Love and Lightning

About Love and Lightning

Love and Lightning are a graphic design and letterpress stationery studio for intimate gatherings and one-of-a-kind weddings and events. Redefining wedding stationery from the perspective of art, fashion, film and music, deeply centred on exceptional quality and craftsmanship, expect a modern yet retrospective style with attention to typography and paper selection.

Behind The Brand

What was the initial spark for your brand, how did it all begin?

We’re graphic designers, but wanted to move away from the screen into the hands-on aspect. Weddings and events allow us to immerse ourselves in two of our favourite things – event production and people in love. We felt we had something to contribute to the space of designers who are redefining the art of invitation design because of our background in branding.

Letterpress was unquestionably the print method of choice for us because it brings a completely unique, tactile quality to the print that makes you know you’re dealing with something really different and special. So we bought an antique printing press and got to work.

How would you describe your aesthetic?

Refined. Unconventional. Fashion led. Cinematic. Typographic. Modern and retrospective.

What inspires you creatively?

Fashion is always going to influence our creative direction, but film and music play a big role in inspiring our work, particularly the typography and ephemera of bygone eras. Plus, we are endlessly inspired by font designers, and love to mix that modernity with the traditional method of letterpress printing. Music helps us visualise, so we always have something playing that’s relevant to the project we’re working on. We thrive on delivering pieces that are noticeably exquisite and luxurious so new papers and textures spark that inspiration in a heartbeat too.

Tell us about the process when enlisting Love & Lightning to design wedding stationery?

For our bespoke service, we invite those who identify with our brand and values to submit details on our website, where we focus on questions about the scope and creative direction of the wedding, as well as the couple themselves so we can best grasp how our work will amplify the vision. If we’re a match, we’ll invite you to hop on a call so we can get acquainted and chat more informally about working together.

Once it’s decided that we’re a fit, we finalize the formalities of contract and retainer before proceeding through the process of design and concept presentation, paper selection/samples, collaborative feedback and refinements.

We often hear from our clients that this process is one of their favourite parts of the planning process, because it’s so visual, collaborative and creative. But we also know when to take the lead, if our clients are busy or overwhelmed and just need to delegate this aspect to a team they can rely on.

If our Bespoke service isn’t a fit, we offer our Collection which can be ordered online with the option to customize certain elements of the design.

What advice can you share for the wedding stationery process?

• Collect visuals and moodboard for the overall event including decor, flowers, tablescapes, attire, venue – every single detail. We like to immerse ourselves in a full visualization of what attending your wedding is going to look and feel like.
• If you have an idea, ask about it – even if you think it’s a bit far out or even impossible – we love a challenge and the opportunity to experiment – and believe that we can make anything happen with paper.
• Don’t let practicalities override your decisions on design – this will limit you needlessly. Trust and allow us to guide, advise, and problem solve if there is something that concerns you about the design.
• Don’t leave stationery and day pieces until the last minute, involve us as early as possible as your graphic design and print partners.
• Understand that you are crucial to the process of feedback. Don’t be afraid to share what doesn’t work for you, as well as what does.

Editor’s Notes

Why we love them…

We’re drawn to Love and Lightning’s boldly modern aesthetic balanced with the elegance of tradition. They have such a unique style deeply inspired by art, fashion and typography, creating wedding invitations and stationery that feels fresh and modern, yet timeless.

For the couple…

Who want modern, tactile, luxurious wedding invitations and, like us, are in love with the art of letterpress and blind embossing.

Our Advice…

There’s really nothing like the feeling of luxuriously tactile invitations. A well-designed stationery suite speaks volumes about the style of your event to come and adds so much to a tablescape design.  Give the team plenty of inspiration and info about your wedding and creative freedom to dream up a custom design to suit your event.