With the anticipation of Spring comes the "fresh start" effect. The change in season, warmer weather and fresh blooms tends to encourage two much welcomed habits: cleaning and budgeting. March is a great time for setting boundaries for your bucks, especially to all of our engaged couples. Thinking of custom stationery and personalized decor? We're sharing five (5) tips to help keep your spending on track as you plan your big day...
1. Get in contact with vendors as soon as possible to avoid rush fees. Also, depending on the vendor, the earlier you book you may be able to negotiate or stretch out your deposit(s) with your vendor and give you a longer end game with how you manage your budget.
2. Ideally, you want to book with your stationer six months in advance. However, if you find yourself just a few months away and invites haven't been dropped in the mail, don't panic.
Semi-custom invitations or spot calligraphy are great options to achieving a customized look within a smaller window and without the hefty price tag. While your stationer will more than likely take care of all the formalities with semi-custom invitations, the latter typically consists of delivering a few calligraphed elements (i.e. names, dates, headers, etc) to you that you can insert into your own stationery design(s).
3. Speaking of stationery. If you're not set on having the pointed pen look for hand-lettered items such as envelopes and place cards, check to see if your calligrapher offers a lower price for brush pen (we do!). Also, standard calligraphy will always cost more than hand-lettering. Forgo this more specialized style of lettering and save money by switching to an elegant hand-lettered style instead.
4. For gifts and/or favors choose items that can also serve functional decor - i.e. wooden hangers, personalized marble tiles that guests can take home, champagne glasses and even menus that double as place cards.
5. Find a vendor that provides rentals as a cost efficient and sustainable solution to your day of decor (also, us). Stain wood, new or salvaged, and turn it into beautiful signage. Also, if you do need to buy your own decor items consider designing signage, such as a welcome sign, in a way that it can be meaningfully repurposed as home decor.
Bonus: Do you have any friends who recently got married, love to plan events or simply have amazing home decor items like vases, shadow boxes, etc? Incorporating old, new, borrowed and/or blue items from your friends and family can save you money on decor items such as table numbers, bar signage, and even seating charts. Use these items and return them the same way you got them! The paint in oil-based or calligraphers use decor items can be removed.
Hopefully you found these tips useful! Drop a comment below and let us know which one(s) you will incorporate on your big day and if you have suggestions of your own feel free to share with our community!