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What does wedding stationery include?
When it comes to wedding stationery many of us are not clear about what’s the stationery we need for wedding except for the main wedding invite, reception card or save the date cards. Often, wedding stationery is implied as wedding invitations but let me make the concept more clear to you.
I am breaking down the word wedding stationery for you so that you can decide which exact pieces you want for your wedding. Whether you are a bride-to-be planning for her wedding or are just interested in knowing what the heck wedding stationery includes, keep reading to know everything you need to know about wedding stationery.
Wedding Stationery is not same as wedding invitations. Wedding invites are one of the crucial components of your wedding stationery. I know what you are thinking, but girl, what else does wedding stationery include and why do we need it?? I hear you, that’s why I am breaking the stationery you need for your wedding day!
As you already know wedding invitations sets the tone of your wedding day to the guests, I hope you are the one who cares about the wedding invites and knows that they don’t go into trash because there goes so much thought and intention behind creating them. If you are interested in getting custom wedding invites, inquire now!
Practically, Wedding invitations are necessary for your guests to know
- where and when is the wedding
- what functions are going to be there
- what to wear at the wedding (if there is a dress code)
- Who is invited to the wedding?
- A leaflet listing all the programs
- Timings of each function
- Accommodation information
- Wedding website (if you are having a wedding website)
Save the Dates
Save the dates are generally used to announce that you guys have a date at which you are going to be together forever. It’s pretty much a trend to share save the dates with your friends and family. Your guests can plan their calendar in advance of time so that they don’t have any excuse to not come at the wedding! 😛
Reception Invite
It is not necessary to have a separate reception invite and you can totally combine that information in the wedding invitation card. We can simply add the line at the end of the wedding invitation as “Reception to follow” if the reception is at the same venue as the wedding. And if the reception is not at the same venue, you can still add that information in the wedding invitation card itself. However, if the guests are not same for the wedding and the reception, it’s obvious to have a reception invite separate from your wedding invite.
Bridesmaid Proposal Card
Receiving a handwritten cute “Will you be my Bridesmaid?” card is so much fun, isn’t it? Yes, you can ask orally or through e-proposal card but I am sure creating something unique for your sisters would be more fun and personal.
Day-of wedding items are the stationery that assists you and your guests in enjoying the wedding fully. These things make everything organized and systematic when guests arrive at the wedding venue. Though these items are more popular in western weddings but I think these are the essentials and every wedding should have these incorporated to make the things easier and memorable for your guests. I am not forcing that you should have these but it’s good to know at least.
Now some of these stationery you need or not depends on the tradition you are following, the kind of wedding you are having, and the level of formality it involves. It is not necessary to have each of these stationery items in your wedding. I would suggest you to read and see the relevance of that particular thing and then decide if you want to have that item in your wedding stationery or not. Personally, anything that is helping in keeping things organized, makes your life easy and saves your time, I would suggest having that item in your wedding.
- Welcome Sign : This one is pretty obvious! You would want to show the guests arriving at your wedding that they have come to the right place, won’t you?
- Seating Chart : A seating chart simply states where a guest would sit in the hall at the wedding venue. I think it’s so crucial to have a seating chart especially when there are a number of guests. You definitely wouldn’t want your guests to have no seat during the entire wedding. A seating chart can be divided according to the table numbers and each guest would be aligned a seat at a particular table. Imagine you have just arrived at a wedding of your best friend, you see a beautiful welcome sign and then you enter the venue and there is this creative seating chart that exactly shows you where to sit and which table is yours. How impressive is that and how organized it looks, right!
- Table Numbers : Implied from the seating chart, each table should have a corresponding table number. A table number should be clear enough for guests to see and find their table. Those table numbers would match with the numbers at the seating chart.
- Place Cards : Place cards are little cards with the name of each guest. These cards are placed at each guest’s seat. This implies each guest has a seat aligned to them. How organized it is!! Plus you can get as creative as you want with the place cards, impressive! Right? Place cards are such a functional and useful wedding stationery. Can’t stress enough to have those at every wedding.
- Escort Cards : An alternative to seating charts can be escort cards. Escort card shows the guest’s name along with the assigned table number. And guests can choose their own seat at that table.
- Menu card : It is not necessary to have wedding reception menu cards. However, menu cards are great to communicate the details of the meal to your guests. Menu cards are a quick and easy way to share the food options to your guests. I think it’s completely personal choice to add this stationery to your list or not, but your guests will certainly appreciate it if you have menu cards at the table.
