don’t dismiss wedding volume one

our very first wedding album celebrates its 5th birthday. although we have since developed six other albums, including baby, holiday, bar/bat one, bar/bat bacara, wedding volume 2 & now classic wedding, wedding volume one is still going strong. some of our most popular styles come from this very first album. barcelona has always been a crowd favorite and is today still our most ordered invitation style. barcelona’s clean and classic design can be adapted to suit any personality.

coronado is another one of our favorite designs. with its clean typography and elegant floral motif it is the perfect choice for a classic wedding.

because all of our invitations are completely customizable, the possibilities are truly endless. if you can imagine it, it can be done. so for those of you that have wedding volume one tucked away somewhere, please pull it out, dust it off, and take a moment to revisit our premiere album…you might just fall in love all over again.

all the best ~ theresa

how did you get into that? (part 1)

whenever someone asks me what i do for a living, and i tell them i make custom invitations, their second question usually is, “how did you get into that?” interestingly enough when we started our company, bellaterra, nearly a decade ago we actually weren’t making invitations but rather custom party favors. at that time, most wedding guests were treated to the traditional tulle wrapped bundle of jordan almonds. the only variety back then was whether the jordan almonds were white, silver or gold. i had a feeling brides were looking for table favors that were more sophisticated and elegant, so we came up with what is essentially known today as our “classic cube.” back then, small colored boxes were impossible to find. all we came across was white, white and more white. the solution – personalize each box with colored paper, top it with satin ribbon and finish it off with a custom favor tag. what we ended up with was a one of a kind collection of little gift boxes, each one sweeter than the next. no one did anything like it at the time. it even caught the eye of instyle weddings magazine.

by the end of 2003 we were hand wrapping thousands of boxes. realizing that our simple yet elegant approach to favor boxes was exactly what brides were looking for. we had a million ideas and couldn’t wait to introduce our new shapes and styles to the industry. . .but that’s a story for another day.

all the best ~ t & s

first orders from bacara

as many of you may know we did a small release of our new bar/bat mitzvah bacara collection album in april. i’m so excited to see that the first batch of albums were so well received. this album is truly an inspiration – showing that you can do just about anything with paper and good design. we couldn’t be more please with the first few orders that have shipped out. our friends out there have come up with some fantastic designs. here are just a few of our favorites so far.

this absolutely extrodinary hybrid of “fletcher” from the bacara collection and “liberty” from our original bar/bat volume one comes from patty from p.s. you’re invited in woodland hills, ca. patty is simply one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet and it is a great privilege to be able to work with her. our new ribbon pockets have been a great hit, it’s a refreshing change from the standard pocket folds.

i can’t say enough about this one from our dear friend lee, from invitinglee in md. it’s modeled after the bacara collection’s “pixie” design. starting from the main invite, to the party card, all the way to the informal – this invitation suite is pure eye candy with all the youthful colors and the amazing combination of fonts. what a lucky bat mitzvah girl. lee’s creativity and perfection always blows me away. thank you lee for all your great suggestions – your words of wisdom are invaluable.

one of my favorites from the new bacara collection is “navin”. this example comes from my ultimate supporter candi, from candi stern stationers in tarzana, ca. candi has been with us since the very beginning and her support thru the years has gotten bte to where we are today. i can’t say enough wonderful things about candi. we love you candi!

i do hope these first few examples get your creative juices flowing. i’ll be uploading new pictures regularly so please visit often for more great ideas.

and finally for those of you still waiting for your albums we are in full production. we plan to have albums in your hands by the end of july. i certainly hope you love this new book as much as we do. i  look forward to working together with all of you to create absolutely amazing invitations for all those special moments in life.

all the best
theresa

Why a blog for bte?

hello everyone! i’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now, so i’m very excited about writing my first post. so why a blog? it’s simple really. i decided to start this blog for the same reason we started bte in the first place. which is to find out what people want so we can meet their needs. i’m hoping this blog will do just that. i’m looking forward to sharing our thoughts with you, and keeping you posted on all the new things happening around the bte office. more importantly, i think this will be the perfect place to hear you. we hope to become great friends with all our stores and provide each and everyone of you with the best in personal attention, design & inspiration.
all the best  ~  theresa