It's an Evite world.
Get the e-mail, click the link, try to make sense of the graphics, tolerate the host's reckless punctuation, scan the guest list, see who's going, wait until a day before the event, click YES (depending on the attendees) or NO (if the crowd looks meager in number and/or personality) or MAYBE (if you're a waffling sort who likes a blank social check to do anything you damn well please).
Maybe we should be living in a material world. Forget cyber invitations, and go back to paper. The proliferation of Evites hasn't stunted the paper invitation industry, says Amy Smyth, 32, owner and designer of stationery business Amy Smyth Made It.
“Pretty much the opposite has happened,” she said. “It's elevated stationery to the level of a gift. Stationery has almost become special.”
And while Evites are a dime a dozen, nothing replaces the feeling of something actually in your hands, says Natalie Langley, owner of PaperBuzz.
“We've been amazed at how much people want them,” said Langley, 34, who opened PaperBuzz in 1998 with her mother, Helen DuBose, and launched its online site four years later. Now they operate a storefront in Lynchburg, Va., and ship cards all day long to such major metropolitan areas as New York and Los Angeles.
Sure, sending paper invitations might mean a little more work for everyone, but buck up. Get classy. Here are four options for paper invitations that span the spectrum of pricing and frippery.
Haute Papier
Couture stationery is like couture fashion. You'll never see the same design twice, says creator Sarah Meyer, 24. Which is a good thing, given the repetitious looks of electronic invites.
“The art of beautiful paper and formal invitations is getting a little bit lost,” Meyer said. “When you receive a real invitation in the mail, it's really exciting.”
Meyer and her small staff consult with clients and then craft the invitations by hand out of paper, linens and other fabric, adding embellishments such as peacock feathers, ribbons and buckles, depending on the degree of extravagance requested.
Cost ranges from $5 to $100 per invitation. The company is located at 1300 35th St. NW, Suite 2 (by appointment only). To learn more, call (202) 669-1490 or visit www.hautepapier.com.
Saima Says Design
Saima Khan, 27, nursed a passion for textiles while working on fashion accounts in the world of corporate advertising. One day, she realized that she could blend her background in graphic design and her interest in fabrics by starting a couture invitation company. Since March of last year, she has held consultations with clients at her studio in Georgetown to design “little works of art:” Is the mood formal or casual? Should the design be geometric or floral? Whatever the style, it's important to sweat the small stuff, Khan says.
“Try to incorporate details, whether it's an embellishment or a ribbon, to make that sort of distinction,” she said. “Especially for the social events: Come up with a real interesting or catchy introduction line.”
Khan specializes in wedding invitations but does the occasional baby announcement and social invite, and her designs employ engraving and letterpress, and often include metallic hues and bellybands, which stylishly bind together different components of the invitation.
Cost ranges from $8 to $12 for each flat card and envelope, $15 to $80 for a wedding set (which might include any combination of an invitation, envelope, response card and box, among other filigree). The company is located at 2121 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 320, Washington, D.C. (by appointment only).
To learn more, call (202) 370-6381 or visit www.saimasaysdesign.com.
PaperBuzz
It started as a storefront and grew into an online market featuring hundreds of styles and templates from different designers. There's a healthy selection geared toward children's events, and PaperBuzz's summer collection features brightly colored invitations for pool parties, cocktails and cookouts. Many come in the shapes of summer: lawn chairs, hamburgers, seashells.
Graduation invites are also a featured item, with cards designed by Mari Mi (a simple invitation with an outrageous technicolor envelope) and Connecticut-based, Oprah-approved Bonnie's StylePress (with a beskirted woman wearing a mortarboard next to the yuck-yuck tagline “Four years later ... she's got that paper!”).
Other card themes include football and tailgating, derby parties, theater and movie parties, and spa events (one catchy invite looks like an oversize vessel of pink lotion, complete with pink polka-dot bow). The site also sells a line of chic cards by Kate Spade - purses not included.
Cost ranges from $8 (simple flat cards) to $34 (fancier wedding invitations) for a set of 10 fill-in-the-blank invitations. For an extra $5, the event's information can be printed on the cards. The company is located at 4119 Boonsboro Road, Lynchburg, Va.
