ordering your wedding stationery

emmajostationery — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:27:05 +0000

I help provide advice when ordering stationery everyday and there are a few questions I get asked most often so I thought it would be good to share with you a few hints and tips when ordering your wedding stationery.

Start the stationery process as soon as you can, ideally as soon as you have booked the venue. Avoid any stress and rush charges and give yourself time to choose inks and check proofs. If you looking at commissioning bespoke stationery, think about the design and theme of your invites and any coordinating stationery you would like. A great starting point is to gather imagery, swatches as well as your ideas, these details you provide really make your stationery special and personal.

When should you send out your invitations? Aim to send out your invites 6 weeks to 3 months before the wedding so I recommend starting the ordering process at least 2 months prior to this.

Not sure when to set your reply date? This may depend on your caterers and other vendors but I recommend setting it one month before your wedding. This will give you plenty of time to follow up any late responses and really helps to finalise any remaining items like table plans and personalised place cards earlier. Giving yourself this extra time will prevent any unnecessary stress close to the big day.

If you are sending out Save the Dates look to do this 6 – 9 months before the wedding or even earlier if you are having a destination wedding. Save the Dates are a great idea if the wedding falls on a holiday period or mid week to give your guests plenty of time to arrange their plans.

When deciding on numbers work on the basis of one invite per family or couple not person and include any family and friends that you know won’t be able to attend but would appreciate receiving an invitation.

Top Tip: Order an extra 10 to 20 invitation sets for any last minute guest list changes, this also allows for any addressing mistakes. It’s cost effective to order these now, reordering a small number of items at a later date can be really expensive.

Remember colour resolution can vary drastically between computers and electronic proofs should be used as a guide only. If there is a particular colour you would like I always recommend sending a swatch in the post. This hard copy can then be matched to an ink as closely as possible.

Would love a two colour letterpress design but on a tight budget? There are plenty of options to tailor your stationery requirements to suite all budgets. Choose two colours for the main invitations and just one colour for all coordinating items or print your stationery in one colour and include envelope liners to add an additional colour.

I hope these little tips help to make ordering your stationery easy and as stress free as possible!

lucia & anil’s wedding day

emmajostationery — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:54:01 +0000

I have been very excited about this post for some time now and I am delighted to finally show everyone! I have previously featured Lucia and Anil’s wedding stationery before and it was such a pleasure to design their stationery, so I was very excited when Lucia sent me some of their wedding photos recently. I don’t often get to see our stationery on the actual day, in situ, so it is always a delight when I get a peek at the photos, especially for such a beautiful wedding as Lucia and Anil’s!

This has to be my favourite photo, it’s absolutley stunning!

Lucia has been very kind in not only sharing her lovely photographs but also a little insight into her wedding choices, thoughts and ideas. Here is what she had to say…

The Dress

My dress is called Kristene and is by Claire Pettibone, a US designer which specialises in romantic dresses with a whimsical, vintage look. The dress has Victorian style embroidery and is lined with ivory silk charmeuse. I loved the sweetheart neckline, sheer back and cap sleeves though my favourite feature was the heart shaped train!

The shoes are by Rachel Simpson.

I bought both the dress and the shoes at The White Closet in West Didsbury, Manchester, a vintage-inspired bridal boutique owned by the lovely Nikki Jackson. The White Closet girls (Nikki, Eve and Emma) are so helpful and the shop and dresses are just stunning.

The Venue

We got married in the East Wing at Ripley Castle near Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The castle is set in the picturesque village of Ripley in the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, surrounded by beautiful gardens and next to a lake. Our photographer Andy Sutcliffe really made the most of the beautiful setting by taking some fantastic pitures! We liked the relaxed feel of the venue – it felt elegant and special yet not too grand or opulent. Both the room where our ceremony took place and the one where we had the wedding breakfast and evening reception have beautiful exposed beam ceilings.

The castle florist, Val, put together some beautiful flower arrangements with a “gathered”, country feel. I told her I wanted the flowers to feel “garden-y” and lose, almost like wild flowers which is exactly what she did! She mainly used creams and greens in the reception arrangements but included a few amnesia roses with a dusty pink colour which add a vintage touch. Val also made the bride’s bouquet which had fluffy ivory roses, peonies and lilly of the valley.

