In a not too unusual situation of DIY invitations gone awry, I present The Case of the Crooked Envelope. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes too much time to determine that grievous harm has come to this very attractive envelope (certainly looks like Crane & Co. was the victim this time around).
”I say Watson, who defaced this lovely celadon (light green) wedding invitation envelope?”
”Elementary, my dear Holmes,” responded Dr. Watson, “this otherwise lovely creation in 100% cotton paper by Crane & Co. was mutilated by a commercial printer.”
Holmes, evidently surprised at Watson’s astute observation asked, “How can you be so confident?”
“Only a commercial printer would print on a straight line and then try to convince the client that the envelope was crooked,” responded a confident Watson.
“Well said,” said a particularly jovial Holmes. “I guess we can just mail this case into Scotland Yard.”
“Lovely pun, Holmes! I do so admire your skewed sense of humor,” laughed Watson and both men chuckled as they departed the crime scene.
For the bridal couple, this is no laughing matter. Imagine ordering lovely wedding invitations and then – trying to save some time and money - have the envelopes mangled by a commercial printer. The fact of the matter is that most commercial printer are simply not equipped to print on heavy paper stock and certainly not on envelopes that have been lined.
Again, we recommend that you plan wisely and consult with a qualified stationer in your neighborhood for proper advice. Most stationers have highly calibrated equipment to print on heavy paper stock. In fact, most qualified stationers would have recommended that State abbreviations be spelled out. In this case “WI” should be Wisconsin. Proper etiquette is free at qualified stationers.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
Phyllis Langsdorf
The Write Impression
The bankruptcy of Swoozie’s is just another example of how venture capitalists have failed to understand the dynamics of the personalized stationery business. Why Swoozie’s acquired the failed Blue Tulip stores (also in bankruptcy) last year remains a mystery. Nevertheless, I suspect that there was some form of finacial chicanery or tax play involved since both companies are owned by private equity firms. As the financial crisis has taught us all: greedy financial wizardry lasts as long as the merry-go-round continues to go round. I for one extend my heartfelt sympathy to each and everyone of the 350 Swoozie’s employees who have lost their job.
The fine stationery industry is in a crisis: there is simply too much product chasing a finite market. Companies who seek to extend their distribution channels either physically or digitally will only compound the problem and most will fail. I don’t have the answer, but what I see happening doesn’t augur well for the future of our industry. It takes very bold leadership to back the “slow stationery” movement and continue to produce beautiful papers while other others are compromising standards to remain price-competitive. Frankly, I don’t see much value in chasing the The Taylor companies down the price chain. They are even beginning to make “Made in China” look good.
Richard May
Founding Member Stationers Guild
Each month we have several panicky couples drop into our store for advice on how to redo their DIY wedding invitations. Just this weekend, one young couple who had paid a free-lancer to design their wedding invitation sought our advice on selecting paper for their design. Their budget was $400 for 150 invitations. Unfortunately, we explained that a full-bleed invitation (artwork design extended to the border of the print area) and a custom-cut invitation would be far more than their budget permitted.
It is most disappointing to see the anguish that ensues when couples realize that their inexpensive wedding invitation has turned to create your own wedding invitations. Before you do so, I strongly recommend that you consult a stationer in your neighborhood who generally has several lines of attractively priced wedding invitations and provide expert advice on styling and etiquette. You will not be sorry you have done so. Also, many of these stores carry card stock that may be used for your wedding invitation in the event you decide to fly solo.
DIY Wedding Invitation Tips
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Always start with the paper. Many people start with the design only to realize too late that they can’t find the “right” paper stock. Papers come in a variety of sizes and weights. Some stores carry pocket stationery to hold your invitation, directions and accomodation cards and other information.
- Use the heaviest paper weight possible. Weight matters. Neverthless, paper stock above #96 (ninety-six pounds) will generally not go through an ink jet or laser printer.
- Seek matching envelopes. We recommend including a reply card set with your invitation and, as such, it is wise to insure that there are matching paper stock and envelopes in the stock you select for your invitation.
- Avoid being too cutesy! There is a tendency to incorporate all kinds to design elements into a DIY wedding invitation. Remember, it is a wedding invitation not an arts-and-crafts project. The key is moderation and a clean design.
- Maximum of two font styles. More than two font styles is confusing and detracts from the elegance of the invitation. Try to restrict the number of font styles to two.
- A Question of Etiquette. There are few things more disturbing than the lack of proper etiquette in the wording of your invitation. While customs change, proper etiquette is never out of fashion. A few big dont’s:
- Do not put the URL of your wedding website on the invitation
- Please, no gift registry information on the invitation
- Resist using a monogram no matter how cute (after all, you aren’t married)
- Color. There are many ways to incorporate color into your invitation. Envelope linings, borders and font colors to name a few. Like font styles, too much color tends to cheapen the look of the invitation. If in doubt, go with black.
