Elegant Wedding: Bridal Bouquet: Paper Trails

These three local invite mavens know how to start your party off right

DIY — With a Little Help

Melody Appel, the accommodating owner of Innove in Philadelphia, knows that every bride has different needs: Her Ready to Wear Collection has predetermined designs such as photo-booth snapshots or romantic bows — and scripts get customized with any color, font and embellishment for a stress-free, well-priced pick. For more creative control, her Couture line is totally custom-made, using words, colors and themes as inspiration. That can get pricey, but there’s a solution: Assemble them yourselves (hello, shower idea!) and save $1.50 on each. www.innoveevents.com

Freedom of the Press

Named after the quaint street where its sister company, Two Paper Dolls, began, Louella Press does superelegant, textured, old-school engraving with a totally modern feel. After finding engraving artists to fabricate any design she could think up, owner Vanessa Kreckle mixed original ink colors and revived this age-old practice. She imports handpicked paper from Germany in colors like Azalea and Pink Grapefruit as the perfect backdrop to this high-end, individualized invitation where any custom design can be done. www.louellapress.com, www.twopaperdolls.com

Love (of) Letters

Jolene Kauffman, the South Jersey creator of Joli Design in Berlin, has more than a clean, signature calligraphy — she also has a sense of style, so take advantage of all her talents. Try her romantic Formal or Contempo lettering (or variations of both) in a variety of ink colors for hand-written invites or save-the-dates. But don’t stop there — she’ll create logos, graphics or chic monograms to help carry the design theme throughout the day on cocktail napkins, menus, place cards, programs and thank-you notes. And see page 128 for Jolene’s own stylish wedding! www.jolidesign.net