- Handwritten Vows : Handwritten vows are my favourite. These not only come handy on your big day but also serve as beautiful keepsake and memory.
- Miscellaneous Wedding Signage : Like a welcome sign, there are other Wedding signs that are useful to guests to direct them at certain things. Example, a bar sign will show your guests where the bar is, a wedding hashtag sign simply adds that personal touch to your wedding and gives your guests something to remember and enjoy, a gift sign lets your guests know where to keep all the gifts and envelopes and there could be so many more signs that will help your guests enjoy the wedding more and wonder about random things less!
At Boho Calligraphy, we can create everything from handwritten wedding signage to writing seating charts that would add perfect rustic touch to your wedding. Don’t worry about the surface, there is not any surface we won’t letter on.
Thank You Cards
Once your wedding is done, you would want to thank your guests for coming and sharing your joy, and giving you gifts! Tip: you can personalize your thank you cards for each guest to make them feel extra special and loved!
Just imagine how elevated the experience of your guests could be by simply having some or all of these wedding stationery items. Best thing is besides being functional, wedding stationery can be as creative, fun and thoughtful as you want those to be. The above list is not exhaustive so feel free to email me if you think there is something I missed or something that you know about and I don’t.
And don’t worry if you are a bride planning her wedding thinking there is lots of work! Rest assured what wedding stationers are there for! I am here to help you and create your dream wedding stationery so that you can relax and have fun. Whatever you have in mind for your big day, contact me and we can bring those wild ideas into beautiful reality.
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How to Fold Your Own Envelopes
Today I will share how I created envelopes for my A6 size “Thank You” cards. The idea of creating my own envelopes came when I couldn’t find any good envelopes for thank you cards I designed for a beautiful bridal client. She loved my handmade envelopes even more than those available in the market and it made me so happy. I’m even more excited to share them with you here.
Are you ready to learn how you can create your own envelopes? Let’s start! Materials
These are the simplest of stationery items that you probably have at home already. If not, you can be easily find them at any stationery store.
- Paper – Size depends on the size of your card! For this tutorial I will be using an A4 size sheet, as my card is small.
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Eraser
- Your card for which you are making envelope – Example: If your card is A5 size, you may need to create a C5 size envelope
- Bone folder (or you can use your ruler to fold the creases)
- Fevistick or Glue to paste.
Step One
Measure your card diagonally from one corner to another. For example, my card measured 18 inches diagonally.
Step Two
Add 2.5 inches to your measurement. For example, 18 + 2.5 = 20.5 inches. You need to cut a square of 20.5 inches from the sheet you selected initially.
Step Three
Create guidelines. Take your card and draw the lines at the middle of the card both horizontally and vertically. Do the same thing with your square sheet. Both the items should now have guidelines at the center. Make sure your guidelines are very light so that you can erase them later.
Step Four
Place your card over the square sheet and use the guidelines we created to make sure it has been placed in the center.
Step Five
Use your hand make to sure that card is placed at its position in the center and at the same time fold the left and the right sides of the the square sheet around your card. Use a bone folder or ruler to make sure your creases are prominent.
Step Six
Repeat the above step and fold the top and bottom part of square sheet around the card placed over it.
Step Seven
When you remove the card, you’ll see the folded creases on your square sheet. This is the structure of your envelope template.
Step Eight
Cut off the triangles you see at the corners of your square sheet.
Step Nine
This is the final template of your envelope. You can use this template to make a thicker envelope template by tracing the shape on a thick cardboard. If you’re planning to create same size envelope multiple times, a thick cardboard template will come handy and will save you time.
Step Ten
Coming back to your envelope template, fold the left and right side flaps in toward the middle. Use a glue stick to line the bottom edges of the side flaps and fold the bottom flap up to bond it with the sides. Be careful to only place glue on the flaps.
Step Eleven
Don’t forget to erase those pencil marks from your card and the envelope.
Insert your card and it should fit perfectly. Close the envelope and be proud of the extra handmade touch that your recipient will love.
I hope you will try this technique and make your very own envelopes. Share with me on Instagram by tagging me @bohocalligraphy or use #bohocalligraphyenvelopes. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Happy creating! <3
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Brush Calligraphy for beginners : A Guide to Supply list
This is the material guide to start brush calligraphy for beginners. You want to start learning brush calligraphy but you are confused or don’t know where to start or which pens to buy! I am sharing my favorite supplies you need as a brush calligraphy beginner. These are the exact pens and paper I used when I started learning brush calligraphy. Even if you just want to see first if calligraphy is something that you really enjoy or not, start with these supplies.
