Poly Graphics

What you need to know before you order invitations

When you order invitations for a party there are a few things you should know about and have before you actually order. Answer these questions and you should have everything you need,

1. Does the party have a theme? Look for an invitation design that fits your theme.
2. Who is the guest of honor? Is there more than one? Tip: For wedding related invitations the bride’s name always comes first.
3. How do you spell the guest of honor’s name? (or names)
4. Who is hosting the party? Should this information be on the invitation?
5. Do you have gift suggestions or a donation suggestion? If this is a shower or wedding make a note where the couple has registered for gifts
6. What is the location of the party? Do you want to list the entire address and phone number?
7. Do you need to include directions to the location or accommodation suggestions?
8. When is the party? Both date and time. If no end time use “until” or just list the start time with no end time.
9. How do the guests tell you that they are coming? Can they RSVP by phone, email or both? Or will you be including a Response Card with the invitation?
10. When do you need to know how many guests are coming? When is the last day they should let you know? Should they respond to a phone number, email address, via text, twitter, facebook, or linkedin, or something else?
11. Will you try to create wording that is funny or witty? Or is the event formal? See Emily Post for etiquette on formal invitation wording. Search for “invitation wording” for ideas, then brainstorm. Check out rhymer.com for a rhyming dictionary.

P.P.S. Poly Graphics will be happy to work with you to create the exact invitation that you desire – pick a design out at Poly Graphics Invitations – or if you can’t find what you like there, please give us an opportunity to design something just for you. We take requests!

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We’ve just released a new tool that gives you very quickly the dates when you need to order and when to send your invitations.

Try it!  Go to WhenShouldISendMyInvitations.com

It’s very easy to use – pick the date of your celebration, then select the type of party you are having.

In no time you get two dates – when you need to order invitations for your party and when you need to send your party invitations out to your guests.

All the rules that the tool follows to calculate these two dates are listed on the page.

Simple and Easy. Just another way that we make ordering invitations easy for you.

P.S. If it is nearing the time for you to order your invitations, visit Poly Graphics Invitations to order.

P.P.S. If you can’t find the invitation design that you want at Poly Graphics, just ask and we’ll design something for you.

For many years people relied on sending paper invitations to their guests. Paper is nice, but there are some things that paper invitations cannot do.

1. You can not send paper invitations to the wrong email address. You may confuse Bill Anderson, your accountant, with Bill Andresson, your neighbor, when looking up their email addresses to send emailed invitations.. I’m pretty sure your neighbor will be more fun at your party than your accountant.
2. A paper invitation will not get automatically moved to your email’s spam folder and get lost. Did you know that the most opened piece of paper mail delivered are invitations? An invitation sent through the mail will not be stamped “spam” as unwanted mail without you knowing about it.
3. Have you heard about the computer virus going around that looks, at the start, like an emailed invitation? When you click on a link in the email to see the invitation details, you are taken to an unscrupulous website and a virus is loaded onto your computer. A paper invitation won’t do that.
4. What does your email inbox look like? Are there hundreds or thousands of emails that are unread and waiting for your attention? Is there an electronic invitation to a party that was held last week in there? A paper invitation won’t get lost in your computer’s inbox.
5. If your inbox is looking pretty good and you are on top of everything that is coming in, do you read and remember everything as it arrives? Have you ever been distracted while going through your inbox and forgot what you just read? A paper invitation, because it is something that you can keep and post on your bulletin board or refrigerator will not be forgotten easily.

P.S. OK, you’ve figured it out – I think paper invitations are far, far better than emailed invitations. I thought it was kind of interesting to look at it from a different angle. Did you?

P.P.S. There’s just something wonderful about paper – so many things these days are on the computer or smartphone – to actually touch something and have it to refer to are just great. I’ll write more about this soon.

P.P.P.S. Oh, find some great invitations at PolyGraphics.com

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Last time I wrote about 11 Great Questions to Ask When Shopping for Graduation Announcements.

This time, I’ll give you answers to these questions.

1. I want to show my graduate’s talents – Can I get FULL personalization? – with both school name and graduate’s name and maybe more (show my student’s talents, etc)

Yes, you can at PolyGraphics.com. Pick a graduation announcement that you like. Then tell us what sport your graduate likes, what their name is (even their nickname), their favorite food or hobby, and we’ll totally personalize their announcement. Just tell us how and what you’d like us to add in the Special Instructions of the order form.

