The summer wedding season is wrapping up, but the rush toward winter weddings and fall engagements is upon us! Whatever the season, it’s easy to get caught up in the drama of planning a wedding and miss the freedoms you have to make the day reflect who YOU are.
The more whimsical or unique-minded bride might feel constrained by an inescapable list of traditions, especially if the people helping with the planning are very traditional. It’s ok! We can’t make your future mother-in-law read your mind, but we can help relieve some of the stress when it comes to Save the Dates, Invitations, Programs, Thank You’s, and any other paper creation for your wedding. Here are some things to keep in mind as you plan:
• Order your invitations and extras from us!
Sure, you expected us to say that, but it’s true! We’re highly committed to eliminating all of your invitation-related stress. Our scheduling process allows us to be dedicated to your project. The project timeline we schedule with you is your time. During that time, we’re devoted to answering your queries lightning-fast, providing clear instruction, and offering tips to make the process easy. When your design is ready, you’ll see a detailed digital proof of everything you’ve ordered, ready for your approval before printing.
• Your invitation design doesn’t need to match every detail of your entire day – but we can make that happen, too!
If you find a design you like that speaks to the character of you and your spouse-to-be, go for it! Even if it doesn’t match the flowers, or your colors, or your “theme.” Your guests aren’t going to be holding the invite up against the flowers to compare colors, after all. (Or, if they are, they probably have bigger problems that even we can’t fix.) It’s easy to get a little too stressed out about wedding themes – thanks Pinterest!
That being said, we’d love to create an entire wedding suite for you – Save the Dates, Invites, Programs, Reception items, Favors, Thank You’s, and anything else you can dream up. It’s a nice touch to have, to be sure. Either way, just remember this: everything will still come together wonderfully on your big day; and chances are, you’ll be having too much fun getting married to worry about what Pinterest thinks!
• Be RSVP-savvy!
We see a lot of stress wrapped into guest response time. The traditional response period is about 6-8 weeks, or 8-10 weeks if a number of your guests need to plan travel from out of town. Sometimes the longer the response period, the more likely it is that guests will forget to respond at all (unless perhaps your design features an absolutely unforgettable response card); or they may lose the card and never respond, even if they end up attending.
Include 3 different ways to respond:
– Mail a pre-stamped response card
– Include a phone number to call or text
– Use a digital response method via wedding website or even a Facebook event that doesn’t require them to sign up for a new service
The last two are good to include, especially if you have a unique suite design where the guest may want to keep the response card simply because it’s “cool”.
If you’d like to know more, we’ve talked about this greater length in RSVPlease!
• Order your invitations addressed.
If you’re not planning to pay a calligrapher to hand-write your addressing, definitely include it with your order. Sometimes customers order blank envelopes, intending to print the addresses themselves at home. While we don’t have a problem with this, it’s not without its issues. Between printer settings and paper orientation, many times finagling your home printer to achieve this successfully is more trouble than it’s worth. And while we’re on the subject. . .
• Do a different kind of DIY!
Again, Pinterest makes it all look easy, especially if you’re going for a totally custom look to your wedding. We believe that DIY doesn’t mean “Go it alone”, and that DIY is better when it’s done together. Whether it’s a wholly new design or a simple twist on an existing one, we’ve got the design and print experience to make it look right the first time.
• Pressed for time? Order your invitations assembled.
The old adage is true: Time is money. If you’re looking to save on your invitation budget but find yourself weighing saving money versus saving time, choose time. While many of our designs are easy to put together, some designs require a lot of time and attention to details to assemble. If you find yourself struggling to keep things organized in other non-print areas, save yourself a lot of time and let us put things together for you.
When it comes down to it, always remember: It’s YOUR day! Be excited, be creative, and be wise. We’re here to help!