Getting through those big stack of thank yous may not be your way of having a good time, however it simply must be done and I’d say the sooner the better. So to help you through the process, here are a few tips on ways to make writing those wedding thank you cards pain free!

1. Writing a thank you card actually begins when you start sending out your invitations. Make sure you keep everyone’s contact information in a spreadsheet. Google has a documents program that allows you to share files with others. This way you and your significant other can keep track of your information in the same place.

2. Either mail out all of your thank you cards at the same time or do it by family. If not, you’ll run into the same issues as me and have some people calling to find out what happened to their thank you card since they heard someone else already got theirs.

3. Clarify any questions early! As you receive each gift, look for a card or gift tag. If there are presents without any name attached to it or the card says from: The Smiths and you have two relatives with the same name, clarify things with the gift givers right away.

4. Order extra thank you cards. I’ve made so many mistakes on my thank yous and had to throw them away. Having 25 extra ones really made a difference especially since I didn’t account for cards to our vendors.

5. Do a little at a time. So that the task seems less daunting commit to doing say 5 or 10 cards a day. Then just push through the process. What I told my husband was that these people deserved a nice card for all of their efforts getting to our wedding and for their generous gifts. It was worth the bit of discomfort to get them a well worth the wait thank you card!

One of our chic and stylish staffers here at Wedding Paper Divas recently returned from her gorgeous destination wedding in Hawaii. Upon her return, she sent out all her thank you cards in prompt diva style, but she ended up with a stack of leftover thank you notes that were simply too cute to toss.

Her solution was to turn all those leftover notes into lovely little recipe cards! She loves to bake and is a Food Network addict, so she started jotting down her favorite recipes on the blank notes and handing them out to family and friends. They are a fun, fashionable and highly useful way to get mileage out of your wedding stationery long after your nuptials have passed.

What did you do with your leftover thank you cards?

Do we sense a controversy simmering? Seems there is quite a bit of uncertainty regarding how to spell one of the most basic terms on our site: stationery…or is it stationary? We’ve done some research and come to our own conclusions, but would love to hear you weigh in as well.

We have to thank Mike over at DesktopSupplies.com for bringing the issue to our attention. To summarize, the evidence suggests that when people are searching for printed paper products online such as birthday party invitations, birth announcements, holiday cards and personalized stationery, they are frequently using “stationary” as part of their search term. As Mike duly references in his post, stationary is defined as: “standing still; not moving.” He goes so far as to say that people have written in to correct the spelling of “stationery” on their site to “stationary.”

This obviously creates an issue for us, because we’re in the camp that believes we sell stationery. However, many use what we’d politely call the “alternate” spelling to find our cards. Naturally, we’ve ruled out building new site utilizing the word “stationary,” confusing people with more than one spelling or sending out a mass e-mail to all English speaking people correcting them of their ways. But…we’re open to suggestions.

I always envy brides who are able to effortlessly pull together an ensemble of complementary and matching themes and colors. For example, their dress compliments the linens, and the napkins and flowers go with their wedding colors and all of the wedding party’s attire. I’m hopeless when it comes to seeing the big picture and how everything goes together. The nice thing about Wedding Paper Divas is that you can purchase an entire matching set without having to think too much about it. Here’s an example of a stationery ensemble that would work well for any wedding.

I love the look of rice thrown or petals tossed in the air! Brides look so pretty in pictures that capture falling roses and rice which looks like snowfall in photographs. As a child, I would think about this scene over and over in my head. Now with the chance to plan my own wedding, I find out that the site I’m getting married at does not allow either! While I was initially bummed, it also forced me to find creative ways to still keep the romantic mood of the day. A lot of sites, especially if they are historical sites like mine’s is, want to keep their locations clean. With other brides-to-be in the same boat, I hope you’ll find some inspiring ideas to help you with this minor obstacle. I’ve thought about having bubbles blown by guests which makes whimsical photographs and would be fun for kids. And because I couldn’t shake the idea of falling rose petals, I was ecstatic to see that Wedding Paper Divas has a wedding suite designed with this image. Don’t you think their Falling Petals wedding invitation in Black Russian is so elegant and pretty?

Falling Petals

Why do we use two envelopes for wedding invitations?

The postal service wasn’t dependable or even readily available until the 20th century. Traditionally, nearly all wedding invitations were delivered by hand. They were generally sent by courier or a family servant either by foot or on horseback. Because the journey wasn’t always a tidy one, the double envelope protected the invitation from getting soiled en route to its recipient. Once the invitation arrived at its destination, the butler or housemaid removed the outer envelope and handed the inner one to the mistress or master of the house.Your wedding invitations will probably be sent through the mail, but just in case and in keeping with tradition, Wedding Paper Divas offers beautiful double envelope options.

Why is there tissue paper inside wedding invitations?

The first written wedding invitations were handcrafted during the Middle Ages in Europe by monks who were expert calligraphers. Commissioning monks to create your wedding invitations was incredibly expensive; therefore, only royalty or the wealthiest families could afford it. By the 1600s, metal plate engraving was invented and affordable, decorative, engraved invitations became available. To keep the engraving from smudging, a sheet of tissue paper was placed on top of it. Today tissue is generally used in wedding invitations for decorative purposes.

Welcome to Diva Dialogue, a Wedding Paper Divas creation designed to help brides and grooms get the latest on personalized wedding stationery trends, styles, designs, etiquette, ideas, advice and planning for the big day. The blog is also a forum to feature new Wedding Paper Divas products and designers as well as showcase what some of our creative customers are up to. It will provide an opportunity for you to exchange ideas directly with our wedding stationery specialists and share some of your own, unique romantic inspirations and experiences. We invite you to visit our blog regularly to read, learn and participate in our continuing wedding dialogue.