Photo Card Creations Blog

2012 Wedding Trends

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching and love is in the air.  This time of year, many couples get engaged so it’s important to know what this year’s wedding trends are!

According to The Knot, the Top Wedding Trends for 2012 are as follows:

Wedding dresses – Fairy tale style wedding dresses are in this year.  Light and airy, mysterious but sexy is stylish and hip.  Thanks to influences such as “Twilight: Breaking Dawn”, long sleeves and lace dresses are also in!  While strapless dresses will always be popular, this year will bring more long sleeves but with a sexy touch, of course, including sheer backs.

Flowers – Fairy tale stories also have a very big influence on flower trends.  Think of the forest in Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood..  Soft, decadent flowers filled with roses, peonies and dahlias.

Wedding Décor - Watercolor prints and pastel colors such as purples and pinks are hot this year.  Lace is also very popular. From  Wedding Invitations to wedding day decorations like table linens and room décor, don’t be surprised to find lace, watercolor prints and pastel colors everywhere.

Wedding Photography – Photography trends are going back to the basics.  Instead of photos taken from cool angles and with soft or star-filled filters, the trend is to shoot more formal and classic ‘turn-of-the-century’ inspired wedding photos.  The newest-hippest type of photo is the cool panoramic shoot that includes all the wedding guests and the bride and groom in front, usually taken from a balcony looking down on the guests.  This is a great shot to use for wedding thank you cards too!

Country Themed Weddings – How does getting married in an old barn sound?  With post and beam ceilings, exposed wood tables and chairs and big, old-fashioned chandeliers and dark, ambient lighting?  Lace wrapped flowers such as wild roses, lilies of the valley and gardenias add that extra special touch.   Popular entrees include wild duck and spiced venison.

 

Personal Hands-On Service at Photo Card Creations

Do it yourself" is popular these days.  Over a weekend you can build your own website, change the oil in your own car, and redo your kitchen (okay, maybe two or three weekends for that last one).  In that vein of "do it yourself", many online photo card companies are now offering similar customer interface models.  You make all of your card selections, upload your photos, add your text & view your card layouts online immediately before ordering. While these systems work fine for the retailers, they minimize the amount of hands-on time that is given to each order and each customer.  At Photo Card Creations, we offer a more hands-on approach to designing your cards and providing you exceptional service.  While we offer the same online ordering options, we have professional graphic designers that personally review & work on your order.  Once your proofs are ready to view (our turnaround time is 1-3 days), you will receive an email with links to view your proofs.  We will even send you a hardcopy proof via mail, if you’d prefer…a service none of our competitors offers.

 

One of the problems with the automated systems is that no one checks your work along the way.  What if your photos are high enough resolution to look fine on your computer screen, but not high enough to print well?  At an automated shop you may not realize that mistake until your order arrives and your cards (namely, your photos) look terrible.  At Photo Card Creations, we would catch that issue immediately and be in touch to help resolve it.  We also help with spell checking, text blocking and layout, minor photo retouching and cropping.    We are a full-service shop, ready to speak with and work with you.

Photo Card Creations is a ‘boutique’ custom card company. While smaller than some of our competitors, we offer a more personal experience.  Our employees are experienced graphic designers, able to work with you to make sure the final product is exactly what you want.  Although we have templates and suggested text on our website, most of cards can be completely customized.  If you want anything customized, we can do it (well, ALMOST anything!).  Want to change the size of the photo in the card you like? We can do that. Want to use a specific font for your text that you don’t see in our offerings?  Just send us the file & we’ll use it.  Want to customize the colors on your cards to match your flowers or clothing in your photo? We can do that too!

In short, sometimes it's great to "do it yourself" and receive immediate gratification.  Other times it's more beneficial to have someone personally handling your order, someone who knows the inside scoop, who can make suggestions, catch mistakes & who will work with you to make sure your cards look fabulous!  And, if you  have a question, you can call us and speak to a LIVE PERSON! 

Photo Card Creations has been providing the personal touch and feedback to our clients for nearly 10 years.