It is true! We moved our blog over to our website. They are now one. Come on over and enjoy all the new content and updates! We are no longer posting here, and would love for you to join us at our new location. Please update your bookmarks and if you haven’t already and are new to our blog, we would love for you to join us too!
The new URL:
www.sdinvites.com/blog
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I can’t believe that this is our last blog post of the year. Where did the year go? It seems like just yesterday I was meeting with our brides of 2012.
I wanted to take a moment and look back over the year. There were so many amazing moment for our company. Where do we even begin… all the amazing couples we got to share our year with, along with many new talents photographers, florists, event planners, and more, some fun giveaways and the launch of a new division of our company. It has been amazing to see our little company grow and become what I have always dreamed of.
This year we launched our Four Paws line, and are very excited to see where this will lead. It is a wonderful partnership with Best Friends Animal Society where a percentage of each of our card sales will be donated to help No More Homeless Pets®. With sales starting the beginning of November, we are proud to say that we are sending a check this week to Best Friends for $100.00. Not bad for two months worth of sales of a new line. We can’t wait to see where you all will take this line, and we have some fun new designs and items in 2013.
We had some really wonderful giveaways this year, starting off with our military giveaway winners, Diana and David. Ending the year with giving away two DIY invitation packages. I’m so excited to be able to offer this for all of our clients and wait until you see what we have in store for next year.
With that said we do have a pretty big announcement, some of you know this, but many do not. For the past three years we have been juggling our business full time and a full time studio job, but as of January 2013 we will officially be focusing on our business. It is a scary and exciting time, but because of the love and support of our family, encouragement from our friends, and the opportunities that all of you have given us, we are making that step. We will be a full time design studio offering, of course, invitation and stationery design, but also many other design services. I know I keep saying this, but we do have something fun in the works just for photographers too for next year and can’t wait to share. I love supporting other small business and I think this is going to be a wonderful adventure.
We can’t wait to dive into 2013 and launch our 3.0 website, but until then, we are going to take a few days to spend with our family, friends, and relaxing with many hot cups of coco 
Hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate), Happy Holiday and an exciting and promising New Year. See you all in 2013!!!
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It has been a bit of time since we answered a question out of our mail bag… It has been a busy month for us. This question comes from Karen in Ohio and she asks:
Q: We are planning a destination wedding, but I’m not really sure what the etiquette is for sending out invitations. How early should we send them out? What do people typically include in this type of invitation? Should we include an itinerary this early on?
A: Wow that is a bunch of questions! But we do have to agree destination weddings do create a very different set of rules when it comes to your stationery. Your timeline will be slightly different from the standard 8 weeks. Make sure you give your guests plenty of time to research and schedule flights and other travel arrangements. If you are having your wedding in the states, I recommend sending your invitations out about 3 months prior to your wedding. If you are having a wedding outside of the country, depending on the country and what type of travel papers people will need, I recommend 6-5 months prior to the wedding.
When sending your invitations, be sure to include an RSVP card, any pertinent travel information like hotel information if you have reserved rooms, airport information, if you will be providing a shuttle, and a map and directional card. I would also recommend setting up a website that you can communicate any important information to your guests.
Another nice touch is once you have your finalized attending guest list, you can send out personalized itineraries and a welcome packet to all of your guest. Give them more details about the area, events you have planned, maps, transportation information, and a thank you card. It can be something either you mail out to them, or you have ready in their hotel rooms when they arrive. The whole idea is they are your guests, make them feel welcome and really a part of your day. Remember they traveled far from home to be there for your on your special day, so you want to make sure they are comfortable and can relax and enjoy themselves.
Hope this helps with everything!
If you have any questions about your wedding invitations, wedding stationery, save the dates and more, we would love for you to send them to us! (heather {at} sdinvites {dot} com)
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I wanted to share with your our 2012 Vendor holiday card. We printed our cards on a very soft, thick cotton paper, and then placed them in a invitation box mailer. From there we created a rosemary thyme wreath and finished them off with a cotton ribbon. It is always fun to work on a project for yourself.
We are hoping to have a DIY tutorial in 2013 They are SUPER easy!!!
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Since we are in the business of creating fabulous stationery (if I might say so myself!) I thought it would be fun to share this crazy infographic on Greeting Cards and how much mail is moved through the USPS. It is amazing to see all these statistics about greeting cards in one place and to think that we were part of the 1.8 billion (yes billion) pieces of mail that the USPS moved this holiday season! Enjoy this fun little bit of trivia today!
Thank you Jessie from Killer Infographics and White Pages for sharing this.
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2012 was a busy year for us and we wanted to end it with giving back to you, our clients, fans and friends. To end our 12 Days of Christmas we had a giveaway for 2, yes 2 DIY wedding invitations. And we are so excited to announce the winners!!! Each winner will be able to select from one of our 7 designs to make their very own and then print from home!
Congratulations to our two winners~ Jessica Moyer and Tenley St. Pierre~ We are looking forward to working with the both of you in 2013. You both have until Midnight tonight (12/17) to claim your prize. Names were selected through random.org. If prizes aren’t claimed by this evening, the next name on the list will be selected.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone who has participated.
{Photo by Kim Robbins Photography}
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So our blog has been a little weird the past few days and we were not able to post yesterday at all… So with that said we are skipping Day 11 and making Day 12 even bigger.
For the 12th Day, we are giving away one of our DIY Invitations* to TWO lucky readers! Yup that is right two. Just leave a comment on our facebook posting (it matches this blog posting) before Midnight Friday (12/14) and we will pick two lucky winners and announce them on Saturday 12/15. You will be able to pick from any of our 7 designs, we will customize it to fit your needs and you will be able to print from home. Good Luck!
*(This is just for the Downloadable DIY template, not the kit)
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We keep having to play catch up on our 12 Days of Christmas. Day 9 and 10 are below and they will help you with all your holiday shopping and stocking stuffers. And make sure you check out to see if you were the winner of our Holiday card giveaway.
On the 9th Day of Christmas Simply Designed gave to you, 10% off our 2013 desktop calendar!!! use Code 10OFFCAL at check out!
On the 10th day of Christmas SImply Designed gave to you, 10% off our address stamps!!! Use code ADDRESS10 at check out!
Codes are good until December 31.
The winner of our 2012 Holiday card giveaway is Neallie. Congratulations Neallie, please reach out to me by the end of the day today. (This name was selected by Random.org.)
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