Changes ahead!

Wow! I can't believe it's almost been a month since my last blog post. I have been extremely busy with your orders and loving every second of it.

It's now at that exciting time where the brides and grooms I have worked with are finally celebrating their wedding days. I do have a list of all my clients I have worked with and get a little excited on their wedding days!

Meaning, it's getting even closer to my own big day! I am now started to slow down my orders, just so I have enough time to concentrate on my current clients and give them a decent amount of time to complete their orders. After my ebay listings have finished, I will not be re-listing these until after I come back from our Honeymoon. So for all of those currently thinking of using my services, please get in contact with me ASAP so I can hopefully help you :)

Once we are back from the Honeymoon, Lacey Lou Designs will receiving a make over. A new website, where orders can be placed directly through the site, with lots more stationery ideas, and my favourite! Bride of the Month. Each month I will choose my favourite client and let you know the process of their order and how we came to the decision. This will be more focused on my custom orders, than the items I have currently listed.

Thank you to all my wonderful clients, you have all been amazing! It's been an absolute pleasure to be able to work with you on one of the biggest days of your life.

So please stay tuned for the new look website in the next few months. Until then! Happy planning :)

Kiss the Bride

Lacey Lou Designs has now started advertising on a great new site for you Brides (and Grooms!)-to-be!

Kiss the Bride is a Wedding Directory created by Damon and Vanessa Taylor, after being sick of trying to find time to organise their own wedding.

"We wanted to be different to the existing Wedding directories. Instead of again trawling through the directory sites, we wanted to make things simple. We just wanted couples to leave their details with Kiss the Bride and we would do all the clever stuff to contact Wedding providers for them. Wedding providers can then contact couples directly."

My type of directory! No more wasting hours of your time getting in contact with suppliers, taking days, sometimes weeks to get back to you. As my past clients will tell you, terrible communication is my pet hate. This is a great way to know that these suppliers will be contacting you who want your business. Not those terrible time wasters!

The directory contains all aspects you need to plan your wedding, whether it be Australia wide or your local supplier just around the corner.

Drop in and have a look around :)

http://www.kissthebride.com.au/

I caved in.....

Personally I'm not into following trends....skinny jeans, those weird weird shoes....eek! Not for me, I follow what suits my style, those do not rate highly in my book. However I have finally caved into the world of Twitter...yes, me, Stacey is on Twitter!

I refused for months to join, seriously I don't need to know what and when my friends and family are eating or that today they caught the train. Business wise, it's a great way to stay in touch with your clients.

Please feel free to follow me http://twitter.com/laceyloudesigns you never know, I may just put up a few sales every so often :)

Welcome Danielle!

All my designs are named after special people in my life. Please welcome Danielle....

Danielle is a gorgeous, stunning invitation, which is new to Lacey Lou Designs. Currently she is at a discounted introduction price on my Ebay items. Danielle would look also look stunning with a different coloured ribbon, red being the next in line.

The Black Floral Glitter pocket is just stunning, and comes in different patterns and colours. If this is something you are interested in please contact me and I can supply you with some more information and photos of the other pockets we could use.

I'm working on a few more designs currently which will hopefully be revealed shortly :)

Going green...

I love doing my part for the environment.

FH and I constantly turn everything off at the switch...it did take a while to get use too....you sit down on the couch ready with the remote to turn on the TV on a cold winters night...only to find when you press the 'on' button that you have to get up and turn everything on at the switch.

Now it's just our nature. We are targetting our water '155l per person per day' FH and I are proud to admit we are using under 155l a day between the two of us per day.

What's the harm in sharing your shower time with your loved one? As much as I hog the water, FH and I are proud to be doing our bit. We have our 4 minute timer in our shower, the race is to who can get out the fastest!

As much as we recycle, sometimes it sickens me to notice how much of my paper wastage is going nowhere. At the start I wasn't too fussed...now I recycle every off cut possible. Is there a way to create environmentally friendly invitations?....the answer is no!

But what I can create is a environmentally friendly workspace. Every custom order, every sample order I create, I recycle! Every teeny tiny piece of paper not suitable for another order is recycled. Currently only in our recycling rubbish bin, however I'm looking into ways where my off-cuts are going to great use. Watch my Ebay items, soon I will be selling my off-cuts to handy crafters, maybe they could use these in their scrapbook albums!

I have recently discussed the 'Nicole' invitation. The patterned paper, which comes in many different colours, is made from recycled material.

