Just a quick blog update to say we will be away for a few weeks - we're hanging out with unicorns, eating icecream and finding beautiful new antique pieces (hopefully) to bring to you very soon!

Be excited though - we'll be releasing more pieces from the INSOUCIANCE collection once we're back, and we'll be documenting our travels through our instagram and FB if you haven't already started following us! 

You can still make orders through our website - pieces will be made especially for you and shipped as soon as we get back. If you have any questions, shoot us an email at customercare@jyjewels.com.

JY xo

This year, we are launching private studio appointments!

EXCITEMENT!!

For more information, click here!!!

We recently engaged in a most delightful (!) pursuit of stationery for JYJewels.

Here is the final mock up of our beautiful stationery. 

I thought, having gone through what we did to get this beautiful stationery, I might set out a nice cheatsheet as to what I learned as it might be useful for those of you who are customising your own wedding invitations!

I cobbled my understanding from meticulously questioning a number of possible printers, various artwork guides online and general online summaries so I in no way represent that this is comprehensive but I hope you will at least find it helpful. 

The different types of colour - Pantone, CMYK, RGB. 

Pantone

Pantone is used to match colours across printers all over the world. There are many many MANY different pantone colours. It is different depending on the finish you want e.g. you can get uncoated (which is matte), coated (which is laminated)... and that's the end of what I needed to learn for that. Asking your printer to print in pantone is often more expensive than CMYK. Also some printers won't print certain items in pantone e.g. stickers, letterhead etc. 

CMYK

CMYK is what all printers will ask you to put your graphics in before you send it to them for printing. CMYK represents the colours which can be printed in (as opposed to .. all the colours of the world, which are apparently not available when printing). However, providing CMYK values to a printer does not necessarily ensure consistency. One printer told me that the ultimate colour would also be affected by the colours used in the printing previous to mine. VERY HELPFUL NOT REALLY. 

RGB

RGB is what you use when you're creating graphics which will be published online. It doesn't print well, so make sure everything you want to print is converted to CMYK. 

Converting Pantone to CMYK

I had a terrible time trying to convert my original Pantone swatches to CMYK. Pro tip - if you can, visit an in-real-life printer and take a look at their Pantone colour swatch book. I found it immensely helpful to see the actual colours in person.  

IN SHORT - make sure everything you want to print is in CMYK and visit a printer beforehand to check out what the colour looks like. P.S. I found this conversion table quite helpful. 

Preparing your graphics for printing

Your chosen printer is likely to tell you the specifications for any artwork you give them. Ideally, if you have someone designing your artwork, you can just send them the link and they can work it out because they are much more learned in this area. However, if you feel like having a truly marvellous adventure, you can try to work it out yourself! :P

Here is a picture I found online: 

Graphic from http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/

Bleed is the section around your design that your printer will eventually cut off from your final design. It is usually around 2mm, meaning that if you have a background design (such as the lilac design we chose), you should try to make sure it overlaps into the bleed so you don't end up with white spaces at the edge of your card (printers always say they might cut a little differently to what you think so it could happen!)

Safe zone is a smaller area in your design where all text and important images should be included to make sure they don't get cut off in the end. 

Also, no borders! Printers say no to borders!

Design programs

Perhaps don't mention this, but I used to create my Look Books in Word and uh, Paint (back in 2006... okay, I actually tried again this year too) . But now that I am wiser (and have dealt with incredulous and unhappy printers), I use InDesign, which is an Adobe program. 

Paper stock

So, "gsm" is generally how Australian printers tend to measure their paper stock. A standard business card is usually around 300-350gsm BUT I have recently learned that two paper stocks can be the same gsm but feel thicker or thinner! This is why I recommend obtaining as many samples as possible. Also, different printers use different whites for their "white" paper stock so consider how that might affect the colour of your printing. 

If you want to engage in certain printing options e.g. letterpress, where they literally press your design into the paper, I have been recommended to look at paper stock which is 600gsm or thicker to avoid the design coming out the back of the card. 

I have to say, a thicker paper stock really does make a lovely difference!

Oh! And my pro tip for printing is - you should print with darker colours than you see online as it will come up fainter in real life. Had I followed that, it would be much easier to show you a photo of my actual printed stationery. :) 

Let me know if you have any questions or comments - I'll help where I can (but note I am a jewellery designer and definitely not a graphic designer!)

JY x

P.S. I have heard great things about Minted and Wedding Paper Divas if you are looking for lovely invitations online. 

