Ever wonder how real people with realistic budgets could ever design amazing weddings? We did too. Read on for our secrets.
Our Story
We held our wedding reception in 2013, almost a year after getting engaged. We always knew we wanted destination wedding, and being a cost conscious couple (errr, groom!) we looked at all areas to see how we could make the event more cost effective.
So, when it came to stationery and printed goods for our special day, we went and created a bespoke invitation that my talented wife, Thi, got illustrated by our friend.
Now we were lucky since she is a professional designer and could save the hundreds of dollars it costs for a graphic designer for custom invitations, let alone illustrations. We wish everyone could be so lucky.
She then designed and laid out the invitations, and had them produced by a professional printer. Thanks to my budgeting, we tried to save money by having them created by a cost effective printer in Asia. After all, what could go wrong? A lot actually. It took weeks between each round of test printing the invitations and the language barrier made communication painful. It most certainly was not lower cost, if you factor in the time wasted.
Fun tidbit: for more Adventures in Outsourcing, we tried our hand at the whole “handmade dress from China” as well. That turned out even worse! With composure, my doll of a wife picked up an off the rack dress just 2 weeks before the wedding. As I said, I am a lucky man!
The Problem
We all know weddings are expensive affairs. The last thing you need is an expensive designer charging you for rehashing old wedding invitations, when they often simply enter the text details of your names and wedding date.
At initial glance, we discovered that most wedding invitations templates in the market lacked variety and personal flair. Most stationery template were pretty generic, full of clip-art and uninspiring text and fonts. Worse than the aesthetics, waiting weeks and weeks to have printed invitations arrive is sometimes just not an option if you need to get the invitations out quickly.
Not to mention all the spelling mistakes and last minute corrections you will definitely need to make - but can't - if your printing company is in control or you're at the mercy of a busy wedding planner. The truth is that everyone changes their wedding plans whether it's the dates, guest list, or the seating charts or wedding program. We never wanted to compromise our wedding because of an inability to make adjustments at the last minute. Change is constant in life, and change at a wedding is inevitable. Our table seating assignments were in flux pretty much right up until the week before the wedding.
Our Vision
We wished we had more control. We wished it didn't take so much darn time. In essence we wished we could do it ourselves.
Why wasn't there pretty wedding stationery that’s accessible and easy to create by everyone, for everyone?
We believe that you can have a beautiful wedding without the cost and hassle of coordinating a printer, wedding planner and graphic designer weeks and months in advance.
What we did to solve it
So after making our own stationery for our wedding, we realized exactly where the issue lies in the entire wedding stationery and printing process. We realized that by enabling and empowering couples to choose affordable yet beautifully designed templates in the form of digital downloads, they could take control. They could cut out the “middle man” and directly edit the text details of their dates, names, wedding details and guests across all of their stationery. No annoying communications with "experts," no more “back and forth.” We created a system where couples can purchase a perfectly matching set of print templates online, enter the text and details at home in their computers and then take that file to be printed to any printer across America. We have folks using Fedex Kinkos, Staples, Wal-Mart or best yet – their printer at home. We have success stories of clients mailing out their invites the very same day they purchased them!
Make an error? No problem - you can edit the files yourself and go back to those cost effective printers if necessary.
Why you should try it out
For most people, their wedding is the most complex project they have to manage in their lifetime. Between all the preparations for catering, outfits, reception halls, DJs, photo booths and now SnapChat Geofilters... Any amount of time or money that can be spared is going to make a huge impact to the overall wellbeing of the bride and groom. Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to pay for a wedding planner (we certainly couldn't) and even if we could, we're not convinced that a planner would have made a positive impact when compared to having the control to make adjustments ourselves.
So if you're considering how to streamline your wedding invites and stationery, have a look at our free wedding templates you can download and test out if this route is the best for you. It has been for over 9,000 couples my wife has helped have a stress free, beautiful wedding stationery experience.
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