My eye has been twitching for the past 4 days, it's really starting to bug me. I googled it and it said that eye twitching can be a sign of stress and anxiety among a few other things. I have been pretty stressed out lately, so that's what I'm betting it is. Why am I stressed you ask? Well I think it has to do with organization. I had started to let things slip a bit since business has been slow. Winter brides are few and far between, but soon the spring brides will come a knockin' and I want to be ready!
So I've been stressed and have had some anxiety about my income and expense records. I had recently bought Quickbooks Pro to enter all of my expenses and income into. What a pain! I had January-September that needed to be entered, ugh! So I did it, I FINALLY sat down and did it! It feels so good to have it done. Now I feel like I can move forward successfully. The important thing is to keep up with entering expenses/income on a regular basis. I plan on getting a couple pictures of my newly organized office up here, I just have to take them! One more thing on my "to do" list. ;)
So ladies, if you're ever feeling stressed, try picking around the house or organize your favorite room. You just may surprise yourself on how much better you feel afterwards! Maybe my eye will stop twitching now! :)
Wednesday, October 22
Friday, October 10
Customizing a Blog
I just have to say, I'm very impressed with those who customize their blogs. I had one of the average templates for a little while, then I saw Flyleaf Books blog and I noticed a button at the top of her page. So I clicked on it and WALA, there were hundreds of other templates!
Being a designer I was like a kid in a candy store. I found one that was clean, yet elegant and girly. Some blogs feel very cluttered to me and distract me from reading the content of the blog.
So last night I spent a few hours monkeying around with the html, something I never thought I'd be able to work with, but I did! So here is my new look, feel free to comment. My next step is organizing the side bar and adding other blogs to it. I want to make this a nice blog for brides to come and get resources for their wedding day.
And if you're not a bride, let this blog be an inspiration for colors, style and other invitation ideas! I do more than just weddings. :)
Being a designer I was like a kid in a candy store. I found one that was clean, yet elegant and girly. Some blogs feel very cluttered to me and distract me from reading the content of the blog.
So last night I spent a few hours monkeying around with the html, something I never thought I'd be able to work with, but I did! So here is my new look, feel free to comment. My next step is organizing the side bar and adding other blogs to it. I want to make this a nice blog for brides to come and get resources for their wedding day.
And if you're not a bride, let this blog be an inspiration for colors, style and other invitation ideas! I do more than just weddings. :)
Wednesday, October 8
Wedding Invitations are Expensive!
Why are wedding invitations SO expensive? What is the average age of today's bride, 25-30? I got married at the ripe old age of 23, 1 year out of college. I didn't have $500-$1,000+ to spend on my wedding invitations and rsvp cards. What new grad would? I had to create my own wedding invitation from scratch and it was quite the process, let me tell you.
Do you want to hear about it? Ok, well first I had to find my colors. That was determined by whatever bridesmaid dresses I found that would fit all of my girlfriends perfectly. I went with the mix and match styles from David's Bridal. I really wanted ice blue as my wedding color, but the closest they had was periwinkle. Onto the wedding invitations! My mom and I searched high and low for the perfect shade of periwinkle, bringing with us the fabric swatch everywhere we went. We found some and I decided to do vellum paper on top with the words and print a photo I took of a rose Greg gave to me when while were still dating.
So the layers went this way: bottom - periwinkle card stock, next layer on top - periwinkle card stock with 4 notches cut in each corder to hold the rose print and vellum with writing, the next layer - rose photocopy, top layer - vellum paper with text. Sounds simple right? ;) Then the conundrum of finding somewhere that would print on vellum very cheaply. The place I was working at had a laser jet, so we used that. Only thing was that it would jam every 25 or so sheets. Ugh! I had to chop each 8.5x11 sheet into 4. The periwinkle wasn't too bad, but each layer on top of that got smaller and smaller, so I had to calculate each one and cut, cut, cut. Then I had to punch out 4 corners for the 2nd layer. Once all of that was done I got to assemble them, horray! That wasn't a picnic either. Fitting each corner of the rose picture and vellum into the corners of the invitations. What a pain!
That was back in 2001, when I didn't have much access to a computer other than work and I had just started my Graphic Design career. I didn't know how to navigate the internet very well, so I couldn't see if there were wedding invitation designers like I am now, that would've done it for a fraction of the cost of the really expensive large wedding invitation companies.
So don't go through the pain of making your own. You might think it's a great idea at the time (I know I did), but it's a lot of work. You should be enjoying the process of planning your wedding, not trying to design everything yourself (unless you're a designer!). :)
That's what I'm here for. I've priced my invitations competitively so you won't break the bank. But you won't be skimping on quality and style either. I've come up with a wide range of designs to fit most personalities, and continue to come up with more every day. But most important is that you'll feel good sending out invitations that convey your style and colors, and you get very personalized attention. Isn't that worth it's weight in gold?
