How many do you really need?

As an eco-friendly company, I hate to waste. Waste is bad!! BUT – I also hate to see last minute event-planning stress that could have been avoided. So here are my suggestions and rationale.

Order Extra Invitations!! I recommend about 10% extra, though there are planning guides that say 20%. If your event is on the small side, maybe a few more. If your event is very large, you might do with a few less than 10%.
* Your guest list WILL grow as the event draws near!
* One or two **might** get lost in the mail and need to be resent
* You and all the close people involved will each want one as a keepsake!

Order Extra Envelopes!! Whether addressing by hand, having a professional calligrapher, or running them through your home printer, you WILL need more envelopes than invitations. We pack our Signature Collection and custom orders with extras automatically, but for some of the vendors whose invites we sell, and many, MANY other stationers, extra envelopes are an additional purchase.  Always clarify with your stationer just to be sure.

Order Extra Programs!! No, you definitely do not need one program per person; one per couple or family is generally sufficient, though one per guest is certainly appreciated. Either way you go, though, order enough extras for your photographer, your celebrant, your planner, your venue, and most especially yourself! In addition to your vendors wanting to keep the programs of weddings they’ve worked, having one on hand will also help them better serve you. (i.e. making sure you photographer knows what’s coming next so they can get every important shot!)

Order Extra Place or Escort Cards!! Yes, you may have had them all professionally printed with each guest’s name and table, but last minute changes do happen. Perhaps your college roommate broke it off with a long time beau and is instead bringing a guy she met last week? Or maybe your co-worker suddenly has a relative flying in from out-of-town and she asked at the last minute if he could tag along. Or (and I’m hoping this does not happen to any of my readers) maybe a family feud disrupts and you can no longer seat your dad’s brother with your dad’s sister. YIKES! Having a few blank place cards to accommodate those last minute changes is a very good thing.

Now that I’ve established that you need more than you think you do, I’m going to backtrack just slightly.  Be sure you are counting households rather than guests when you order your invitations.  If planning an event for 225, you likely don’t need more than 150 invitations assuming most guests are being invited as a couple or family.  You DO want to provide teenage guests with their own invitation even if they live with their parents.  The rule used to be age 16, though some planners now say 18 is the cutoff for this etiquette.  It is also appropriate to invite a dating couple individually if they do not live together, though again, this is a rule regularly broken.

I hope these few tips will help save a little bit of money, a few natural resources, and a lot of avoidable headaches.  Best of luck with your wedding, gala, or party planning!

Kelly

 

 

Yes, I know it’s taboo, but we’re going to talk about…

$ MONEY $

There is ginormous myth floating around that if you tell your wedding vendors how much money you have to spend, they will make you spend it. Hmmmmmmmmm.

* In the dress shop, is the sales girl swapping the tags on that $650 gown you love because you said you could spend up to $1000?

* Did the price on the string quartet’s website instantaneously jump because you said you could afford it?

If you think this is going on, you need to find some new vendors. I’m not saying there aren’t shady people out there–they exist in every industry–but it is always your option to go with someone you can trust. What’s MORE likely to happen if you budgeted for more than your quote comes to:
Florist: Did you know that with your budget you can afford orchids?
Band Leader: If you’d like, we can add in cocktail hour for you…

But what’s more important is what can happen when you budgeted for less than the quote comes to. And let’s be honest, this scenario happens far more often.

When a couple completes my invitation questionnaire, 75% of the time they leave the question about budget blank. This is not because they have an unlimited invitation budget. (I wish!) More likely it’s either because they haven’t thought about it yet (which might lead them down a scary path…) or because they don’t want to share it with me. When this question is left blank, I simply provide a quote with everything that they’ve asked for. When the budget question is not blank and the amount they say they’d like to spend is more than the quote, yippee! — they’ve saved money!

When the budget they list is significantly less than the invitation package they want, I start to get creative. I think about how we can make the most impact with what they have to spend. I’ll then offer them several packages from which to choose:

1) The first will contain everything they’ve asked for even if it is over budget. This is so that they can see the cost of what they’ve requested and decide for themselves if it is worth a splurge.

2) A second option will be a “middle ground” package with a few suggestions for reducing the price. This might omit things like guest addressing, or consolidating inserts. Things their guests will never miss but help to bring the dream package within reach.

