Wedding Invitation Design

[Loopy Lisa]

Ok so I am trying to figure out how to start my wedding stationery design business....at first I was going to just design a bunch of invitations using Illustrator/InDesign and have them printed...alot of people do that...then I got into the whole scrap booking thing with embellishments and funky ribbons...then I found some swanky fonts and started screwing around in InDesign again with some ideas I had so this is finally where I am at: pre-designed digitally printed invitations with embellishments.

I don't consider them "cookie cutter" because they are pre-designed...I've seen some so-called cookie cutter sites and that's not really what I am advertising. But the reason I am going this pre-designed route is because this way, it's not so labour intensive for me to make the cards one by one and I can have my prices already figured out therefore I don't need to quote anyone.

Another reason I am not getting invovled with the whole labour-intensive thing is because I have a full time job so this is strictly going to be a side project otherwise I will burn myself out and well, I get bitchy when I am tired.

I love design. I love art. Romance. And I'm a crafty *****er. So I figured if I can combine them and make a little coin on the side, GREAT.

Eventually, I was thinking about advertising the whole "custom" design angle once I see what kind of feedback I get to begin with.

From the research I've done, there are companies that either do full on handmade cards or cards that are strictly graphic designed. I want to combine both. But one thing I am having trouble with is finding information on the wedding stationery business itself...y'know part of the whole market research business plan thing.

What do you guys think?

[nyc_skater]

You should build a website utlizing AJAX and have the customers create their own cards with templates you've made. Then outsource the final file to some really inexpensive printer and presto!

[Broacher]

Just a word of warning. This area of design like T-shirts: very crowded with a lot of talented amateurs. I know many scrapbookers who make a few bucks on the side doing this. Designing for money rarely includes short-runs without getting into designing for just a little money (and a lot of labour).

Check out your local market before you invest. See what kind of cars your competition is driving. What is the workable spending range of the market? How big is the market? I'd talk to a collateral wedding service, say a local photographer, to get this kind of idea. Be aware that many photographers have rolled in template-driven design into their services. My gut feeling says that in most places, this is a brutally tough market to crack.

[Loopy Lisa]

So is graphic design, generally speaking. I was going to go that route too, strickly do logo design and the like, but after seeing how saturated the market WAS, I felt totally hesitant because even at our local college, there are 104 students that graduate every year wanting the same thing I did and I just didn't see the logic in doing that.

And I've contact a few people who are in the business, some that aren't even near me and the one girl was like "I'm not telling you SHIT about how I got started because YOU are my competition." She didn't word it as rudely but the general idea and message was there for me to back off. GGRR...

Brocher - what do you mean workable spending range?

Oh well I can at least try so I can say I tried...type of person I am, cause I hate sitting there wondering "what if?"

[Broacher]

Workable spending range: how much would your average customer be willing to spend for your 'typical' custom-designed job or services. Weddings tend to thought of in commodity terms: so much for this package, so much for this other one. If you know what your market will bear-- how much the average couple are willing to spend on customized invites, and you have an idea about how many customers you could get in a year, you'd have a basic idea to judge the viability of starting something up. Don't forget-- the whole wedding field is extremely 'faddish'. What's hot one year can be ignored the next. But, who knows-- maybe you're an innovator who can plot trends well and take advantage of the better niches, and maybe even invent/develop your own!

Good luck!

[frankster]

It's the short run aspect of it that would concern me. even a big wedding would be around 300 i'm guessing, so printing cost would be high per unit, especially in the wedding invite feild, where customers yearn for metalic inks and fancy cardstock. maybe if the invites are going to end up costing a lot to produce you should be looking at dealing with the high end of the market where people want totally bespoke designs from scratch just for them and they don't mind paying for that. If you specialise in one area like that rather than covering a range of services like a lot of freelance gd people do then you can create your own advertising postcards or something in the style you use to leave in bridal gown stores or florists etc. good luck with it though.

[Loopy Lisa]

Thanks Broacher for the tips, I appreciate that.

But trust me I am thinking outside of the box with this one, lol...I am not your usual "scripty font with ivory cardstock and white ribbon" kind of designer. I am not just going to type the clients' names and print them, I've got some whacked out ideas, some are a little morbid and not sure if ppl would find them intruiging...

fr'instance, when Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro got married they did thier invites as pics of them on those steel tables all make-up'd out to look like they were dead, thus the title Till Death Do Us Part was used. I'm kind of going for a punk/industrial/goth angle too...I'm not girly at all...

And from what I've noticed, the trends are moving towards something more unique than cookie cutter...

[Loopy Lisa]

If you specialise in one area like that rather than covering a range of services like a lot of freelance gd people do then you can create your own advertising postcards or something in the style you use to leave in bridal gown stores or florists etc. good luck with it though.


True dat. That's where I have thought of "advertising" or networking already...but thanks for the luck I will need it, I'm sure.

[budafist]

Take good photos of your work and advertise in wedding magazines. I don't know about your local, but around here, wedding magazines sell like hotcakes (even though they're all advertising).

