where's the blog love?

...some of you may be asking.  

back when good press opened its doors 6 weeks ago (wow, time flies), we streamlined some things to make life easier for you.  

it's not that we stopped blogging, we just started blogging here.

so that's where you can catch up on all the latest good press happenings.  

follow us there and you can also check out good press on facebook and twitter.  

ho ho ho merry happy holidays!  

love this

Save the Date: Blair and Maggie from Squid and Beard on Vimeo.

found this save the date video on sarah cramer shields' blog.

love everything about it. job well done.

don't let me down

i do believe these gift enclosures from hammerpress would do reba proud.

set of five with glassine envelopes.

the eagle has landed.

here's a quick progression of the shop and how it went from a before to an after.

had an appointment in the space when there wasn't much there. my client was such a good sport.

trying to figure out the credit card terminal situation and other admin details.

my friend kathryn was enlisted to help me move a table to the new space. little did i know, she had other plans in mind. after picking up said table, we made a quick side trip to the greenwood country store (not the grocery). we came away with 4 chairs, two tables, a rug and a because sign.

me: "why do i need a because sign?"

kathryn: "because."

enough said.

three iced teas, two diet cokes and trip to blue mountain brewery for lunch later, we were ready to take our finds back to the shop albeit a little jittery and a lot over-caffeinated.

with the help of a master merchandising friend, good press went from a before to an after:

=

november 2nd.

make it happen, people.

it's starting to feel like home

today was my first full day working in the new space. i wasn't open for business, but wanted to be in the space to get a feel for what worked and what didn't in actuality compared to the "vision" i've had in my head. one lesson learned: the many windows that make me love the space also provide QUITE a bit of light in the morning. blinds will be installed shortly. here are some quick shots of the space in its infancy; the "before" shots if you will. i'm still waiting on some key pieces and finishing touches but for now it's a good start.

counter/checkout area

display board and greeting card corral

it's ok

when you're feeling overwhelmed/overworked/over whatever, remember...

it's what i like to call "organized chaos"

whew, the last few days have been a whirlwind of phone calls, research (who knew there were so many credit card terminals out there?) and order placing. even though the to-do list seems to get longer instead of shorter, i can see the progress being made.

while i did cave and make one of my first spreadsheets ever, my ordering style is still old-school (see below). on the left is said spreadsheet, and on the right are some of the orders coming our way. it's true, they're written on little pieces of paper; once written, they were cut out and then arranged and edited to create a fun mix of goodies. in case you're wondering, yes, i'm slightly type A.

and my trusty tape measure is never far these days in my constant quest for shop furnishings.

happy weekend everyone!

drumroll please...

big news, people. good press has found a home! we will be shacking up with our dear friends at SUSTAIN, inc beginning tuesday, november 9th. so not only will there be a go-to place for your custom printing needs (the holidays are right around the corner) and note cards, wrapping paper and desk necessities, but while there you can also peruse all of the eco-awesomeness that SUSTAIN has to offer.

good press + SUSTAIN are located in the mainstreet market, next to feast, calvino coffee and orzo, to name a few, right on main street. and the best news of all: PARKING. LOTS OF IT.

oh the good news is endless and will be forthcoming in the coming days. in the meantime, i'm a busy bee writing orders, getting credit card machines and outfitting the space to be top notch and fun to be in. stay tuned and thanks for your love, patience and patronage this past year.

summer fever

(this was the best i could find. from the hook)

sorry to be so delinquent on the blogging, i've had a serious case of summer fever the last couple weeks. seem's like the hook was feeling the same way. imagine my delight when i picked up this week's issue, and it turned out to be a guy'd of cville in the summer, aka, what to do in charlottesville over the summer from the male perspective. oh, how i love a good pun. but my favorite part was seeing people i know involved, from friends on the cover and inside to a friend behind the photography of the story, which to me is the fun part of living in a small town.

