Exclusive Wedding Invitations at Attractive Prices
I came across an online news release entitled “Online Store Offers Savvy Brides Exclusive Wedding Invitations at Attractive Prices” published yesterday on a Reuters news feed. The article self-promotes a website called AllMyInvites.com which claims to help savvy brides ”searching for the latest in modern, custom invitations at an affordable price point.” Marketing Director Roxy Diba states that “All My Invites is not your everyday wedding website; type in the name and you will be wowed by the unique and expressive invitations that will set the mood for the most important day of your life.”
With all due respect to Ms. Diba’s opinion, All My Invites, is virtually identical to the plethora of dull and insipid online wedding invitation websites that populate cyberspace. I find All My Invites designs no more “unique” and “expressive” than any of the 100 or more online wedding invitation websites that one can easily find in a Google or Yahoo search. If All My Invites is where “savvy” brides search for wedding invitations, then I must not understand the definition of savvy. It’s funny, but the Internet has a curious way of dispensing with common sense in exchange for self-promotion claims that rarely need to be substantiated. If All My Invites is to be successful, it will need to compete on price and cost controls, since their designs do not dazzle.
While these may sound like harsh words, they reflect a growing concern that companies like All My Invites (and hundreds - if not thousands – of others) are dumbing down the public perception of quality papers, craftsmanship and superior design that define fine stationery. In fact, collectively these companies are bringing the entire fine stationery industry into disrepute by insisting that “fast-food” invites are the equivalent of custom invitations, printed on quality paper.
One easy way (among many) for the “savvy” consumer to see if websites have the proper credentials for your business is to visit the About Us page on their website. The About Us page of All My Invites illustrates this point in spades. It is always wise when buying online (particularly for custom invitations) to find out who you are working with. Personally, I like to know the names of the owners, their experience in the industry and what makes them motivated to do what they are doing. If that information is not plainly evident to you, I strongly recommend that you move on to the next online dealer. Better yet, visit a qualified stationer in your neighborhood for real expertise.
In the case of All My Invites, Ray Diba (related to Roxy? or are they the same person?) provides a most revealing introduction to the company. Nevertheless, what is Mr. Diba’s role in the company? In fact, who owns the company? Is it self-funded, owned by venture capitalists or, perhaps, it is just another Taylor Company slogging their recycled designs under a different label? Mr. Diba states that he is a designer that worked for “companies worldwide” on branding. Is this qualification enough to design custom invitations, select fine papers and, most importantly, offer a variety of printing processes (i.e. engraving, letterpress). Personally, I think not. If Mr. Diba thinks that providing bridal couples with designs other than “blue circles” or “yellow linings” makes for “exclusive” wedding invitations, he has a lot to learn. Most importantly, Mr. Diba has an overriding concern on price, “frivolous” candles and other wedding accouterments that he believes are not necessary for a wedding. This acknowledgement is a sure recipe for a cheap invitation. If you are a savvy bride, I would give All My Invites a pass.
What struck me odd in this revealing self-promotion is Mr. Diba’s claim to have wanted to “strangle” himself for being exposed to the “most unattractive and gosh-awful designs” he had seen going from “shop to dreadful invite shop.” I have no idea what “dreadful” shops he went to, but if he wishes to see truly “exclusive wedding invitations” at prices that reflect their craftmanship and design, then I would suggest that he drop by a Guild Member store in his neighborhood. Perhaps, he might learn that there is more to crafting a custom invitation than Photoshop and a template-based website.
Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair
September 15th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
[...] I came across an online news release entitled “ Online Store Offers Savvy Brides Exclusive Wedding Invitations at Attractive Prices ” published yesterday on a Reuters news feed. The article self-promotes a website called AllMyInvites.com which claims to” help ’savvy’ brides ”searching for the latest in modern, custom invitations at an affordable price point.” Marketing Director Roxy Diba states that “All My Invites is not your everyday wedding website ; type in the name and you will be wowe Source: http://www.stationersguild.org/news/2009/09/15/exclusive-wedding-invitations-at-attractive-prices/ [...]