3) An invite package within their budget. This one might have BIG changes from the initial design, but will offer up my suggestions for how to keep the most important features (i.e. what the couple initially loved) while staying where they are financially comfortable.

When the question about budget is left blank, though, clients will never see options 2 & 3, because I don’t know that I need to offer them. Keep this in mind when working with ALL of your wedding vendors. Sometimes prices are fixed. If so, then the vendor never needs to ask what your budget is. If you get this question, though, it’s because the vendor wants to work with you. He or she wants to offer up some suggestions that will help you be able to say “YES” because most of us would rather sell you a less expensive package than no package at all. Perhaps your venue can offer up a Friday night instead of Saturday, or the baker can suggest that you opt for 2 tiers instead of 3. You have choices and we know how to help you make them if you trust us enough to share that dirty little secret of….your budget!

It’s time to think Outside the Envelope!

People are moved by art.

People are moved by art and while a flat, mailable-in-an-envelope invitation may be as beautiful as a painting, museums are not filled with paintings alone.  Sculpture, and video, and pieces that entertain all of the senses fill a gallery.

I think it is time that we started to think about invitations being outside the envelope and inside “the box.”  Here’s a peak at what we’ve been up to at Staccato.

Butterflies — luxurious, three-dimensional, glass-like butterflies!Snowflakes –silvery crystal snowflakes!

Flowers–handmade, chiffon & pearl, soft & delicate flowers!

If your wedding invitations need to inspire, exhilarate, and impress your guests, contact me to get started on an “outside the envelope” design.  I look forward to working with you!

Kelly

Fabulous Wedding Ideas…

I’m trying desperately these days to NOT spend too much time on Pinterest, but with great ideas like these, how can I not?  I thought some of my bride-to-be readers might love this great photo idea.

Professional Stationers vs. Do It Yourself

Wedding invitations are one of the top DIY projects couples take on. For some brides and grooms, it’s a great opportunity to put their own personal stamp on what could otherwise become a cookie-cutter wedding. Unfortunately, though, many underestimate the time and resources involved.  Be honest about your own reasons for considering to Do It Yourself before making the final decision.

The top reason couples opt for this is to save money.  Sometimes, you can with a ready-made kit from a craft or office supply store or even when you build the design yourself.  But make sure you have:

• a printer that can handle 4-bar envelopes (buying a new one just for this project defeats the $$ saving purpose!)
• fonts on your computer that reflect the elegance you want to portray (buying new fonts can cost from $25-200)
• a quality paper cutter (no one wants to receive jagged edges or off-centered prints!)
• paper that works with your printer.  Lasers don’t do well with cotton stock, ink jets won’t work for metallic stocks, and anything of a heavy nature will require some TLC through a typical home printer
• the right adhesives….and no, unfortunately a little dab won’t do it!  If you want to send a professional looking piece, make sure all edges are adhered and the corners don’t pull up.

If you’ve got all that, along with some patience and creativity, then have at it, and HAVE FUN!  if you don’t, you may want to consider hiring a professional before investing hours into something that you won’t be proud to mail.

Hiring a professional stationer ensures a quality product with no hassle. Professionals aren’t home crafters.  They know what kind of printing methods to use on what papers, when to outsource, what kind of adhesives stay stuck, how to print envelopes so the response address comes out straight, and many, many more things that can easily overwhelm an unprepared DIYer. Their wholesale resources for papers and embellishments are far beyond than what you’ll find in your local craft store thereby giving you more options and a more unique stationery suite.

Your wedding invitation sets the tone for your special day and should be a high quality reflection of your style. Let a professional guide you through wording etiquette, design with professional software using fonts & graphics not found in typical desktop publishers, print & cut with specialized equipment, and assemble with practiced skill. You’ll love the results, and your paper cut-free hands will be available to tackle other wedding planning tasks!

Preparing to Order your Wedding Invitations

Whether you are considering luxury wedding invitations, letterpress, plantable papers, or custom design, there are some basic pieces of information you’ll need to collect.  Read on for advice on what you’ll need to be ready to place your order.

Traditionally, invitations go out 6-8 weeks prior to the wedding.  We offer wedding stationery from several different designers, each of whom have a  different order fulfillment timeline.  Avoid a last minute rush and the potential of having to settle for what’s available by window shopping early so you’ll know by when you need to place your actual order.  Please note that the ordering process for custom design or Signature Collection invitations is a bit different than our other collections and, depending on the season, may require more advanced planning.