- Motifs The judicious use of motifs can often create a sense of ”place” “time” or “energy.” For instance, a sea shell motif for a beach wedding; or an acorn for a fall wedding. You might want to use theme motifs on different elements of your wedding papers ensemble. For instance, a palm tree on the wedding invitation and a sea shell on the reply card set. Use your imagination, but don’t go overboard. Too many motifs can be as distracting as colors and font styles.
If you are committed to doing it yourself, following these tips won’t lead you too far astray. Again, there is more than meets the eye in crafting a wedding invitation and you are well advised to consult a stationer in your neighborhood for expert advice.
Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair
Mr. Not Interested was my favorite: ”Break out the xerox paper and fold it. Get your local kids to sprinkle some glitter on them and take some of your old perfume or something . . . Maybe you should think about just calling people . . .” (Note from Editor: We should hire Not Interested to write for the Stationers Guild.) Or, how about:
Kaeli: “Micheal’s…duh create them yourself and ur good.” On a more enterprising level, we have
Jessie: “i got mine at wal-mart for 7 dollars for 25 of them went on my own computer and typed them up my self and printed them it took a little bit but if you have time u can do it your self or if you need someone too i am starting my own wedding service and i can do it for you just email me and let me know (email omitted but, if you are interested you can find it on the Blog post).”
Umm, let me think about this. You pay $7 for 25 invitation, say $5 for gas to go to Wal-Mart and maybe a couple of hours of work at minimum wage (another $15) and we have 25 invitations that cost $27. I suppose Jessie could mark it up 100% and market her new wedding invitation line at $2.00 per invite. Go for it Jessie! I do recommend buying an etiquette book on wording your wedding invitations properly. You might find it useful. Or, how about:
Brown Eyes: “If you have a Dollar tree store in your town, that’s the place to go. You’ll find all your thank you cards there also. Or if you prefer Staples’ Store, they also have a lot of invitations. Hope you find what your looking for. Good luck!”
Searching for “affordable wedding invitations” is no laughing matter. With a tough economy, people are doing everything possible to save money and, as such, it is wise to scrutinize your entire wedding budget. Personally, I have found that searching for a “cheap wedding invitation” is generally a false economy. Cutting back on the extra pasta dish at the reception buffet might help free up part of your budget to allocate toward a well-crafted and not necessarily expensive wedding invitation to celebrate this milestone event in your life. After all, your wedding invitation is likely to be around far longer than the pasta.
I recommend that you contact a qualified stationery store in your neighborhood for expert advice on crafting your wedding invitation. You will be surprised at how much time and energy you will save to devote to other aspects of your wedding.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
I discovered that US births recorded in 2007 were at the highest level since the boom years of the late 1950s. Of the record births recorded in 2007, over 40% were to unwed mothers. Presumably, the demand for birth announcements is probably not strong among unwed mothers, but I have no empirical or annecdotal evidence to back up that assertion.
One area that did intrigue me was the astronomical increase in cesearean deliveries over the last 30 years in the United States. Well over a quarter of all deliveries are C-sections and recent studies suggest that it may now exceed 30%, with Westchester County (NY) leading the way with 46%. During the 1970s less than 5% of babies were delivered by C-section. Presumably, one might argue that this is a safer procedure for both mother and child; however, the World Health Organization argues that C-section delivery rates above 15% are not recommended. Also, the United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the developed world despite that fact that well over 99% of deliveries occur in hospitals. My research and a “heads-up” tip by close friends led me to an intriguing documentary entitled The Business of Being Born. A video clip is shown below:
Most babies born in the U.S. are induced through a series of medication cocktails that one can only speculate if they are necessary and what harm they may cause to both mother and child. As the documentary suggests, deliveries seem to be programmed to fit the schedules of either the doctor or the mother (or both) rather occuring naturally. In fact, some hospitals offer a tummy-tuck after the C-section delivery of the “designer” baby.
These alarming statistics suggest that “giving birth” today in the United States is either a poorly planned outcome (unwedded mother) or simply a biological impediment that will cause you to take a few days off from your Yoga or tennis class. In other word, giving birth ain’t that important anymore, so why send out birth announcements?
I would welcome a less alarming analysis, but surely these trends (the birthing trends, not birth announcement trends) do not augur well for our society.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
Some 40 years ago Sheila and I lived in Rome, Italy in a delightful 3-story walk-up on Via San Calisto in Trastevere that overlooked Sabatini’s restaurant. The facade of the building was over 400 years old so I had difficulty understanding Scandinavian travel posters which advertised to travellers that they should “See Italy now before the Italians destroy it!” I suppose the Scandinavians think that Ikea furniture will stand the test of time.
With my Chicago-school economic education it was (and remains) difficult to understand certain aspects of Italian culture: I refer to it as the “Value Proposition.” My first experience with the Value Proposition was when I went into a tobacco store to purchase stamps for a postcard. I was shocked to find out that the amount of postage depended on the number of words you wrote on the postcard. If I recall correctly, if you wrote more than five words (other than the address of the recipient) it bumped you into a higher postage category.
