Wahoo! That’s all our pre-wedding work done and dusted for Kathryn & Scotts big day, we’ve just finished the table names, and if I do say so myself, they look pretty brilliant too! We’ve got a couple of quiet days in the production schedule too, so have decided aswell as helping to get the last few bits ready for the wedding, we might do abit of Christmas shopping. I LOVE xmas…not just a little bit, but my friends call me the Christmas fairy, I love it lots! Not just the day, but the whole lead up to it (in fact I think I might like the lead up more than the day itself actually!) So, along with abit of shopping, it might be time to start getting festive with abit of xmas making, baking, and a touch of drinking! So, we’re signing out for a few days, for some pre-festive fun, and of course, Kathryn and Scotts big day! Once we’ve got over our sore heads (which im assuming we will have) we will be back to fill you in on it all! Might even have a few pictures for you too! Have a nice weekend!

We cant believe how quickly Kathryn & Scotts wedding is approaching…we forgot that our job wasn’t done once we had finished the invites! And it took a wee while for them decide on the wording and layout they wanted for the orders of service, so we’ve been making them abit last minute! We managed to produce 165, 8page booklets in a couple of days, (and a couple of nights…working until about 2am!) and still have 3 days to spare before the wedding! Although that doesn’t mean I’ve got time to go shoe shopping and to be pampered before the big day…still have table names and place settings to make!

We’ve been finding it hard to contain our excitement this week, anticipating the arrival of our new, gorgeous letterpress machine! A No1 Cropperette H.S. Cropper & Co. She got here on Saturday, and Andrews not been able to keep his hands off her since! Once she was delivered we decided to name her Charlotte…the name of Andrews niece who was around being almost as excited as Andrew while it was being delivered! And we thought she deserved a good proper English name, as its British born and bred, built in Nottingham in the 1800s!

Anyway, Charlotte’s no ordinary letterpress…she is very rare, and after some pretty extensive research, we haven’t been able to find anyone else who owns one just like ours…a No.1 Cropperette H.S. Cropper & Co (UPDATE – I’m sure I spotted one, possibly, in an episode of the BBC’s Lark Rise to Candleford) . We haven’t been able to find out too much about its history either…we know it was once owned by a lay preacher in Devon, who would use it to print his Sunday sermon…a pretty big job, but quite therapeutic in a bizarre way we think!

So, Charlottes previous owner, lovely Carl Middleton, rescued her from an old farm building, and being the lovely, kind fella he is, helped us out by carting it all the way down from Devon for us, in his Vauxhall Corsa, with all of his family in tow on the way to visit his in-laws! Ive no idea how he managed to fit it all in, even though the press came apart into bits! Now, its not nice to talk about a ladies weight, but Charlotte could do with loosing a few pounds….really, you have no idea just how heavy she is…so it was quite a job to get her (in bits) into the entrance hall!  As it was late, and we were all exhausted, Carl promised to come back in the morning to put her together and give us a tutorial!

True to his word, he was here bright and early, and put the beauty together; though she is so big, and the space in the studio so limited, we decided to build her in the hallway…luckily once she was all together she was pretty easy to shift into the studio…with some old cardboard, abit of shimmying, and some heave-ho-ing we got her into her new home, where she is very happy!

With the madness of all the orders we have had recently we haven’t had a chance to have a proper good play with her yet, but stay tuned for more news about the adventures of Charlotte, as we get her all cleaned up, and raring to go! Im already working on some gorgeous ideas for stationary for us to letterpress, and to celebrate the arrival of the new love of Andrews life, we are working on a limited edition letterpress print…can’t tell you too much about it just yet (not because we are being secretive, but because we haven’t decided,)  but the minute its sorted, the news will be posted on the blog!