You can check out their website for more eco-friendly designs

http://www.arteesupplies.com.au/Products.asp?ProdGroup=1066

I love using this paper, it just makes me feel great that I'm doing something great for our wonderful world.

I have just released a new design to my range called Kaisey. You can check out the item here

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110433346219&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

This was created for a Bride to Be with her wedding. She LOVED the design I had added to my items....

However, she wanted to use a frangipani as her flower, so we came up with this.....

This gorgeous little flower (which also comes in a wonderful pink!) came from another fantastic Ebay seller! You can check out her items here....

http://shop.ebay.com.au/samscrapbooking/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=

You can also check out her website here.... http://www.my2angels.net/

Tracy is fantastic!! Very friendly seller, who would go out of her way to help anyone out...I can't wait to order some more materials for my designs :)

Happy planning!!! :)

Things to be excited about!

Well I thought it was time to talk a little more about my own wedding! Yes, if you're wondering we are currently in the middle of planning our own dream wedding.

We've been planning our wedding for over a year now. Due to some factors we had to have an almost 2 year engagement. This has given us plenty of time to pick the best suppliers, get in early and of course save all those extra dollars. One thing my fiance isn't keen on is spending money! Which I may say has rubbed off on myself....

Well the next few days are going to be spent on my own wedding, of course while doing all your orders! We will be
-ordering the bridemaid dresses. All picked, just have to be order to have in by Christmas!
-looking at suits for groom and groomsmen. We have the colours, just need to find the perfect suit!
-meeting with our jeweller to organise our wedding rings!

All very big and exciting things for us over the next few days.

So yes, I understand there are so many factors involved when it comes to your wedding and if I can just take some of that pressure away from you, that would make my day!

I will be back very shortly with some photos of some great custom orders :)

A little disappointed...

I'm very happy with the service I provide my clients and I believe they are extremely happy with the whole process.

I'm lead to believe this by the excellent feedback I receive, not just on Ebay but the personal feedback.

"Thankyou so very very much, I recieved the invites today & they are absolutely gorgeous !!! We are so happy that we picked you & It was so straight forward with no problems at all, hassle free & an absolute bargain for what they are !!!!"

"I have just received the invites and they are amazing!!! Thank you so much for the wonderful job you have done, I am so happy with them and can’t wait to show FH!"

"Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!!!! They are absolutely beautiful. The way you packed them also was very impressive. I have already sent them out and we have had a couple of people already tell us they are 5*!I couldn't be happier, I have recommended you to my sister who gets married next year"


I love receiving this feedback, it gives me a real buzz to know that I'm helping other brides-to-be out there to take just that little bit of stress away. I'm always communicating my clients, giving them updates, how long it will take before the order is completed and of course once it's sent....always via registered post!!

What really gets to me is others trying to take this feeling away from me. Yes, I'm all for competition, I love competition...just ask my fiance! ;) however when it comes to unoriginal designs and 'copy-cats' this really disheartens me.

Using others work as your own is really not on! This is just a way to make a quick buck and not care that you are dealing with one of the most important days in a girls (and boys!) life.

Yes copying is the best form of flatery and I think it's great that others love my designs as much as I do. However will they provide the same service that I do?

Remember your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life, don't let 'money-making' suppliers take you for a ride and once again more stress that really isn't neccessary.

If you want first class service and products you know who to go to. My feedback and comments speak for themselves.

Changes to suit your theme - Nicole

I'm slowly working on some new designs, as I have mentioned before.

"Changes" is going to show you how my designs currently on Ebay can be changed to suit your style/theme and colours of your wedding.

Firstly I will start with Nicole. As mentioned on most of my Ebay items, I say some of the patterned paper cannot be changed. 'Nicole' however (which is named after my sister in law) pictured with Oriental Bloom Cinnamon, also comes in green, blue & pink!

Here is Nicole pictured as the original, with a dark brown backing card and quartz (ivory) overlay, with cinnamon.

Some people have decided they don't want to use the buckle. Of course! This is easy to remove and also decreases the cost of the invitation slighty.

I recently completed 3 samples of 'Nicole' however these Brides to Be wanted different colourings. Once again, a very simple process! Of course we can use your colours. A lovely B2B is having a blue wedding. Easy! I created 2 samples for her, using blue colourings and both Cinnamon, and this time we tried 'Sky' which is a lovely blue. This B2B decided to stick with all blue colourings, I'm currently in the process of creating her custom order!

