Invitation Samples

[eks6426]

A sort of funny story....

Here on PS I saw a great invitation posted by Melissa Sue. It was a calligraphy style from the American Wedding Album. I went on their website and requested a free sample (so far so good!) on Monday. Yesteryday, I got sample in the mail (quick service!) and opened it up. I was most surprised to see basically a blank white card. Now, this style of invitation is only black printing with hand done calligraphy names.....but to send me a totally blank card was just down right weird. I could understand sending the part that is printed (not the calligraphy) but blank? What''s the point? I called the company this morning and they said the sample was intended to show paper quality & color. The lady at the company said a lot of people are confused with the sample for this one. I would think that a notation on the webisite saying the sample would be blank would help a lot of confused people. Or better yet, make a plate for the press with of someone else''s invitation (with the calligraphy) so the calligraphy is press printed too (like a picture) so at least potential customers would have an idea of the end results and include a small note that your names would be real hand-done calligraphy. Just a really odd experience. I am hesitant to use this company for my invitations because they just seem to be lacking in some common sense! Bummer, because I really loved the invitation at least according to the online pictures.

 

[MelissaSue]

Island - I warned you about that in the other thread (the one in my bio!) Go back and look! I told you not to get to excited when the envelope came!! LOL!

 

[eks6426]

MS--I must have missed that thread. So, much for good samples-eh? On another note, I got Cloud Nine''s peony sample and it was beautiful. They even sent the response cards & thank you notes. It''s such a shame they are so expensive and the shipping is bad too! I really like the peony and now I want to find a way to justify the cost.....

 

[MelissaSue]

islanddreams - I have requested other invite samples from american wedding album and they were fine. It is very silly of them to send the blank cards though too. Seems like a waste of everyones time.

 

[flopkins]

island dreams- do you have pics of the peony invites? wondering what they look like, if they''re on another thread or something... i recently have fallen in love w/peonies and... well I''m sure you get the general idea.

sorry about the samples!! hehe rather random, in my opinion!

 

[elepri]

I ran into this when requesting invitation samples too, they''d just send me a bland card, what''s the point?! You might want to find a loca vendor that carries the invitations you like and go look at the samples, they''ll have complete invitation samples in a store. Then you can order them online for less.

 

[teebee]

Flopkins ~ I think these are the peony invitations IslandDreams mentioned (www.cloudninecreative.com). They are, from what I remember, very pricey.... but beautiful!! I''ve recently fallen in love with peonies too...

 

[eks6426]

Flopkins & teebee..yes the peonies invites that I like are the ones posted above. They are very pricey to me too. I think 75 was $175 ...and that''s just the invites & envelopes. Response cards & envelopes are around $135 for 75. Then the shipping charge from Canada was high too. My fiance and I are going to take the sample and see the costs from a local printer. But I haven''t found anything else I really like so if we can''t get the local printer to do it cheaper we are going to do invites only with no response cards...we''ll put our telephone numbers and let people call to RSVP. Then we get the invites we like but save the $135 for response cards. Since our wedding will be small (we actually only need 60 invites) the calling for a response will work for us.

 

[flopkins]

teebee & idreams-
thanks!!! those are very pretty... and pricey! not what I was envisioning for an peony invite, but still nice! i think i might go for something simpler - and cheaper?! sigh. i hear that you can do some wild roses or a variety of tulip that looks a lot like peonies.. not sure how much you''d be saving though!

 

[eks6426]

Well, we took the peony invites to the printer to see about having the wording printed on them and it really is about the same price as having Cloud Nine do it. I considered doing it on my inkjet, but when I''ve done that in the past it ruined so many for the trials...So, now we''re at decision time. Before we got the sample, we had considered trying to use a flower picture we took ourselves (can''t directly copy due to copyright infringement laws!), but once I saw the actual sample, that idea went out the window. I cannot describe how beautiful the peony flower looks on the invitation...it''s so sheer and lifelike at the same time. They''re just perfect. So, now I think we''re going to try to see where else we can trim the costs so we can have the beautiful invitations.

 

[eks6426]

Interesting...cloud nine folks track web traffic and noticed I posted about taking their invitations and having it printed locally. This is the email response I received in regards to that post. See previous post of mine of what I was actually doing. Just thought everyone should know to be careful with copyrights!

Note from Cloud Nine below:

Just a quick note regarding the peony design.

We regularly track website statistics and I noticed that we had several hits coming from "Pricescope.com".

So, I paid a visit there today and realized that you had posted regarding my PEONY design.

You mentioned in your post that you were taking my sample, to another printer to see if they can print it cheaper.

I am assuming that you mean you are looking for someone to do the typesetting and printing of the wording for cheaper than my posted rates? This is perfectly fine... we sell the stock blank for this exact purpose.

However, I''m a bit alarmed that you *might* be considering asking someone to copy my design. As an artist and a small business person my designs are copyright protected as posted online, and I can only trust that you will not have someone steal my artwork. I send the samples for free so that you can see the quality of my work in person, not so that someone else can make a profit on my artistic talents.

Please feel free to post this response on Pricescope.com. I really don''t want other other brides assuming that they can receive a free sample from me and then have it replicated elsewhere.

 

[teebee]

Very interesting IslandDreams.... Uh, it never even occurred to me that you might have been referring to having the actual design copied!! I knew you meant the typesetting!!! Apparently we laymen tend to use generic terminology (like ''print'') that the professionals misinterpret...