To Italians, this concept seemed most reasonable: you are receiving “more value” and, as such, you be prepared to spend more. To my mind, the cost of delivering the postcard is the same regardless of how many words are written on it and, as such, the price of the postage should be the same. There are many other examples I could list, but clearly Italians seem to think that price is more closely associated with value than cost. This Value Proposition still remains somewhat alien to my economic training, but speaks volumes of the dehumanizing process of seeking “value” in today’s price-driven economy.
Despite Internet rhetoric to the contrary, there is limited (if any) intrinsic ”value” in a “cheap wedding invitation.” In fact, the intrinsic value relates to the adjective (i.e. “cheap”) rather than the wedding invitations. I realize that this may seem like semantics, but – in my humble opinion - we need to place far greater emphasis on the Value Proposition of the event itself: the wedding ceremony, rather than the adjectives that tend define our economic circumstances or preferences.
The fact that one is getting married is a milestone event in most people’s lives. This time-honored and sacred event is a high-level Value Proposition. Channel your energies into crafting a wedding invitation that rises to the importance of the occasion and is within your budget parameters. By setting your goals on getting a “cheap” wedding invitation, you have effectively defined the importance or “cheapness” of the event to your bridal partner and the guests.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
The idea was to provide time-challenged men with the necessary tools (i.e. fine stationery) to connect with others by way of a hand-written note. In a world gone digitally overboard, this is an ambitious task. In fact, it was Nate who suggested that I take a look at John Freeman’s The Tyranny of E-Mail, since he refused to have his life chained to the immediacy of a Blackberry. Is this maturity beyond their years or simply a sign that the digital assault on our senses and sensibilities is drawing to a close? I certainly don’t have the answer, but it is quite refreshing that these two young gentleman have embarked on this ambitious quest.
Brett, who lives in San Francisco, explained that Forgetful Gentleman sells an assortment of notes printed in letterpress or flat-printed on quality paper. Their “Elephant Line” consists of 12 note cards: 3 Thank You notes, 3 Birthday notes , 2 Thinking of You, 2 blank correspondence cards, 1 Congratulations and 1 “I love You.” They even have included four stamped envelopes for those who have difficultly finding a Post Office. We opted for the luxury suite in letterpress, which comes with a beautiful wooden box resembling a cigar box. For those gentlemen who suffer from writer’s cramp, the box comes with a primer on articulate letter writing.
We wish Nate and Brett much success and do hope that they can make the National Stationery Show in May.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
After reading an excerpt from The Tyranny of E-mail, I immediately ordered it. I suggest you do the same. Found below is a brief promo video from Simon & Schuster in which Mr. Freeman briefly describes our inability as humans to keep pace with electronic communications and how our daily struggle “to keep up” is threatening to endanger the relationships we hold most sacred: our spouse, our family, our relatives and our friends. Boy, is this a wakeup call.
Mr. Freeman comments that “In the past two decades, we have witnessed one of the greatest breakdowns of the barrier between our work and personal lives since the notion of leisure time emerged in Victorian Britain as a result of the Industrial Age. It has put us under great physical and mental strain, altering our brain chemistry and daily needs. It has isolated us from the people with whom we live, siphoning us away from real-world places where we gather. It has encouraged flotillas of unnecessary jabbering, making it difficult to tell signal from noise. It has made it more difficult to read slowly and enjoy it, hastening the already declining rates of literacy. It has made it harder to listen and mean it, to be idle and not fidget.” He goes on to state that “this is not a sustainable way to live. This lifestyle of being constantly on (online or on call) causes emotional and physical burnout, workplace meltdowns, and unhappiness.”
Mr. Freeman and others are now beginning to voice their reservations at what I have previously referred to as “fast-food” communication. Indeed, we all need to reflect on the effects that these mostly beneficial advances in technology have on our society. Mr. Freeman argues that “slow communications” will help “preserve our sanity, our families, our relationships and our ability to find happiness in a world where, in spite of the Internet, saying what we mean is as hard as it ever was. It starts with a simple instruction: Don’t send.”
As stationers, we are torch-bearers for the slow communications movement. It is time for leaders in the industry to seize the initiative and speak out to protect this vitally important yet fragile industry which threatens to succumb to the mindless and incessant stream of chatter signifying nothing. Organizers of the National Stationery Show, please reflect!
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
Smythson was granted a Royal Warrant to Her Majesty the Queen in 1964 and other Royal warrants have followed. Presumably, this Royal blessing allows you to price your products at levels which gives nose bleed to even the most intrepid shopper.
I do recall visiting Smythson’s Bond Street store many years ago and marvelled at their beautiful papers, exquisite designs and bold colors. In the back of the store, there was a small room which had samples of “Royal” stationery, old engraving dies and a few photographs which traced the history of this esteemed stationer. Like many others, I have hopeful that the new Italian owners will keep the paper presses and designers producing Smythson’s elegant stationery. We would all be royally blessed.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair