The Stationers Guild

As a stationery store with an online presence, we receive many requests for a catalogue or samples of  wedding invitations.  Visitors are surprised that Thérèse Saint Clair has no catalogue nor do we send out “sample” wedding invitations.  Usually these visitors to our website come to understand that there is more to selecting a wedding invitation than looking at paper samples or limiting oneself to a few designs in an catalogue or online store.   Let me explain why.

Like most of the fine stationers found on the Stationers Guild website, we represent many excellent design companies and printers.    In the case of Thérèse Saint Clair, we represent over 60 companies that print wedding invitations; each of whom has their own unique style or designs, custom printing process and papers.   It would be presumptious of me to select sample designs for someone I have never met without having the benefit of a conversation and, most likely, a meeting to discuss their requirements, budget and style preferences.  If there is one piece of advice I can give prospective bridal couples, it is this:   If you decide to purchase a wedding invitation from a catalogue or online be prepared to be disappointed.  The outcome is unlikely to meet your expectations.  Let me show you why.

My responsibility as a stationer is to help my client select a wedding invitation and reply card set that reflects their preferences and design features – not my own!  For instance, I find Vera Wang wedding invitations to be particularly stylish in that they seemlessly incorporate many of Vera’s latest fabric designs into the actual invitation itself as shown below:

Vera Wang Wedding Invitation

While this is obviously a very striking invitation ensemble, the colors, the paper and, indeed, even the elaborate styling may not appeal to you.   For instance, you may be more attracted to the classic simplicity of Crane & Co.’s classic wedding  invitations or, perhaps, the bold designs of Oblation’s letterpress wedding invitations.

Oblation Letterpress Wedding Invitation

Imagine the complications of being faced with samples from over 60 companies:  Your head would likely be spinning.   There is a tendency for people to throw up their hands in frustration at the seemingly endless number of choices.  Nevertheless, working with an experienced stationer can often help narrow down the viable choices fairly quickly.  There is  a distinct advantage to working with an experienced stationer who has many samples of custom invitations, printed ink colors and paper swatches to help insure that your printed invitation meets your expectations.  This is simply not possible in the online world where low image resolutions distort ink colors and, most certainly, don’t begin to pick up the subtle textures of paper and their different weights.

The Stationers Guild has hyperlinks to many fine paper companies who sell wedding invitations.    Some of these printing companies sell online, but many do not.  Let  these designers and craftspeople tell you their story in their own words and see samples of their great designs.  While this is a useful way to do your research, there is no substitute to visiting a qualified stationer in your neighborhood.  While Guild member stores may not carry all the lines shown on our website, spending an hour with an experienced stationer will help point you in the right direction and will probably save you both money and many hours of frustration.

Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

We just received an email from a friend of one of our European clients asking us how she can order stationery.  Found below is a slightly editorialized (names removed) and abridged version of her email request:

“I have just been admiring the (pale blue) card and envelope sent me by Jane Doe of Oslo, Norway, and would like to know how I can order some similar cards and envelopes as well as sheets of letter paper.  Until recently, I have used the stationery I bought through Merrimade, but after they went  ’modern’  they only answer standardized, in robot-like-fashion to my questions, and there is no r e a l  person I can write to or  e-mail with. So I have given them up. But I urgently need new stationery!”

I suspect that this is not unusual in our increasingly digital world:  personal service has been replaced robots.  As stationers, we are finding that there is a clear negative correlation in the “quality of service” and “quality of stationery” as our suppliers increase the level of automation in their front and back office.   As the email above suggests, the buyer is also finding it increasing difficult to interact with moronic robots that have replaced common sense with efficiency. 

As the  evidence of a disconnect between discerning clients and the skilled artisans that produce fine stationery continues to accumulate, I suspect that fine paper manufacturers must eventually decide whether they want to be all-things-to-all-people or concentrate on providing distinctive papers, quality designs and great customer service to a more restricted client base that appreciates personalized stationery and custom invitations.  It is not an easy decision. 

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

Yesterday, I received the following question from Lori London of Write Impressions in Royal Oak, Michigan:  “I’m a guild member.  I have a question that I wish I could pose to other guild members and/or maybe you can help me.  I took down my web site a few weeks ago as we are ready to launch our much improved web site by November 1st. Did other members provide links to stationery vendors … such as Crane, William Arthur, Checkerboard … even though some of these vendors sell directly to the consumer?  I am curious how other stores dealt with this.”

Please find below my slightly edited response to this most interesting question:

Very good question.  I will answer your question (at least try to) as posed, but then if you will stay with me a bit longer I hope to give you a “better” but slightly more technical explanation that might influence your decision. 
 
First, based on my research just under two-thirds of the 285 guild members currently listed in the StationersGuild have their own website.  Of those that do have a website less than 20% have outgoing links to vendor websites.  Those that do link to a vendor’s website do so primarily with companies where  they receive referral commissions (Sweet Pea or Printswell, Birchraft and Checkerboard).  Based on a cursory observation of member websites, I would say that very few Guild members (certainly less than 10 and probably less than 5) link to a vendor website that sells online unless they participate in a referral program.    
 
Now, as Paul Harvey would say “Page 2″:   While incoming links to one’s website are important in determining “search” relevancy, it is the quality and relevancy of  links rather than the number of links that determine whether one site will get a higher ranking than another.  Without trying to bore you, an incoming link from the Chamber of Commerce or a Trade Organization (StationersGuild for instance) is perceived by Google to be more valuable than a link from a paid listing such as www.1Wedding.com.  Authoritative links  from sites with a .gov (government) or .edu (educational sites) ending or websites with consistently high Google Page Rank are generally perceived to be “higher quality links” that will enhance the value of your website (or at least a specific page on your website).
 
The ThereseSaintClair website provides links to most of our vendors.  The reason is quite simple:  People who visit our website are interested in what brands we carry.  We provide them a lot of choice, give them convenient access (i.e. links) to many Fine Paper companies and then give them very strong reasons to shop locally.  In fact, the Therese Saint Clair and Stationers Guild websites have been designed to provide  buyers with  information in one location that would be difficult for them to find elsewhere.  It would be presumptous and silly of me to assume that that an online visitor found “Crane wedding invitations” through a visit to my website.    In other words, we help buyers research online without any aggressive sales pressure in the expectation that a discerning buyer has the common sense to shop locally.
 
Now, most people seem to think that one runs the risk of losing prospective clients by providing links to online suppliers.  You may lose a few, but I believe the risk is minimal.  In fact, Fine Paper companies would be far better served by providing hyperlinks to their dealer’s websites on their “Find a Dealer” page.  It would help their dealers build credible links and it would also help the Paper company promote their brand to customers looking for a local solution with an experienced stationer.  As long as the industry (storefront dealers and the fine paper companies whose lines they represent) fail to act on this simple premise,  companies like www.weddingpaperdivas.com will continue to disintermediate and eventually destroy the industry by substituting fine paper for fine technology.

Storefront stationers and the many fine companies we represent simply must do a better job of giving people the necessary information on whether they wish to shop locally or online.  Burying our heads in the sand and pretending that the consumer is in one camp or the other (online or store) is painfully naive and will eventually lead to an industry where toxic recycled waste paper from China with designs developed from pirated copies of PhotoShop will innundate the market under the pretext that these “beautiful” papers/invitations are “green” and “eco-friendly.”  This is not science fiction, it is happening today!  Furthermore, wedding portals, self-appointed etiquette specialists and “born-again” environmentalists are all tooting the same horn in merchanidizing inferior products on the internet in the hope of prying loose the “green” from your wallet. 

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

Rita Renning is always a popular choice for elegant wedding invitations for bridal couples on a strict budget.  Now through August 31st,  save 20% on Rita Renning wedding invitations ordered from the Rita Renning wedding album carried at many Guild member stores.

Rita Renning Wedding Invitation

Rita Renning wedding invitations are designed and printed by William Arthur, one of the leading fine stationers in the United States.  Sheila May, the owner of Therese Saint Clair, says that “Rita is a popular choice for budget-conscious brides.   With Rita you get a quality custom wedding invitations without breaking the bank.  This is one of the first albums I bring out when asked for a great invitation at an affordable price.  Furthermore, you are getting William Arthur’s outstanding service capability.”

If you are looking for an attractively-priced custom wedding invitation alternative, Rita Renning should certainly be on your radar scope.

As Sheila and I walked the nearly deserted aisles of the 2009 National Stationery Show on closing day (May 20), we reflected on the significant changes that have swept over our industry during the last 7 years.  While overall traffic was clearly down, there was still plenty of good vibes, great design artistry and paper craftsmanship and, most importantly, shared chuckles with our fellow stationers, sales reps and the many fine paper companies whose lines we are privileged to represent. 

Emi Havas of Paperfolio in Summit, NJ suggested that the hardened stationery warriors were there to show solidarity with each other.   We certainly agree with Emi that there was a spirit of fierce determination among fellow stationers.   Nevertheless, the difficult economic situation, changing consumer behavior patterns and the overriding influence of the internet clearly threaten the industry as we know it.    We certainly don’t have all the answers, but established storefront stationers will soon be forced to make some critical business decisions. 

First and foremost, stationers must decide whether they wish to continue to represent “premium” lines that market aggressively through alternative distribution channels:  a corporate e-commerce website, home dealers, chain stores, non-stationery businesses, charitable and religious organizations.  Clearly, it is asking too much of indendent dealers to invest their time and money to represent lines that are mass-merchandized through alternative distribution channels.  This is not a business model that is sustainable over time and will inevitably cause experienced dealers to close or hibernate as home dealers.  

Just today, the parents we helped to select a birth announcement informed us that they had decided to purchase the identical invitation online.   Unfortunately, this trend is increasing as consumers are aware that a “validating touch” is clearly more important than a low-resolution internet image.  This is a “free” service that disgruntles most stationers and one which independent dealers can’t continue to perform if we expect to stay in business.   In effect, by freely giving our experience to merchandise for a third-party we are simply contributing to our demise.

Secondly, fine paper companies must clearly articulate a business strategy that makes sense to management and the distribution channels that carry their products.   The myth that the market is segmented into “internet buyers” and ”store consumers” is simply an urban legend.  Paper companies who promote this silly justification are simply deceiving themselves and expose themselves to the ridicule of their dealers.  If fine paper companies who sell online want to retain their dealers, they must make it financially advantageous for them to do so.  They can do so by providing their dealers a better margin, extended terms or totally unique products which are not sold on the internet.   It’s not reasonable to expect dealers to satisfy boxed product quotas when online buyers can simply buy personalized stationery and custom invitations online at the same price or even less as they can from cash-strained dealers.   While fine paper companies will do what they think makes sense to meet their financial objectives, the implications of these decisions are far-reaching and probably intractable.  Economics 101 suggests that a massive supply of undifferentiated products (i.e. 72 pixel images) will overtime result in lower prices.  In other words, only low cost producers can expect to survive.  If you want to mass-merchandize a premium brand, prepare your shareholders for lower and, most probably, unacceptable margins. 

And finally, we must all start doing a better job reacting to the false marketing claims, insipid sales arguments and, most importantly, the ludicrous marketing representations of online marketing companies, wedding portals, paid Tweeters and other BlackHat SEO strategies that will eventually bring the industry to its knees.  Make no mistake, these online companies are built on generating advertising revenue and commissions for promoting products that they don’t even manufacture.  They could care less about the industry we represent or the craftsmanship that goes into making fine paper.   While I have no problem with someone making a buck off someone else’s labor, these self-appointed online ”experts” are driving consumer behavior in ways that will eventually destroy the industry by turning fine paper into recycled waste paper.  As industry leaders, we have a responsibility to demonstrate to the public that the craftsmanship that goes into making fine paper, civility and proper etiquette still matters. 