The other bride to be loved the Nicole design, however she wanted pink and silver to suit her wedding colours. Another easy process! I used 'Rose' and a metallic silver backing. I also used Pearla Baby Pink for the overlay, however we both agreed it did look a lot nicer with the quartz overlay.

As I mentioned this also come in a green, called Meadow.

If you are interested in any of these colourings, or have some ideas of your own please feel free to email me stacey_lacey_lou@hotmail.com

Well looks like another busy weekend creating your custom orders. I have my fingers crossed that I will receive a stock order today, giving me a great head start on the latest orders to complete.

Until then, happy planning! :)

Wow!

Firstly, let me apologise for taking so long with an update.

I am so thankful for my clients! They have all been an absolute pleasure to deal with. I am overwhelmed with the enquiries that I have received and I'm working hard to complete all your orders within a reasonable time frame.

My brain is also ticking over with some fantastic new ideas. I have drawn up how I want these to look and I have purchased some gorgeous little charms that I believe will add just that little something extra to make the invitation look amazing, beautiful and unique. It's just finding the time to get these going. My custom orders are my highest priority.

Working with fantastic suppliers is a huge thing for me. I'm after fast turnarounds and great service. I am actually even considering changing my own wedding invitations after working with an amazing supplier. Let's just say my fiance isn't too keen on the idea ;)

I also must apologise for the lack of photos. Believe me, I have taken photos of all the custom orders I have completed, hopefully I will post these up in the next week or two.

Now an update :) My clients are updated personally via email, however it's also great for me to write it down to know where everything is at.

lilchels_22 - Invitations are completed! I'm waiting on some more stock to arrive to complete your info cards. Hopefully these will be ready to post by the end of the week. Placecards to be sent at a later date :)

kimmarree12302 - Just waiting on your guest list so I can start printing

kitti2828 - Waiting on some more stock to complete extra invitations. Everything else is completed and will be sent off ASAP.

vms6375 - Map inserts and envelopes are completed. Waiting on some more cardstock to complete invitations. Should hopefully be ready to be sent by the end of the week.

tank355 - Waiting to hear from you regarding wording options. Stock has arrived and ready to go when you are.

aussierowswell - Invitations have been cut and ready to assemble. Just waiting on your buckle to arrive.

ekateb2 - Parcel is ready to be sent via registered post today.

2000mp - Printing is completed, waiting on your cardstock to arrive. Should be ready to send early next week.

paizley872008 - Holding off to print for a couple of months. Will work on your wording today (Monday)

bodoms_child81 - Payment received, will complete your sample this evening.

bekk1981 - Waiting for your wording so I can create your sample wording


As you can see, I am quite busy. However I'm really enjoying every minute of it! :)

Until next time....

Updates

An update for you all :)

Welwong - Samples completed and sent in Tuesday's post
snowy_rox - Samples completed and sent in Tuesday's post
bluepunkey - Waiting for some stock, samples will be completed and sent early next week

Custom orders
kitti2828 - Invitations and RSVPs completed. Just waiting on your envelopes

stubbzie32 - Invitations completed, waiting on your envelopes

monamitchell_84 - Wishing well and RSVPs completed, waiting on your buckles to complete invitations. All printing/cutting has been done.

lil_chels22 - Thank you cardss completed, all pockets now attached to card. Will be starting the printing of you invitations in the next day or two.

xxxreneexo - All stock has been received, just waiting for ceremony approval.

kimmaree12302 - All stock has been received, waiting for go ahead on printing.

meg.mike123 - Inviations completed, waiting for payment for envelopes.

cizzza - Stock has arrived, including frangipanis, waiting for approval of wording.

vms6375 - Stock has been ordered, waiting for event information.

PaperGlitz

I am now working with a fantastic new supplier. Paperglitz have some fantastic products! You can check out their website here! http://www.paperglitz.com.au

Currently I am working on a custom order using the Paperglitz products, I am also creating a sample for another client. These are both using the glamour 'add-a-pocket'. If you find anything on this website you are interested in, please contact me, I will be willing to help you. And hopefully I will have some photos up of these shortly.

