Monday 28 May 2012

We’re Getting Married!

There are so many things to do to get ready for a wedding. It boggles the mind and I’m totally exhausted thinking about it all. My best friend warned me about the overwhelming feeling that comes with the great big list that I and every other bride and groom make once they’ve set the date.

After the ring comes a zillion and one things that have to get done before you can walk down the aisle. But, you know, this is one of, if not THE most, wonderful days of a couples life and we want it to have the makings of perfect memories. My fiancé and I are determined to enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

Since we live on one coast and our families on the other, we are going to go home in the next month for an engagement party—you know, a “be introduced officially to friends of each other’s parents’ party. This means wedding engagement announcements which we have to take care of like yesterday. And within weeks after that we will be sending out save-the-date wedding greeting cards. Should we do these separately or together? I’m leaning toward separately. The problem with together has to do with how many guests we can invite to the wedding itself. There are so many complications you don’t think about until you are in the thick of all this planning.

There are many options available and many things to look at and we haven’t even touched the actual wedding itself. I mean OMIgosh! This is so unreal.

Sorry, Modern Greetings, I must be crying on your shoulder. Just tell me if you can make all of this go smooth and easy with all your perfect print products. I need you, MG! I really do. I’ve heard you are the best in the online printing business if not the best print place anywhere. Now you’ll have to show me. Thanks much if you can make my life less crazy.

Saturday 19 May 2012

The Most Effective Engagement Announcements

Engagement announcements are an elegant way to tell people that you are in love. There are many ways in which you can do this, while being innovative and creative, letting you express all your feelings about being united with your special someone. Most people really enjoy letting others know about their happiness, especially when these "others" are close friends and family members.

There are different ways to express your feelings when it comes to sending engagement announcements. There are great selections of online printers, which provide you with nice looking engagement announcements. If you choose to search in the Internet, you will surely find a thousand of really great engagement announcements to send to all your friends. You may as well design the engagement announcements on your own, or order them at design studios. If you are still wondering and haven't decided the exact outlook of your announcements, don't hesitate to browse for some help.

The online stores are perfect when it comes to giving advice about how Wedding Engagement Announcements should look like. They will tell you how your announcements will look as personalized as possible. They can add color and shape to the way your announcement looks, thus making it more interesting. You may have as many decorations as you choose to make the announcement look nicer. You may pick up amongst a great number of different pictures, decorations, inscriptions and so on. You may go to one of the lovely sites that cover everything about engagement announcements.

It is always nice to include the children from your previous marriage or your fiance's marriage into the picture. Make a nice and large family photo so that kids feel part of the whole preparation. You will surely become their adored stepmother (father), if you thoughtfully include them in the whole engagement. The pre-wedding preparation is very important for the kids, because they don't want to feel excluded from the happiest day of their parent. So, you should be well aware and make them a part of it all.

The Internet is a real treasure when it comes to searching for new and vibrant ideas. You can find as much as you want about engagement announcements, and learn everything about their preparation. Just use your own creative imagination and add a personal touch to your announcements. Then you are ready to send them to the people you love, and tell everyone about your happiness.

Know more: Wedding Engagement Announcements

Monday 14 May 2012

Choosing Your Wedding Announcements

Announcing your wedding is an exciting and busy component of wedding planning. Besides the usual invites and personal wedding announcements you make to very close friends and love ones, there is some traditional and standard etiquette often used when both inviting and thanking guests for celebrating and attending your cherished event:

Announcement Cards

These cards are used to announce your engagement to friends and relatives. They can also be used as invitations to a bridal shower or engagement party.

Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations are available in many different varieties and are the classic wedding announcements. You can have them professionally printed, or print them yourself. These options give you plenty of room to express yourself and your sentiments. Whichever option you choose, it's always recommended that you purchase invitations and envelopes to match at the same time. This is just a precaution to ensure there will be no variations in the size of your envelopes. Inside of the mailing envelope, your invitation should rest in an inner-envelope, as this is proper invitation etiquette. The inner-envelope should only bear the name of the invitee.

Reception Cards

These cards are to be sent to guests of your wedding reception, who many not have been invited to the ceremony. This is increasingly popular among re-married couples who only wish to have their relatives present at the reception without sending formal wedding announcements to out-of-touch friends. Reception announements are also embraced by many couples who wish to celebrate a milestone anniversary.
RSVP Cards

These cards should coordinate with your wedding invitation. Each card should be placed in the same envelope with pre-paid postage and a return envelope.

Wedding Programs

The most popular wedding programs are printed on standard-sized paper and folded in half to make a booklet. These booklets are handed out to your guests by the ushers who escort them to their seats. Each wedding program will inform family members who the members of the wedding party are.

