Spring Recap

We have been so busy. Busy is good...but it keeps me putting things on the back burner - like blogging. Since we have been so slow to update our website with new pictures, I figured I would post some pictures of a few of the orders that have been keeping us busy all spring and early summer.


This was one of our favorite custom designs. The bride emailed me from out of state and was having a hard time finding the perfect invitation. Her colors were pink and black and she wanted to work with stripes and polka dots. She wanted to blend classic with contemporary and was absolutely about to give up. She was on a budget...and we were able to incorporate all elements she wanted and still come in about 30% under budget. She absolutely loved the invitations and so did her guests! We did too...we actually used some of the images in our spring mailing.

Pink and Black Wedding Invitation - Dots and Stripes order sample here

This order was for a Akron/Canton area client. When we first met, she wasn't sure about what type of invitation she wanted. She did know that her wedding colors were Silver and Purple and that she was going for somewhat of a "Fairy-Tale" theme. She loved the pocketfolds and wanted to incorporate a simple monogram. Her guest count was huge so this order spent plenty of time in our production schedule!

Silver Pocketfold with Purple and White accents - Wedding Invitations




This was one of our spring favorites! The bride was an Art Major and wanted something that reflected her unique style. Her colors were pink and green. We especially loved that she went with a light green text panel and mailing envelopes. This order was adorable and perfectly reflected her style.

Hot Pink Pocketfold with Lime Green/Paisley accents - Wedding Invitations

order a sample of this invitation here.




These pictures are of a sample invitation that we made for a wedding planner that we work with in the Miami, Florida area - B'Dazzled Creations by Rosiet. The bride was not sure what color scheme or style she wanted to settle on but she was dead set on the monogram.

Brown 4x9 Pocket with Lime accents / Brown Pocketfold with Champagne accents

After all the hype at January's Bridal Show, we were expecting Yellow and Orange to make a bigger presence this year. This was our only Orange/Yellow combo so far this season but it turned out amazingly beautiful. The bride was a high-school classmate of mine. She was looking for something totally unique but classy. I sent her several different samples in many different colors and she kept going back to this one. We say "Good choice Elizabeth"!

Yellow/Orange Pocketfold Invitation with Paisley Pattern - Wedding Invitation

Here are a couple of fall themed invitations we did for two different brides. Upon their initial consultations, both knew that they wanted to carry the fall theme (leaves) through their invitations and both wanted square pocketfolds. These pictures really illustrate how we can take two very similar requests and turn them into something unique for each of our clients.
Chocolate Brown and Gold / Copper Pocketfold Invitations with leaves - Fall Wedding Invitations order sample here

Chocolate Brown and Red Pocketfold Invitations - Wedding Fall Theme

And last - but certainly not least - Accessories. Enjoy these last few pictures of accessories that coordinated perfectly with the clients' custom made invitations.


Tiffany Blue/Chocolate Brown Programs. Tiffany Blue Table Cards and Place Cards



Black and White Table Cards, Place Cards, Programs.

So there you have it. A small sampling of what we have been working on lately. I assure you, this is just a small piece of the production schedule. We have a ton more pictures of jobs and we hope that we can update a little more frequently.

THANK YOU!

A heartfelt "thank you" to each and every one of our fabulous clients - and their friends and families - who took the time to vote for us! We are ever so honored to be voted the #1 Invitationists in the Akron/Canton area. Yay!

Vote for us!

Hello! I cannot believe it has been over 1 month since my last blog! I find myself thinking of topics to blog about frequently so I guess it seems to me like I blog more often than I do. Truth be told, we have been so busy this year that I just have not had the time to sit down and write! Worse things could happen, right?!?

We are honored to have been nominated in the "Best of Invitations" category for the Akron/Canton Hotlist. If you are impressed with the service and or products you received from us PLEASE click here to vote for us!! Be sure to leave a comment after you vote! We appreciate your support and are amazed everyday at where this journey is taking us!

Stephanie

Are you Custom or are you Catalog?

If you find yourself asking "What exactly are the differences between Custom Invitations and Catalog Invitations", you better read this blog!