Once again I have had quite a busy week. Not so much in the creative part, but more answering your enquiries and getting the quanitities together for lots of custom orders! Orders have been placed, the stock is on its way and I'm ready for a busy weekend doing the part I love, the invitations themselves!
I'm really looking forward to these as I will be using some of my usual designs, however with different colourings. I will take photos of each for your information :)

Over the weekend I created a very rush order for a bride-to-be, using the 'Lucy' design. Unfortunately, the prices were higher than usual, as by the time I would have received the stock from my suppliers it would have been too late. It didn't stop me! I spent most of the weekend completing this order and they did come up fantastic! It pays to give yourself plenty of time for your order :)

Speaking of, I'm having quite a few enquiries regarding 2010 weddings. A quick note to let you know that I will be out of action for most of Feb/Mar 2010 for my own wedding and well deserved Honeymoon! I suggest if you are having a wedding around this time (March/April) that we have your orders ready by the end of January. I will be back on deck around the middle of March so any weddings after April will be fine :)



As mentioned before, materials are on their way and here are the orders I will be working on over the weekend and most of next week.

Welwong - Samples
Kitti2828 - Custom Order
lil_chels22 - Custom Order
monamitchell_84 - Custom Order
xxxreneexo - Custom Order
stubbzie32 - Custom Order
kimmaree12302 - Custom Order

As you can see I will be busy! I will work in order of the closest date first. This will be stubbzie32, followed by monamitchell_84, lil_chels22 and so on.

I will keep each of you updated :)

Wow! Busy week

Well it's was a busy week for me last week!

Currently I am a full time worker, I work within the family business. Sometimes I do have it a little easy, such as being able to disappear for a little while to work on some of my own things. Such as these invitations!

I come home usually to my fantastic fiance cooking a lovely meal for us. Usually this is the time I try and answer all the enquiries I had that day, if I didn't get a chance during the day. After dinner it's straight into the orders.

I believe communication is the vital tool in helping brides-to-be organise their wedding invitations. There is so many suppliers out there, not just in stationery, anything to do with a wedding, who take days, sometimes weeks to reply to an enquiry. I should know! I've been through plenty myself!

We contacted a celebrant who took over 2 weeks to reply. In this time we had a meeting with another and booked them. The other celebrant finally replied and got quite aggresive with us saying he had been 'busy', not good for business at all!

Communication is very important to me. I make every effort to reply to emails as soon as I possibly can!

Here are some lovely words I have received from clients.

- Man, you're quick on the replies, I love that!!!

- Awesome, thanks so much for doing this so quickly, I am so impressed!!!

- 'Its been great dealing with such a wonderful person such as yourself! Ebay should be priveledged to have you!'

It's great being able to share the excitement with my clients!

So over the last week, I worked on an order for an engagement party. This client decided to go with 'Nicole' the frangipani invitation. The look amazing! I will be posting photos of these soon.

I also worked on Save the Date and Thank You cards, similar to my 'Lucy' design. However this client decided to go with a black ribbon and 'iceberg' shimmer paper. It was very easy and no increased price for these changes.

This client is amazing! Such a pleasure to work with. Her wedding isn't until March 2011, but we are doing what we can now to save all that stress later.

Remember wedding invitations should be sent out at least 6-8 weeks before your wedding, with your RSVP usually a month before the day. I would recommend if you are having interstate/overseas guests to get them out even earlier. Or you can even send out a Save the Date card, just as the mention client is. This gives your guests plenty of time to arrange travel arangements.

This would mean, if you wish myself to create these invitations for you, we should get started on these at least 4 months before your wedding, if possible even longer than that!

For my ebay clients -

caboolture_bel - Custom order completed, will be sent in Tuesday's post.

addicted*2*lv - Thank you tags completed, will be working on Save the Date cards throughout the week.

scannell1985 - 'Fern' invitation completed, still sourcing other materials.

tank355 - Sample sent in Monday's post.

kimmaree12302 - Once payment received, stock for custom listing will be ordered.

stubbzie32 - Once payment received, stock for invitations will be ordered.

tara87a - Payment received, will work on your custom sample and sent in Tuesday's post.

maxishopper01 - Payment received, will work on custom samples and sent in Tuesday's post.

Sourcing the perfect materials...

Over the weekend I answered numerous enquires from Brides-to-be (B2B) about creating custom wedding invitations to match their requirements.

I must say, sourcing materials is one of my favourite things to do! I spent a while over the weekend, helping a B2B find the perfect patterned paper to match her theme. We came up with the top 2 designs, and I will soon be working on these samples. I can't wait!

