According to an article in the New York Times this week, what the world needs now is more handwritten cards and letters: We Could All Use a Little Snail Mail Right Now

The article expresses everything we feel as stationers! Handwriting is such a physical reminder of a person and email just can’t capture this. The average American household receives just 10 pieces of personal mail per year. This makes getting a note in the mail even more meaningful and taking the time to write and send a note feels good too.

The Times article also notes that David Sedaris, one of our favorite writers, sends handwritten thank you notes.

“I just feel like it’s classy to do it with real mail,” he said. “It’s too easy to do it on email. And it also doesn’t mean as much.” Not to mention, he added, “It’s nice to be thought of as classy.”

Our feelings exactly!

Sesame Letterpress custom stationery image courtesy Kim Indresano Photography

Congratulations to Brooke and Paulo on their Hamptons wedding this past weekend! We loved working on their design so much, that it inspired us to create a new template based on it. The tinted floral pattern on the invitation is subtle and allows the text to read clearly. The Information card and Welcome Cocktails card both featured Hamptons inspired illustrations in complementary colors. It is a beautiful and unique invitation suite.

There’s something romantic about a bluff where the land meets the sea.

A pale image of the sea lends a dreamy elegance to this invitation for a wedding in Montauk, NY.

We love the classic elegance of an invitation printed with 1-color ink and using all script type. Here are some examples of invitations that we've designed and letterpress printed this year.

Congratulations to Shannon & Sean who were married at the Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack, NY this weekend! We started working with this family nearly a year ago to design Save the Date announcements for their wedding. The cards featured a vintage map of Long Island with a heart marking the celebration location. The invitations focused on the vineyard theme and we brought back the map as an envelope liner to tie in the save the date card design.

We especially love the illustrated Wedding Weekend card with the bonfire image. This is always a great way to outline the activities planned for wedding guests!

My Dear Mrs. Charlton,

Both Howard and I deeply appreciate the exquisite compote you and Mr. Charlton were good enough to send us. Accept our sincere thanks both for the gift and your generous good wishes.

Very sincerely,

- from The Etiquette of Letter Writing, copyright 1927, Eaton, Crane and Pike Co.

Social correspondence was much more common in the last century and writing a note to express gratitude was something people did so frequently that it was second nature. This is less of a daily practice now and sitting down now to write a thank you note (or a stack of thank you notes) can be daunting. As in the above note, it only takes a couple sentences to warmly thank someone for a gift or a kind service. Here is a simple formula to help you begin:

• First, mention the specific gift or experience for which you are thankful
• Next, express how you will use the gift or how the experience helped you or made you feel:
• Finally, add a closing sentence that is more personal.

For example:

Thank you for the elegant serving tray. We look forward to using it when we entertain in our new home. We hope you and David will visit when you are in town next month.

or

Thank you for hosting my family last weekend. You made us feel so welcome and it was wonderful to catch up. We look forward to having you stay with us over the holidays!

 As also stated well in The Etiquette of Letter Writing, “In our hurried days graciousness is all too rare, but its rarity gives it increased importance and makes it doubly welcome”.

We wanted to wish a belated congratulations to Blair & Stephen on their Lake Tahoe wedding this summer! They're invitations were beautiful and simple in charcoal gray with clean text and some Tahoe inspired imagery. The pine tree and mountain illustrations were perfect for their cards. 

Congratulations to Sarah and Dan on their wedding this weekend! We loved working with them on their simple and sweet invitation set. They wanted to add illustrations to each of their cards to show off the theme of the event, like the lobster on the welcome dinner card and coffee on a farewell breakfast card. What a perfect weekend!