Thank You Notes

Always send thank-you notes to the guests who attended your wedding 4-6 weeks after your wedding date. These cards really should be personalized, preferably hand-written. It tells your guests that their presence was especially important to you. All guests who received any form of wedding announements from the host of the wedding should be sent a thank you note.

Guest Book

At your wedding ceremony, your guests are asked to express a special sentiment in your guest book. Typically, the bride and groom choose young women to sit with the guest book and encourage your guests to sign it. Some family members may choose to wish an expression of good wishes, others will write a favorite quote or love poem. These expressions, once compiled on the pages of your guest book, will make a wonderful keepsake that you can treasure forever. Although not wedding announcements, these entries signify and capture memories to relish for years to come.

Know more: wedding announcements

Monday 7 May 2012

Brand New and Unique Wedding Announcements

Wedding announcements that you give to friends and relatives are a great way to help them remember the date for your special day. The downside to giving a traditional paper wedding announcement to someone is it will probably get put in drawer or lost in the pile of junk mail on the counter. It may be stuck to a bulletin board with a tack or stuck to a refrigerator with a magnet, and within a few weeks it will most likely be lost or torn beyond recognition.

What Can You Do?

You don't want the announcement to be lost or damaged; yet you want them to see it on a regular basis. What are your options? Not many.

The Best Option.

Have your wedding announcement put on high quality magnetic material. A photo magnet makes an ideal way to provide and inexpensive, yet durable announcement of your wedding day. Today's technology allows manufacturers to print photos that rival your original picture, so the quality of the image is not a problem. A professional printing facility will use what is called "4 color process" printing in conjunction with state-of-the-art digital printers. The end result is fantastic.

Why Put A Wedding Announcement On A Magnet?

A magnetic wedding announcements will adhere to almost any metal surface like your refrigerator, computer case at home or the office, toolbox, locker at school or work, metal cupboards and cabinets, and dozens of other spots. Everyone in the home or workplace will see your picture. They are durable and flexible, easily moved about, and last for years and years. It will be a constant, daily reminder of the upcoming event.

Getting Started.

Finding a source for photo magnets is easy, but finding a reliable and competent on-line supplier is another story. First, make sure that the company with which you are dealing uses the 4 color process and industrial quality equipment, otherwise you may be dealing with someone working with an ink-jet printer in a room in their basement. Also, it is ideal if you can find an on-line supplier who lets you design your wedding announcement photo magnet. It's your wedding...you should be able to design it the way you want. They should let you add text to the picture, and give you different fonts and colors from which to choose.
Once you discover the right supplier, begin uploading your photos...edit the text...make an order...and soon you will be handing out beautiful magnetic wedding announcements.

Know more: wedding announcements

Sunday 29 April 2012

Tips When Making Your Fathers Day Greeting Cards

Sometimes choosing the right Fathers Day greeting card is harder than choosing the perfect gift. Will your dad find the card funny or just plain silly? Or, will he be embarrassed by something too mushy? Instead of buying an expensive card that you don't really like, why not design your own card? Even if you aren't an artist, you can still create a beautiful card that will perfectly compliment the gift you give to your special dad. In this article, we'll show you a variety of ways to make Fathers Day cards that show how much you appreciate him.
You don't have to be a mathematician or graphic artist to design a beautiful Fathers Day card. What's important is conveying a personal message to your dad about how much you love and appreciate him. To start, search the internet for web sites like Kaboose that offer templates for Fathers Day greeting cards. You can personalize cards with your own pictures, art, and messages.

These pre-designed cards really make the process simple. If you have an artistic flair, then you can use the templates as a guide but add your own headers, backgrounds, picture frames or fonts. When choosing a card style, select one that matches your fathers day cards. For example, if you purchased tickets to a sporting event, then choose a card shaped like an athlete or a card with your dad's favorite team's logo on the front.
Fathers Day crafts are a fun activity for the kids and dad will love what their imaginations comes up with. There are a number of ways that kids can make cards. Older children who can safely handle scissors can cut out colored pictures of objects or activities that dad enjoys, like gardening, boating or fishing from old greeting cards, magazines and newspapers.

Glue the pictures onto a piece of cardboard or construction paper and use a marker or felt tipped pen to write a message. For a final touch, carefully squeeze a strip of glue along the edges of the card and add glitter, beads, macaroni or even buttons for a fancy border. For younger children, use stickers or stamps instead of cutting out pictures.

There are a number of paper choices for your dad's card but any heavy paper like construction paper or Bristol board will do. You can purchase pre-folded paper or simply buy some card stock and fold it yourself. Use a ruler to get a nice, sharp fold. If you want to make an envelope, then just make sure that the card will fit inside. You can decorate the envelope with the same materials that you used on the card or use some metallic ribbon to attach the envelope to the gifts for father.

