Today’s giveaway pays tribute to the wedding aspect of this blog. As a bride I loved entering the many contests offered on wedding blogs and I even won a few of them! One of the not so exciting parts of my wedding planning process was deciding on invitations. For some reason invitations overwhelmed me. There were so many options and I simply saw the price and was shocked. However through this process I have learned a lot more about stationary and I actually love it. I have a few stationery buddies and they have shown me the light on how gorgeous and fun invitations can be but also how much work goes into making each couple something custom that fits their day and their personality perfectly. Jenna, over at Little Bit Heart, offered to do a giveaway to help us celebrate our 1 year anniversary and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for her to share with you a little professional insight on the subject. Jenna and I have a few things in common- one, we don’t appreciate chocolate diamonds even with their clever marketing attempt to give them an enticing name and two- we love giveaways. Jenna is one of the sweetest people I have never met and she would be a delight to work with on the path towards creating your perfect wedding invitation! Little Bit Heart is the collaboration of Little Bit Fancy which is her cousin Elizabeth’s business and Heartcarry Press which is Jenna’s business. They decided to join forces to offer all things pretty and help couples through the paper part of their wedding.
I’m going to let Jenna take it away and give you a little preview of their work!
The traditional first anniversary gift is paper, and we’re thrilled to celebrate one year of The Charity Wedding with a paper giveaway! The winner can use their $100 gift certificate towards wedding invitations, thank you notes, personalized notecards- as long as it comes under “custom papergoods,” we’re flexible!
Since we’re here on The Charity Wedding today, we’d also love to share some of our wedding invite tips with you. We know that paper can be one of the confusing wedding details- here’s hoping that this advice helps!
Here’s our quick rundown on parts of a wedding invitation set:
Invitation: all the super important information. Names, date, place, time.
RSVP: self-addressed and stamped (ups the odds for a timely reply!). Includes the reply-by date (we recommend around 3 weeks before the wedding). Here’s where guests check off their meal choice if you’re having one. A blank for a note, song suggestion or a piece of marriage advice is always a sweet idea. If you can, number the back of the cards corresponding with your guest list in case of blanks or illegible names.
Directions + Accommodations card or cards: Sometimes a printed map is included with the directions as well. Reserved room block? Wedding website? That info can go here.
Reception card: This card tells your guest where the reception will be held if it’s not the same place as the ceremony. The reception card is also the best place to put the dress (ie: Black Tie).
It’s a good idea to start your invitation process 4 months or more before your wedding date since they need to be mailed 6 – 8 weeks before your wedding date (10-12 weeks for a destination wedding). Here’s what to start with:
- Date, time, and addresses (ceremony/reception). Directions and accommodations info.
- Your budget.
- How many invitations do you need? Don’t think number of guests, but how many invitations need to be sent: think couples, families, roommates. Our tip: order at least 10 more invitations than your counted number. That way you have some on hand just in case you need to send an extra and have one or two to save.
- Have you picked colors for your wedding? Have a wedding style that you’d like to come through? Any special icons or graphics that you’d like to incorporate?
- How formal is your wedding?
And our final tip: don’t forget to keep postage in mind during the design process. Wax seals, ribbon knots, or any other bumps may add a surcharge to the postage total. If you’re taking care of the mailing, make sure you have a completely finished invitation weighed at the post office before purchasing your stamps (it can get tricky trying to find 100 stamps- especially the pretty wedding ones!- at the local post office, so you might want to look into ordering stamps online, even if they’re not custom). Our advice: weigh it twice, stamp it once.
If you have any questions, just send over an email to hello@littlebitheart.com- we’d be happy to help!
Thanks so much to Alicia for having us today! Happy 1st!!
Four ways to win, do one or all four for a better shot at the prize:
- Leave a comment with one question or concern you have about your wedding invitations or what your dream invitation would look like.
- Become a Fan of Little Bit Heart on Facebook. Leave a comment to tell us you did.
- Become a Fan of The Charity Wedding on Facebook. Leave a comment to tell us you did.
- Tweet: “I just entered to win a $100 Gift certificate to @LittleBitHeart for custom wedding invitations at @CharityWedding! http://wp.me/pNDns-I0″ -Make sure you leave a comment here to tell us!
The contest will be open for one week! The winner will be selected at random.
Don’t forget to enter yesterday’s Giveaway too!!
P.S. As you can see they offer WAY more than just invitations. They can make anything from table numbers to menus to wine bottle labels. Just ask!