Broadly I can divide the materials you need to start learning brush calligraphy in two categories:
a) Brush Pen and b) Paper
Now you will be wondering, What is a brush pen? Here is the simple answer, A brush pen is a pen with a brush tip which is made in such a way that you can achieve both thin strokes and thick strokes depending on the pressure you apply on it. And it is essential in brush calligraphy to achieve that variety in your brush strokes. This is the reason you need a brush pen to do brush calligraphy.
After brush pen, second important thing is the paper. You would want to use a smooth paper because using a rough textured paper can result in fraying the tip of your brush pens. So, for the longevity of brush pen and smooth strokes I recommend using the good quality paper.
Below is the list of brush pens that I have used while starting my journey of calligraphy!
- Add gel little artist Brush Pen : These are the cheapest brush pen available on Amazon and they are of good quality as well. These brush pens have large tip and are great for writing large. This brush pen is available in a set of 12 colors.
- Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen : This is a high quality brush pen which comes in two types – soft tip and hard tip. As the name suggest, soft tip is little more flexible as compared to hard tip. These brush pens have smaller tip and great for writing small as opposed to Add gel little artist brush pens.
- Tombow Dual Tip Brush Pen (Large Tip) : This brush pen has dual tip. One side has normal tip like of a sketch pen and other side has the brush tip. This is a better quality brush pen as compared to Add gel brush pen. However, it writes large like add gel brush pen. These pens are available in 108 different colors.
- Pentel Fude Touch Sign Brush Pen : This brush pen is good for writing small. It is available in variety of colors as well. It has a flexible tip and easier to control.
- Rhodia Orange dot pad : Rhodia has the smoothest paper and perfect for doing calligraphy. It comes in 80GSM which is the weight of the paper. It will take care of your brush pen and prevent them from fraying.
- HP PAPER : This is the laser jet printer paper which comes in 32lb weight and smooth enough for using brush pen. I recommend this for beginners as this won’t affect your pocket as well.
- Tracing Paper : Highly recommended because its cheap as well as smooth. Tip: You can also use tracing paper over the calligraphy practice sheets and practice the strokes as many times as you want.
Now, I would love to hear from you, what is your favorite pen to do calligraphy! Let me know in comments below. Also, I have created a digital guide to learn brush calligraphy at your own pace. Click here to learn more.
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When is it okay to say No to a client?
In this blog post I am talking about when is it okay for you to say “No” to a client who isn’t your ideal client. You would want to say no to wrong clients so that you can devote your time, energy, resources and talent to serve your ideal client.
Hey guys, how have been you doing? This post is for my fellow artists; may be you are a calligrapher and a watercolor artist like me or do any other creative work. You have created a personal style after lots of practice and work closely with clients now and serve them with your talent. I am sharing from my experience what a wrong client may look like and if that person is reaching out to you, you immediately know nah!! not my ideal client.
You must be thinking who am I to say who isn’t your ideal client. Exactly, I don’t know who is your ideal client and who you wanna work with. However, since I do lots of custom work and gets queries from clients on my DM and emails, I know that we often get tempted to say “yes” to those clients and work which we later realize that “oh crap! I could choose better people to work with”. We all have those moments right? But don’t worry girl or dude, I got you! Based on my experience, I have listed the characteristics of the client which you might want to avoid dealing with.
- When they question your pricing :
You honed your skill after hours of practice, learning from experts, making investments in courses to learn and become the best of yourself and you know your worth. You have a skill that no one can imitate, you are providing something unique, personal and honest. And there a client comes to you saying “oh! I love your work but this is not something I can afford, can you reduce it to like 70% down?” And the answer is “NO” . Believe me never lower your worth because you know what you deserve and if a client doesn’t see that value in your work better that client not purchase from you. Alternative is to educate your client and be very clear in what value you are providing through your work. Trust me, your ideal client would want the exact thing you are providing.
2. When they show you artwork of some other artist and want you to make that :
This is very common when a client isn’t sure of what they want in terms of their own vision and instead of working with you to get clear about the vision and trusting you, they show you an artwork from internet and ask you innocently ” Can you make something like this? “. Clear communication and trust are the key factors here to deal with this kinda client. Chances are they are unclear about what they want so it’s your job to sense that Is this client trusting me with their vision? or Are they in this bubble that oh this is the artwork from internet I provided and I will get something like this. You as an artist must have a unique personal style which no other person can copy. And same thing goes for the artwork that client pulled out from internet because it’s someone else’s work in their own style, chances are you won’t be able to create something that is close to it and this will create a mismatch between your vision and your client’s vision down the line when they would see “oh! that’s not something I expected!”. And you might end up feeling sad doubting your skills. But trust me! it’s not you, it’s the miscommunication and misalignment of vision in starting of the project.
