THE VANGUARD
noun, a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas.
As we approach our tenth anniversary, we are thrilled to introduce our most audacious, and in a way sexiest, wedding stationery collection yet - The Vanguard. An homage to traditional wood-type printing that was introduced in China as early as 1040AD, and later popularized in European printing in the 1800s, this collection centers around tall, bold, sans-serif uppercase names and headings that are deeply blind embossed to create dramatic shadows and bold statements. The smaller type and details then slot in above, below, or next to them - often using the height of the tall letters as a bounding guide.
Inspired by film posters, title credits, and vintage letterpress advertising that was once entirely crafted by hand, The Vanguard looks less like a wedding invitation and more like a gig poster announcing the beginning of forever. We’ve done away with romance, predictability, and curvy feminine serifs and swashes - this is a sans world, and it’s all about scale, shadows, and drama. Minimalism has always been our love language, but as we celebrate a decade of Love on Paper, we couldn’t help but get a little loud and proud. And as you begin planning the party of a lifetime - so should you.
Collection aesthetic | Audacious and unusual
Defining design elements | Tall slim uppercase names and headings with deep embossing, and tone-on-tone smaller type
Quick Links:
INVITATIONS
Format | Ceremony Invitation 155x215mm (approx. 6x8.5in), various formats for additional inserts
Paper | Ivory, Cool Grey, or Black 710gsm (other colors available but may require a longer lead time).
Print | Letterpress and foil-stamped accents
Envelope | Luxurious heavyweight envelopes with twill (ribbed) texture, available in five colors - ivory, nude, light grey, charcoal grey, and black
Design & Print Customization | Option to change paper and ink colors, add vellum overlays with quotes, lyrics, illustrations, or patterns.
Inserts available | Rehearsal Dinner and Brunch invitations, RSVP cards and envelopes, Weekend Details, Itineraries, Website URL inserts for online RSVPs.
This I want to believe implicitly:
Man was born for love
and revolution.
Osamu Dazai
SAVE THE DATES
Format | 105x210mm (approx. 4x8.5in)
Paper | Ivory, Cool Grey, or Black 710gsm (other colors available but may require a longer lead time).
Print | Blind embossing, letterpress ink, foil stamping
Envelope | Luxurious heavyweight envelopes with twill (ribbed) texture, available in five colors - ivory, nude, light grey, charcoal grey, and black
Design & Print Customization | Option to change paper and ink colors.
If they give you lined paper,
write the other way.
William Carlos Williams
DAY OF STATIONERY
Elements | Reception and rehearsal dinner menus, bar and cocktail menus, ceremony programs or weekend itineraries, seating charts and way-finding signage, welcome letters, thank you cards.
Format | Wide variety of formats, papers, and print techniques available.
Our day of stationery pieces tend to be a little more customized as we work closely with you and your planners, designers and stylists to tailor layouts and formats to your event concept and venue styling. Ceremony programs can range from a short sweet post-card to a hand-stitched booklet, welcome letters can sometimes be handwritten, and seating charts can be acrylic decals applied to a large vintage mirror, printed on billowy linen fabric, applied to a rack of wine bottles or whatever else you have in mind. We usually provide rough estimates for these elements and then talk through your ideas in more detail closer to the wedding date. We have to add that you don’t necessarily have to stick to the same collection all the way through to your wedding day…so feel free to explore our other collections and bring some new tricks to the party.
THE VANGUARD WEBSITE
In the year of our tenth anniversary, we are proud to finally introduce custom wedding websites and bring Love on Paper to internet land. Available in the style of each of our stationery collections, our websites feature sophisticated typographic layouts in our signature styles to match your save the dates, invitation suites and day-of paper goods. Our comprehensive, sophisticated and personalized design service aims to keep things as easy and breezy as possible for you, whilst ensuring that your correspondence with your guests is aesthetically consistent and highly intentional throughout your planning process.
Ideally, you’ll have had or arranged for a professional engagement shoot to provide us with high resolution image content to use on the site, but if you don’t have any or prefer not to use photographs, we have developed beautiful typographic layouts where the letterforms and colors can do the talking. We also have a library of beautiful stock imagery and AI-created artwork, including photographs, graphics, and patterns we can creatively use as design elements in lieu of more traditional smiley, hand-holding portraits. As with our printed stationery design process, our service includes guidance on wording and creative writing to ensure your written content is clear and concise, visually striking, and sets the right tone for your celebration, whether you’re keeping things light and modern, or more reserved and traditional.
Available pages or sections include:
Home | Invitation Details | Weekend Itinerary | Travel & Accommodation Details | Online RSVP Form | Image Gallery | Gift Registry
Optional password protection and email address if required.
The service & design fee includes:
Domain registration & hosting (one year) | Template & color palette customization | Guidance on wording & creative writing | Content updates leading up to the celebration | RSVP Responses in a Google Spreadsheet
When enquiring, please provide as much detail as possible on the content sections and functionality you’ll need, as well as what you have in terms of image content (photographs of you and/or the venue) that you’d like to use.
Our Style Notes
The venue An iconic old theatre or hotel, inventively styled | The season Every day is a good day for new ideas | The palette Monochromatic in any color (eg. all the pieces in shades of red!)
Designers Tanner Fletcher, Alexander McQueen, Danielle Frankel, Iris van Herpen
Looks Something far, far outside the box that is a long white dress and a fitted blue suit.
Must-have accessory The Crisp Packet Clutch from Anya Hindmarch
Cute ceremony or recpetion idea A classic string quartet, but playing funky jams.
The honeymoon California road tripping.
The quote:
If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you:
I am here to live out loud.
― Émile Zola
The love letter:
The other afternoon, when you fell asleep on my shoulder, I drifted off, too. But before I did, it occured to me looking around at all of your things and your work and going through years of work in my mind, that of all your work, you are still your most beautiful. The most beautiful work of all.
— Patti Smith, to Robert Mapplethorpe
Image Credits: Tulle gown from Pinterest, unknown | Table styling by Athena Calderone for Saratoga Water | Ladies in the street by Liz Sunshine | Food styling by Laila Gohar | Black gown by Alexander McQueen | Bow suit by Tanner Fletcher | All stationery by The Letterist
ADDITIONAL LINKS & inspiration
On Pinterest
See our pins for The Vanguard collection including fashion, florals, desserts, and more.
On Instagram
Watch a reel of The Vanguard samples up, close and personal.
On the Journal
For all you need to know about embossed invitations (like The Vanguard), see our embossed wedding invitations blog post.
Learn more about the process | See what clients have said about working with us | Back to All Collections
Please note that some of these images are digital renders and some are photographs of print samples - they do not always reflect the full range of paper textures, colors and print techniques available. We will share more options with you during the customization process and can mail you selected print samples upon request.