Michelle Kreil Design
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
True to the "Lakeside Love" theme, we chose a COLORFUL color scheme for this wedding inspiration. The floral arrangements, stationery, and candy bar all shine in every color imaginable. Add to that the sun slowly sinking below the horizon, creating a breathtaking backdrop for wedding photos.
View Gallery
Large weddings are like a thunderstorm that lets its heavy downpour slap against windowpanes like thunderous applause, while it announces with deep thunder and blinding flashes of lightning that something significant is happening here. Elopements are more like a gentle midnight summer rain, carried through the street by the wind like a soft whisper and noticed by most people only when it fills the air the next morning with the scent of summer freshness, new beginnings, and adventure. This elopement photo shoot took place after a night of just such a drizzle.
View Gallery
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 :)