So please, if you can't find exactly what you are looking for on my Ebay items, please contact me. I'll be happy to source the perfect materials for you! I created a 'microsoft paint' version of how the invitation will look to give these B2B a visual idea, this is extremely helpful as sometimes dealing over emails can be hard to really get the idea on what you are after.

I also spent time with another B2B helping her create her dream Black and White wedding stationery. We've found a beautiful black lace to use in place of a patterned paper and will look stunning! Even more exciting that the lace is very cost friendly.

Once these samples are completed I will show you how this was achieved...stay tuned!

Here is an update for my Ebay clients.

hopgroove2004 - 3 samples, will be completed and sent off in Tuesday's post.
xxxreneexo - Sample will be sent in Tuesday's post.
caboolture_bel - Materials have arrived for your custom order, will commence when approved.
ekateb2 - Once payment has cleared, your sample will be sent.

Completed!

Yesterday I completed my first custom order. I must say I'm extremely happy with what I produced, and I hope my client feels the same way.

As promised, I will be sharing a lot of photos!!!

Of course, for privacy purposes, the details have been 'erased'. I am now working on the finer details ready for my next 2 custom orders.

I must say, I have been extremely proud of the amount of enquiries I have been receiving. It was actually my wonderful fiance who suggested I share my invitations with others. It has proved so far to be worth the effort I have put into my designs.

I have now added a new design to my range, after a few enquiries about butterflies, let me introduce you to 'Nicky'

I actually use this beautiful Cristina Re paper for my future sister in law's wedding. It's absolutely gorgeous! You just can't appreciate without actually looking yourself. I just wish it came in different colours!!

It would look amazing with a pearl shimmer paper and I think even a nice purple shimmer. However I just had to use the pink!!

Let me know what you think?

My very own dream wedding...

While helping other brides with their invitations, I'm currently in the middle of organising my own!

My fiance and I are having our dream winery wedding to be held in February (Only 7 months to go!!!)

We've done most of the planning together. Well, you could say, I do the research and then we sit down and we decide together on the options I have put together. (If you want your man to be more involved, try this tactic ladies!! It works wonders!!!) However when it came to the invitations, I demanded to have all the input ;)

Our theme is what I would call Modern Rustic. However, this is pumped with beautiful lace, pearl and feather details. We decided on our colours, chocolate brown, deep red and ivory. This proved difficult in my countless google searches for some ideas and tips on our theme. So it was time to create my own.

Firstly I loved the idea of having a boxed invitation, with wonderful vine and a flower to complete the look.

Yes they were beautiful, but extremely expensive!! Even just to post the boxes would have gone close my stationery budget. It was time to re-think...

How could I still incorporate the lace and feather, but using a trusty 55c stamp? It's when I came up with this...

And yes! I stayed under budget! Even with the wedding still 7 months away and all details not finalised, I have all ready assembled the invitations, just without the wording yet.

I can't wait to get started on the details for them!!

About me

Who doesn't love receiving an invitation? Whether it's to a small gathering, to a wonderful wedding! I know I do!

I think my creative side came out when trying to organise the perfect invitation for my 18th birthday party. I was sick of seeing those 'photo' invitations, having a photo as a baby and then a recent photo. I wanted to be different!

For some reason I wanted to host a 60/70's dress up party! I played around with a few ideas and decided that I wanted my invitations on vinyl, however that proved to be too expensive, so CDs it was.

My father also has a creative side working in design and signwriting and had the perfect tools to help me create my perfect invitation, in their very own clear covered CD case!

It's still talked about today....7 years later.

For my 21st birthday, it was the same thing! Those damn photo invitations again!!! This time I wanted magnetic invitations! With the help of my father again, we created a full magnetic square invitation. It had a gold martini glass with the information over the top. Can you believe, people still have these on the fridges, years later!!

Through the next couple of years, I help create invitations for a lot of family and friends. From birthdays, engagement, weddings and baby showers. Each one always completely different, using lovely papers and embellishments.

Then it came time to organised my own engagement party. I searched high and low for the perfect papers, and then for the cheapest price! I created 100 engagement invitations and thank you cards for less than $150.

Please excuse the bad quality of the photos...

My dream now is to help others create their perfect invitaitons at a cheaper price! I now work with wholesalers, which gives me even more savings to pass on!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.

This is to give you a better insight to what I have to offer you and for you to get to know the person behind the name...

I will be placing photos so you can see what I'm working on. I will also provide information on my upcoming orders and samples I have created that may be a little different to what I currently have up on Ebay.

I hope you enjoy!