Creating the Perfect Bespoke Invitations

I would love to have enough time in my hands to make all of my children’s invitations myself. Right now, life is as busy as it has ever been and I barely manage to get four or five hours’ sleep every night. I had to cut corners. Handmade cards went out of the window when I gave birth to my fourth baby.

I loved our Christmas cards, put together by The Card Gallery, so I was really pleased when they offered to sort out Wriggly’s baptism invitations.

The Card Gallery is just over ten years old and is based in Shropshire. Last year, the company was awarded the ‘Made in Britain’ marque. They have a wide range of invitations, cards and stationery.

“Invitations can be personalised to suit your special occasion, using our online card designer, enabling you to change colours, fonts, wording and sizes. All artwork is done in-house so designs and colours can be further tweaked to suit your exact needs if you would like your cards to be a little different to the examples shown online.”

I really pushed the bespoke option by giving The Card Gallery lots of details to create the exact card I had in mind for Wriggly’s baptism. We did not have a theme as such for the baptism, but I had just taken pretty pictures of Wriggly holding balloons and I wanted to include one of those photos in the invite.

I also wanted the cards to be grey and yellow, the colours I had used for her birth announcement cards. I loved this design by The Card Gallery, and here is the one I started with:

I loved the clouds but asked them to remove the hearts and bows. I liked the balloons on these cards, and asked for a few grey ones on the back:

We also needed a church on our cards, and I loved the look of this one:

The fact all artwork is made on site means you can really have a bespoke service at no extra cost, as long as you opt for artwork The Card Gallery use on some of their cards already. Since half of our invitations were going to the French side of our family, I asked for two versions, one in French and one in English.

I anticipated quite a few emails asking for more details or explanations of what I wanted exactly, but what I received the day after I emailed my requirements was a proof, and it was perfect! I had made a silly mistake in the text so I asked for a small change and by the end of the week, we had our invitations. I was really impressed and I will definitely use The Card Gallery again.

“All materials used by The Card Gallery are British produced, high quality, 350 gram card for stationery and crisp white or coloured envelopes. A free proofing service via email is also included in the price, so you can check and change your order as many times as you wish before printing commences. […] UK delivery is also available for free with every order.”

I designed and made Crevette, Beanie and Wriggly’s baptism invitations. I gave a lot of thought to their overall look and they are really special. I also spent hours and hours putting them together. I remember the rush of excitement; mixed with a dash of apprehension (Would they like them? Did I make a spelling mistake anywhere?) as I put the envelopes through the red postbox by the children’s school. I would then wait excitedly to find out what they thought about the lovingly made cards. With hindsight, I think they meant more to me than they did to anyone else.

This time round, I did not manage to make Wriggly’s baptism invitations myself, but you know what? It does not matter. The time I would have spent cutting and sticking paper was quality time with my children. I did not change the ink cartridge on the printer three times, nor did I rush to the craft shop to buy one piece of card because I had forgotten to make a card for my mum’s great-aunt I had last seen in 1993.

You could win a £30 voucher to spend with The Card Gallery.

How to Enter

Just use the box below. It is easy and you can get more than one entry. If you are not sure how to use Rafflecopter, I have included detailed instructions below the box.

Entries are open until midnight GMT time on 26 May 2015 and the competition is open to UK residents only. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to use Rafflecopter?

The first thing you need to do is to log in with Facebook or your email address.
Once you are logged in, the first and mandatory entry option is to leave a comment on this post telling me about the last card you received. For extra chances of winning, check the instructions in the form. You can pick and choose a range of ways in which to enter. The only one you must click on to get into the draw is the one asking you to leave a blog post comment. You must also leave a comment for your entry to be valid.

Disclosure:
– The giveaway is open to UK residents aged 18 and over.
– The prize will be supplied directly by The Card Gallery.
– I was sent Wriggly’s baptism invitations for the purpose of this review. No payment was received for this post. All opinions and photographs are my own, unless stated.

I have listed this giveaway on ThePrizeFinder, SuperLucky and Loquax.