Fourth Year Studio

Bettina is a good friend of mine.  She catered my wedding with LUXE and since then has started the Sweetery.  She has phenomenal style and I was thrilled to find out she was planning a wedding of her own.  Bettina and David got married just before New Years Eve on the 29th at the Knoxville Museum of Art.  The venue was perfect for a sparkly winter wedding.  All the decor was white with touches of gold and silver throughout.  On our first design meeting it was expressed for the invitations to be white – all white.  Yippee!!  Letterpress on 220lb cotton paper is the perfect way to achieve the all white – no ink invitation. A silver stripe washi tape accented the invitation.   We used gold on the RSVP and envelope.  Bettina and David had been together for a number of years and had quite a story of their relationship.  Their story was printed on vellum and wrapped all the pieces together.  It was finished up with a gold elastic tie.

To see the wedding in its entirety check it out on Dixie Pixel’s site.  So much loveliness in one place!!

Happy New Year to you!!  We are having a hard time believing it is already 2013.  It was disappointing that we were unable to produce a calendar this year but our eyes are on 2014 to have a fresh one by then.  Here in Tennessee, we have had a bit of a warm streak.  I can hear the spring peepers (tiny frogs) starting to sing in the little pond near my home.  I am afraid they will be in for a rude awakening when winter decides to come back but today its warm and I am ready to think about spring.

Margaret and Matt wanted a traditional wedding set that was both modern and clean.  Sometimes this is hard to achieve a fresh look with traditional elements.   We paired an abstraction of their wedding flower, the hydrangea, on a grid of dots for a silhouetted outline.  The result was delicate with just the right balance of negative space.  The light blue balanced out the feminine floral design.  I love how the blue looks on the kraft vs the white.  It appears as though two shades of blue were used.

Their set included event cards for additional events happening that weekend.  It was all bound together with a kraft band printed M & M.  Labels were added for the RSVP and the exterior envelope.  This couple was on a tight budget and they were thrilled at what we were able to produce for them.  In order to save money we did not use our standard cotton paper and we left all the final assembly up to M & M.   It just goes to show that nice design and quality printing doesn’t have to break the bank but you do have to get creative.

Photos by Jessie at 5 Rings

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and we have been busy getting ready for the holidays with custom letterpress cards for all!!  Maxi and Seth asked us to create a Christmas card to send to their family in Germany and in English to send to all their local pals.   The two versions were printed front and back on 220lb cotton stock with the Christmas message on the back and a simple red pinecone on the front.  To add a little festive flair the edges were painted gold.  Red & Gold are the perfect classic Christmas combo!  The end of every year leaves us reflecting on all the beautiful things we have had the opportunity to create and the great clients we have been able to work with.  From our family to yours, Emily & I wish you all the best this holiday season.  Thank you for supporting us in 2012, we can’t wait to see what is in store for the coming year.

Photos by Fourth Year Studio

Synde and Tim contacted us as med school students living in Minneapolis who were celebrating their recent Italian engagement!  Sydne grew up on a cattle farm in Wyoming and found herself looking back to her roots when wedding planning.

She describes the beauty of the Big Sky at the ranch.  ”I love the idea of having wooden invitations to echo the gorgeous pine and oak forests around our ranch.  The ranch is in a very rural area that is full of rolling hills, grazing deer, and lots of sky.  There is nothing as beautiful as the night sky in Wyoming.  Tim and I love to lay out in the grass in the summer and ooh and aah at the seemingly endless display.”

The reception was held at Devil’s Tower, a huge natural landform several miles from her family’s ranch where the ceremony took place.  Since the area was rural it was very important to provide way-finding for the guests in the invitation.  We illustrated the map with icons for Devil’s Tower, the Clark Ranch, and the airport.  The wishbone graphic for the Clark Ranch is actually the family brand, how cool is that?!  Down the center of the map was the South Dakota – Wyoming state line.

We incorporated the brides hand-drawn sketch of the antlers throughout the set. She used antlers at the reception as decor.  The main invitation was printed on wood and the rsvp was a letterpress postcard.  A piece of black and white bakers twine tied the wrapped vellum map around the invitation to create a sophisticated, yet rustic wedding invitation for this creative, amazing couple!

Photos by Jessie at 5 Rings

As the last few weeks of pregnancy inch toward the due date (or beyond in my case) family and friends are dying to know how you’re feeling and if today is the day. So when designing Anna’s birth announcement I knew exactly what it would say (YES!) She’s Here. Ha!  The card is letterpress printed in 2 colors with a vellum envelope holding Anna’s photo.  The color scheme is one of my most favorites and what we also used for her bedroom. Hope you love them like I do.

We had her newborn photo’s taken with Misty of Fresh Peas Portraits and we couldn’t be happier.  A ribbon and tag with Anna’s name is the top most layer to tie it all together.

We are also very happy to announce that we have this Photo Birth Announcement in our Etsy shop. You can customize this design to send family and friends, showing off your little one.