Do you want to hear about it? Ok, well first I had to find my colors. That was determined by whatever bridesmaid dresses I found that would fit all of my girlfriends perfectly. I went with the mix and match styles from David's Bridal. I really wanted ice blue as my wedding color, but the closest they had was periwinkle. Onto the wedding invitations! My mom and I searched high and low for the perfect shade of periwinkle, bringing with us the fabric swatch everywhere we went. We found some and I decided to do vellum paper on top with the words and print a photo I took of a rose Greg gave to me when while were still dating.
So the layers went this way: bottom - periwinkle card stock, next layer on top - periwinkle card stock with 4 notches cut in each corder to hold the rose print and vellum with writing, the next layer - rose photocopy, top layer - vellum paper with text. Sounds simple right? ;) Then the conundrum of finding somewhere that would print on vellum very cheaply. The place I was working at had a laser jet, so we used that. Only thing was that it would jam every 25 or so sheets. Ugh! I had to chop each 8.5x11 sheet into 4. The periwinkle wasn't too bad, but each layer on top of that got smaller and smaller, so I had to calculate each one and cut, cut, cut. Then I had to punch out 4 corners for the 2nd layer. Once all of that was done I got to assemble them, horray! That wasn't a picnic either. Fitting each corner of the rose picture and vellum into the corners of the invitations. What a pain!
That was back in 2001, when I didn't have much access to a computer other than work and I had just started my Graphic Design career. I didn't know how to navigate the internet very well, so I couldn't see if there were wedding invitation designers like I am now, that would've done it for a fraction of the cost of the really expensive large wedding invitation companies.
So don't go through the pain of making your own. You might think it's a great idea at the time (I know I did), but it's a lot of work. You should be enjoying the process of planning your wedding, not trying to design everything yourself (unless you're a designer!). :)
That's what I'm here for. I've priced my invitations competitively so you won't break the bank. But you won't be skimping on quality and style either. I've come up with a wide range of designs to fit most personalities, and continue to come up with more every day. But most important is that you'll feel good sending out invitations that convey your style and colors, and you get very personalized attention. Isn't that worth it's weight in gold?
Thursday, October 2
Evite vs Paper Invites
I'm throwing my husband a 30th birthday party and am planning on sending out one of my invitation designs, why not? A small price to pay for advertising, plus I feel it's much more personal receiving an actual invitation in the mail. I feel we've gone too far away from the personal touch of hand-held invitations with the invention of the internet. Some people send out a mass email inviting people or use websites such as Evite. I understand you save money this way, but if you're throwing a party spending hundreds of dollars on food, drinks and decorations, why not throw in an extra $30-50 for personalized custom invitations?
Another problem I have with email or eviting your guests is that I've found that too many people attend based on who else is invited. I've been guilty of it myself, if I'm not going to know anyone, who am I going to talk to? Yes, I should put myself out there to meet new people shouldn't I? That's one of the beauties of an actual mailed invitation, the element of surprise on who's going to be there. If there isn't anyone you know there, you're forced to make small talk with strangers and who knows, you may end up meeting some pretty special people and create new friendships out of the deal!
If you've never gotten an Evite, it works like this: You set up your list of guests, send it out and when your guests log into the invitation you see everyone that was invited. You also see how people respond to the invitation, whether or not they're coming. I've talked to others about this and they agree. You don't want to believe that people would do this type of thing, but the sad truth is they do. Oh, and I forgot to mention, that if you're the sender of an evite you get to see when people open their invitation and when they respond. It's not a very good feeling when someone opens it, but then never responds. You know they got it, so why not just tell you yes or no, it's not that hard.
The other thing is that if you know someone that's "famous" and are inviting them, everyone else you're inviting will see that this "famous" person is invited. I hate to say it, but again, people will react to this type of a situation and come in hopes that they too will get to mingle with them and say to their friends "Guess who I'm hanging out with tonight!". It really sucks as the host that your friends would come based on something like this. And like I said, you don't want to think that your friends will react this way, but chances are that they might. Can you blame them? Put yourself in their shoes. Say a friend of yours knows Matthew McConaughey and you see his name on the list, wouldn't you like to get one chance to see what he's like in person compared to what you see in the movies? I'm not saying all people would react this way, some people don't give a darn, but there are those that do.
I've used evite once and got completely burned when 12 out of 12 guests didn't end up coming, It didn't matter that I sent the evitation out 5 weeks in advance for them to plan ahead. Since I had bought everything for the party I had to do something, so I invited another bunch of my friends, all who showed up. Not many knew each other, but it was a fun time anyway. Lesson learned!
So those are some reasons why I think people should go back to doing regular mailed invitations for any type of occassion. I'm working on getting together some less "girly" styled invitations for boy type parties. But if you're a girl throwing a party, any of my wedding invitation designs can be changed to any party that you decide to throw.
Another problem I have with email or eviting your guests is that I've found that too many people attend based on who else is invited. I've been guilty of it myself, if I'm not going to know anyone, who am I going to talk to? Yes, I should put myself out there to meet new people shouldn't I? That's one of the beauties of an actual mailed invitation, the element of surprise on who's going to be there. If there isn't anyone you know there, you're forced to make small talk with strangers and who knows, you may end up meeting some pretty special people and create new friendships out of the deal!