Bridesmaid dresses. Colours, style, cut, print, fabric, length - it always takes way longer than you think and by the end, the majority of brides end up picking a single colour dress in the same style. If you're set on something different, picking print dresses is a great way to make your bridesmaids really lovely for your wedding and can be easy if you start planning it from the beginning. Possibly this could start by -

1. Picking the general colour you want - pink, blue, yellow, green, white, navy, lilac, purple, red etc etc
2. Considering your bridesmaids' body shapes (usually easier to ask them) - keep a list of the cuts they prefer
3. Using the information from step 1 and 2 to start filtering your searches on online stores to work out what your options are but keeping an open mind. Just because you picked a colour in step 1 doesn't mean you have to stick with it if you see something else you love! It's also fantastic if you can get all of your bms to a store to try on everything to see what suits, but with girls often living away, travelling or with packed schedules, this isn't always possible. 

There are a number of stores which sell beautiful dresses specifically catered for bridesmaids. Some of my favourites are BHLDN, JCrew, Bridesmaids Only, Maids to Measure (a custom dress shop), Jenny Yoo and Nordstrom. 

There are other stores which sell gorgeous dresses which aren't necessarily tagged "bridesmaid". It is usually easier to find printed dresses in fashion stores (as I find that the bridesmaid stores naturally err towards stocking single colour dresses as they are the most popular). For these, I suggest Shopbop, Madewell, Revolve, Topshop, Asos (although the dresses can be a bit short), Net-a-Porter, Matches and Lover.

I've put together a few inspiration suggestions if you're looking to style your bridesmaids without depending on bridesmaid focused dresses (I'll put together a post on the dresses I love from my favourite bridesmaid dress stores soon too). 

A bright pink print dress is absolutely gorgeous for spring weddings (although bright colours are always lovely regardless of the season). The white pumps and pearl cuff keep the outfit ladylike and elegant and the light pink lipgloss will just add a lovely pink glimmer to the mouths of all of your bridesmaids. For strong colour dresses with a print, it is always helpful to keep the accessories more simple to avoid overwhelming the overall look.

Brunettes often look gorgeous in yellow so if you have brunette bms, that's an added bonus! :) Here, the yellow is offset by the navy and pearls which are a perfect complement. The lilac nails provide that extra tint of a widely flattering colour and the bouquet matches the lilac perfectly. The nude lipstick is also perfect with slightly more accentuated eyes for this look (as accenting the eyes helps to avoid the yellow print overwhelming your bridesmaids' faces). 

I hope you found this helpful! I've had a lot of girls mention to me lately that they want to look for dresses which are more fun than the typical bridesmaid dress and for this, gorgeous print dresses in bright colours are definitely an option. 

JYx

As a bride, finding the perfect pair of wedding shoes can be ridiculously difficult. It probably feels like just a few months ago, there were infinite pairs of gorgeous and perfect bridal shoes flinging themselves at you from every which way but you were looking at dresses, so thought "eh, I'll look for them as soon as I've found my dress". Then, as soon as you had a few minutes to breathe - nothing!

When I was helping my friend look for gold wedding shoes for her wedding, I spent months trawling every one of the shopping websites which I love - BHLDN, Shopbop, Net-a-Porter, The Outnet, Matches, Farfetch, Badgley Mischka and Yoox just to name a few.  

I thought putting together a short list of the best suggestions for wedding shoes, wedding clutches, or other accessories might be helpful for some of you as well. Having bought pretty much all of my shoes (and everything, really) online since... the days when stores in the US charged USD60 to ship to Australia, I'm well aware of many of the places to get beautiful shoes (especially because your bridal shoes are an excellent excuse to have a bit of a splurge :P). 

Here are my top picks for the prettiest wedding shoes at the moment:

Jimmy Choo FAYME ivory and white satin and lace sandals 995USD (from the Jimmy Choo website)

I love these - they're delicate, lace, and have an ankle strap for that extra support (perfect for dancing and getting to the dessert table first). Best of all, the ankle strap is a neutral colour, meaning that they will blend in with your legs to avoid the dreaded cutting off the leg look. 

(P.S. A version of these which are just as pretty but have a slightly lower heels the Jimmy Choo FABLE heels (same price))

These gorgeous jewel print Miu Mius are the perfect height, with just the most delightful amount of pretty. Even better, they're patent which means they'll survive gardens, overzealous toasts and will probably last you well after your wedding day. 675USD at Net-A-Porter. 

I also love these beautiful champagne satin and glass pearl Oyster Bed d'Orsays (by Something Bleu) and available at BHLDN. The style is always more comfortable provided that you wear in the backs a little before you wear them on your big day. The front strap is also slightly wider, providing more support than those heels with the single thin strap across the foot. 310USD.

These blush pink satin Milly heels from BHLDN (by Badgely Mischka) are also very lovely - a subtle touch of pink which you might want peeking from under your gown. 195USD. 

Ahhh, I could look at pretty shoes forever but I have to get back to the studio to put some finishing touches on some new jewels. ;)

I'll be back more regularly with more of my online favourites soon! Let me know if you've seen any other gorgeous shoes which are floating around at the moment? 

JY x

P.S. the gold shoes my friend ended up purchasing were these lovely Sophia Webster rose gold patent pumps from Net-A-Porter.