The Stationers Guild

As readers of the Stationers Guild News are aware, I have long pointed out the hazards of trying to find “cheap wedding invitations” online.  It is not that they are not available.  In fact, there are over 14 million search results when you enter the search term “cheap wedding invitations” in the Google search bar.  What I am referring to is the self-serving and deceptive techniques used by many vendors to attract unsuspecting visitors to their website.  These deceptive advertising practices are undermining the credibility of online search and, in my opinion, fradulently promote websites and products under the guise of advice. 

Today, I came across a Blog posting from Wedding Layers offering advice on how to find cheap wedding invitations.   The text of the article was lifted from an Ezine article written by Kim Lapp and contains eleven embedded links to the website of  Tiny Prints which just happens to sell wedding invitations (no other vendor sites are listed) .  The issue is not that one should not offer genuine advice on “wedding invitations,” but to shamelessly promote another website under the pretext that you are offering the consumer meaningful  information as a “detached” expert is a sham.

I have no difficultly with self-promotion if it is labeled as such, but “advice” and “news” and “recommendations” that are clearly self-promotional and not properly disclosed as such are an insult to the consumer and may, in fact, be illegal under recent Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”)  guidelines.  Tiny Prints and its sister company, Wedding Paper Divas are experts at self-promotion.  Buyers beware, you may not be receiving objective advice!

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

I love American ingenuity and, more importantly, the willingness of perfect strangers to share their shopping secrets.    I recently came across a Blog post asking for help to find “affordable wedding invitations.”  Many of the comments are priceless and, if you need a bit of humor, dig in.  I tried to post a comment myself, but presumably the Blog is not inviting any new comments.

Mr. Not Interested was my favorite:  ”Break out the xerox paper and fold it.   Get your local kids to sprinkle some glitter on them and take some of your old perfume or something . . . Maybe you should think about just calling people . . .”  (Note from Editor:  We should hire Not Interested to write for the Stationers Guild.)  Or, how about:

Kaeli:   “Micheal’s…duh create them yourself and ur good.”   On a more enterprising level, we have

Jessie:  “i got mine at wal-mart for 7 dollars for 25 of them went on my own computer and typed them up my self and printed them it took a little bit but if you have time u can do it your self or if you need someone too i am starting my own wedding service and i can do it for you just email me and let me know (email omitted but, if you are interested you can find it on the Blog post).”    

Umm, let me think about this.  You pay $7 for 25 invitation, say $5  for gas to go to Wal-Mart and maybe a couple of hours of work at minimum wage (another $15) and we have 25 invitations that cost $27.  I suppose Jessie could mark it up 100% and market her new wedding invitation line at $2.00 per invite.    Go for it Jessie!  I do recommend buying an etiquette book on wording your wedding invitations properly.  You might find it useful.  Or, how about:

Brown Eyes:  “If you have a Dollar tree store in your town, that’s the place to go. You’ll find all your thank you cards there also. Or if you prefer Staples’ Store, they also have a lot of invitations. Hope you find what your looking for. Good luck!”

Searching for “affordable wedding invitations” is no laughing matter.   With a tough economy, people are doing everything possible to save money and, as such, it is wise to scrutinize your entire wedding budget.  Personally, I have found that searching for a “cheap wedding invitation” is generally a false economy.  Cutting back on the extra pasta dish at the reception buffet might help free up part of your  budget to allocate toward a well-crafted and not necessarily expensive wedding invitation to celebrate this milestone event in your life.   After all, your wedding invitation is likely to be around far longer than the pasta. 

