Wedding Invitations 101 – When Should I Order My Wedding Invitations?

Brides often ask, “When should I meet with invitation designers to create and/or order my wedding invitations?” The answer really is as soon as you know where you’re getting married! The busiest invitation designers book up really quickly – some are booking over a year in advance. I suggest that brides start researching potential wedding invitation designers once they’ve booked their venue to ensure that their dream designer is available.

The short, go-to answer is… contact us 6 months before your wedding!

Some of you are thinking, “Wow! That’s a long time ahead of our date!” Well, it is. But there’s good reason. It’s really important to understand the time that is needed and dedicated to each invitation order in order to understand why this timeline begins so far in advance. The design process is different for all invitation designers, but I can give you some insight on how we do our invitation design process at Bling, Sparkles, Oh My!

Our production of the invitations requires, at the bare minimum, 8 weeks to produce. However, our production doesn’t begin until after we’ve had our initial design consultation, you’ve received the design proposal and pricing estimate from us, signed the contract, sent us all the information to include in your invitations, we’ve designed digital proofs of your invite, and you’ve approved the proof. Mind you – this process can take a great deal of time depending on how many revisions we need to make until we finalize the design that you want for your invitations.

We require that brides begin this process with us at least 3-4 months before the date of sending out the invitations to allow time for all the above steps. (Wedding invitations are sent out 2 months ahead of the wedding date.) So we really like to see our brides coming to us at least 5-6 months before the wedding date for the best experience. That way we can focus our energy on designing exceptional work and not worry about being constricted under a time crunch.

If you’re in the market for invitations but you’ve past the 6-month mark countdown to your wedding, don’t fret! Contact us ASAP! Depending on our production schedule, we can try to squeeze you in! (Rush fees may apply)

Mailing Invitations Guidelines:

Save The Dates: Mail 6-8 Months Before Wedding Date

Wedding Invitations: Mail 8 Weeks Before Wedding Date

Are you ready to design your wedding invitations? Be sure to email our lead designer Brittany at info@blingsparklesohmy.com! Our 2015 spots are filling up fast!!!

Bridal Shower 101 - Bridal Shower Games

Bridal shower games have become a dreaded topic because most people have been to at least a handful of bridal showers in the past and they have likely played the same games over and over again! If you choose to play a bridal shower game at your event, we have some ideas that are tailored to the couple, and hence much more fun! 
Here’s our list of bridal shower games your guests will actually love:

1.    “He Said, She Said” – This bridal shower game is a hit! I used it at my own bridal shower and my guests loved it! The game lists a variety of different statements, such as “I’ve always wanted to have 2 kids.” Your guests then have to choose whether the bride or groom said that. This game is sure to involve both your side of the family and his!

- My Suggestion: When choosing this game for your event, sit down with your fiancé and think through things that are truly unique to you as a couple. While a few of the “My favorite color is…” and “My favorite food is…” are good, use this game as an opportunity to teach your guests something about you as a couple.

2. “The Nearly-Weds” – This bridal shower game is a twist on the popular, The Newlywed Game. Task your bridesmaids with coming up with a list of questions to ask the bride and groom and see if they can match their answers at the wedding shower. Be sure to keep the questions light and fun! You don’t want to start any fights between the nearly-weds! Since the groom won’t be in attendance at the bridal shower, send your bridesmaids to interview the groom beforehand to retrieve his answers.

- My Suggestion: Keep the questions to a minimum – maybe a total of six. You don’t want the game to drag on and take up time that your bride could be interacting with her guests! Also, have one of your bridesmaids tape your session asking the groom the questions and record his answers. Then, if your venue has the capability, play the video footage of his answers during the bridal shower for a more personal feel!

3. “Guess Who” – This game is similar to “He Said, She Said”, but tends to focus more on events that happened in the couple’s relationship. For example, “I said “I love you” first!” or “I knew from the moment I saw his/her face that we would get married.”           