For those who managed to sit through this “heavy” diatribe,  Sheila has asked me to give you some links to several of our favorite restaurants in NYC.  With the exception of Porchetta and Momofuku, all of these restaurants require reservations.  Nevertheless, the Mario Batali restaurants seem to like old people and we generally get seated within an hour without the mandatory reservation. 

Momofuku Ssam Bar:  Inspired food creations from David Chang
The Spotted Pig in the West Village
Porchetta:  The best porchetta that we have eaten outside of Italy (Umbria style)
Babbo:  Mario Batali’s flagship.  Always good and packed.
Lupa:  Another Batali restaurant.  Very good.
Esca:  Another Batali.  Our daughter’s favorite fish restaurant (Italian style)
Balthazar:  A favorite for breakfast or brunch.

Sheila and Rick May
Therese Saint Clair

Sheila May, the owner of Therese Saint Clair, writes that “business stationery is the simplest, most obvious and  cost-efficient advertising, marketing and public relations vehicle your business will ever use.”  Sheila goes on to say “Hand someone your business card and you are handing someone your brand, your identity and your professional credibility.  What you are on paper is what you are instantly perceived to be in business.”

In his book, The Etiquette Advantage in Business, Peter Post writes “business stationery is a form of public relations.”  We often say that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and many business relationships begin with the simple exchange of business cards.  Says Sheila, “it’s surprising to see how little time business people spend on designing a proper suite of stationery.  They are often shocked to see the difference that fine stationery can make:  it’s like giving your business a fresh coat of paint.”

While Crane & Co. remains a popular choice for business stationery, many fine paper companies have greatly expanded their business offerings.  In particular, we have noted that a number of fashionable invitation designers now have now expanded their calling card and business card lines.  We recently received samples of letterpress business cards from Oblation that are simply stunning and quite well-priced.

If your business stationery could use a facelift, we strongly recommend contacting a Stationers Guild store in your neighborhood.  Also, we would encourge you to consult the Stationers Guild website which has some excellent advice on designing your business stationery.

“You never have a second chance to make a first impression.”  I can’t remember who had this sage but practical piece of advice, but nothing could be more true in today’s electronic workplace.  With website page views clocking in at 1.8 seconds and a “twit” on Twitter limited to 140 characters, you’ve got to make a strong positive impression from the get-go.

With your social and business network persona on display 24/7, one might ask if the business card is still relevant?  Thank you, it is!  In fact, we are seeing a resurgence in consumer demand for tastefully designed calling cards and business cards.   Despite the down economy, customers at Therese Saint Clair are trading in their fast-print cards for more distinctive business cards.  Business professionals recognize that their non-descript business cards just may not make it to their recipient’s Rolodex.  Maybe it makes sense to invest in a little image-building.  One way of doing so is to have an elegant business card printed on fine paper stock.

While Crane & Co. has long been the company of choice for fine business stationery, many other companies are now introducing their own distinct lines of business stationery.  William Arthur has a good selection of business cards printed on 96# paper stock to go along with a growing selection of fine stationery.  Smock Paper has a stylish but somewhat pricey line of letterpress business cards printed on bamboo paper.  Lallie and Encore have some great designs for truly distinctive business cards.

If you feel your stationery is not making that right “first impression” then perhaps a visit to a Stationers Guild member store is in order.  There you can work with experienced stationers to custom design a business card of your choice.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Bar and Bat Mitzvah invitations score a 10 in terms of originality, color and unique design.  For 32 years, Therese Saint Clair has been helping families create custom Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitations that are truly memorable.  Sheila May, the owner of Saint Clair, says “designing a Mitzvah invitation is truly a family affair with everyone pitching in with his or her opinion.  No two invitations are alike.  The spontaneity and creativity is something that every stationer relishes since you know you are creating a work of art.”

While several fine paper companies such as Encore, Luscious Verde and Checkerboard have albums dedicated exclusively to Bar/Bat Mitzvah invitation designs, most stationers will use samples of social invitations, wedding albums and other fine paper sources to create a truly custom invitation.  Rich colors, layering, and the use of vellum and ribbon often come into play when designing the invitation.  “Nevertheless, tastes are so varied,” says Sheila, “that you never know where you are going to end up.  I tend to look at each invitation as a blank canvass with my client supplying the paint and design.  My job is to make sure that they have all of the artistic tools at their disposal.”

