"After living in Florence, a city known for its centuries-old papermaking traditions, Heather Wiese-Alexander dreamed of crafting exquisite stationery of her own. When her husband's uncle gave her the 19th-century presses from his family's printing business, Bell'Invito was born. Now the Dallas-based design and former art director for Neiman Marcus produces custom-made letterpress invitations of the first order. She started with thick 100-percent-cotton Italian paper and hand-feeds each sheet into the press, monitoring the quality to ensure that every invitation is flawlessly printed. Although the techniques are steeped into history, Bell'Invito's invites are in no way stuffy. Wiese-Alexander puts her design skills to work, creating small masterpieces ranging in style from clean to contemporary to gilt-edged and classic. From $1,150 for 100 214.741.1717; bellinvito.com"