Before the day, and after it
A wedding usually needs three cards: the save the date six months out, the invitation, and the thank you once the gifts are opened. Start each from designs with the same colors and type, or use one template and change the words. The engagement photo save the date and the photo thank you are drawn to pair, and so are the leaf wreath save the date and the greenery thank you.
Showers, birthdays and graduations
- Showers: a drawn sprout or clouds and a moon for a baby, brunch and bubbly or a pink diamond for a bride, and a clothesline of hearts on the thank you.
- Birthdays: a pool party, a circus and a big pink age for kids; cheers to 40 in gold on black, or outlined numbers on teal, for grown-ups.
- Graduations: the class year huge in green, the graduate's photo, and a thank you framed in gold.
Milestones and reunions
Silver and gold anniversaries, a family reunion on a red picnic cloth, a class reunion in school colors, a quinceañera with a crown, a bat or bar mitzvah with gold stars, and a retirement with a sunrise over the horizon. After a loss, the sympathy acknowledgment thanks everyone who wrote or came.
Photos that print well
Use the original photo from your phone or the photographer, not a screenshot or a copy saved from social media, which loses detail. The designer warns you when a picture is too small for its space. Keep faces near the middle, with a little room above the heads, so the trim takes nothing that matters.
From the shop: Order ten or fifteen extra cards. Addresses change, a few come back, and someone always asks for one for the scrapbook.