I recommend that you contact a qualified stationery store in your neighborhood for expert advice on crafting your wedding invitation.   You will be surprised at how much time and energy you will save to devote to other aspects of your wedding.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

I no longer continue to be surprised (but remain amused) at the incessant Internet chatter regarding cheap wedding invitations.  We live in a society that places a price on everything, but values little.  I know that sounds a bit harsh, but consider how TV ads focus more on price than on value.  Take the fellow on vacation with his family who discovers that one of the other guests received the same vacation package for half the price.  Will the family vacation experience suffer by this new-found knowledge or is it simply a case of diminished self-worth?  Or how about the family watching a film who learn that the family sitting in front of them eating 2,000 calories of popcorn got in for free with their reward miles?  Will this stifle the family’s happy outing?  It used to bother me, but not anymore as I have learned that price/value relationships are not always black and white.

Some 40 years ago  Sheila and I lived in Rome, Italy in a delightful 3-story walk-up on Via San Calisto in Trastevere that overlooked Sabatini’s restaurant.   The facade of the building was over 400 years old so I had difficulty understanding Scandinavian travel posters which advertised to travellers that they should “See Italy now before the Italians destroy it!”    I suppose the Scandinavians think that Ikea furniture will stand the test of time.

With my Chicago-school economic education it was (and remains) difficult  to understand certain aspects of Italian culture:  I refer to it as the “Value Proposition.”    My first experience with the Value Proposition was when I went into a tobacco store  to purchase stamps for a postcard.   I was shocked to find out that the amount of postage depended on the number of words you wrote on the postcard.  If I recall correctly, if you wrote more than five words (other than the address of the recipient) it bumped you into a higher postage category.

To Italians, this concept seemed most reasonable:  you are receiving “more value” and, as such, you be prepared to spend more.   To my mind, the cost of delivering the postcard is the same regardless of how many words are written on it and, as such, the price of the postage should be the same.    There are many other examples I could list, but clearly Italians seem to think that price is more closely associated with value than cost.  This Value Proposition still remains somewhat alien to my economic training, but speaks volumes of the dehumanizing process of seeking “value” in today’s price-driven economy.

Despite Internet rhetoric to the contrary, there is limited (if any) intrinsic ”value” in a “cheap wedding invitation.”  In fact, the intrinsic value relates to the adjective (i.e. “cheap”) rather than the wedding invitations.   I realize that this may seem like semantics, but – in my humble opinion - we need to place far greater emphasis on the Value Proposition of the event itself: the wedding ceremony, rather than the adjectives that tend define our economic circumstances or preferences.

The fact that one is getting married is a milestone event in most people’s lives.  This time-honored and sacred event is a high-level Value Proposition.  Channel your energies into crafting a wedding invitation that rises to the importance of the occasion and is within your budget parameters.  By setting your goals on getting a “cheap” wedding invitation, you have effectively defined the importance or “cheapness” of the event to your bridal partner and the guests.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

I recently saw an ad recommending that you celebrate Valentine’s Day at White Castle.   For those not familiar with White Castle hamburgers, I believe it is fair to say that a White Castle burger is an acquired taste.  I certainly would not place a visit to White Castle on my top 1.000 things to do before I die list, but some of best friends still pay the occasional nostalgic visit.  Oh, a White Castle hamburger will set you back $0.49 (yes, only forty-nine cents). 

Hamburgers come in many shapes and sizes and for a price you can customize the hamburger to your liking.    One can add cheese, lettuce, tomato, chili, BBQ sauce, mushrooms, bacon and a seemingly endless variety of other condiments and toppings.   In fact, Daniel Boulud’s burger is topped with foie gras and truffles and sells for around $50.  You are probably wondering what hamburgers and wedding invitations have in common?  Plenty, at least metaphorically (is there such a word?) speaking.

Like burgers, wedding invitations come in all different shapes and sizes and can be customized or enhanced with bows, lace and ribbons, motifs, ink colors, lined borders, envelope linings and a myriad of other options to create a unique theme for your wedding invitation.  The weight and components of the paper and printing process all contribute to add substance and beauty to the overall design of the wedding invitation ensemble.  Like the hamburger, the degree of customization and the quality of ingredients are generally reflected in the price of the end result.  There are wedding invitations that metaphorically resemble a White Castle, Boulud’s foie gras hamburger or something in between.  It all depends on your choices and your ability to decide what you “must have,” what you can live without, or perhaps find a less-expensive substitute or work-around solution.   Working with an experienced stationer helps!