A Catalog Invitation comes from just that....a catalog. When shopping Catalog Invitations you get to lug around heavy over-sized books containing mass produced invitations. When you find an invitation that you like - you better like it pretty much how it is, because most of the time you can't change a thing about it - other than the ink color and envelope liner. Now, I don't know about you, but I have received quite a few invitations in my time. Can I recall which invitation belonged to which wedding? Nope. Not even the tacky ones. Why? Because more or less - they all looked the same. In the last few years some catalog lines have added more 'unique' styles and a few semi-custom options but overall the selections are still pretty limited. Oh, and now you can shop Catalog Invitations on-line. This luxury eliminates the heavy over-sized books but the above mentioned limitations on design are ever present.

A Custom Invitation comes from your imagination. If your imagination isn't so great, we can loan you ours free of charge. When you meet with us to discuss Custom Design, we're gonna ask you a few questions about your event. It's not that we are nosey or anything - its that we are using your answers, your personalities, and the details that you speak of , to start formulating a design. We have plenty of samples on display in our Studio and those might help you narrow down a specific style that you adore. And you know what? We can take that style and we can make it truly unique to your event by allowing you to work with over 200 different colors and textures. Sound a bit complicated to you? Don't worry - it's not! We've gotten pretty good at this and we will steer you in the right direction. Oh, and you'll be quite pleased when your guests leave little comments on the reply cards about how awesome your invitations are. Just think - if they are jazzed up about the invitations, imagine how excited they will be to see the rest of your day unfold.

I guess the bottom line is this: We've got the best of both worlds. If you are on the fence about going Catalog or going Custom, schedule a free one hour consultation with us. You can view our catalog lines and you can see our custom work- side by side. We will work with you and your budget to determine the right fit for you. We are not pushy salespeople, I promise. We just want you to find the perfect invitation for your event.

Check your Mailboxes

Our latest batch of promos went out on Wednesday. We hit over 200 brides with wedding dates between mid-July and August. We typically receive an overwhelming response since they are what one bride said- "the most beautiful piece of marketing mail I have ever received". We've been sending these out for the last year and a half or so.

In case you are wondering how we get your information, I will tell you. When you attend a Bridal Show, your information is shared with the vendors at that show. We do a few bridal shows a year so we obtain brides from all different walks of life. If you do not want your information to be shared with the vendors, then you need to indicate that when you register for the show. If you do not wish to receive further correspondence from us, then you need to let us know. It costs money to market - and believe me, we don't want to waste that money on you if you don't wish to be marketed to!

On Thursday, I had an upset bride-to-be leave me the nastiest voice mail I have ever received. In the 57 second message, she screamed and she cussed and it was all because she got one of our promos in the mail. It's quite hard for me to imagine that a piece of such beautiful mail inspired such rage - but it did. Her number came over on caller-id, so I did call her back. I just wanted to let her know that we don't buy her information (as she claimed ) and that really , we are the two nicest girls in the world and it was going to bother me the rest of the night that we upset her so badly.

I guess the point is this: If you got one of our promotional pieces and you are upset - I am sorry! I can't help but think there might be other brides out there who feel the same way this one did but that don't have the guts to speak out. Stacy and I can't stand the thought of bothering anybody. We are just two girls who are trying to find a balance with successful marketing. We don't buy your information, we don't sell your information, we just want to try to get the word out about the great services that we offer because every bride needs invitations in some form or another!

To Better Serve You...

If you've ever met us and heard about how our business was started, then you probably know that we never in a million years expected it to get this big. We have been incredibly blessed as we have met many interesting people and made several great friends. We never set out to enter the wedding industry but now that we are in it, we can't get enough of it. Still, we feel a little 'under-educated' compared to some of the wedding vendors that have been in the industry for years.

We have decided to become certified wedding planners. The University of Akron is offering an 11 week course in conjunction with the Wedding Planning Institute in Chicago. We are super excited to be able to learn more about weddings in general.

Do we plan to go into the planning side of the business? That remains to be seen. We don't expect to - but we never expected to be doing what we are doing now either! For now, we are going into this just hoping that we can be a better source of knowledge for our brides and hoping that we absorb as much about weddings as possible. Wish us luck. Me especially - I am not the college type!

