It's your Wedding DAY, not a mish mash of colour

Recently, we have found that brides are purchasing lots of items in their colours but from lots of different suppliers - maybe because they are cheaper or maybe at that moment in time you just love those so have to have them!

But stop and think for a moment. Is everything going to match? Whilst we don't want everything exactly the same colour, we want tones coming together; remember that there are different sides to every colour. Your purple bridesmaids may be the red side of purple, but the chair cover sashes you have ordered are the blue side and will actually clash on the day.

Slow down a bit, use suppliers that will work backwards with you. Make you look at the whole picture of the whole day. It's your wedding; it's not your wedding favours are from here, your invites from here and the chair covers are here; it's a day, it's your wedding day.

So you've already bought the wedding favours, because you couldn't resist. Let's start from there. Let's put that wedding favour on the white tablecloth, with a white napkin, glassware and cutlery. Now let's add a ribbon round the napkin, that complements the wedding favour. Now let's add a place name tag to that ribbon. Ooooo let's use that lovely plum card as a backing because it complements the wedding favour box and the napkin ribbon - and suddenly your wedding stationery "look and design" starts coming together.

Don't be frightened to say to your suppliers "how will that flow with everything else?". A good wedding supplier will walk you through it - we do it every day, hopefully you will only do this once and we only get one day to make it work.

At the end of the day, it will also save you money - stop buying lots of bits on e**y and hope for the best .... look at your day as a whole and it will come together.

Envelopments in the UK

We're proud to say that we've been a licensed reseller for Envelopments since about 2004 and will continue doing so for the foreseeable future.

Envelopments are probably best known for their pocketfold invitations, which we use for corporate, events and weddings. They are available in so many colours, patterns, sizes and styles and are of the highest quality.

We are yet to try out their new range of pocketcards and pocket envelopes, but their time will come when we get a chance to draw our breathe! In fact, we are currently designing our own corporate terms and conditions around the pocketcards.

They are constantly looking at new ways to stay as the market leader and this year have brought us the Twist Card - which are going to be great for Christmas cards and will be featured in our 2012 wedding season.

So how will you let us inspire your creative touches, with an invitation that is designed entirely by you, but created by us?

How to get your woman on YOUR wedding wavelength

We haven't blogged recently, but have something new in the pipeline that we are working on - which has been made easier with Kara now on board. Although I can't decided whether we should use Blogger or Wordpress - hence why I keep skipping between the two!

So in the meantime this is something we blogged on Wordpress in February! see you soon xx

So you went down on one knee and popped the question. Not only did she say yes, but she’s now having the time of her life showing off the engagement ring that cost you three months salary, looking at venues, choosing flowers and oohing and aahing over dresses.

But chances are your enthusiasm for making her your wife has now cooled a little and whilst you are really looking forward to the day and to be being the leading man to her leading lady; it really seems it’s all about her being the centre of attention. What about you?

Our Wedding

Make her smile by mentioning “our wedding” regularly, gently reminding her that it’s a big day for you too and that yes you would like some input.

Calendar

Make sure you write your important dates across your Nuts/Michelin/Rachel Stevenson calendar, including Sunday services to hear your banns being read, stag/hen weekends, appointment at the suit hire shop, her birthday, when the invites go out, RSVP date. When she sees how much you’ve got on the calendar, she won’t give you too much more to think about.

Off-Limits Time

Book a weekend break away and insist that you do “couple” things without mentioning the W word. Book a lovely hotel, run her a bubble bath, cook her breakfast in bed, or just stay in bed all weekend and remind her why she’s marrying you in the first place [nudge nudge].

Think Like a Woman

Whilst you don’t want to pay a great deal of attention to the finer detail, you tell her that’s her forte; why don’t you let me sort out the honeymoon – think of the time you can sit surfing the net looking for the perfect trip together and if you are a good negotiator think of the money you will save playing the agents off against each other.

Flatter Her

Tell her regularly what a fantastic job she is doing and she will be more inclined to let you sit back and watch her do all the hard work. Tell her how much you appreciate what she is doing, by boosting her ego you’ll get her on your wavelength faster than you thought possible!

Don’t let her ask you to make decisions on things she has chosen

You know she’s already chosen the invites, she’s been looking through websites for months. Tell you trust her judgement and would like to see her top three favourites so you can help her decide on THE ones.

And if this all fails subscribe to the leading online mens magazine Staggered.

Happy planning!

Envelopments - the real home of pocketfold invitations

We are pleased to announce that we have renewed our licence with Envelopments, who are the leading supplier of quality pocketfold invitations. This enables us to continue to supply high quality product to our brides, along with offering them support in designing their perfect wedding invitations and stationery.

This will be our seventh year with Envelopments, and their popularity has grown immensely - to the extent that they are being copied by far inferior products in the UK. Envelopments isn't just about being able to supply beautiful patterns by Anna Griffin; it's also about a design concept. It's about putting different colours, textures, patterns, fonts and graphics together and creating a perfect image for your wedding or event.

Look at the beautiful colours of Ashley's wedding http://www.envelopments.com/mixandmatch/featuredrecipe/Wedding/118/Ashley--Alan.aspx - with the typography and graphics making it unique.

The subtleness of Gabrielle's wedding http://www.envelopments.com/mixandmatch/featuredrecipe/Wedding/58/Gabrielle--Austin.aspx with a hint of coral.

We also design our own - the little funky number above is in our Washington range

Who's wedding would you prefer to go to? One of the above, or just a bog standard pocketfold invite with a sheet of paper stuck in it - which is what the majority of UK companies seem to be promoting.

Make sure your wedding stationer is a licensed Envelopments reseller to ensure quality and perfection!

Anna & Jamie, Whittlebury Park, 22nd August 2009

We said we would post some pictures and here they are. They chose our Alabama range in Diamond Repousse and Antique Gold. The main colour for this concept is the beautiful floral pattern from Anna Griffin in creams, accented with gold and finished with flowing ivory chiffon ribbon.

We kept the menu scrolls in keeping, and rolled the floral paper and tied with the same ribbon, with the table numbers on a floral tentfold card, the same as the place settings.

Very feminine, very in line with their venue and very traditional!

Sunday, 28th October 2007

Wedding Paraphernalia officially starts its 6th year of trading in the wedding industry in January, and I have been designing greetings cards and wedding invitations now for over ten years.

Why the Blog? Because I want to start driving Wedding Paraphernalia into the 21st century and understand why we go to the shop everyday and run this business - we want to start going to higher places.

So it has been recommended to me that I start to write things down - my thoughts and feelings about weddings and also to blog advice about them - we've seen enough to know some things.

And today, here is my first attempt at the blog - something I wrote about wedding stationery and invitations. It may not be interesting to you - but as I get the gist of this blogging thing maybe I will get better!

Wedding Invitations and Stationery

Choosing the right wedding stationery is essential, as it will create the first image for your wedding guests. Whether you go for printed wedding invitations, handmade or the new pocketfold invitations; they should be created in your style, your charisma and show your personality.

Deciding on your design can be difficult as there are so many different ideas available to the bride and groom. However, remember you should be sending the wedding invitations out three months before the wedding, in order to receive your RSVP cards back about six weeks before. You will find that most designers require at least six weeks from receipt of order to complete the finished designs.

One invitation is required per household family; so remember not to order too many. Find a designer that will print your guest information straight onto the cards; or find a good calligrapher.

Other stationery for the day should be ordered at the same time, but can be confirmed closer to your wedding date when you have received final numbers. Remember to order place settings, a table plan, menus, Order of Service or Order of Day and the all important thank you and bridal party cards.