Michelle Kreil Design
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Michelle Kreil designs custom wedding stationery featuring special finishes such as hot foil stamping, letterpress, wax seals, silk ribbons, and gold leaf. She focuses on high-quality print finishes and exceptional materials to create luxurious, eye-catching pieces for your wedding.
Photos © Michelle Kreil | Irina Gantze
In 2011, Michelle Kreil turned her greatest passion into a career. After gaining extensive experience at various advertising agencies, she started her own business in 2016 designing wedding stationery. Over time, she realized just how huge the difference is between pretty stationery and truly valuable stationery. And with the growing number of inexpensive online card shops, she sought a way two years later to clearly set herself apart from them. Today, her focus is on special print finishes, high-quality or unusual materials, and luxurious, eye-catching designs. Modern design tailored to your wishes and professional printing are a given. However, the use of high-quality materials, special finishes, and exclusive accessories is the subtle difference that transforms a nice card into a valuable wedding card. That’s why Michelle relies on special touches such as hot foil stamping, letterpress, white ink printing, wax seals, gold leaf, and real silk ribbons.
A classic princess wedding doesn't have to feel outdated. This fine art wedding inspiration, set in a stylish villa in Bregenz, combines timeless elegance with a modern, artistic look. The fine art wedding concept exudes a sense of calm and sophistication while still feeling contemporary.
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This styled shoot at Lake Constance is colorful and full of joy. A touch of Lake Constance charm, a dash of French passion, and plenty of pops of color come together to create a harmonious wedding inspiration that feels wonderfully light and airy yet youthful and sweet.
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The theme of this wedding inspiration is as clear as it is beautiful: “colorful”! The floral arrangements, stationery, and candy bar shine in a wide variety of colors. Along with the colorful accessories, the sun glows on the horizon before slowly setting, leaving behind the perfect backdrop for atmospheric wedding photos.
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A renovated factory building, a cool skater boy, and his bride: That’s the foundation for a wedding inspiration that shows how an urban wedding can combine fun with modern elegance. A touch of greenery, paired with copper and cool decorative accessories—that’s all it takes to bring this cohesive concept to life.
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Pastel and gold are simply the perfect combination for a spring wedding. This wedding inspiration in Vorarlberg—where peach and blush meet golden accents—proves just that. The newly built wedding venue in Rankweil provides an elegant backdrop for this inspiration and makes the fine art design shine even brighter.
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A natural wedding design, a bride who looks like a fairy, and a ceremony set between steep cliffs: This inspiration for an outdoor wedding proves that nature often offers the most beautiful settings. The red blooms and lush greenery of the wedding florals blend beautifully and harmoniously into the forest backdrop.
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“Less Color – More Love” is the theme of this wedding inspiration, which focuses entirely on two colors and the essentials. The minimalist design lets the surroundings take center stage and combines elegant details with rustic charm. The result is a wedding concept that is, above all, incredibly atmospheric!
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For all fall lovers, a wedding inspired by the heart of a fall forest is a real highlight. Natural color combinations blend with trendy shades of dark yellow, orange, and cognac, lending the wedding design a warm touch. As evening falls, the forest becomes an even more atmospheric setting.
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A wedding inspiration in the Bregenzerwald, where a secluded forest clearing provides the ideal setting for an outdoor wedding ceremony. Burgundy, emerald green, and copper are delicately coordinated and blend harmoniously with the abundance of wood and nature. The concept thus fits perfectly into this charming wedding venue.
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For many couples, getting married by the water is a wonderful idea. This wedding inspiration at Lünersee makes you want to turn that dream into reality. The wedding design shows just how atmospheric an outdoor wedding ceremony or an intimate elopement can be amidst the alpine landscape.
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Personal and unafraid to be unconventional: This inspiration for a non-traditional wedding ceremony at a unique venue in Dornbirn shows just how unique a wedding can be. A leather jacket, dark stationery, black balloons, and a stylish motorcycle give the wedding setting a casual, nonconformist vibe.
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August 10, 2019, was our big day. We celebrated our barn wedding with 100 guests at the Gauklerhof. We chose a pink-and-black color scheme. I’ve always been a fan of soft pink—but not of cheesy, run-of-the-mill weddings. The combination with black not only added that certain something but also brought a touch of provocation into play, and we liked that. After all, as soon as we mentioned a non-traditional wedding ceremony, some people gave us strange looks. With an unconventional color scheme, we wanted to emphasize once again that getting married these days no longer means you have to stick to traditions or rules.
View GalleryAt first, I wanted to offer my cards as affordably as possible to attract many customers and build my reputation. That’s why my first wedding cards were quite simple. While they always featured a professional and modern design, I had them produced as inexpensively as possible—using standard printing and standard cardstock. These days, I prioritize quality over quantity—even though my stationery is now comparatively expensive. As a result, I receive far fewer orders, but they’re truly interesting projects that result in valuable, extravagant cards—ones I’m happy and proud to showcase at trade shows or online. And these come from customers who are happy to pay the price because they value this exclusivity and care deeply about professional design and high-quality materials.
In my eight years as a designer so far, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing—and, above all, touching—countless beautiful printed pieces. After all, a pretty design is by no means the whole story! There are so many ways to transform a simple card into something truly striking: embossing, calligraphy, specialty papers, gold leaf, real silk ribbons, wax seals… and these are exactly the special touches I offer. This is the only way to really let even simple designs shine, without needing little hearts and flowers. That’s why I prefer working with couples who place great value on perfect design, high-quality materials, and craftsmanship over those who “just need an invitation—and preferably as cheap as possible.”
The emotions! I’ve been there three times already when brides-to-be burst into tears when they received the finished invitations from me. As a stationery designer, I’m with the couples the longest—from the “Save the Date” to the thank-you cards. I really feel it myself as the wedding date gets closer and closer. Since my relaunch as “Michelle Kreil Design,” I’ve also had many corporate clients, though almost exclusively from the wedding industry. For me, that’s the perfect client base!
As the managing director of Austria Wedding and Ländle Wedding, I’m practically obligated to stay up to date on the latest trends. Personally, I’m a fan of Southern European fine art weddings—they’re very elegant, yet light, natural, and designed in soft, delicate colors. Unfortunately, though, trends always take much longer to catch on here in Ländle. By the time something becomes a trend here, it’s usually old news to me. For example, I’m really starting to get tired of boho weddings. But as a wedding service provider, you must never forget: For a bride-to-be who’s just starting to plan her wedding, everything she hasn’t seen at a wedding before is, of course, new to her. That’s why wedding trends stick around for so long. I’m glad that non-religious ceremonies, outdoor celebrations, and the natural decor that goes with them are becoming more common—and that weddings in Vorarlberg are finally starting to say goodbye to chair covers, fondant, and the like. Hallelujah!
On August 10, 2019, we got married in a huge barn with 100 guests, where our best friend officiated the non-religious wedding ceremony. Our color theme was, of course, anything but ordinary. You can check out our wedding photos here :)