Stephanie

Why choose Simple Persuasions for your Custom Invitations?

* No color is too funky...no style is too strange. With us, you simply get what you want.
* We enjoy what we do and we're passionate about each and every invitation we make.
* We communicate well and we will exceed your expectations (our clients throughout the United States and Canada repeatedly tell us so).
* Many of our custom designs are priced comparatively to catalog invitations of similar styles.
* We work with you, one-on-one, to achieve a final product that introduces your event perfectly
* Pockets...Pockets...Pockets!!! You want 'em, we've got 'em. We have over 200 colors and 18 Pocket Sizes to mix and match!

You might remember seeing a big display board with this same information at our booth at the Today's Bride Bridal Show. Funny story about that. We were supposed to have a 10ft booth and so we prepared for a 10ft booth with this years theme that 'less is more". When we showed up at JSK for our 2 hour set up period, we learned that we were actually upgraded to a corner booth. This is when "less is more" started looking like "less is not enough to make a display". We were thrilled at the upgrade but Stacy had the flu and so I had less than 16 hours to figure out what we were going to fill the booth with, make the stuff to fill the booth with, get a good nights sleep and eat. Needless to say, this big cheesy foam board took up a good chunk of the corner. Little did I know when I emailed the file to Kinko's and told them what I wanted that the darn thing would end up costing more than $100.00. We planned to throw it away - but at that cost, we will hang on to it again...just in case.

Thank you!

Never in my life did I imagine the amount of success we have achieved by showing our products at the Today's Bride Bridal Shows. I cannot put into words how wonderful it feels to wake up and come to work on a Monday after the show. Today was no exception.

We had many wonderful encounters at our booth yesterday. The sheer number of brides who stopped by to introduce themselves and schedule consultations blew us away. We had no idea that so many of you visit our website frequently to use it as a resource when planning for invitations. We were especially amazed at the number of brides and moms who came by to see our work in person or to tell us that they received one of our invitations in the mail and that it was the most beautiful they had ever seen. We are humbled. We truly are.

I feel as if this years show marks the beginning of a new chapter for us. It's only been a couple of years since we converted from a home-based business to a studio/storefront....and I am continually amazed at the demand for our product.

So thank you...to each and every one of you who took the time to visit us yesterday. I'd especially like to thank Alyssa for all of her help. Alyssa has become a great friend - but before she was a friend she was a client who married in October (her invitation was the chocolate and moss pocketfold). She actually volunteered to stand on her feet for 8 hours to help us out. There is no greater compliment than a client who believes in what we do and wants to help us share that with other brides.

I look forward to getting to know many of you better and helping you create the invitation of your dreams!

Stephanie (and Stacy too!)

The Schoolhouse

When my husband and I selected a Bed-n-Breakfast - The National Trail Schoolhouse Inn (also known as the Brownsville Schoolhouse) as our wedding location, I did not expect it to change our lives in more than just a "this is where we started our life together" way.

Shocking - I know - but I made my own invitations, programs and just about everything else used in our wedding. The bridal coordinator at the Schoolhouse was so impressed with my work that she asked me to put together a few samples of things that she could share with her brides. I had spent so much time researching invitations at that point, that this "connection" she was forging was just the boost that I needed to start this business.

Stacy and I dedicated hours upon hours upon hours on developing samples, pricing and order forms for her. We put together books of wording and typestyle options. We drove two hours down to Brownsville, OH to deliver them in person. I had never been so proud of anything I had done in my life. My product was out there and she was going to sell it! Driving away from the Schoolhouse that day felt like a new beginning. Little did I know that it was really the end.

I never heard from that coordinator again. Every phone call and email I sent went unanswered. Everyone who knew of the situation urged me to drive down and pick up my portfolio. They all seemed to think that she was probably using my work as a model for her own benefit...but I refused to deal with the situation. It was easier for me to not know what happened than to ruin my memory of the Schoolhouse.

Fast Forward a couple of years to just a few months ago when I wanted to surprise my husband with a trip to the schoolhouse for our anniversary. Our business had grown so much that I didn't much care about that initial portfolio. When I tried to set up the reservation, I found out that the Schoolhouse was no longer accepting reservations because it was "for sale". I was shocked. I toyed with the idea of moving down there to run the schoolhouse and then I remembered that money does not grow on trees. I cried. For two days I cried. It was over....The very place that inspired the start of my marriage and my business no longer existed.

