Weddingbee boards

First off, I'd start by visiting a recent thread about this: http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/letterpress-suggestions-please

Secondly, I would look through these vendor's websites and see if they have a general style you like or if you are inspired by their work. If you can narrow it down to a few, contact them and request samples so you can look and feel their work and ask them what they're offering (get an idea of price, if they do custom work, etc).

And lastly, I'll briefly summarize what I've learned about a few of these vendors based on other threads and contact with them-

Bella Figura does AWESOME amazing beautiful work but it is not cheap. It is actually quite expensive. Heard nothing but good things about them. I have some of their samples and was pretty blown away.

Twin Ravens Press is the one I'm leaning toward myself- Kristin the owner is very friendly and professional, and does some really amazing work at great prices. She does custom work and I just really like her designs.

I think Atlasprod is actually Atlas & Campbell, and their work is really nice. Working on getting some samples from Aubrey so I can see it up close and personal. They seem friendly and willing to work within your price range. But I really like the designs in their blog.

Habibi is right on. I did ask a couple of the smaller vendors how they could possibly afford to give such great (custom!!) work at the low prices they do, and the response was that most of them have very small shops, so they don't have any overhead or staffing expenses. They also have a lower demand, so they are going to have a lower price point.

Definitely do go through and look for "style" that you like- not to say that if you don't see anything you love a designer can't custom create it for you, but if you see something you really like the designer might have an easier time of making it for you. (Example: I recently fell in love with a kate spade invitation suite that is amazing but I can't afford, so I'd like to mimic it and borrow the design idea from it. I looked through the letterpress designer's work and noticed that Twin Ravens did something similar and in the same general style as this invitation, so I'm confident that if I show her my request she can make something up that will make me happy). Another example: While hello, lucky! has some really cool invitations, they're just too modern-looking for me- I want something rustic!

I do have to add really quick- after seeing the samples I got from Bella Figura and comparing them to Twin Ravens, I noticed that I preferred the soft cotton paper from Bella and the fact that their letterpress engravings were very deep over the Twin Ravens samples that I got, which were on paper that I did not like as much and the pressing was not as deep or obvious.

I talked to Kristin at Twin Ravens about it and she said that you really have to specify with your vendor if you want the "letterpress feel" on your invitations. She also said that she can use a 100% cotton paper if I want  to make a deeper impression, and if the design has thinner lines the letterpress will be more obvious. I believe her on this one because she tossed a few business cards into my package and they were made out of a softer, more cotton-y paper and had deeper impressions on them. So I would absolutely ask about that as well if you're interested in it, and I'm sure they can provide samples to show you.

Hi...I just wanted to throw another name out there.  We are currently waiting on our plates to come in so Kristin can start printing our invites.  We had the same concerns about a deep "letterpress feel" that Miss Burgundy mentioned above and choose a soft paper to allow for them.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.  We choose Twin Ravens based on cost, ability to custom design a bit more (including a custom size), and quick turn-around since we need to mail our invites by April 15.

I also loved Bella Figura, but our 2nd choice was Parklife Press.  Travis was great at getting samples mailed and answering questions.  I personally liked the "feel" of their samples better than any of the others (including Bella). They have examples to choose from but will customize things for you as well.   http://www.parklifepress.com/

ggsb- I am really glad you mentioned Parklife Press, those are stunning!! I may just request a sample and see!