Unfortunately, the internet has made it next to impossible to tell the difference between a “White Castle invitation” and something entirely different.  Samples of wedding invitations on the internet are low resolution images and one can only speculate on the the quality and weight of the paper and how ink colors will resonate under different printing processes.    Short of blind faith in the outcome, the only basis of comparison is price and, as we have seen with the price of hamburgers, you tend to get what you pay for.

If you think you get a bargain when you buy a wedding invitation from weddinginvitations4less.com, invitations-rsvp, annesbridalbargains, 50freeweddinginvitations and budgetweddinginvitations, I strongly encourage you to think again.  A visit to your local neighborhood stationer will help you see wedding invitations in an entirely different light.  Furthermore, these stores have invitations for every budget and you will benefit from the experience of your neigborhood stationer.

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

I continue to be amazed that “Cheap Wedding Invitation” websites continue to emerge on almost a daily basis.  Just today, I learned that Love Bug Invitations had just launched a website selling “cheap” wedding invitations.  While I have no quarrel and indeed encourage bridal couples to seek the most affordable wedding invitation for their budget, the idea of searching for a “cheap wedding invitations” strikes me as a bit daft.  Furthermore, I think most people agree with me.

According to Google, roughly 40,000 searches were performed in September using the search term “cheap wedding invitations,” while 1,200,000 searches were performed for “wedding invitations.”  This suggests that less than 4% of web searches had already decided on their market niche: “cheap”.    Not “affordable,”  “budget-conscious,” “inexpensive,” or “reasonably priced,” but “cheap!”   Beware bridal couples, you will get exactly what you are paying for.

The first tell-tale sign that you are being played is the About Us section.   The Love Bug About Us Section is most revealing:  

“Love Bug Wedding Invitations began as a result of the fun and excitement of planning weddings.  After many years of looking through bridal books and shopping the aisles of  stationery stores, we knew we had found our niche.  We love what we do and find immense joy in helping brides to find the perfect stationery for a day they will never forget. We only work with the leading manufacturers in the industry to assure our customers are getting the very best in wedding stationery.”

The first clue is that anyone could have written this.  You have no idea who you are dealing with and what level of experience they have in dealing with bridal couples.  The second clue is their claim to “only work with the leading manufacturers in the industry.”  The manufacturers listed on their website are Carlson Craft, Nuart, McPhersons:   Taylor Companies that use the same recycled designs under different labels.    The third clue is to see a percentage discount linked to a particular brand name.  Except for seasonal promotions, this generally signifies that the manufacturer does not stand behind integrity and intrinsic value of their brand.    In the case of Love Bug Wedding Invitations and the Taylor Company distribution channels, disounting is a way of life.   I find it amusing that Love Bug’s Tag Line is “LoveBugWeddingInvitations … where ‘discount’ is our claim to fame!”  How appropriate.

If you are looking for invitations and working on a tight budget, I strongly recommend that you contact a Guild Member store in your neighborhood to see the paper and design options that fit your budget.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

For some reason, I have become fixated on the phrase:  “cheap wedding invitations”.  Perhaps, my curiosity was piqued when I discovered that there were 17 million web pages that contained the search term “cheap wedding invitations.”  Or maybe it was the shock at finding that there were almost 50 thousand Google searches in June using the phrase “cheap wedding invitations.”  I would have thought that “free wedding invitations” was a better term, but I was mistaken since there were only 27 thousand Google searches in June for that phrase.