Keeping your dad's favorite things in mind is the key to designing a great Fathers Day greeting card. It can be related to sports, music, nature, cars or anything that he loves doing. Of course, you can never go wrong with family pictures. Try a few different designs and messages until you get the look and feel you want. Your dad will appreciate the time and effort you put into making a card that is as unique as he is.

Know more about fathers day cards

Monday 23 April 2012

Birthday Cards - Are You Sending Them?

It was first considered that the early Chinese were the first to send greeting cards. There was evidence the Egyptians also included them into their scrolls.

By the 1400s the Germans started to send cards but the big movement happened in the 1850's when stamps first allowed cards to be sent quickly and efficiently.

Since then the growth of cards has been staggering to now top over 7.5 billion in the US alone. Sending of birthday cards has been a major segment of this growth. Why?

A birthday is considered by most people as their most important day of the year. It's the day to celebrate their being born. We also celebrate religious birthdays as well. The birth of Christ, Budda's birthday and so on.

It's good practice to send birthday cards to family, colleagues and business associates. Provided it's done in a heart felt way, recognising a person's birthday shows you care about them and want to celebrate their special day. It's therefore essential you get into the habit of collecting birth dates from people and storing them into a database so you can easily be reminded of an impending birthday. Everytime you meet a new business associate make sure you get their birthday as well. If you are wanting to develop a long term business relationship with this contact, sending a birthday card will place your name in front of them one more time.

There are many types of birthday cards you can send including online birthday cards, free email birthday cards, printable birthday greeting cards, Hallmark cards or American birthday cards. Whatever you choose, make sure it reflects who you are. Email type birthday cards are quick and can be very animated and flashy but they may also send a message that you are in a rush and didn't spend a lot of time choosing a personal card.

Printable cards from specialised card sites allow you to choose from lots of templates but you need to check the quality before you post to your best friend or new client. A poor quality card can sour your relationship quickly. Hallmark Cards and American Greeting Cards are the world's largest and provide a good selection. But there again perhaps you are wanting to make an impact with a personalised card?

Depending on who you are sending your birthday card to you need to personalise your message. Naturally you'll need to mention the occasion ie "Happy Birthday" and perhaps add a memorable moment you shared with the recipient. Knowing what you and the recipient have in common will make writing a card easier. You can refer to interests or even business dealings if you think it's appropriate. But remember to make it heartfelt. If the card smells of a business promotion, you'll soon have your recipient running for cover.

One of the best ways to send cards is to have a birthday list; whether you do this in a special book or online. Today there's plenty of services that can highlight forthcoming birthdays so you won't forget to send a card.
There are even online programmes that will allow you to set up a birthday list, create a campaign and have personalised cards automatically sent to friends and customers. You'll never forget a birthday again!
Whatever you do, make sure you send somebody a birthday card soon. It's their most important day and they'll be tickled pink you remembered them.

Know more: Birthday cards

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Host an Engagement Party to Share the Great News

If you have recently become engaged and have a wedding in your not so distant future, you are no doubt both thrilled and a bit nervous. Deciding that you want to share your life with the person you love is one of the most important decisions of your entire life. You are filled with hopes and dreams of having a long and happy partnership together and have a whole lot of planning to do as well.

If you would like to share your news with friends and family, an engagement party is the perfect idea. Engagement parties provide the ultimate platform for both you and your partner's families to get acquainted with one another. In order to get the word about about the party, you need to find some engagement invitations to mail out. Instead of wasting both your time and gas driving to the nearest shopping complex, you should consider using the internet to shop for your invitations.

Not only are there thousands of invitations to choose from online, you will also find the best prices at websites that specialize in selling only Engagement Invitations. You can have them customized with personal photos and can choose from dozens of decorative envelopes. As a matter of fact, considering the wide selection of cards and invitations online, there is no reason to ever shop at a local card store again.

While you are browsing the online selection of engagement invites, be sure to look at couples shower invitations as well because there is little doubt that you and your family will want to host a shower. Showers are very informal and fun ways for women to celebrate the upcoming wedding by playing games and giving gifts to the bride-to-be.
 
Online invitation retailers have invitations that cover every aspect of your union, including rehearsal dinner invitations that will need to be sent out to the wedding party participants. You will have so much to plan for over the coming months so it would be wise to purchase invitations for every pre-wedding event you plan to host. By purchasing numerous invitations in one large order, you are often offered discounts and greatly reduced shipping prices.

A wedding is an expensive affair that often requires a budget being set and adhered to. One of the areas that you can save yourself a considerable amount of money is with the invitations. It is senseless to buy invitations from high-end department stores or exclusive card boutiques when you can find a wider selection online at greatly reduced prices.