Save the Date Magnets

There are a lot of places on the internet offering printed fridge magnets for "Save the Date Magnets" these days, but, not all are created equal.  After starting out some 8 years ago, Save the Date Originals has learned, grown, and, boastfully offers superior magnets.

If you are browsing around the internet, how would you know the difference between the magnets at Save the Date Originals verses some place like VistaPrint?  That is a little difficult when you are probably more focused on looking at *designs* to be printed on your magnet, rather than the differences between the actual magnets.

Well, here is a blog post to tell you about the awesomeness of Save the Date Originals.

When it comes to deciding on a place to get your magnets, there are various things to consider.  Print quality, magnetic thickness, glossy finish, available designs, production time, magnet pricing, shipping costs, and, flexibility.

STDO wins as far as print quality, thickness, glossy finish, costs, and flexibility.

Print quality is something that deserves a whole blog post of it's own, but, just two paragraphs:

Fridge magnets were originally something that mostly just large businesses ordered to promote their business. Image quality just needed to be "good enough".  Not all companies have made the transition into higher resolution printing for shorter runs where the customers are couples who *care* about how jaggedy the wording is, or how grainy their photo is.  If you are only sending out 50 magnets, and if you are sending them to friends, and if you are sending them as the very first thing that will give people an impression of your upcoming event, you want it to look good.

For print quality, STDO prints at a high resolution.  Additionally, instead of the usual 4 color CMYK printing process, STDO is using an 8 color printer, which leads to more vibrant colors.  Royal blue, for example, tends to come out looking dullish purple in CMYK.  Tragic!

Thickness:  Magnetic thickness is another important point for magnets.  You probably don't care that much how thick your magnets are... but if you receive a really flimsy one, eh, it's not great.  STDO magnets are not so incredibly super thick that you will have problems mailing them out, but they aren't as flimsy as many of the magnets available online.

Gloss: A glossy finish is a standard feature for STDO magnets.  One can actually order magnets without the glossy finish, and even have magnets made with something special like a shimmer card stock instead, but for the usual order, your magnets will arrive with that gloss over the print.

Complete: Yes, it has to be mentioned that the magnets arrive complete.  STDO used to get questions about whether assembly was required.  It seems that some place or places are selling a printed piece + a piece of magnet and leaving customers to glue/attach the printed piece to the magnet.

Flexibility:  This is one of the best things about being a small company... If you want to contact Angela to set up an order page for an order of an odd number like 113 magnets, you can.  You can even order different quantities of two different designs.  You can get something- like hotel information cards- added with envelopes.  You can even have a new/custom magnet size made (for rectangular magnets).  If you want that there design in a different color, let the designer know.  You can get save the dates for weddings, corporate events, family reunions, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, christenings, school events, and, even get actual wedding invitations as magnets.

Production times at Save the Date Originals, though, are really only about average.  There are places that can deliver you your magnets super fast... but they won't necessarily be quality magnets.  A common saying:  You can have two out of these three: "Fast, Cheap, Quality".

When Save the Date Originals first began offering save the dates, it was started as a place that focused on the designs, and subcontracted the production of magnets.  Within a few years, Save the Date Originals started producing it's own magnets.  Why?  Because the owner wanted to offer magnets that weren't flimsy, were printed awesomely without weird defects, weren't cut at odd angles, and also, were packaged carefully (so that they don't arrive dented!).

Lastly, you can be sure that there won't be any tricky check boxes during checkout to trick you into "agreeing" to buy some other product or service.  You won't find shipping costs that are randomly inflated twice or more over what they need to be.  Your names and addresses will never be given out to a 3rd party as part of a sold mailing list.  In other words, there will be none of the shady shenanigans you may have encountered from larger corporations that are looking to boost their profit margins.

Convinced?  Stop by the main magnet section to browse designs and pricing by magnet size:
http://www.savethedateoriginals.com/Magnets.php

Happy Holidays & Save the Date (again)

It is that time of the year.  Save the Date Originals is busy producing many a magnet that will be sent out with holiday cards.  Below is a photographed example of once customer's requested change to the 3.5x4 inch magnet design "MR37" that easily turned it into both a holiday greeting and a Save the Date.