While Crane and William Arthur have often proved popular for classical Bar Mitzvah invitations, these two companies have great customization capabilites to create truly unique invitations.   If you are planning a Mitzvah for your son or daughter, we strongly recommend that you schedule an appointment with a Guild stationer in your neighborhood.  These stationers have helped hundreds of families create truly memorable invitations.

There is a huge difference between designing a custom wedding invitation with an experienced stationer and populating a website template supplied by an Internet dealer.  While you may have some initial ideas in terms of colors, time of the season or, perhaps, you have seen a sample invitation in a bridal magazine, most young couples will use a search engine.

“Custom wedding invitations” must be a very popular search term as evidenced by the fact that there were more than 2 million pages listed on Google when I entered that phrase into the search bar today.  While there are many websites competing for your eyes, the question is whether they are useful.  I guess it depends on what you are searching for and whether you wish to play a meaningful role in designing your wedding invitation.

Based on the sheer number of websites that appear in the top listings for organic search (not paid), it appears as if the vast majority of these websites represent online printers or online resellers.  Customization to an online printer or reseller means selecting from a number of sample images on their website and then filling-in an online template for the wording, font style, inks colors and quite possibly the printing process.  While some of these websites are very sophisticated, the process is similar to painting by the numbers.  I have written previously about the pitfalls of selecting wedding invitations online, but this approach may work for some people.

For those seeking a truly “custom” wedding invitation, I strongly recommend that you consult an experienced stationer in your neighborhood.  You may find one of these stationers by entering your zip code or city and state in the search bar on the StationersGuild website.  These stationers carry a number of samples provided by leading designers and fine paper companies in the industry.  Many of these companies such as Arabella, Smock, Page, Mr. Boddington, Oblation, Lallie, Prentiss Douthit, Encore and Julie Holcomb do not sell online and instead rely on their authorized dealers to act as an interface between the client and the printing company.  Seeing invitation samples from a variety of designers and paper companies is essential to help refine your customization options.  While at first it may seem a bit overwhelming, when your work with a leading stationer you will be able to narrow down your options and discuss ways to add your own customization ideas to create a truly personalized invitation.

While leading companies such as Crane & Co. and William Arthur have a large network of qualified dealers, they also allow you to create your wedding invitation online.  While some people may find this more convenient, all of their online customization options and many more can be obtained by working with one of their qualified dealers.  As Sheila May of Therese Saint Clair points out, “99% of my wedding invitations contain one or more customization features that are simply not available in the samples provided by my fine paper companies or online.  Most brides want to stamp their personality on the event with something meaningful or of special significance to the bridal couple and their families.”

The recent bankruptcy of Blue Tulip has prompted Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to warn consumers to redeem gift cards before they become worthless at the end of this month.  While the bankruptcy is no doubt a traumatic experience to most Blue Tulip employees, it does raise some interesting questions about the value of gift cards.

At Therese Saint Clair, we have always resisted promoting gift cards.  In effect, it constitutes an interest-free loan to the store for merchandise that may be purchased in the future.  Processing companies that promote gift cards will tell you that on average between 8% and 10% of the face value of gift cards will not be redeemed.  While this might be considered a “good deal” for the card issuer, it does seem rather unfair to the consumer.  One way stores can redistribute these “unredeemed dollars” is to sell gift cards at a discount.  For instance, if on average 10% of gift card sales go unredeemed, a store can redistribute those dollars to their gift card holders by selling a $100 gift card for $90.  Personally, I think that this is only the fair thing to do.

More importantly, I fail to see the appeal of single-store gift cards.  Isn’t just another piece of plastic?  With already over-crowded purses and wallets, why do we need another payment option?  While promotional gift cards to encourage town residents to shop locally might hold some appeal, the single store gift card seems to me to a rather silly payment alternative.

Sheila May
Therese Saint Clair