 

 

 

Once you’ve chosen the perfect invitation design, here’s the info you’ll need to have ready to place your order:

1) Quantity. When ordering invitations, couples often forget that they don’t need as many invitations as they will have guests.  Count your invited households instead of your invited guests.  Be sure to include some extras — you’ll be surprised how guest lists tend to grow as the big day draws near.  You’ll also want a few keepsakes for yourself and close family that haven’t gone through the mail.  It is always better to order your extras ahead of time!

2) Wedding Day Details including date, time, and location of ceremony and reception.  You’ll also need to know your venue or caterer’s deadline for a count so that you can set the appropriate RSVP date.  Give yourself some time to hunt down late responses, of course!

3) Chosen Wording.  Remember that your invitation can say whatever you’d like it to — you are not bound by the way something is sampled.  For help with tricky “who’s names go where” questions, visit www.verseit.com or feel free to e-mail me with your particular situation and I’ll be happy to offer suggestions.

4) Insert Text.  Guests find it awfully handy to have accommodations information, directions, weekend wedding itineraries, and the like included with their invitation.  Have all of that information ready for your stationer so that it can arrive in one beautifully coordinated package rather than a last minute photocopy thrown in the envelope.  Alternatively, to be more eco-friendly, you might consider a small insert with your wedding website inviting guests to visit for wedding details.

5) While the handwritten envelope is still the accepted “formal” etiquette, an elegant alternative to calligraphy if you have a large guest list or messy handwriting is digital envelope printing.  This is an affordable and beautiful option on all of our invitations.  Feel free to contact me ahead of your order to receive an Excel template for submitting your guest list so that you only need to format it once.

This post may just scratch the surface of your wedding invitation questions.  Please know that I am just an e-mail away if you have any questions at all, or read more posts from my blog for more tips and ideas.

All the best,

Is a Custom Invitation Design Right for You?

This is a legitimate question!  You may very well think it is, but let’s discuss before you decide for sure.

I’ve had clients that just can’t visualize. They can’t say, “Ohhhh I can picture what you’re saying and it will be beautiful!” These folks need to see the fully assembled project before they can commit to decisions about ribbon color or lettering styles.  If you fall into this category, you are probably going to be better off selecting a pre-designed invitation.  That’s okay!  Buying something pre-designed allows the comfort of knowing you’re going to love it rather than stressing and wondering if you’re going to love it.  There are tons and tons of beautiful options that can take the guesswork out of invitation buying.

Another group that should be wary of custom design is the couple that can’t agree.  If the two of you are truly torn between whether there should be a .5 pixel border around your save the date photo instead of a .25 pixel border, this could make for a very, very, VERY long process that will take the fun out of wedding planning for both of you.  With a pre-designed invitation, you either like it or you don’t.  Find one to which you both say “yes” and you are ready to move on to the next item on your to-do list.

So who should opt for custom design? The best candidates are

• Trusting
• Flexible
• Imaginative
• Articulate

Custom design requires trust. Trust in yourself that you can adequately explain your vision, trust in the process that it will “come together”, and trust in your designer that she won’t produce an ugly product. (FYI – At Staccato, I have a strict “No Ugly Invitation” policy — if you’re describing something I think will be hideous, I won’t make it!)

If you trust that the conversations you have with a designer are going well, she gets what you’re saying, and you can see two paper swatches and a ribbon and think, “wow — that’s going to be fabulous,” custom design is probably right for you.

The best custom customer has a vision but isn’t glued to it. In other words, she’s flexible! If that perfect peacock blue paper color isn’t available, she can let the designer use a complimentary paper and bring in the peacock color with ribbon or ink. This client allows the design to evolve from an imagined ideal into a beautiful actual through a series of adaptations to accommodate budget and material availability.

Sometimes trying too hard to stay on an initial target can be limiting.  Let’s say that you have found the most fabulous 2″ rhinestone brooch to embellish your invitation, but the layout of the invitation can only accommodate a 1″ brooch.  Are you willing to adjust your layout or pick a different brooch? The best designs evolve organically: as one decision is made, it leads to the next.  In designing this way, you ensure that the entire piece works together.  Flexibility is key!

So now tell me, where do you fit in? Are you going for custom or pre-designed?  Either way, I hope I can be of service!