Today I got an email. It was titled " Invitations" :

Hi there. My name is Tanya and I am taking over the National Trail Schoolhouse Inn in Brownsville, OH. I ran across your scrapbook and box of samples the previous owner had. I would like to know if it is current pricing or old. I would love to update these and use them as part of our event coordination service if possible. If you could send a price list to me, I can compare it to what we have. There were no dates on anything, so I am unsure if they are new or old.

Looking forward to talking with you.

Sincerely,
Tanya (last name omitted for blog)
Event Coordinator/Innkeeper

I feel as if everything has come full circle! Tanya and I talked tonight and I think she is going to be the best thing that has happened to that place to date (and not just because she wants to show our products)! Needless to say, Dave and I are finally able to go back down to spend the night and reminisce on Tuesday! I am so excited!!

I wish I had the ability to "make a long story short",

Stephanie

10 things we have learned over Thanksgiving Weekend

1. We do not like people who wallpaper directly onto drywall
2. Sanding said wallpaper off of the wall adds days onto your project
3. Mineral Spirits help with getting spilled paint out of the carpet
4. It's a major buzzkill when 91.3 The Summit changes formatting
5. It would have been much easier just to paint around the thermostat
6. It takes 8 minutes to get from the Studio to Home Depot
7. Stacy never remembers to plug the fridge back in
8. More purple would have been okay!
9. The cute little pictures on the IKEA Boxes and in the directions do not in any way make up for the fact that hardware is NOT included
10. "Well, we're going running!"

Pardon the dust!

Its been nearly two years since we have expanded beyond the comfort of working from home. I had toyed with the idea of expanding for a while and when we started looking at available space in the Falls, every place we found was all wrong. The spaces were too small, too large, too expensive, short on parking, up three flights of stairs .....and the list goes on. Finally we discovered what would become our current location on Craig's List. Everything about it was perfect....except the decor. Our intent was to remodel right away....but business happened - lots of it.....and we could never find enough time to allow for the disruption. For almost two years, our clients have been welcomed by textured wall paper and paisley border in jewel tones. (thank you for not holding that against us!)

The time has finally come! We have carefully planned our production schedule to allow us to remodel the studio over Thanksgiving weekend. We are so excited!! We hope to have everything back in order by Sunday....but you never know what we might run into! If you are in the area and still see the lights on at 3 am, please feel free to stop by and bring us caffeinated beverages!

Fun Facts - Installment 1

We found these wedding statistics to be pretty interesting and we think you will too! I would have expected more people to get hitched in Vegas though. We seem to work with quite a few Vegas weddings, so this number was shockingly less that I imagined. I would love to see an overall"destination wedding" statistic. Anyone?

• There are somewhere around 2.5 million weddings every year in the United States.
• June is the most popular month for weddings, then August, followed by September and October.
• The average budget for a wedding is estimated to be $20,000.
• So... about $40 BILLION is spent on weddings every year in the U.S.
• There are a few people around who believe this number is as high as $70 BILLION a year.
• A couple will spend an average of $3,800 for their honeymoon.
• 99% of newly married couples will plan and take a honeymoon.
• Couples are waiting longer to get married.
• The average age of the first time bride is 26, the first time groom 28.
• The average household income of a newly married couple is $55,000/annually.
• More than 115,000 weddings are performed in Las Vegas every year!
• More than 20,000 weddings are performed in Hawaii every year.
• The average wedding has 175 guests (invited).
• A recent study indicates 1/2 of all brides will use a wedding consultant or wedding day coordinator.

One more item on the to do list!

Okay, so we are jumping into the land of the blog! It may be a few weeks before we begin updating and decorating this new adventure, but we promise that once our new website is up and running, the blog will get alot of attention!

In the meantime, feel free to send us suggestions of topics you would like to see covered in our blog! What do our brides really want? Is it etiquette information, photos of stuff we are working on, current trends in color and style? Please let us know!

Stephanie and Stacy