When Kate Rademeyer was in college, she took printmaking courses that allowed her to study lithography, engraving, and letterpress. “I just absolutely fell in love with those print processes,” she recalls.
Since then, she has started working with analog materials, and the print processes she learned about in school are now considered more art forms than everyday techniques. Still, Rademeyer appreciates the messages these creations can send.
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“I really just value and cherish the one-of-a-kind nature of things like handmade paper and custom artwork and letterpress printing,” she says. “There’s so much more time and attention given to the details.”
To share her love of the art, Rademeyer opened her own stationery business, Love Letter Paper Co., which creates bespoke wedding invitations detailed with customized crest, venue, and landscape prints.
Rademeyer works with couples to select an image and then creates an original drawing of the image and digitizes the illustration. Next the file is turned into a letterpress plate that, when inserted into her letterpress machine, presses the design into the paper.
Rademeyer collects the materials that she uses for the custom wedding stationery by working with multiple small businesses across the United States, including seven handmade paper companies and artisans who can produce paper in colors that meet her clients’ specifications. “It is an art form in itself,” Rademayer says, “so there’s always a little bit of lead time with having handmade paper custom made.”
As for the custom plates, Rademeyer says there are only a handful of places left that make them, so she works with Boxcar Press out of Massachusetts.
Before she ever began gathering her materials and suppliers, though, Rademeyer had a much larger task: finding a letterpress. “I found one in 2017 in Indiana, and I just knew it was the one for me,” she says. “It was an adventure getting it here—it’s 2,000 pounds—and I brought it home in the middle of a massive snowstorm.”
Once Rademeyer had her own letterpress, Love Letter Paper Co. officially began. Since opening the business, she has learned about not only the process of digitizing artwork and using a 100-year-old machine but also about her clients and neighbors, who share their love stories with her as she creates the memorable art.
“This business incorporates so much of what I love,” Rademeyer says. “Being able to work with couples one-on-one and really pulling out the elements of their story that are most important to them to share with their guests is special.”
Hot Off The Press
Love Letter’s Kate Rademeyer breaks down her process.
Step 1: Design
After determining the type of artwork that the couple would like to include on their stationery, Rademeyer draws out the designs by hand.
Step 2: Plate creation
After digitizing the illustration and adding it to the invitation design, the design is sent to Boxcar Press in New York, where it’s turned into a polymer letterpress plate.
Step 3: Paper
Couples have the option to choose from handmade papers produced by various artisans from across the country and traditional cotton papers that highlight the beauty of the letterpress impression.
Step 4: Printing
After receiving the letterpress plate and paper, Rademeyer prints each piece on a Chandler and Price letterpress. The couple’s chosen ink color is mixed by hand and then applied to the press. The ink transfers to the letterpress plate, then the plate applies pressure to stamp the design into the paper, which creates the letterpress impression.
Step 5: Delivery
Once the invitations are packaged up, they are mailed and delivered.