Knox Heritage is a wonderful group in Knoxville whose mission it is to protect this area’s historic structures and educate the general public to the importance of preservation.

Each summer they have a fundraising campaign called the Summer Supper series. It is a number of dinners held at historic places all around the area.  In most cases they are located in a building that is not open to the public so it is a treat to be invited in.  Peter and I {Dianna} volunteered to help host the Summer Supper that was held last weekend.  A is for Architecture was the theme and it was held at a beautiful 1950′s A-frame home that was recently renovation in 2009.  The home is full of architectural detail and rich materials that attracted design lovers from all over town.

Fourth Year Studio worked with Brian Pittman to create the invitations.  Brian Pittman, the head architect on the renovation and addition, drew an elevation of the Week’s House and added architectural dimensions and key notes with all the relevant event info.  If you are unfamiliar with Brian’s work, it is amazing.  Not only is he a top notch designer he also draws these cathedrals by hand!!  We letterpress the invitations in two colors – red + black. A top fold created an A-frame card.  The event was a lot of fun and I am glad to have been part of it.

Photography By Erick

And so is John Shim!  He is a fantastic local photographer and a good friend of Fourth Year Studio.  He photographed Emily’s wedding and her most adorable proposal.  Her husband proposed while mountain biking and asked John to hide out and capture Emily’s very surprised and extremely happy reaction.  It really doesn’t get any better than that.

John came to us in need of a memorable, simple business card that spoke true to his brand.  The cards are printed onto either side of Crane’s 220lb cotton stock. We felt we needed to spice things up a little bit and the double thick paper gave us the perfect medium to use for edge painting.

We matched the letterpress ink tone and used an airbrush to paint the edges.  It was thrilling to see how well it turned out and it was truly the perfect pop!

Thank you John for allowing us to experiment on you!

edge detail

Photos by John Shim

We had a blast working on Emily & Robert’s invitations. They got married in May in Dallas, Texas. In our first meeting they described having a playful and modern wedding. They also loved yellow and gray, which is one of our most loved color combos. There was a ton of information to relay to their guests and when there are multiple pieces to an invitation set we work on a way to make it to all fit together in a package that the guests will really enjoy opening up.

The invite and rehearsal dinner card were letterpressed and tucked into a pocket that held it all together. The ‘eat, drink, and be married’ tagline reflected the playfulness of the couple’s personalities and the amount of fun the wedding was bound to be. Each pocket was tied with wax thread, the same kind used for book binding. The RSVP card and envelope were tucked behind the crisscross of the thread. The RSVP cards were printed front and back – one side for the wedding [yellow] and the other for the rehearsal dinner [gray]. The RSVP addresses were letterpressed with white ink onto gray envelopes. The effect turned out better than expected for a nice tone on tone quality.

My favorite part of the entire set is the map. At the bottom of the invitation is a small vellum envelope. Inside is a vellum map with directions to the wedding site. Removal of the map reveals a letterpress printed outline of TX with corresponding text ‘Map to our heart’. And finally, it was all packaged together with a matching envelope label with the same repeating floral pattern.

Photos by  5 Rings Photo

How exciting…our first international client!!  Aimee and Timothy just got married in her backyard in Western Australia.  We incorporated a variety of techniques to achieve an invitation rich in texture.  The earthy hues were reflected in the outback wedding and reception with native vegetation.  The invitation is a sassafras veneer with a laser etched design.  We letter-pressed the rsvp card on 110lb cotton stock and address onto a kraft envelope.  It was all tucked inside a green recycled envelope with a kraft address label to tie it all together.  Although we were working long distance the process was as smooth as can be.  The most challenging aspect was scheduling a Skype video chat due to the 12 hour time difference!   Happy wedding Aimee & Timothy – thanks for trusting us Knoxville girls to get the job done well!

“We received our invitations!!  They are BEAUTIFUL!  I cannot tell you how much I love them!  I have showed a few people and they are so surprised when they find out that the invitation is made of wood!  Thank you so much for all the hard work and effort you put into these invitations.  I can’t wait to send them out!” -Aimee Vander Schaaf

*photos by 5 Rings Photo

David and Lorie came to us in search of a wedding invitation that matched their eclectic style.  They are getting married at the beautiful Bijou Theatre in Knoxville during their church’s Sunday service.  The rich colors and textures of the theatre lead to a steampunk theme that carried its way through their wedding and reception.  It was important that the invitation be rich and intriguing without being overly fussy.  A brown paper bag was used as the outer envelope and sealed with gold striped washi tape.  Each address was typed, by yours truly,  on my Mom’s vintage typewriter and placed on the front.  When opened, a vellum inner envelope was sealed with red wax to introduce another layer of texture and depth.  A subtle lace pattern was pressed into the creamy cotton stock framing the gold letterpress text.  It was so much fun to work with unique techniques on this job for such a fabulous couple – best wishes to you both!!

And a BIG thank you to Jessi at 5 Rings Photos for the amazing photographs. Typing out each address took longer than anticipated but it was worth it to have the typewriter included in these images – totally frame worthy!!