- My Suggestion: Work with your fiancé to pick at least 8 ideas about your relationship. Be sure to throw in a few curveballs too that will get your guests confused! It’s always fun to see their reactions! :)

He Said, She Said Digital Download

  Guess Who Bridal Shower Game      

                                                                  

The He Said, She Said and Guess Who bridal shower games described here are available for digital download or printed on cardstock paper from our Etsy shop. 

www.etsy.com/shop/BlingSparklesOhMy

xo Bling, Sparkles, Oh My!

Wedding Hashtags: The Do's and Don'ts of Hashtagging Your Wedding

As we all become more and more reliant on our social media and electronic devices, it comes as no surprise that it has become very popular for brides and grooms to integrate the use of social media into their wedding ceremonies and receptions. One of the most popular ways of doing so is the use of a wedding hashtag.

   

Why Hashtag Your Wedding?

To hashtag or not to hashtag... that is the question! When I was planning my own wedding, I knew that without a doubt I wanted to use a hashtag. My reasoning: I wanted to see our special day through the eyes of our guests. Let's face it... It's nearly impossible to catch most of what happens on that day as the bride and groom because the day flies by extremely fast! You're constantly being pulled in every direction to talk to this person here and take a picture with this person over there. After the craziness was done, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to go through the pictures that our guests posted and seeing moments that I missed!

Once my Etsy Shop, Bling, Sparkles, Oh My!, began offering social media hashtag signs, I began interacting with brides and grooms that had no idea where to start when it came to choosing their hashtag. I realized that there aren't really any cheat sheets out there to help couples understand how to hashtag their wedding and we could all use a refresher course in hashtag etiquette.

So here it is... my go-to rules for choosing your wedding day hashtag:

1. Simple - Simplicity is key when choosing your hashtag! If you want your guests to actually use the darn thing, don't make it really long or difficult to remember. The simpler, the better! If your husband-to-be's new last name is really hard to spell, avoid using it in your hashtag. You don't want to end up missing pictures or statuses just because your guests misspelled your hashtag. While there's no real cutoff number for characters that your hashtag should contain, but be mindful of your guests that need to type it in. I'd say keep it under 20 characters whenever possible.

2. No Symbols - Don't use symbols in your hashtag, such as &, !, -, commas, periods, etc! Most social media sites will cut off your hashtag as soon as you use any of these symbols. So when your guests try to hashtag #steve&sarah, they will really only be hashtagging #steve. This is especially the case on Instagram.

3. The Chosen One - Please, please pick ONE hashtag! I've seen many couples choose two or even three hashtags for their guests to use. Don't do this! Not only is this really confusing for your guests, but you will spend a lot of time searching each social media site for multiple hashtags. Choose one great hashtag and stick with it! Integrate it everywhere so that your guests have no chance of missing what it is.

4. Visual Appeal - Along the lines of simplicity, make sure your hashtag is visually appealing. Consider using capital letters on your hashtag signage to make it easier for guests to quickly read your hashtag. Again, the easier it is for your guests to read and remember, the more likely they will be to use it! For example, a hashtag such as #steveandsaraharehitched will take your guests a little while to read, but it's much easier if you write it like this: #SteveandSarahAreHitched. 

5. Catchy Phrase - Choose something creative and "out of the box". I've seen some really clever play on words with the couple's new last name or even their professions. Take some time to think it over before jumping to the final choice. 

6. Search First - Once you think you've decided on your wedding hashtag, do a quick search on the popular social media sites to make sure that you have a unique hashtag. If there are posts made to your hashtag every day, it may be hard to sift through all of them to find the pictures that your guests posted.

 xo Bling, Sparkles, Oh My!

Speaking of hashtags, if you're one of our past clients, we'd love to see pictures of our products at your wedding! Use #BlingSparklesOhMy for the chance to be posted onto our social media sites!

Check out our wedding shop on Etsy or go directly to our Website here!