In any event, the matter came to a head this weekend when I picked up the New York Times Book Review and saw the review of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell.    I have now read a couple of reviews and intend to buy Cheap (at the full retail price?) when I quit writing Blog articles.    The long and short of the reviews is that the costs of our “discount culture” are inevitably paid for by somebody.  Writes the reviewer, Laura Shapiro, “We’re being subsidized by a distant labor force we never see, the Chinese and Mexicans and Vietnamese who work under well-documented Dickensian conditions.”   Harvard economist, Robert Lawrence is quoted by Ms. Shell as saying that “When prices are kept too low, innovation is nearly impossible.”  Argues Ms. Shapiro “Apparently we’re not even building better mousetraps anymore – just cheaper ones.”

Cheap by Ellen Ruppell Shell

While it is hard to argue that getting the “best value” is certainly a worthwhile pursuit, an online search for a “cheap wedding invitation” is unlikely return anything more than a cheap wedding invitation.  Whether the wedding invitation – regardless of its cost - has any intrinsic value to either the bridal couple or their guests is the far more important question.  Clearly, if your “cheap date” morphed into a more meaningful relationship and eventually a proposal, then one might  look for something a little less “cheap” to celebrate the occasion.  If you seek an affordable wedding invitation, then I strongly recommend that you visit a qualified stationer in your neighborhood who has wedding invitation suggestions for all budgets.

“Cheap” is always available on the Internet.  If, however, you are looking for a custom wedding invitation that is within your budget, don’t cheapen yourself by succumbing to the unsubstantiated and largely outrageous ploys that abound in cyberspace.

 The lead article in November’s Internet Retailer is entitled ”How the Supreme Court fractured online pricing.”  The article describes how online retailers are reacting to the June 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gives greater legal protection to manufacturers and suppliers to implement minimum advertised price policies (MAP).  Legal analysts suggest that the Leegin Creative Leather Products vs. PSKS decision is by no means a clear mandate for manufacturers to enforce MAP pricing, but clearly they now seem to have more leverage.

Sources quoted in the article suggest that “price” is only one of the key factors for shopping online and that “convenience” and “selection” appear to be equally important.  In fact, a Carnegie-Mellon study suggested that online consumers would pay a premium to buy books from a brand-name retailer to merchants they don’t know.

By mutual consent and often through the exchange of a contract, a stationer agrees to merchandise a paper company’s product lines in their store.  Normally, the dealer will purchase a Wedding or Baby Announcement album(s) which contain samples of invitations and announcements and detailed pricing information.  For the most part, pricing guidelines established by the paper company are respected by the dealer since both parties are fairly compensated.  The paper company receives compensation for their papers, creative designs, printing and packaging; and the dealer is compensated for their expertize in helping their client create a custom wedding invitation using the vendor’s albums.

The internet has opened a new distribution channel to fine paper companies.  Some have moved forward aggressively to promote their brand through this channel, other have been more timid preferring to rely on third party online dealers and many have simply decided that the internet is not the medium to sell custom invitations and fine stationery.   Low-resolution internet images, the inability to faithfully reproduce texture and paper weight, template-customization solutions and inexperienced customer support are just some of the reasons why many fine paper collections are not represented on the internet.

“If you can’t feel the paper or see it very well then I suppose the only compelling sales argument is price,” says one stationer.  Indeed, pricing does seem to be one of most important components of online search.  Today, if one were to enter “cheap wedding invitations” into the Google search bar over 4 million search references would be cited, 7 times more than for “custom wedding invitations” or 20 times more than for “affordable wedding invitations.”

While I feel that “affordable” is a better search term than “cheap,” it is interesting to take a look at the internet companies that occupy this search space.  In general, they are either a monoline print-house or an online reseller selling one paper line.    While the end-product may meet the expectations of the online buyer, it is hardly a choice and there is no way of determining whether the buyer would have received better “value” shopping at a brick-and-mortar store. 

What is disturbing is to discover several well-known companies having their brands sold at significant discounts online.  Perhaps, they may wish to take a look at last year’s Supreme Court ruling to protect the reputation of their brand.  Prolonged and highly visible online discounting of a company’s brand will inevitably cause the public to demand the “market price” and disinsentivate their store dealers from merchandizing their brand.

Richard May
Founding Member