2. Can I get an exact match of my school colors?

We can match *any* color. We’ll even make it brown if that’s what you want.

3. I don’t have much time – How long will this take? (to place the order)

Ordering from Poly Graphics takes about 10 minutes. The hardest part is the wording, but we have plenty of examples for you to use. You do not have to be a designer, or spend time moving stuff around and resizing it to make it look good. Your order will be assigned to a designer and they will do that work for you. Tell us what you want and how you want it to look and we’ll work with you at your online preview page until you are happy.

4. Can I have photos of the graduate on my announcement?

Yes. Send us your photos and we will work them into the design that you like. If you have an idea about how to use your photos on your announcement and don’t see anything like that at PolyGraphics.com, we will create something for you.

5. I need them yesterday – When will I get my announcements?

If you order from Poly Graphics, you will get them very quickly. Most orders ship within 3 days of when you order. A draft is created for you within 24 hours (weekdays), then we ship As Soon As Possible after your approval — but you can get them even quicker than that! Request Rush processing and your order will ship the same or next weekday!

6. Can I review (and change) my order before it is printed?

Yes! With Poly Graphics you will get an email when your draft is ready to review. you will visit your online draft and review page to see what your announcement will look like when it is printed. If something is wrong, or you change your mind about wording or graphics, your designer will work with you until you are happy. We won’t print until you say “approved”

7. How flexible can I be with wording? Am I trapped into what they want to say for me? – What if I don’t like that?

We will print just about anything on your announcement. Formal, informal, whatever. There are many examples of wording on our website, or ask us and we’ll help you. Remember Who, What, When, and Where when working on your wording.

8. Does someone proofread my wording? And look for stuff that I left off? And look for any mistakes that I made?

Yes. Several people review your wording for correctness in grammar and punctuation. If we have a question about how something sounds or if it is said correctly, we look it up – then we consult with you. We want you to be completely happy with your announcements, so we will let you have the final say.

9. Can I order exactly the number of announcements that I need?

Yes, as long as you want 12 or more. We’ll print 14 for you or 1400. Or any number in between.

10. My graduate will get gifts – Can I order matching Thank You Notes?

Yes. Your graduate’s thank you notes can match their announcements or be totally different. Your choice.  We’ll work with you to create something that you are happy with.

11. I can’t find what I want – can I get something specially designed for me?

Yes!  If you can’t find what you want at PolyGraphics.com, tell us what you are looking for and we will work with you to create something that will work for you. Designing a new announcement can take a week or more, so please be patient. If your design is something that we can add to our collection online, there is no extra charge.

Do you have any more questions about Graduation Announcements?

I’d be happy to help you.

P.S. I don’t have to mention the great prices at Poly Graphics, do I?

P.P.S. And the great service too.

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After reading about the bride that refuses to send thank you notes to those that gave her wedding gifts, I started to wonder… have we lost our manners?  The bride simply refused to write “thank you for the gift”. How ungrateful. Maybe she’s putting it off because it is not fun.

Is Writing Thank You Notes Painful?

It is sometimes painful to write thank you notes. What you have got to do to get over the pain is to change shoes. Put yourself in the gift giver’s shoes. I’m sure they put some thought into your gift. If you had given them a gift instead, wouldn’t you like to know that they appreciated it?

Show Your Appreciation

In your thank you note tell them that you appreciated their gift. Even if you’ve returned it already, let them know you enjoyed seeing them and appreciate the thought they put into your gift.

At A Loss for Words?

If you don’t know what to say in your thank you note, use a trick that my grandmother taught me. When she received a gift she wasn’t sure that she liked, she’d say “Isn’t that something!”  Of course, everything is something!

Use the same trick when you write your thank you notes – write your gift was really something!

Please don’t be rude. Please take the time to thank those that give you a gift.

Thanks,

P.S. Wasn’t this post something?!

P.P.S. Pick out some great personalized note cards here

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What a nightmare it is to send out invitations that are wrong!

Speed is important – you have to work really fast to correct the bad invitations.

Here is what to do to fix your Invitation Disaster:

First, figure out how much time you have to fix everything. You probably fall into one of three categories:

1. Invitations have been ordered, but when you got them you spotted an error
2. Invitations have been sent out to your guests, and there is enough time to send corrected replacements
3. Invitations have been sent out to your guests and there is not enough time to send out replacements.