September 17th, 2009 at 1:02 am
Mr.May,
I appreciate the time you took to read our recent Press Release and look at our site. I gave your blog posting much thought. At first it made me wonder why the review of our site caused you so much distress. You certainly put in a good amount of effort to discredit our products and to tout your own offerings; ultimately in hope I presume to distinguish yourself as a dignitary who can establish what is acceptable as a proper wedding invite. The impression I had, after looking at your own site and this guild that you have invented , is that you are likely someone who has spent many years in the print industry and fearful of others coming in and ruining your design ethos . To quote your own site you tell people that , “If you are considering ordering your wedding invitation over the Internet, please consider that etiquette and religious ceremonies have their roots in centuries-old traditions and one pays homage to their ancestors by respecting these traditions”. Thank you for the sentiment Mr.May, but I clearly do not see how someone who orders an item over the internet is disrespecting their ancestry. Our site offers brides the ability to preview, order and customize their designs to their exact liking right before their eyes. As a veteran in the print industry, I’m sure you agree that when customers walk into your store, unless you have a desktop publishing program ready to go, they have to wait a while before they can see an example of what their invitations will look like. Don’t get me wrong, I get it. The customer comes into your store, they sit with you and go over their chosen wording, upon which you send the finished words (probably over the internet or via FAX) to the letterpress company to create a printed proof for your customer. The customer will then likely wait a few weeks before a printed proof is delivered to see what the invites look like — and if by chance they are in a hurry, they will pay an otherwise hefty rush fee to speed up the process. All the while they have to wait and hope that there are no changes to their invites, and if there are… the process goes round and round again. It makes sense now why you ask your customers to give at least 12 to 15 weeks lead time for their wedding invitations.
Let’s be honest here, we are in a completely different demographic and industry. You serve clients who have the luxury of time and money to purchase invites that have special features which will hopefully impress their guests. Unfortunately, many of our clients do not have thousands of dollars to spend on features that in the end are insubstantial. Our customers want invites that look elegant, that are printed on quality paper stock and that are delivered in a hurry with a price that they can afford. We receive our papers from the same suppliers that you do, and we sell templated designs JUST like you do. We just happen to offer it at a much more competitive price by streamlining the whole process and making it simpler for the ones that matter MOST — the bride and groom.
All the best,
Ray Diba –
All My Invites (Family owned business)
September 17th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Dear Mr. Diba,
I appreciate the time you have taken for your considered response. The purpose of the Blog release was not to “discredit” All My Invites products to “tout” our “own offerings.” As you well know from looking at the website, Therese Saint Clair does not “sell” wedding invitations or stationery online. In fact, we have purposefully limited the amount of images on our website because most stationers don’t believe that the internet is the “proper” medium to sell custom invitations. Specifically, we sell expertise not products.
You state that I am “fearful of others coming in and ruining ‘my’ design ethos.” Nothing could be further from the truth. We are sensitive to the “design ethos” and “budget” of the client and not the product itself. Like other members of the Stationers Guild, we do not peddle products, but work with our clients to craft a custom wedding invitation that reflects the client’s “design ethos” – not our own! In fact, that is one of the major distinctions between online retailers and visiting a qualified stationer in person: there are hundreds – if not thousands – of styles, papers and printing process combinations to consider rather than the limited range of “fast-food” invites offered by most online retailers. Well over 50 fine paper companies are listed on the Guild website with hyperlinks to their websites. Some of these companies sell online, but many do not. The client is free to browse many different styles and design and printing philosophies without ever having to walk into a store.
Sorry to dispel another myth, Therese Saint Clair does not sell “template designs” for wedding invitations unless the client wants them. I suspect that well over 95% of our wedding invitations are customized. Most stores do carry “in-house” template printing options for bridal couples that are in a hurry or are attracted to a particular design and/or price-point of a particular invitation, but I would suspect that most of their invitations are also customized. With all due respect, I think you have a rather naive idea of what qualified stationers actually do. The emerging theme that internet marketers like to make is that strorefront stationers are “old-fashioned,” “expensive,” “technologically challenged,” and not offering “awesome” designs at “cheap prices.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Visit the National Stationery Show in May next year and take a look at the wealth of creative talent producing high-quality invitations for every budget.
Most importantly, Mr. Diba, you should not fear Therese Saint Clair or other stores listed in the Stationers Guild. We are simply a local business alternative to online retailers like yourself. Our website, like that of the Stationers Guild, is a reservoir of information for people who believe that there is more to stationery than basing your decision on low resolution internet images and template-based customization solutions. What you should fear is the competition of the hundreds – if not thousands – of online retailers selling essentially the same product and service. I think you will find that All My Invites’ designs and papers are far less important in the overall scheme of things than your PPC campaigns and SEO strategies. Beware, there are some formidable competitors out there. Your success will be based on your Google page listing and not the competition from the much-maligned stereotype Mom and Pop store characterized on your website.
Richard May
Therese Saint Clair
September 20th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I have now read 2 articles by Richard May and both have been quite disappointing in how you treat other wedding bloggers/advertisers. You might want to consider changing your tone into something more respectful, it’s quite a turn off and I don’t be returning to this site.
December 16th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
lead gen for wedding consultants…
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