If you've never gotten an Evite, it works like this: You set up your list of guests, send it out and when your guests log into the invitation you see everyone that was invited. You also see how people respond to the invitation, whether or not they're coming. I've talked to others about this and they agree. You don't want to believe that people would do this type of thing, but the sad truth is they do. Oh, and I forgot to mention, that if you're the sender of an evite you get to see when people open their invitation and when they respond. It's not a very good feeling when someone opens it, but then never responds. You know they got it, so why not just tell you yes or no, it's not that hard.
The other thing is that if you know someone that's "famous" and are inviting them, everyone else you're inviting will see that this "famous" person is invited. I hate to say it, but again, people will react to this type of a situation and come in hopes that they too will get to mingle with them and say to their friends "Guess who I'm hanging out with tonight!". It really sucks as the host that your friends would come based on something like this. And like I said, you don't want to think that your friends will react this way, but chances are that they might. Can you blame them? Put yourself in their shoes. Say a friend of yours knows Matthew McConaughey and you see his name on the list, wouldn't you like to get one chance to see what he's like in person compared to what you see in the movies? I'm not saying all people would react this way, some people don't give a darn, but there are those that do.
I've used evite once and got completely burned when 12 out of 12 guests didn't end up coming, It didn't matter that I sent the evitation out 5 weeks in advance for them to plan ahead. Since I had bought everything for the party I had to do something, so I invited another bunch of my friends, all who showed up. Not many knew each other, but it was a fun time anyway. Lesson learned!
So those are some reasons why I think people should go back to doing regular mailed invitations for any type of occassion. I'm working on getting together some less "girly" styled invitations for boy type parties. But if you're a girl throwing a party, any of my wedding invitation designs can be changed to any party that you decide to throw.
Tuesday, September 30
Welcome to my blog!
I'm not sure where to start, so let's start there! I've been designing wedding invitations since May 2008. Since I've opened my shop through Etsy (you can view in my previous post) I've gotten an overwhelming response from brides. My wedding invitations are unique because I print the directions on the back and offer a postcard style rsvp.
In today's economy people are trying to find all sorts of ways to save a buck. My invitations are very cost effective because you're not purchasing separate direction cards, separate reception card, separate accommodations card, etc. Postage also becomes a factor. When you're sending out 100+ invitations with the 2 oz. priced stamp you're going to be spending around $60+. Add in the cost of rsvp envelopes, that's another $40+. With my invitation design you only have the invitation and rsvp card, even if you decide to go with the rsvp envelopes you still don't need the 2 oz. priced stamp.
Do people think having the directions on the back is tacky? Most of them don't, if they do their standards are set too high. Let's be practical people! For my cousin's wedding, my husband and I were running late (of course having 2 kids) so he grabbed the invite, only to forget the separate card with the directions on it! Luckily we had mapped it out online days before to see where it was at, so we found it through memory. Whew!
People appreciate practical things. But my wedding invitations are not only practical, they're gorgeous, if I do say so myself! I get my artwork through stock photography sites and also design some of them myself. I could probably design some of the one's I purchase, but I don't have the time. Plus, why not support artists who enjoy making the designs that I enjoy using!
I get some of my color combo ideas from the clothes in my closet. What will I wear today? Oh, this creamy canary yellow would look great with this teal shirt and brown pants. Wala! A color combo is born. I also look at wedding magazines for ideas. That's what most brides are looking at aren't they? If there are any brides reading this post, tell me where you get your ideas for your wedding colors!
In today's economy people are trying to find all sorts of ways to save a buck. My invitations are very cost effective because you're not purchasing separate direction cards, separate reception card, separate accommodations card, etc. Postage also becomes a factor. When you're sending out 100+ invitations with the 2 oz. priced stamp you're going to be spending around $60+. Add in the cost of rsvp envelopes, that's another $40+. With my invitation design you only have the invitation and rsvp card, even if you decide to go with the rsvp envelopes you still don't need the 2 oz. priced stamp.
Do people think having the directions on the back is tacky? Most of them don't, if they do their standards are set too high. Let's be practical people! For my cousin's wedding, my husband and I were running late (of course having 2 kids) so he grabbed the invite, only to forget the separate card with the directions on it! Luckily we had mapped it out online days before to see where it was at, so we found it through memory. Whew!
People appreciate practical things. But my wedding invitations are not only practical, they're gorgeous, if I do say so myself! I get my artwork through stock photography sites and also design some of them myself. I could probably design some of the one's I purchase, but I don't have the time. Plus, why not support artists who enjoy making the designs that I enjoy using!
I get some of my color combo ideas from the clothes in my closet. What will I wear today? Oh, this creamy canary yellow would look great with this teal shirt and brown pants. Wala! A color combo is born. I also look at wedding magazines for ideas. That's what most brides are looking at aren't they? If there are any brides reading this post, tell me where you get your ideas for your wedding colors!
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