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We realize wedding invitations are one of the most important components of your wedding. The invitation sets the tone for the event. Your wedding invitation is very personal and a lot of time and planning goes into each of our custom designs. To help make the design and production process run as smoothly as possible. The process works like this:
1. Design Consultation - Please schedule a consultation appointment 1-6 months before you anticipate delivery of your order. Our production times vary according to individual design, detail, time of year, and current number of scheduled projects. The rules regarding wedding invitation etiquette dictate that invitations aren’t sent out too far in advance, but they shouldn’t come at the last minute either. You want your guests to have enough time to plan for the wedding and make any necessary travel arrangements. You don’t want to send the wedding invitations out too far ahead of time, either. Invitations can be sent out as early as eight weeks and as late as one month. Any later than that would be considered poor etiquette. Six weeks is about enough time to mail the invitations and receive responses.
In your consultation, we will become acquainted with you and the details of your event, and will work with you to design an invitation set that includes the main invitation and any other stationery items such as direction cards (including custom map design), escort cards, menus, programs, and favor tags.
2. Estimate & Deposit to Confirm Order - If you are local to the area, we'll meet with you here in our studio. We have lots and lots of samples to look at. If you are not local, we can communicate via email or webcam and we will mail paper samples and pocket samples. We DO NOT mail actual finished wedding invitation samples. Once we finalize design, we will email a detailed estimate outlining the design and timeline based on what was discussed during your consultation. A 50% deposit is required to schedule your project and begin the design process.
3. The Design Process - During the design process, you will receive digital drafts (proofs) of the various components of your custom wedding invitation. Your proofs are a tangible expression of design ideas and specific details we discussed in your initial consultation and serve as a tool for fine tuning your wording, fonts and layout. Once you receive your proof set, you will be able to email back with your comments and change requests, and we will send a revised proof set to you. On average, the design process takes 2-4 weeks and approximately 3 rounds of proofs depending on the complexity of your order and the number of requested revisions. If your design elements change drastically and your edits exceed 5, there will be a design fee of $50.00 per hour (this rarely happens).
4. Printing / Assembly - When all changes have been made, a final proof set will be emailed to you. We want your order to be perfect, so please check carefully for spelling and content accuracy. An email reply with "APPROVED" for each proof draft indicating your final approval is binding. If any errors are found after you "APPROVE" the draft, you will be charged to re-print that item. On average print production and assembly take 2-8 weeks from the time of proof approval depending on the complexity of your project. Please note, when possible, we've made custom invitations in as little as 1 week so if you're behind schedule, let us know!
5. DIY Assembly - We are more than happy to help Do It Yourself brides! If your order consists of printing and cutting only, we will package each component seperately with instructions for assembly.
6. Delivery - Once printing and assembly are complete, we personally inspect each invitation to make sure it passes our high standards of quality and attention to detail before your invitation order is packaged. Wedding invitation can be picked up here in our studio or shipped anywhere in the U.S.