collections

i happened upon an old vanity fair the other day and read an article about the late, great john hughes. within the article was this picture of a selection of his notebook collection, of which it's thought that he has at least 300, all either full or partially full of notes, sketches and general thoughts on life. i can relate; i have a similar collection. in addition to the notebooks, i looked around and realized that i also collect calendars. at the moment, my tiny little living space boasts four different wall calendars! FOUR! and this doesn't include my trusty planner, which i can't live without. despite my love and affection for the iphone, i just can't commit to the ical. seems too impersonal to me and not nearly as trustworthy as my planner. like hughes' notebooks which we can now look back on as a chronicle of his life, i feel the same way about calendars and planners: they act as storyteller for a certain period of your life. which is something you can't do as easily with the ole ical.

sunny on the inside

it's pretty dreary here in virginia so i've got she & him's volume two on repeat while i work. it's a cheery album that makes me think of sunny california on a day like today.

(image by sam jones via she & him's website)

If so Inklined Calligraphy

i've been working with jen maton of ifsoinklined calligraphy on a recent project, and here's a sample of her handiwork. instead of traditional table numbers, the bride and groom chose song titles for each table representing different stages of their relationship.

congrats jessi and jon! (and god bless america?)

over the weekend, my good friends jessi and jon (or, as we know them, higgy and wags) tied the knot. higgy and wags met and fell in love through a kickball league we all play in. i've been to a few weddingse, and this one was just a ton. of. fun. all of our kickball friends were there, and the event felt like a huge party rather than a huge production. not to mention the weather and the backdrop of the old trail pavilion couldn't have been any more breathtaking. from the time jessi said "yes" to jon's proposal, they really worked to make the day a reflection of them as a couple and incorporated the help of friends and family. they reached out to me to do the invites which was such an honor. and another friend, tom daly, was the photographer for the day. tom really captured the good times of the evening as well as how fun higgy and jessi truly are. here are some shots from both the wedding and the photo booth, which we all had way too much fun in. i also highly checking out tom's website and his work. he just left his full time job to give this a go. that's definitely something i can respect.

ps, that's the groom's mom taking full advantage of the photo booth.

a ceremony shot taken by a friend

the groom, me and kickball commissioner chad day with his wife, tara

the invitation printed by pica press in the couple's colors

keeping your guests in the know

I just finished working with a client whose wedding is in a couple weeks, and we rounded things out with a custom welcome packet. A welcome packet is a good idea if the majority of your guest list doesn't live where you are marrying as it can provide friends and family with a schedule of events for the weekend, directions to those events, as well as miscellaneous local attractions. This packet is amazing, and I would have loved to have been the recipient of something like this. We incorporated the couple's color palette of navy and charcoal with a navy pocketfold and coordinating outer envelope and printing in charcoal. We used the same font here as on the save the dates and invitations creating a sense of consistency, and rounded everything out with a custom wax seal. The pocketfold was then put in a coordinating navy envelope addressed in white ink with a grey return address.

the insides of the welcome packet

(welcome letter, RSVP postcard, schedule of events and directions)

the assembly line

the finished product: stunning.

vacay in LA

there's only one thing that we love more than paper here at good press and that's pop culture and all that goes along with it. we admit it, we're addicted to people and all the other trash magazines, have to watch e! news more than we'd care to admit and wonder what lady gaga actually looks like in person. so, at the urging of a friend offering up a free place to stay, we're packing our bags and heading west for a long weekend before the frenzy that is wedding season officially kicks off. we'll be out of commission until tuesday as celebrity watching is a full-time job. but don't worry, we'll tell the kardashians you say hello.

meg runion studios

i had breakfast this morning with a my friend meg runion. meg's a part of the wedding biz, too, photographing beautiful brides. meg's got a great energy and is so. much. fun. you can get in touch with meg and check out her talent here. in the meantime, check out this beautiful photo she took of my friend chloe who was married on new year's eve. happy wednesday, everyone!

simply beautiful

some really fabulous calligraphy for your viewing pleasure.

it's fun to work with such talented people.

making life a little easier

it really is a treat to work with the people we do. we work with wedding planners a lot, and we love it. especially after you get to work with one over and over again and that rapport is established. dickie morris is one of those people. dickie and i go way back, even before our days of wedding industry domination. dickie was the first person i met at college orientation at uva, and i'm lucky to say that we kept in touch over the years, and then got to work together, her planning events for easton events and me helping out with invitations for her clients. dickie's good people, and you just hope you can be like her one day. in addition to planning fabulous events, she keeps a blog on the side. after especially hectic days, i like to check out her blog to get a reality check. should you, too, need a momentary breather, i highly recommend stopping by justalittleditty.