Invitations have been ordered, but when you got them you spotted an error

Contact your invitation vendor as soon as possible. They should have your order on file. A reputable vendor will offer expedited service to fix an error. If the problem was the vendor’s fault, ask for a discount –  review their policies for guarantees and policies on reprints. You may be able to get replacements for no charge if it was your vendor’s problem. Poly Graphics offers a “disaster discount” even if the error was yours.

Since you have the envelopes for your invitations, while you are waiting for replacements to be printed, go ahead and address your envelopes. Then you’ll be ready to send the invitations out when the new, correct ones arrive.

If you’ve made a decision not to go back to your original invitation vendor, look for a new one that can get you replacement invitations quickly. You’ve already ordered one set of invitations that were wrong, you do not have time to order yet another replacement if your new vendor can’t get them right.

Invitations have been sent out to your guests and there is enough time to send corrected replacements

Ask your invitation vendor for a reprint of your order with the corrections made. Hope that they have expedited shipping option, or can at least get your reprints out to you very quickly – like the next day.

If your event is informal, ask your vendor if there is a way to mark the new invitations “updated”, “corrected” or “revised”.

Invitations have been sent out to your guests and there is not enough time to send out replacements

I’m afraid that you are going to have to pick up the phone. Go back to your guest list and call everyone that you sent an invitation to and tell them about the error on your invitations. Make sure that everyone gets the message, or they may show up on the wrong day or the wrong place.

Do you have the email address of your guests? Send an email to your guest list – it can be an extra reminder that the information on the invitations is wrong.

Remind at RSVP Time

If you have asked for an RSVP on your invitations, when your guests respond, remind them guests of the correct date, time, and place.

Damage Control

With your corrected invitations or the night spent on the phone with your guests, the damage caused by wrong invitations can be brought under control. If you have particularly forgetful guests, you might want to remind them again as the party gets closer…. make sure your crazy Aunt Millie gets there OK!

Here are some invitation disasters that we have seen and how we fixed them

The biggest invitation disasters happen when your proofreading didn’t catch a problem and you send your invitations out with wrong information on them. Here are a few examples of disasters that we have helped fix.

Venue Change

The place Sherry thought that her celebration was going to be held called you to tell her that they were double-booked and that her reservation was canceled. Sherry was about to send her invitations out, but had not yet.

Solution: Reprint ASAP. Replacement invitations were sent out the same day we knew about the problem. Sherry received a “disaster discount” because just a small change was needed to the existing order on file. Sherry addressed her envelopes while waiting the 2 days for her replacements to arrive.

Date Change

The Church that planned Kathy’s son’s Confirmation decided to change the Confirmation to Saturday from Sunday. Kathy had not sent invitations out, but had addressed the envelopes.

Solution: Reprint ASAP. Replacement invitations were sent out the day after we knew about the problem. Kathy received a “disaster discount” because just a small change was needed to the existing order on file.

Left A Name Off

We printed some return address labels for debra, but accidently left her husband’s name off. Debra received the labels and when her husband saw them he asked if they were getting divorced. After a laugh, Debra called us to tell us we made an error. She did not want her friends to think that she was alone.

Solution: Reprint ASAP. Replacement labels were sent out the day after we knew about the problem. Debra received the replacements for free because it was an error on our part..

Quick Action Helps

Sure, there are much worse disasters than wrong invitations, but with some quick action your celebration won’t be affected at all.

P.S. I hope you never have an Invitation Disaster, but if you do, we’re here for you.

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I found this on a website that wanted to sell me something. They wanted me to buy, but I could not because their use of the English language was  so bad.

Can you see what I saw?

Read it again if you haven’t found it yet.

Proofreading is important. Having another set of eyes – or even several sets – review what you’ve done before the world sees it. It’ll save you from embarrassing things like spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes.

Did you see the episode of The Apprentice last year when they spelled Liza Minnelli’s name wrong? Somehow Liza’s name was spelled wrong on both the poster and place cards for all the guests at an exclusive dinner. Luckily it was caught in time and the printer re-printed everything at a big discount.

When you order invitations from Poly Graphics we have at least two people review what you have written. We help you avoid embarrassment by looking for spelling, grammar, and usage errors. Even the one made above.

Did you find the problem?  There’s a big hint below.

