Think Outside The Box

Anyone that thinks the event industry is slowing down, needs to park themselves in front of a television set.  Colin Cowie, David Tutera, Getting Married, Martha Stewart and more are all hosting shows on event planning.  And these are not “over the top” events, they are events that we would plan.  The only difference is that they are creative.  Budgets were controlled.  Unique solutions were discovered.

Here’s a quick scenario.  I had a client who was hosting a birthday party in Los Angeles.  She was using a mardi gras theme and wanted it to be “over the top” without spending a lot of money.  (and she needed them within a week!)  Knowing her attendees get invited to lots of parties, she wanted to make sure her invitation set the stage.  I found an imprintable that was very glitzy, but left little room for information.  So I decided to have a foldover card printed with the information and mounted the imprintable on the front of the foldover.  The imprintable had a mask die-cut that came with it.  So I glued green, yellow and purple feathers to the invitation and mounted the mask over them.  We then wrapped the invitation in purple tissue paper and mailed in a narrow box.  She was ecstatic!

Yes, I spent a little more time on her order than most, but I had a happy client.  Many of my competitors did not want to be bothered with the labor intensive work involved in these invitations.  But I was all about building a business.  I wanted my clients to know that I was there for them.  While I offered more than 50 invitation albums and hundreds of imprintables, my referrals came from my ability to help my clients design an invitation that created excitement and anticipation for their events.

Even as a do-it-yourselfer, you can think outside the box.  Visit your local thrift stores, garage sales, even the local “dollar store”.  Stop picturing the traditional invitation and start visualizing your event.  You will be amazed at what you start seeing in front of you!