We're so glad you're here!
Elle Bee was created in 2013 and run by us, Laura and Ian, a wife-and-husband team of two from our rural Worcestershire studio. In an increasingly digital and disposable world, we’re passionate about creating wedding stationery that tells a personal, memorable story in a contemporary way.
Elle Bee has come a long way from humble, cardmaking beginnings and turned from being a sideproject for one into a fully-fledged business for two. We are incredibly fortunate to be working on our passion every day and have a consistent ethos for everything we do.
Our Ethos
Design
Whilst varied, our design ethos centres around refined, clean design with an emphasis on high-class typography. We’re font snobs and proud!
Our goal with design is to provide an extensive choice of house designs which can be accessorised and tailored to make every piece unique. For those looking for something extra special, we love to take on bespoke projects for couples.
Quality
With over 10 years of experience, we have continually refined and updated the materials we use, so only partner with the very best in paper makers and other suppliers to ensure we’re only ever providing impeccable, tactile materials.
We continually invest in technology - old and new - to provide the most varied, in-house service to our couples.
Service
It’s important to us that from concept to delivery we’re doing as much of the work ourselves so we can quality check every step of the process; so whether it’s design proofing, printing, foiling, or wax seals, every piece will have been created by us. This means less reliance on third parties which reduces pricing and wait times for customers.
We also believe in a friendly, responsive service to create a stress-free experience for all couples, weddings are supposed to be enjoyable and we never lose sight of that!
Meet the Team
Laura - The Maker
Laura started the business back in 2013 as a way to rekindle her love of all things handmade, something she had left behind years prior. Starting with cardmaking, this quickly escalated into a fully-fledged business with wedding stationery at the centre.
Laura ran Elle Bee in her spare time until committing full-time in 2019. Over the years Laura has continued to work at her craft, including how to traditionally hot foil and letterpress, make wax seals from scratch, and she takes on the supervision of our acrylic and die-cutting work.
In short, there isn’t an order that leaves Elle Bee HQ without Laura’s supervision, handmade work or seal of approval.
Hometown: Bournemouth - Tipple: Cotswolds Cream -
Film: Memoirs of a Geisha - Holiday: Koh Samui -
Food: Thai - Tea: Milky, no sugar
Ian - The Designer
Ian helped run the business in his spare time for many years until properly joining full-time in 2022. Ian runs a lot of things behind the scenes to keep the business ticking over; the website, bookkeeping, boring admin, stock management, that kind of thing!
But despite spending over 10 years in Business Development, in that period he’s uncovered a passion for design, so many of the wedding stationery designs you see today will have been digitally created by him.
Unlike Laura, Ian often doesn’t go hands-on with production and sticks to the digital realm – it’s best for all customers that way, quite honestly.
Hometown: London - Tipple: Flat White - Film: Se7en - Holiday: Cancun - Food: BBQ - Tea: Builders
Vinny
Digital Die-Cutter
This beast takes care of cutting and scoring all of our shaped items, from arched invitations and save the dates to favour tags, place cards and pocketfolds. He also streamlines our sample production and swatch books.
Vinny was squeezed into our new studio in May 2023. And don’t be fooled to thinking he is of the same ilk as some of the hobby digital cutters – Vinny is nearly 2 metres long and weighs a whopping 375kg!
Larry
Laser cutter, engraver
Installed in 2023, Larry handles all of our acrylic and wood work; cutting and intricately engraving anything from the smallest trinkets to the largest signage (his bed is 1000mm x 600mm), Larry is a proper workhorse.
Florence
Hot Foiling Machine
A small, traditional platen press, Florence – or Flo for short – is who we turn to for our traditional hot foiling. Operated exclusively and expertly by Laura, we have plates engraved in magnesium or brass, add the plate to Flo, heat to 100C, and manually press each piece by hand.
It's a labour of love but the result has so much more quality than digital foil.
We've had Flo on-site with us for over 4 years now and she's never missed a beat.
Lawrence
Antique Letterpress
The newest member of the team, Lawrence has quite the story having been first made in 1892. An antique press which has been painstakingly restored as-new, Lawrence takes care of all of our Letterpress work.
He's an absolute beast weighing in at over 650kg and is quite the feat of engineering. There are no plugs or powerpoints, no electrics, just good old fashioned machinery which, when operated correctly, produces astonishing results.
And when he's not being used, he just looks SO handsome.
Betty and Wilma
LED Laser Digital Printers
When our stationery business took off it did so because of a printer we called Bertha. Fast-forward to today and we're now onto our 3rd and 4th printers, nicknamed Betty and Wilma.
These are our workhorses, both of whom have the unique ability to print in white ink on coloured media. We've tested out others and the results are never as good as what these ladies produce.
Betty is the old-timer who has now clocked hundreds of thousands of prints, Wilma is our new addition. Goose, our other printer, waits in the wings ready to be an able deputy.