While working on a wedding is already a gratifying and exciting experience itself, this project was unlike any I had ever done before - and there were lots of lessons learned along the way.

Those familiar with printing processes may know of embossing and debossing. For those unfamiliar, this is when the design of a print is raised or lowered, accordingly. In this case, the bride wanted all the pieces of the invitation to be debossed in the same color of their wedding decorations - that soft, light blue.

So, I matched the color of her decorations to a pantone color and set up a design for the invitation. Being as this was the wedding of my boss’ son, I brought him a proof before sending it to Sydney to see what he thought.

If there is anything to be known about Mr. Smithhart, it is that he is a master of his craft. He can do quick math for imposing designs on larger sheets, work every position in the bindery at lightning pace, and spot a printing issue from a mile away.

In this case, it was an issue of how embossing and debossing work. When creating the die for printing, metal is used to create a solid form of the design (the die). As this was the first time doing a project like this, it took me quite some time to get a feel for exactly how thick the design needed to be. After some quick back and forth, he helped me be sure the designs and fonts would work well.

From here, Matt, Sydney and I had a meeting. She loved the design and wanted to add a details card and RSVP card to be mailed out with their invitation. For these, they were interested having the print be die cut into a different shape after debossing.

We spent quite some time talking about this and ended up settling on a custom die cut and one we had in house already. So, from here we finalized the designs and got the dies made.

Normally, the fun ends here for me. Although, for this project, I was asked to help with the printing process! There was a man running the machine, myself watching the completed prints for variation in color and guiding the press runner as to when more ink was needed, and Mr. Smithhart pulling prints for me to check and guiding us both throughout the process.

The whole experience was an absolute blast - and quite the learning curve. Although, as someone who thrives when learning new things, it was one of my favorite projects of the year.