For the Bibliophiles

While updating the photograph for "STDC14", a save the date card that is meant to look somewhat like a book cover, a new invitation design idea came to mind.

First check out STDC14, where one is asked to "Book the Date" rather than "Save the Date".

If Save the Date Originals has a save the date for those writers, literary lovers, editors, and book lovers, then surely STDO should have a wedding invitation for them as well.

Introducing a 4.5x6.25 inch folded card design.  The front is somewhat like a book cover, while the main invitation wording and information is printed on both panels of the inside, complete with page numbers.  You can't see it in the photo, but there is even a cute little book graphic with two hearts on the back of the invitation card.

Lastly, one must not forget the response card.  For this design, it seemed fitting to make a design that mimics one of those Library cards that keeps a list of the book's borrowers.

This invitation design isn't yet posted in the main website's invitation section, but will make it there soon.

November Favorite

The project I am featuring this month is a 4x8 inch magnetic invitation.  Photographic save the date magnets are a common order, but actual invitation orders that are both photographic and magnetic are not common.  This design includes two photographs of the couple along with cherry blossom and bamboo graphics.

Just about any invitation card design from the website can be converted into a magnetic design instead, and of course, custom designs are available.

4x8 inches is also another magnet size that isn't actually priced out on the website;  Projects that require custom/random magnet sizes are becoming more common.  One of the advantages of Save the Date Originals is exactly the fact that custom sizes are available.  Any rectangular size up to 8x10 inches would be available.

Envelopes

My caption for this photo is:

"In a land of USPS, in a sea of boring white envelopes, there was a sparkle of metallic gold."

USPS stands for the US Postal Service, of course.

You have to admit that it is more interesting to receive a color envelope in the mail.  Consider some options for your upcoming 2012 holiday mailings... there are a lot of possible colors and even textures.  

You can actually order just envelopes here with Save the Date Originals, and even blank cards and card stock.  STDO doesn't keep a large inventory- this option is for customers who want to order something beyond the options available at a local craft store.  As with all other orders, there would be a few emails to sort out options and details before an order page was set up.

Customers local to Milwaukee, WI can pick up their orders instead of having them shipped.

First Communion Save the Dates

My favorite project for this month is fairly simple and not at all Halloween related.  It is a 2.5x4 inch save the date magnet design for a first communion.  It is based on a pre-existing 2x3.5 inch save the date magnet design, but is larger to include more information, and also so that the magnets can be easily mailed out alone without a card.  The original design had a lighted outline of a cross over a blue sky, but this customer had the idea to go with a pink background for her daughter's save the date.

The result looks good and will probably be posted on the website at some point as an official design.

Movie Ticket Wedding Invitation

Back in 2010, Angela wrote a blog post about a movie ticket themed wedding invitation design.  It was done with a red background and looked fun.  The post was mainly to show off the way an invitation design could look (and be ordered) in different versions with alternate languages.

This invitation design is one of the ideas that hadn't made it onto the actual website yet, but had people contacting Save the Date Originals now and then.

Finally, a version of the invitation design has made it onto the website.  This version is printed on white card stock, with full color printing of a yellow background with red and black text.  The fun addition is the metallic red sleeve.

Check it out:

The response card is a simple but carries the idea with it's title "Admission Ticket".

While this version uses white card stock and a red sleeve, Save the Date Originals is a custom invitation place, so if a couple wants to change things up a bit, they can.

This invitation design is often of interest to people who were eyeing up this movie ticket save the date card that was created the year before the invitation. This save the date card is made out of actual yellow card stock- that isn't a printed background.  It is fairly small at about 4x2.5 inches, and is sometimes ordered as a fridge magnet of that size instead.

Side note- here is a link to the 2010 post/version of the wedding invitation:
http://savethedateoriginals.blogspot.com/2010/07/movie-ticket-themed-wedding-invitations.html