Harry and Meghan finally send out wedding invites

From Digital Spy

If you haven't received your gold gilded invitation to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding, then we're afraid you haven't made the guest list to their upcoming big day in May.

Kensington Palace has confirmed that invitations to the wedding of Harry and Meghan have been officially issued in the name of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Related: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding cake has been officially revealed

Around 600 people have been invited by Prince Charles to the service at St George's Chapel and the lunchtime reception at St George's Hall, which is being given by Her Majesty The Queen.

The palace has also confirmed that Harry and Markle will be holding their private reception, hosted by The Prince of Wales, at Frogmore House, with invites extending to 200 guests.

And obviously, these are no ordinary invitations.

Having been sent out earlier this week, the invites have been produced by Barnard & Westwood, a company which has held a Royal Warrant for Printing & Bookbinding by Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen since 1985.

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The invitations are die-stamped in gold and then burnished. The text on the invitation is also die-stamped, while edges of the invitation are bevelled then gilded. The invitation features The Three Feather Badge of The Prince of Wales, and the names of invited guests are added later by a calligraphy printer.

Although former Suits star Meghan is more than accomplished in calligraphy, we doubt she has the time to hand-write 600 invitations.

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Austen Kopley, who's Barnard & Westwood's managing director, said: "The wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle will be a truly special occasion and we are thrilled to be able to create equally special invitations for their guests.

"We are incredibly honoured to continue our longstanding work for The Royal Family, and to be involved in such an important moment for the couple and their family and friends."

Kensington Palace also released details on the printing process, revealing that the plate for the black text was engraved into copper, whilst the plate for The Three Feather Badge of The Prince of Wales was a pre-existing die that was hand-etched into steel a number of years ago.

The process of die-stamping is an embossed printing technique, meaning the finished print has a subtle raised texture.

[Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement in November 2017]

To create this raised image, a piece of card was trimmed by hand around the area to be printed. This is known as a 'force' which pushes that specific area of the paper up into the engraved die so the ink can be applied.

Each invitation was then fed by hand into the press and the black ink printed onto the face. Once completed, the press was washed up and re-set ready for the gold print run of the crest.

Related: Meghan Markle can play herself on The Crown, says producer

To give the metallic shine that die-stamping is renowned for, the invitations were passed through the machine twice, once to apply the gold ink and a second 'burnishing' run (used to smooth out imperfections in the ink and polish up the image).

As a final finishing touch, the printed invitations were bevelled and gilded in gold along the edges. The bevelled and gilded edge allows the gold border to be viewed when looking straight down at the invitation as opposed to just being visible from the sides.

We're sure ours is en route...

Prince Harry and Markle will marry at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19.

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