To learn more, call (800) 985-2899 or visit www.paperbuzz.com.
Maybe we should be living in a material world. Forget cyber invitations, and go back to paper. The proliferation of Evites hasn't stunted the paper invitation industry, says Amy Smyth, 32, owner and designer of stationery business Amy Smyth Made It.
“Pretty much the opposite has happened,” she said. “It's elevated stationery to the level of a gift. Stationery has almost become special.”
And while Evites are a dime a dozen, nothing replaces the feeling of something actually in your hands, says Natalie Langley, owner of PaperBuzz.
“We've been amazed at how much people want them,” said Langley, 34, who opened PaperBuzz in 1998 with her mother, Helen DuBose, and launched its online site four years later. Now they operate a storefront in Lynchburg, Va., and ship cards all day long to such major metropolitan areas as New York and Los Angeles.
Sure, sending paper invitations might mean a little more work for everyone, but buck up. Get classy. Here are four options for paper invitations that span the spectrum of pricing and frippery.
Haute Papier
Couture stationery is like couture fashion. You'll never see the same design twice, says creator Sarah Meyer, 24. Which is a good thing, given the repetitious looks of electronic invites.
“The art of beautiful paper and formal invitations is getting a little bit lost,” Meyer said. “When you receive a real invitation in the mail, it's really exciting.”
Meyer and her small staff consult with clients and then craft the invitations by hand out of paper, linens and other fabric, adding embellishments such as peacock feathers, ribbons and buckles, depending on the degree of extravagance requested.
Cost ranges from $5 to $100 per invitation. The company is located at 1300 35th St. NW, Suite 2 (by appointment only). To learn more, call (202) 669-1490 or visit www.hautepapier.com.
Saima Says Design
Saima Khan, 27, nursed a passion for textiles while working on fashion accounts in the world of corporate advertising. One day, she realized that she could blend her background in graphic design and her interest in fabrics by starting a couture invitation company. Since March of last year, she has held consultations with clients at her studio in Georgetown to design “little works of art:” Is the mood formal or casual? Should the design be geometric or floral? Whatever the style, it's important to sweat the small stuff, Khan says.
“Try to incorporate details, whether it's an embellishment or a ribbon, to make that sort of distinction,” she said. “Especially for the social events: Come up with a real interesting or catchy introduction line.”
Khan specializes in wedding invitations but does the occasional baby announcement and social invite, and her designs employ engraving and letterpress, and often include metallic hues and bellybands, which stylishly bind together different components of the invitation.
Cost ranges from $8 to $12 for each flat card and envelope, $15 to $80 for a wedding set (which might include any combination of an invitation, envelope, response card and box, among other filigree). The company is located at 2121 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 320, Washington, D.C. (by appointment only).
To learn more, call (202) 370-6381 or visit www.saimasaysdesign.com.
PaperBuzz
It started as a storefront and grew into an online market featuring hundreds of styles and templates from different designers. There's a healthy selection geared toward children's events, and PaperBuzz's summer collection features brightly colored invitations for pool parties, cocktails and cookouts. Many come in the shapes of summer: lawn chairs, hamburgers, seashells.
Graduation invites are also a featured item, with cards designed by Mari Mi (a simple invitation with an outrageous technicolor envelope) and Connecticut-based, Oprah-approved Bonnie's StylePress (with a beskirted woman wearing a mortarboard next to the yuck-yuck tagline “Four years later ... she's got that paper!”).
Other card themes include football and tailgating, derby parties, theater and movie parties, and spa events (one catchy invite looks like an oversize vessel of pink lotion, complete with pink polka-dot bow). The site also sells a line of chic cards by Kate Spade - purses not included.
Cost ranges from $8 (simple flat cards) to $34 (fancier wedding invitations) for a set of 10 fill-in-the-blank invitations. For an extra $5, the event's information can be printed on the cards. The company is located at 4119 Boonsboro Road, Lynchburg, Va.
To learn more, call (800) 985-2899 or visit www.paperbuzz.com.
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