P.S. We are human and sometimes make mistakes. We do our darndest to make sure everything is perfect on your invitations, but if we do mess up, we’ll fix it as soon as we can for free.

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What? No Instant Preview of My Invitation Design?

People who have ordered from other online invitation companies sometimes say that they would like to see an instant preview. But most understand after working with Poly Graphics that not having an instant preview is actually better.

And here are 5 reasons why having a dedicated designer is better than instant preview:

1. It saves you time. You don’t have to fiddle and move your wording around to fit the design. Instead of taking 30 minutes for you to get it all looking right, just take 5 minutes to type your party information. We just need your wording, not your time.
2. It’s more comforting. One of our designers proofreads your wording – looking for stuff you left out, misspellings, correct English and word usage. At least two people review your order before it is finalized for you.
3. People are better at design than machines. All you have to do is look a Jeopardy and the Watson computer. IBM spent years and untold money building a machine that is he size of 10 refrigerators to play a game. Yeah, Watson’s good at it, the machine beat the humans in the game. But design is a different story. The human eye can detect things that a computer cannot. Look and feel are not things that a machine is good at.
4. We will work with you until you are happy. When you place your order we are immediately notified and your requests are sent to a designer. 24 hours or less later, a draft is prepared for you to review. If we didn’t get it just like you expected, tell us and we’ll fix it.
5. The many tweaks and corrections that a designer can make cannot be done with just an online preview. For instance, we have a font that we use that has a capital I that looks like a J. If you choose that font for your invitation, we look over all your text and manually replace all the funny looking I’s with a replacement that we have developed.

Are you worried about it taking longer to receive your order because a designer is working on your order? Don’t worry. When you place your order we are immediately notified and your requests are sent directly to a designer. 24 weekday hours or less later, a draft is crafted for you to review. If we didn’t get it just like you expected, we’ll work with you until you are happy.

Most orders ship within 3 days. Rush orders ship the same or next weekday.

Does that make you feel better?

P.S. Can you tell that we like to get your order approved and to you as soon as we can?

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Do you want some free tips on how to avoid mistakes commonly made on invitations?

I’ve condensed 16+ years of experience into a few short emails that you can request by signing up here.

Go ahead – it won’t hurt, and you’ll learn something that will help your next event be successful.

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“The most valuable gift you can give to others is example.” Croft M. Pentz

Gift Received

Are you expecting some wonderful gifts for Christmas? Have you already received your gifts and want to express your appreciation?

It’s great to able to thank those that gave you gifts when you opened them, but even if you did thank them in person, it is awful nice to receive a thank you note.

And you can thank them in style with a nice handwritten thank you note.

This will make sure that you remembered the thought and time your gift giver put into your gift.

In the rush and craziness of Christmas, weddings, birthdays, graduations, and other gift giving occasions sometimes you forget things. Please don’t forget to thank those that gave you something.

Thank You Note Design

Your thank you note should reflect your style. Look for a thank you notes that have a design on them that you like – that reflects your personality. A simple initial on the front works for some – while others like a monogram. Fun lovers might want a beach scene or colorful, whimsical design. Take time to find a note card that says it is from you before they even open it up to read it.

What to say?

Think about the gift and the moment you opened it. If you’ve used it already, tell a little story about it. If you haven’t used it yet, mention your anticipation about he moment you will use it.

Did you receive something that you don’t really want? This is where it gets tricky. “Thanks for being so thoughtful” always works. My grandmother, when she had nothing to say about a gift would say “now that’s really something!”. Of course, everything is something. Without saying she loved it or hated it, she could always say it was something and the hearer could interpret what she said any way they wanted. After a while, the family caught on and started to say the same thing when we were not sure what to say or write.

An Example of Thank You Note Wording

How about:

“Thanks Aunt Edna for the great pair of slippers, they look great and keep my feet warm while I’m walking around the house. I hope they last all year. It was wonderful celebrating Christmas with you and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Love, Billy”

Start with this and adapt it to fit the gift you received.

Writing Thank you notes can be tedious, but it is worth it. I’ve heard that some grandparents reconsider gift giving if they do not receive the proper thanks. It’s just the right thing to do.

P.S. After you finish writing all your thank you notes, make sure to reward yourself.

P.P.S. Poly Graphics has a great selection of thank you note cards or you can ask us to design one for you

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