The Music

For the civil ceremony we had a harpist – the very talented Ruby Paul which created an intimate and romantic atmosphere.

During the drinks reception and the wedding breakfast Matt and Annabel from Vintage 78 dj played original 78rpm shellac discs on 1930’s Gramophone players. They set up in the garden for the drinks reception and later on in the main hall for the meal. Both of their sets looked great with their picnic style gramophones with pop up lids and other quirky, vintage accessories – and they sounded even better! One of my favourite memories from the day was sipping champagne in the sunshine and mingling with our guests while listening to the vintage records!

The Wedding Cake

Our wedding cake was not a wedding cake as such but rather a tower of vanilla, lemon and white chocolate cupcakes by Mama Doreen’s in Harrogate. They were yummy and such a hit with the guests!

Favours and Sweets

We got married on the Easter bank holiday so wanted the holiday to feature somehow in our wedding. We therefore asked Cakes by Lynette to make some egg shaped biscuits as favours. These were covered in icing with a beautiful bird design and had a little tag wishing guests a Happy Easter.

After the meal a table with a “sweets station” was set up near the bar. This had pretty glass jars with retro sweets like wham bars, as well as jelly beans and mini chocolate eggs. We bought mini scoops and little paper bags (which we decorated with vintage stickers bought from etsy.com) for guests to help themselves.

Guest Book

Just a couple of weeks before the wedding we still had not made a decision whether we wanted a guest book or not – I’m so glad we decided to have one in the end as it is such a lovely keepsake of the day! We knew we wanted something slightly different so decided to have a photo guest book. We placed a polaroid camera (with lots of spare film!) next to the book and asked guests to have their picture taken. We bought some self adhesive cards resembling old luggage tags and postcards for the guests to write their messages on and asked them to stick these next to their picture on the book.

Emma Jo designed these lovely signs with the instructions.

Guest Cards

I bought a vintage birdcage from ebay for guests to place their cards in. Next to it we had pictures from the weddings or our parents and grandparents which added a really nice personal touch.

Stationery

We loved every item of stationery that Emma Jo designed – from the elegant letter press invitations to the Venice themed vintage table plan (every table had the name of a Venice landmark – our favourite city and the place where we got engaged!). If I had to chose I’d say the orders of service were my favourite item; these were held together by black and white baker’s twine (Emma’s idea!).

“My favourite part of day was looking around and seeing all of my friends and family under one roof (including some who travelled a long way to come to the wedding!). It may sound like a cliche but we felt incredibly lucky to have so many people who we love share our day with us!”

Dress – Claire Pettibone

Shoes – Rachel Simpson

both bought at The White Closet

Venue – Ripley Castle

Photography – Andy Sutcliffe

Music – Vintage 78 dj

Wedding Cake – Mama Doreen

Favours – Cakes by Lynette

Stationery – Emma Jo

Thank you so much Lucia and Anil for sharing your beautiful day, it was an absolute honour to design and print your wedding stationery.

Emma x

all shiny and new!

emmajostationery — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:27:23 +0000

Emma Jo has a shiny new look! We’ve been working on our website for a little while now and are very happy to say its complete. We have also added a few new items including our Order of Service booklets, bespoke table plans and vintage style postcards – great for Save the Dates and Invitations. Pop over to our website for a peek, we hope you like it!

Emma Jo would like to thank Andy Ward at Purple, Manchester for all your help in making our little website so pretty!

lucia & anil’s vintage frames table plan

emmajostationery — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:30:42 +0000

Lucia and Anil are a lovely couple I have been working with for over 6 months now and creating their table plan was an absolute delight! Last October they chose from the Rosalind Collection for their invitations and more recently for their coordinating menus, table cards and order of service booklets. Also wanting a bespoke table plan to compliment their wedding stationery and venue, Lucia sent me some imagery along with her thoughts on styles and designs she liked. Explaining the table plan would go at the bottom of the stairs within the very netural settings of the Main Hall in the stunning Ripley Castle, Harrogate. She felt it was important that the design was sophisicated and sypathetic to the decor while incorporating her idea to use vintage frames.

