Dodeline Design has been making custom wedding invitations since 2009, so needless to say we have quite a few years of experience under our belts. But still, you can imagine our delight when The Knot magazine reached out to feature us in their “Ask the Expert” section in print in June 2020!
In case you missed it, we thought it would be helpful to share some of the expert tips we put together for the interview. Enjoy!
What are you “known for”?
I would say we’re known for how our designs almost always relate to the wedding venue in some way. It’s been a hallmark of my designs from the beginning – all the way back in 2009, I was drawing Charleston single houses and making handmade pockets from seagrass paper to incorporate a Lowcountry vibe.
I’m a born and raised Charlestonian and I love celebrating my city – there’s certainly no shortage of beautiful buildings and scenery to emulate! Over the years, we’ve created a large catalog of artwork of Charleston wedding venues and scenery. We love working on new places too, though, and work with clients all over the country to create designs that celebrate their wedding location and vision. Some of my recent favorites have been at the Central Park Boathouse and another on a mountaintop in Lake Tahoe.
Do you offer save the dates, invitations and day-of paper goods (menu cards, escort cards, place cards, favor tags, etc.) or only some items in this list? What else?
Yes! We offer all of the above. Another thing that differentiates us is we don’t have a minimum to work with us – if you find us after you’ve already done your invitations and you need some cute escort cards, that’s no problem at all. We always love working with clients from the save the date all the way to the favor tag, but it’s totally ok if you only need help with certain items. We’re very flexible.
Save the dates are always fun because they can be a little “looser” than the invitations – a lot of people do our custom maps or use their engagement photos for the save the date. The wedding invitation of course is what most people focus the most on and those can be everything from a classic black and ecru to bright and colorful watercolor scenery. And then we love working on the day of paper because we can take what we came up with for the invitation and use it in a new way at the reception. Some of my personal favorite day of paper items are program fans for summertime weddings, round menus that fit perfectly in the charger, and welcome itinerary booklets for destination weddings.
How many months in advance should a couple book a stationer to ensure they get the one they want?
Once you have your venue and planner locked in, it’s definitely good to reach out to your preferred stationer and get on their radar, especially if you are a paper person! We always like to set up a call or appointment early in the process so we can discuss all the options and look at inspiration – the possibilities can be overwhelming so it’s nice for you to have time to process it all. Once you do, we can hone in on what you really want.
We always say that, once you’re in the same year as your wedding, you’re all set to send save the dates at any point. So it’s good to reach out to a stationer a little more than a year out for save the dates. For invitations, those will be mailed more like 2 to 3 months before the wedding. Ideally, we like to be discussing and starting that process 6 months before the big day. That said, I don’t want anyone to panic reading this! That’s our ideal, but it doesn’t mean it won’t get done if you’re a little behind.
One other big thing to factor in is your own schedule – a lot of our clients are in school or have big life events happening that they know will prevent them from being able to work on the wedding for a little while. So be sure to keep that in mind as you’re reaching out to vendors and setting deadlines for yourself. Planning a wedding is like getting another job!
Most couples have likely never had to send this much mail before. What are the common mistakes or myths about the process? Let’s set the record straight.
One of the big ones is that square envelopes require extra postage, as do wax seals, which can sometimes significantly increase your postage cost. As a general rule, never ever mail your wedding invitations without handing them off to a postal employee and having them weigh them for you just to be 100% sure they are going to get where you want them to go.
We have found some of our local post offices will no longer allow for hand canceling, which is a process where you use a rubber stamp at the post office to “cancel” the postage stamp [do you know how much easier my life would be if those were two different words instead of both being “stamps”?! Same thing with “return” and “response” being such similar words, sigh] – but often the smaller ones will. It’s nice to do that to hopefully prevent them from going through all the machines that are so tough on those beautiful envelopes you worked so hard on.
We also recommend against mailing wedding related items from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. For one, the postal service is totally overwhelmed, and secondly, people are overwhelmed. They’re traveling, getting tons of packages and holiday cards, and just generally losing their minds in the holiday chaos. So we always say, if you can, either mail ahead of that madness or hold it until January.
How can a couple help you design? Are there any words, phrases, descriptions or images that really get your creative juices flowing?
It’s the best when couples are specific about what they like. It does not hurt my feelings in the least to hear “I really don’t like that font” or “That is so not my style” – on the contrary, that’s extremely helpful! Knowing what you do like is just as helpful as what you don’t. Specific feedback is key.
It sounds crazy, but I get excited about almost every design we do because it’s not very often we just repeat a design as is. Most of the time we are tweaking it in a way that’s new and different for a given couple and I love to do new things all the time.
I’m a blue person so anytime a couple wants to do a classic blue and white look I’m inspired and personally really love it. As a creative, though, unusual requests and color combinations probably get me the most excited, even when they aren’t my personal aesthetic. My favorite example for that is probably when a bride mentioned “1970’s kitchen” as the color palette she was going for – it absolutely made for a one-of-a-kind invitation suite!
What about monograms – are they out or in? How are you incorporating them in new ways if they’re sticking around?
I don’t think monograms are ever out in the South, for sure. We are all about monograms and do them regularly. What’s amazing, though, is the range of styles encompassed by that one word ‘monogram.’ Everything from the watercolor crest to the traditional interlocking letters falls under that moniker.
While the highly personalized watercolor crests are certainly popular right now (think: incorporating your dog, your wedding venue, your date, and your favorite flower all in one crest), I would say we do simpler monograms just as much. It all depends on the couple and what they’re looking for, of course!
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