It’s already happening, web sites popping up with Do-it-yourself options, manufacturers creating it, and stores promoting it. I have to accept that. There is a demand and businesses in search of filling a niche for financial gain. However, let’s look at the future of the wedding and stationery industry. The foundation of wedding planning and a business model that has billions of dollars hanging in the balance is based on the quest for perfection, the quality consciousness and the thirst for differentiation. It is also based on the time honored adjective “tradition.”
I am a member of some industry groups on the networking web site LinkedIn. I read a post that was meant for industry professionals all about DIY invitations. My comment was how could any industry professional promote this enthusiastically when there is so much at stake. The cost conscious bride is looking for any path to justify economizing. To lower the bar by not encouraging professionally designed and printed invitations as that first impression that guests see of the wedding, is supporting a trend that will put thousands of manufacturers and retailers out of business while lowering the bar on the quality expectation for such an integral part of the wedding planning process. Many guests who receive DIY invitations absent of the design elements of finer invitations such as raised lettering, artistic die cutting, embossing, foil stamping and hand layering will now feel empowered to change their whole design concept when it comes time to do their own invitation and this continues to snowball. The result is a vastly lower average invitation sale which is devastating to the stationery industry.
In addition, this ties into what I have been writing and speaking about for the last three years. Custom Invitation Retailers and Invitation Manufacturers have to fight by making sure they are visible online to make a first impression to the quality conscious bride and occupy prime online real estate so the offering of finer stationery products are prominent. Now more than ever this is vital to the future of the industry. This is an impassioned plea to take a few moments to look at the options companies like ours offer, support coop advertising efforts of premium invitation brands, beautify your web site with striking images and if you are retailer make sure you are found by your local customers when they search online.