We also have lots of wedding expos. If you can get into one of these, offer some kind of deal if people order invitations from the expo like 10 free invitations for every 30 they order.

[Loopy Lisa]

Take good photos of your work and advertise in wedding magazines. I don't know about your local, but around here, wedding magazines sell like hotcakes (even though they're all advertising).

We also have lots of wedding expos. If you can get into one of these, offer some kind of deal if people order invitations from the expo like 10 free invitations for every 30 they order.

Yeah man that's a good idea, kind of like a kickback...but to get a kiosk at an Expo I think costs $500 for a small 8 foot by 8 foot space...I know, you gotta spend money to make it, I get that...it's just I am small time so...maybe in a year or something for sure.

I was thinking of selling my invites through local bridal shops and give them a kickbakc too, like for every customer that orders (and pays) my invites, I will give them 10% of my profit or something...I know it's not alot but on a $300 order, that's $30 that they can use towards *something*...I dunno, pizza night for the employees or something, lol!

[Soccer37]

I used to work at a golf course and they did a lot of weddings on ground. Go to places like that and see if you can get some brochures on display. Also, I know that they did a "bundle" type deal with local businesses. For example they had a photographer and they would reccomend this photographer and the photographer would give them a discount and I think a small commission to the golf course. They also had a dj that only gave a discount but he reccomended people to the golfcourse. (I can't explain it well, but if you can get in touch with those kind of people and start some sort of reccomendation deal that would probably help you out.)

[Calligirl]

All I can say is 'good luck'. I'm a professional calligrapher of 15 years and it is a universal moan in the calligraphic world that the wedding business sucks for our type of service. Brides will spend thousands of dollars on flowers people won't remember after the reception but the invitations that mothers/grandmothers/sentimental folks keep for years have to be cheap. They care nothing for the work or creative effort involved.

If the invites are going to be printed on a computer, the brides usually do it themselves. If they're going to be ordered then the brides want embossed, foil, ribbon, etc. all the stuff that drives up the cost that they don't want to pay for.

The rare brides that will pay for the creative and different look do not make up for the brides who call you a month before the wedding and want the invitations in two days, ready to go and heaven help you if they're not perfect.


Of course, this is just my (and my cohorts') experience so you're certainly welcome to hit the delete button. Like I said first, good luck in your ideas.

[Soccer37]

Kinda funny cuz I just had a friend do her wedding invites and I offered to design them for free, but she wanted the pre ordered ones with the foil etc. Sad cuz I had some cute ideas for her. Oh well... anyway, I know what you mean.

[budafist]

Almost forgot to mention that I worked for a Wedding Stationery Printers once and you CAN NOT negotiate design with a bride. What she wants is what she gets. Even if it is hideous!

[Alan G]

Lisa, if you have a friend with contacts in a local newspaper, see if you can't arrange an article about your work. PR is an amazing thing for generating business, and it's essentially free if you can wangle it. Or find a someone in his senior year on a PR course and get him to do a practical exercise for you. Once you have a couple of press articles, you have an instant "press kit." Take that around to the high-end wedding directors and the like. You're going to be working the top end if you want to make money at this, so why not go straight for the throat?

A friend of mine became wildly successful with a business that consisted of her and an assistant. She had a friend who was a PR guy, and suddenly there were articles about her "woman-owned business" in a few local rags, then an award from a city council for her "Woman Owned Enterprise", complete with photo of her with the mayor, all within a few weeks of her opening up shop. But with those articles she was able to land several major contracts, and she's never looked back. So it can be done. You just have to get (dare I say it?) creative.

[Loopy Lisa]

Lisa, if you have a friend with contacts in a local newspaper, see if you can't arrange an article about your work. PR is an amazing thing for generating business, and it's essentially free if you can wangle it.

Funny you should mention, I used to work at our local newspaper back a few years ago and did some design work for them. My Dad's been working there as well for over a decade so not only am I going to them for my printing, but thanks for the tip on the PR stint, I can bring that up to them next time I am in a meeting with them.

I hope I don't run into no Bridezilla. Although I can be like your best friend cause I generally get along well with others, I don't take kindly to attitude and have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut when I have several verbs and adjectives I could spit out to make them feel shorter than me.

But my ideas are already pre-designed ahead of time but I am going to post on my site that any changes be it ribbon or text will result in an automatic charge for custom work.

There's a girl who does this in town too, my only real local competition (I've been on her site and she is more flowers and la-de-dah stuff) so I've kind of taken her blurb about pricing and everything from her perspective.

Well, I can at least try to make a go of this, if it doesn't fly or I find that I am facing walls that I can't overcome, at least I know I tried and I can go back to makeing really funky birthday cards for my friends, lol! Always gotta look on the upside of things.

[Loopy Lisa]

OMG I almost forgot...

For something like my pre-designed invites, should I include a contract and if so what should it say?? I don't want someone to get all wiggy with me over something that isn't included in the job.