With this in mind I designed 8 unique vintage frames, one for each table. These were then digitally printed and individually hand cut with their own apertures to frame the guest list for that table. Each table was then mounted in relief to create the feel of a cluster of hanging frames and more importantly to capture the quirky feel Lucia wanted. And here it is!

I then used the corresponding frames from the table plan for the table name cards and coordinating signs for guests.

All of the tables were named after Venice landmarks, a lovely personal touch something Lucia and Anil brought throughout their wedding stationery.

For Lucia’s family, Spanish was also a key feature throughout the wedding stationery, the invitations, menu and the order of service booklets all had English and Spanish translations to ensure everyone felt equally involved throughout the Wedding. Lucia and Anil even included ’La Novia’ and ‘El Novio’ instead of their names on their table, meaning ‘The Bride’ and ‘The Groom’.

‘La Novia’ and ‘El Novio’

And chose the quirky title ‘Eat, Drink and Be Married!’ for their table plan and it worked perfectly!

I hope Lucia and Anil had a lovely day on Saturday and the sun definitely shone for them!

Along with this beautiful table plan, I will be featuring more from Lucia and Anil’s Wedding over the next few weeks and maybe even a sneek peek into their big day, so don’t forget to pop back soon!!!

emma jo is on facebook!

emmajostationery — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:00:49 +0000

We’re now on Facebook, so why not head over to our page ’Emma Jo Wedding Stationery’ to keep up to date on new designs and general goings on at http://www.Emma-Jo.co.uk. See you there!

IAN JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPHER

emmajostationery — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:00:46 +0000

At Emma Jo I have the opportunity to work with a variety of talented people, and it just so happened that the end of last year saw our wedding stationery being photographed by the award winning photographer, Ian Johnson.

Ian’s wedding photographs are beautifully simple and truly timeless. Every wedding is unique and Ian’s approach totally emulates this sentiment. He captures the emotion and story behind the couple’s special day beautifully and with his relaxed style allows the couple and the guests alike to be themselves as he captures those special moments.

Personally, I just adore Ian’s cinematic style, the colourations, exposure and of course the vintage feel makes them a winner!

www.ianjohnsonphoto.com

I was absolutely delighted when I heard that Ian was to be the photographer at Ruth and Fraser’s wedding at St. Pauls Cathedral and afterwards at One Great George Street, for which I had the pleasure of designing the couples Menus. Ruth and Fraser chose the design from the Rosalind Collection, incorporating a personalised motif of their names which was the perfect choice to compliment the elegant surroundings. I also had the chance to design the artwork for their stunning table plan. Beautifully shot by Ian, this interactive design incorporated framed portraits of famous British figures such as Florence Nightingale and Lord Nelson suspended from the banister above by pretty white ribbons as guests found their own place.

One Great George Street

Guests finding there tables with their individual name cards.

To view even more stunning wedding photography by Ian Johnson visit his website www.ianjohnsonphoto.com

HOT OFF THE LETTERPRESS

emmajostationery — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:16:17 +0000

Flying out of the studio this week are Michaella’s invitations and matching reply cards, personalised from the Chloe Collection.

Using Michaella’s wedding colours we incorporated lovely eau de nil swirls with grey type, letterpress printed on white stock for her stationery. This is a colour scheme we also used for her Save the Dates earlier last year and looks stunning.

Michaella’s Wedding Invitations printed in two inks – eau de nil and grey on white stock

Michaella’s Reply Cards printed in grey on white stock

VINTAGE POSTCARDS

emmajostationery — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:41:04 +0000

Last year I had the pleasure of designing Jodie and Craig’s wedding stationery for their wedding just before Christmas. Jodie chose from the Chloe Collection and she was great fun to work with and even let me try out a new design for her. Instead of the coordinating Chloe Reply Cards, I designed some vintage inspired postcards with space for guests replies and the return address all ready to post back to the couple. We incorporated the envelope liner pattern to the reverse and my favourite addition is the little date stamp which is actually the couple’s wedding date.

I had such a fun time designing them and I really wanted an excuse to add to my vintage postcard collection (for research purposes!), I thought they would make a great new range for Emma Jo. So I am currently designing 2 or 3 new vintage postcards that can be used as Reply Cards or even Save the Dates. I will be posting some sneak peeks as I go, so watch this space!