good press has hit the big time

once you have an ad in the local paper, you're legit. well, in our opinion anyway. the way we see it, any joe schmo can blog. i mean, hey, look at us! but when you see your name in print, well, that's when you know you've made it. and that was the case when c-ville weekly's twice-a-year insert "unions" came out. unions focuses on, you guessed it, weddings. and there, front and center on page 23, keeping company with our friends the C & O Restaurant (probably good press' favorite restaurant in all of town) was good press' very own ad. we were pleased as punch and picked up a gazillion copies to send to friends and family. which might derail the whole point of advertising, but oh well. we just can't help it. if you don't live in town, or if we run out of unions to send out, here's the ad itself so you can see what all the fuss is about.

this ain't your momma's baby shower

(one of shannon's favorite colors is orange...such a cool mom-to-be)

this past weekend we celebrated the upcoming arrival of our friend shannon's new baby girl jane, and shannon was every bit the glowing mom-to-be. she's not really a "games" kind of girl, so we forewent the traditional baby shower games for something a little more up shan's alley since she has such a wickedly sharp sense of humor. our oh so talented friend kathryn found some vintage (and random) baby images on the interweb, printed them out on postcards and asked guests to write captions as well as words of advice for the new mom. rather than taking the cards with her, we're going to mail the cards to shannon over the coming weeks so that she'll remember the fun that we had at the baby shower.

("hey mom, can you come get me?")

mercury in retrograde?

sometimes i wish we weren't so dependent upon technology. or rather, me. sheesh. this morning the internet was out so i had to trek through the rain to the warmth of a nearby coffeehouse to get my work going. thankfully the internet is back up and running at home, but now the scanner won't scan. which is especially helpful when there are orders to be placed. is mercury in retrograde and no one told me?! oh well, at least it's friday. right?

you must check this out

we at good press feel very lucky to live where we do. charlottesville is brimming with lots of the good stuff...food, music, scenery, thomas jefferson. and art. of all kinds. while grabbing brunch at blue moon diner last week, i came across a poster for the american festivals project which is showing at the bridge pai over in belmont. long story short, two photographers (ross and andrew) trekked across the U.S. of A for over a year (specifics are fuzzy at the moment) photographing the smaller, lesser known festivals that Americans partake in. Water tasting championships or prison rodeo, anyone? The show is really something, and if you're in charlottesville i highly recommend checking it out.

(image borrowed from afp website)

resolutions

continuing with our new year theme, we admit that we weren't very good at blogging in 2009. so in 2010, we resolve to blog. every. single. day. check back to see how we're doing.

in the meantime, happy weekend! and especially to all you 9-5ers who are going to be enjoying 3 days of weekend goodness.

out with the old, in with the new!

whew, what a year 2009 was. despite our debut this past year, we at good press were ready to say bon voyage to 2009 and usher in 2010 just like everybody else. what better way to symbolize a new beginning and new adventure than with a wedding? good press' dear friends chloe and a.j. decided to tie the knot on new year's eve, and i can't recall having a better time, at either a wedding or on new year's eve. chloe and a.j. are those people who you really do feel lucky to know and that you want to be around because they're just such good people.

after saying their vows at the U.Va. Chapel surrounded by friends, family and more candles than you could count we headed out to to Veritas. the mood was festive, the champagne was flowing and the new year's hats were aplenty. after a night of cutting a rug to an amazing motown band, the bride and groom ran off into the night amongst a glow of sparklers, and we all started 2010 with the hope, happiness and good feelings we were missing in 2009.

here are some shots from the night:

the bride and groom share a dance.

so kathryn and i might have just broken a champagne glass in our excitement to congratulate the bride. of course everyone saw and it was captured on film. shooooot.

chloe and a.j.'s winter theme consisted of lots of pheasant feathers and winter greenery. gorgeous.