Personalization 101

This is a quick little blog to help one of my sweet brides who wants to get her place cards ordered now even though we've got time to figure out her guest list. We normally don't ask for the place card list until about 2 weeks before the wedding because guests always mess with the works. "I know we said that all 7 of us were coming, but we're not," and "Cousin Judy is in the airport! She can make it!" The day before the wedding. (Actually, my Cousin Judy did just that and it was AWESOME to have her! Love you, Judy!) But for most brides, place cards can be a last-minute nightmare. Any road, I digress. We're focusing on blank vs. personalized place cards. This is an image of a little carriage place card frame we have that makes a good combination place card/favor. It comes with a not-exactly-pretty insert with black flowers and the ever-present "M____________" and "Table ___ ." I personalized it the best I could in this picture to show you that if you use the insert that comes with it, this is the best you can do. Even so, professionally done, nothing lines up. Now here are two pictures of the same frame from a wedding we did where we created custom inserts and happily threw away the black and white copier paper inserts that came with them. (I'm trying not to sound stuck up, it's just coming out that way anyway.) But by custom personalizing a different paper, the result is clean and elegant. And if you're naming your tables (which I whole-heartedly suggest) you won't have room to write them on the "Table ___" spot that's expecting a number. If you need to cut down on your budget and you are going to be personalizing your own place cards by hand, get them TOTALLY blank--nothing printed on them so that all that appears is your handwriting. In the case of these or any other frames, I think that the included copier paper might be too thin to do it, but at least flip over the insert and write on the blank side. Of course, in an ideal world, you'd just call me and I'd take care of all this fuss for you. LOL! Well, hey, it's my blog and I should be able to plug myself, right? Bottom line--when personalizing your place cards, the guests will notice if you have an ugly guide printed on the page. Keep it clean, simple, and elegant.

Bottom two beautiful photos courtesy of Disney Photographic Services