Know upfront:
Bella Figura does not provide printed proofs, so that you can truly see what your design looks like in your ink colors. I understand not being able to create intricate letterpress proofs, but they could easily ink up a similar plate in their library for a quick test or do a "pull down" of your colors...they don't.
"Pull downs" are larger test swatches of your ink color or foil..
If they do not have your chosen ink colors in their sample invite inventory, you will not have any idea how it prints. This was the case with my ink, and I had to choose another color. Their ink swatches are miniscule! Not possible to see what it really looks like.
Because you only see PDF / onscreen proofs, if using foil stamping, it will be impossible to know what it will look like until you get final printed pieces.
They often omit important information about printing possibilities. You must pay a deposit, then have your questions answered by a designer. So, they get your money first, and you do not know if your design will be do-able until you have paid a non-refundable deposit. There is no backing out.
They told me "no" at many points along the way...I had to resolve my own design issues with common sense solutions, and I turned those Nos into Yesses. It took a lot of work on my part.
They shipped my main invitations with printing errors -- the left half of the intricate design did not take the foil. Amazing that they did not notice while in production or while being packed for shipping. She said they were doing too many jobs in one week and should have seen it, but didn't. They had to reprint my invites and ship them a few days late -- with no discount or accommodation offered.
I love the invitations, ultimately, and was very happy with the final quality. Beautiful paper! But it was mostly my own art direction / design and problem-solving that brought it to fruition.
I wish I could give them a 5, but it's more like a 3.5 - 4.
Bella Figura responded with the following comments:
We're sorry that you didn't have a pleasant experience! We do in fact, offer draw-downs so that our customers are able to get a feel for their ink color if necessary (there is a small fee for this, but it's definitely possible. We're very sorry this service wasn't offered to you! As for the issues with your invitations, we hope you got in touch and that we were able to resolve all of the issues! Please feel to contact us if that's not the case.