Invitations that are designed with flair and a unique touch? Invitations printed on birch, cherry or mahogany wood? Innovative designs? Sarah of The Print Fairy has all these and more in her extensive range of stationery. From letterpress to gold foiling and floral designs, Sarah applies her fairy’s dust to  sprinkle some magic on her designs. And apart from being excited by designing stationery – what does this Print Fairy believe in? New season shopping days, true love and listening to your Mum’s advice – and we love that!!

Why did you start your business The Print Fairy?

The Print Fairy evolved from a desire to create a business for myself and after successfully working on the look and style of a few weddings in my spare time, I realised there was a real need for a style overhaul in the wedding invitation industry. I turned that passion into building my website, and 8 years later here we are going from strength to strength.

What is your background in design?

I have built my 14 year career off the back of a design degree majoring in Textiles and Graphic design and from working for a couple of other design companies in both New Zealand and Australia.

What is it that you particularly love about designing wedding stationery?

I have always loved colour and pattern and how the combination of these two elements play such an important role in our everyday life through fashion, interiors and lifestyle. Working with type, colour schemes and textures everyday has always been part of my job description and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

One of my favourite things is when a customer will request an obscure colour combination that we haven’t done before. It just transforms the design and makes even our most popular designs feel totally new and fresh. I feel we have a great standing in the market now and a solid understanding of our customer taste. We know we’re creating what our customers want to use as a part of their styling and our work plays a major role in setting the vibe for the wedding.

My Sweet Love invitations – image by Urban Safari

Do you have signature design style?

Absolutely we do. It’s bold colour, adventurous fonts and on-trend design and layout. If you want an invitation with frilly lace and embellishments you might be looking a while on our site to find something that fits this description!

How often do you come up with new designs for your stationery range?

We are always creating new designs, every week we will come up with something new. Not everything makes it to the online store, so we are quite ruthless with our design process. We are always changing the online store around, just like in a real boutique, we like to mix it up and also change the colours with each season.

What is the starting point for designing a custom invitation suite – and how long does this take to finished product?

Most customers who are after a custom design come to us because they love our style but want something unique to them and their big day. They already have a strong idea of what they are after so we are really here to pull it all together for them and make that vision a reality on paper. From the initial concept to sending to print, it can take around 1-2 weeks. All of our print methods do take different lengths of time as they are all sent off to our specialist printers around the country.

How should a couple approach you about this?

For those who really don’t know what they are after in a custom design, we suggest to do a bit of research on good old Pinterest and send us any images you like of colour combo’s, flowers, bridesmaid dresses, venue styling etc… so we get a feel for the overall look and theme you’re trying to achieve for your wedding. From here we will suggest font types, suitable card stocks, what print medium will best suit your style. We are happy to have lengthy phone conversations regarding the style of invitations and all of the options. We do strongly suggest to any potential customers to purchase one of our sample packs tailored to the type of invite you are after. We have so many different options, it’s always best to choose to see the full sample pack, that way you won’t miss out on something you may not have originally thought of doing.

 

Birch wood cocktail board – image by Love Note Photography

You offer many different styles of invitation – e.g. invitations printed on wood, letterpress, metallic foil and more. Do you see more wedding stationery being made with these techniques because couples want something really unique?

Our wood invitations are incredibly popular. Yes they are unique, they are the perfect mix of rustic-contemporary which makes them perfect for just about any sort of wedding theme. We have the best suited designs and largest offering for this style of product. As one of the very first companies to do timber invites in Australia, we know the product and we do it very well! We are sending our timber invitations all over the world as it seems they are so unique.

How are wooden invitations packaged to be sent to our guests?

Your wood invites will be delivered to you wrapped and packed securely in bulk for you to place inside the supplied envelopes. The wood itself is no thicker than a standard 300gsm card invitation. It actually travels better through the postal service than a card stock invite as it can’t crease like paper/ card does.

Can you please describe an invitation design that might suit:

  • A rustic styled wedding
  • Our Brand new succulent design in either wood or card stock, or any from our White on Kraft range which is very unique white ink on heavy Kraft board. Or our popular Down the Aisle design is gorgeous for a hit of rustic in neutral browns and white.

White on Kraft range  – image by Urban Safari

– A secret garden wedding

Our delightful ‘In Bloom’ watercolour floral invitation. A gorgeous mix of pretty meets modern. Or go for one of our printed reverse designs in antique rose to add interest to your wedding invite package, seen here with My Sweet Love in charcoal.

In Bloom watercolour invitation – image by Urban Safari

– An urban wedding

Our extremely elegant and contemporary ‘Hello Lover’ Letterpress design in black and white, it oozes sophisticated glam.

Hello Lover letterpress invitation – image by Urban Safari

If we love one of your signature designs but want a different font can we request this?

Yes you can choose a different font. We have literally hundreds in our font library, but we have spent many hours perfecting the look of each of our designs based around the fonts we have chosen to be the best fit. Often when a different font is requested it makes the design off-balance and the customer wonders why it doesn’t look like it does on the website when they see their proof. It’s fine to play around with a few different looks at design proof stage though.

Do you see any new trends happening in colour and design for weddings in 2015, which is reflected in the stationery?

Metallic foiling is getting huge again and not just on white card, we are seeing foiling incorporated in lots of unusual ways. We are investigating some new top-secret techniques right now.

The rustic-floral trend is booming and I don’t see it going away any time soon and we have it covered right throughout all our range offerings.

We are also looking into some laser-cut and three-dimensional pieces to take it to the next level.

Invitation with gold foiling – image by Urban Safari

What books are on your beside table right now?

No books, I’ve never been a huge reader, I’m far more entertained by visuals and creatively put together type, images and layout. So I do have the very latest Australian interiors magazines to keep myself on-top of colours and pattern and my iPhone for news, blogs, trends and social media.

Do you have other creative interests that you are passionate about?

I do actually love to paint on canvas. I have a passion for bold and colourful abstract art which I have dotted around my house, but I do think it’s time I picked up the paintbrush myself again.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

With running my own business and also raising 2 young daughters, I rarely get any time to myself. We have also just recently purchased an old 1950’s period home that we are renovating and needs some serious TLC. My husband and I now can’t remember what we used to do in our spare time! But when I do get time to sneak off, it’s usually hanging with the fab girlfriends I have in my life, eating, drinking and laughing the day/night away.

Thank you Sarah for sharing your story with us. To find out more about The Print Fairy visit the website.

Headshot by Kate of Urban Safari