Night Owl Paper Goods:: Local Vendor feature:: Homewood, Owlabama

Night Owl Paper Goods is a letterpress company based out of Homewood, Owlabama, and they were gracious enough to humor me with an interview! They have a very cute whimsical collection complete with clever puns and  I bought some of their letterpressed Thank You cards a few months ago when I was finishing up wedding thank yous and they are absolutely gorgeous. Night Owl Paper Goods are also known for their wooden postcards and invitations, a really unique way to communicate with your friends!

 Night Owl Paper Goods' amazing designers, Jennifer and Alan. 

How did Night Owl Paper Goods find its origins here in Homewood, Owlababa? Why the owl?

The image of two owls on a limb is a self-portrait of sorts. While working together at a design firm and art gallery here in Birmingham, Jennifer and Alan daydreamed about starting their own stationery company. At first, they pursued our dream after hours, moonlighting for friends who needed invitations, logos and letterhead—any project they could print themselves. 

In 2004, they went out on a limb to start Night Owl Paper Goods. Six years later, the company is still thriving! With a passion for fine craftsmanship, detail and the environment, they're totally devoted to creating handmade letterpress cards and eco-chic wooden goodies in a style we like to call "modern yet folksy." 

Both Alan and Jennifer illustrate the entire line of greeting cards, journals, jotters and totes by intermixing their critter and pattern design styles. They're very fortunate to have created a company and product line that combines everything they love: design + printing + writing + paper + wood + nature + the environment + friends + family. What a hoot!

(I ordered the owl love you forever card for my hubby on vday and the thank yous on the right for my wedding! they're owl so lovely!)

What are your (or the designers') favorite places to gather inspiration for new designs?

A few of Alan’s favorite places to gather inspiration include Japanese gift/ bookstores, the cliffs in old Del Mar, CA and the Birmingham botanical gardens. One of his favorite blogs is http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/.

Jennifer gathers inspiration anywhere there are animals: her yard, the park, the zoo. She also challenges herself to dig through every catalogue she receives in the mail – no matter how junky – in search of inspiration from it because she believes that it made its way to her for a reason!

What is the process like for ordering a custom wedding invitation or save the date from Night Owl Paper Goods?

Once you’ve selected your design, you can simply place your order online! It’s just that easy! After placing your order online, you'll email the copy for your custom wedding invitations or save the dates to us at custom@nightowlpapergoods.com.  We will work with your copy to produce a wonderful custom invitation or save the date for you, and then we’ll send digital proofs of everything for you to review. Once we have your approval, it typically takes about 3-4 weeks for any finishing touches, printing and shipping. 

If I have my own design can I have Night Owl Paper Goods print it?

We can absolutely print your design on our wooden cards! You can view our custom card options and prices online in our Custom Cards category. Simply click on any of the items to view dimensions, options, costs, timelines, art submission guidelines and more. 

In the past few of weeks we’ve created numerous custom wedding save the dates, invitations and reply cards as well as several custom business cards and even thank you postcards using individuals’ unique and lovely designs! It’s magical to see someone else’s personal artwork come to life on wood!

So, say I'm a bride and I'm not feeling creative at all! I want to pick from pre-designed invitations! What are my options?

We certainly do offer a variety of lovely wedding invitations, as well as save the dates, reply cards, place cards and more! You can view all of our selections and information in our Wedding Suites category. Peacock Blue Zinnia is the most popular!

my favorite wedding invitation styles: Blue Zinnia, circles and stems, and flowering dogwood

Now, if you see another pre-existing design in another area of our site that strikes your fancy, please let us know. We can absolutely use it to create beautiful custom invitations, reply cards, thank you cards, save the dates, jotters, gift cards, etc. When you're ready to order, you can simply select the blank wood card that you prefer from our Custom Cards category and let us know what text and existing design you'd like us to use in the "customer notes" section during check-out. If there's a layout of an existing invitation that you like, please feel free to send us a link or image as an example.

And if you don't see exactly what you're looking for, please let us know! We're continuously expanding our wedding selection, so we love to hear from our clients what they most would like to see! And besides, you never know what our designers might have up their sleeves! 

Please note that samples of our pre-designed wedding invitations are available for purchase on our Wedding Samples page. Samples are great because they give you a good feel for the dimensions and texture of the cards and also serves as a "practice card" when you're ready to start addressing your invitations. Simply indicate the quantity that you’d like and let us know in the "customer notes" section which designs you'd like to receive!

All images courtesy Night Owl Paper Goods.

Even though the company prints locally, they are available nationwide (I was super excited to see NOPG cards on a recent trip to San Francisco)! Stay up to date on the happenings at Night Owl Paper Goods by becoming a fan on facebook or following them on twitter!

Thank you so much to the staff for making this feature (and tomorrow's giveaway) possible!

Head over tomorrow for the chance to win a GIVEAWAY with a prize pack from Night Owl Paper Goods!