3. When they are not a fan of your work :
You must be wondering then why did they even contact you. But trust me it happens, they might be thinking you are an artist and you can create anything they would want but it’s totally on you to say no to that client if their vision is something you are not an expert at. I am not saying you to not experiment. Feel free to say yes if you think you can and you may learn something new from it. However, if it is something completely not your style, don’t say yes just because you don’t want to lose a client. Trust me, instead you can devote your time in creating/doing something that would attract your ideal client.
4. You’re getting the gut feeling :
Like I always say trust your intuition. If you’re anything like me believing in vibes, magic, spirituality or you have that little voice telling you that this is not your person. Pay attention to that little voice and listen to your gut feeling. You would just know that you shouldn’t take this client maybe it’s the way they talked to you. It’s hard to explain but you’d know 🙂
5. When they aren’t your ideal client :
Lastly but most importantly, if a client is anything less than your ideal client they aren’t your client. Maybe when you are just starting and learning you may end up working with them no matter what but in long term when you’re clear about who your ideal client is you have no reason to say yes to anything less. If you aren’t sure who is your ideal client, start thinking now what kind of work you enjoy to do. What is it something you wanna get paid for, who would want to buy that kind of work and get into the nitty gritty of creating avatar of your ideal client. Show that work on your portfolio everywhere and attract your ideal client.
So, I hope you may take a point or two from this article and it has helped you in deciding when to say no to a client who isn’t your ideal client. Did you experience anything like this? Maybe you have dealt with a client which made you think later on why? Feel free to share what you have learnt and what point you can add to above list so that we aren’t wasting our precious time and resources with wrong people while right ones are waiting for us!
until next time! 🙂
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Handmade Paper for Wedding Invites and why choose it?
There’s no secret that I love using handmade paper for wedding invites. In this post I want to talk about the reasons to love handmade paper and why you should have this paper for your wedding invites. Paper is definitely a crucial element in your wedding invites. It’s kinda make or break deal when it comes to stationery.
So to give you an overview on the importance of a good paper for your wedding invites, I am listing down the qualities that I love in a good handmade paper.
Thickness
Imagine a well designed wedding invite with beautiful hand illustrated elements on it, perfectly depicting the love story you have.. printed on a very thin low quality paper!! Oops, right? Now.. instead if those invites are printed on a thick sturdy good weight paper that would be much better believe me. Thankfully, handmade paper comes in heavy weight perfect for wedding invite.
Texture
Ooh this is my favourite! As the name suggests handmade paper is not like machine made or factory made card-stock paper which is made with perfection and each piece would look same. So the process of making handmade paper includes using deckle and mould to create each paper individually from the pulp. And that process of using deckle gives a beautiful texture to the paper. Generally handmade paper is made of 100% cotton which adds to the texture of the paper.
Deckled edges
Speaking of using mould and deckle to make each paper with hand that results in beautiful fluffy edges on each paper and those are called deckled edges. Deckled edges adds that elegant and organic touch to your wedding invites because no two paper will ever be same like factory made paper.
Different printing methods
Handmade paper is so versatile that it can be used for different printing techniques including letterpress.. ohh letterpress and handmade paper is such a beautiful combination 😍, gold foil printing or even digital printing. And whatever printing method you choose handmade paper takes it so well.
Now you get me right, all those points above add to the look and feel of the paper which is just more organic and romantic as compared to a card stock paper. Simply said, invites on handmade paper are the labor of love. However if you are a person going for more crisp and clean look in your invites, you may love Card-stock paper over handmade paper.
This post was just to give you all the reasons to love fluffy edges and organic invites but at the end it’s a personal choice and depends on the mood and the vibes you are going for.
Let me know do you love handmade paper and those fluffy edges as well like I do and what’s you favourite source to get handmade paper from?
Mine is definitely Indian Cotton Paper Co. because their paper is so good and even perfect for digital printing and since I live in India only it might save me some shipping costs as well. Other than that, I also love pressedpaper by Sharon Kopko!!
Now if you are a bride/groom to be looking for someone to create their dream wedding stationery suite I would love you to contact me because my dear we can create magic together!
