Please forgive us for this late post! This morning we headed over the mountain to Bend, Oregon to set up our room at the Bravo! Central Oregon Wedding Showcase. We are looking forward to tomorrow, where we will be meeting more fabulous Bend, Oregon weddings vendors and couples getting married in gorgeous Central Oregon!

As we move on to Day 2 of our 30 day adventure, we meet Bon Moment. A few months ago, I met Maureen of Bon Moment and of all places, I met her on Twitter! I am not sure if any of you have discovered your vendors on Twitter, but it has been so much fun getting connected with the great wedding and event community in the social media world. After meeting Maureen, she contacted us wanting to know what couples were looking for in invitation design that they haven’t been able to find. Bon Moment shows their creativity in their design and truly puts their clients first. Are you looking for something you haven’t been able to find anywhere else? You’ve come to the right place… The ladies at Bon Moment are waiting to help you bring your invitation vision to life…

Champagne: Tell us about how Bon Moment began..

Maureen: When I was planning my wedding, I couldn’t find anything that really embodied what I was looking for in wedding stationery.  That frustrating experience inspired the idea for doing a wedding stationery business, but I knew from past experiences that I needed a partner to check my balance. I needed a capable and inspired partner to make this business as amazing as I thought it could be and I found that in Denise.  Together we have built what promises to be a successful business that allows us to help brides find wedding stationery that really fits them.

Champagne: Do you offer custom design? Typically how much more does that cost?

Maureen from Bon Moment: We love doing custom design for our brides!  Helping brides create something special is a real treat for us!  Most simple custom designs take about an hour of work and cost just $40.  More complicated designs are charged at our hourly rate of $40 plus the cost of printing.

Champagne: What inspires you?

Maureen: We’re often inspired by our innovative, creative, and offbeat brides! We know there are so many ways to celebrate the union of two people, it doesn’t make any sense to appeal to just one type of bride.  Taking that to heart, we’re often scouring offbeat weddings, pop culture, and international festivals for themes and color ideas!

Champagne: What types of printing processes do you offer and what do you specialize in?

Maureen: We specialize in digital printing!  That’s our primary offering at the moment and we think they just turn out beautifully. We’ve also recently launched our Do It Yourself line where engage couples can print their own invitation on their home printer.  They buy a DIY package from our store, we customize it to their specifications and send it to them in a printable PDF.  Right now, we have our most popular invitations in the DIY section of our store, but we can turn any of our products into a customized DIY PDF.

Champagne: Do you offer matching table numbers, programs, place cards, thank you notes, etc?

Maureen: Our standard line-up of products are: Save the Date Postcards, Invitations & Envelopes, RSVP postcards, Menu Cards, Programs, and Thank You Cards. However, we have also done Candy Table Signs, Program fans, place cards [printed with and without custom names], and gift tags!
Our aim really is to please, so brides can be assured that if its within our power and within the printing industry, we’ll do our best to make their wedding vision come true.

Champagne: Do you have a minimum order? Do the invitations come in increments of 25?

Maureen: The invitations do come in increments of 25. We find that we can offer the best prices that way!

Champagne: What do you love to do when you’re not doing what you do?

Maureen: We’re foodies & crafters at heart!  We love to try new, delicious and usual foods.  We also love the idea of creation and the art of creating something out of nothing with yarns, fabrics, rickrack, vintage buttons and more. 

Champagne: Do you offer recycled [Eco- friendly] paper invites?

Maureen: Our paper does have a percentage of recycled content.  We took a lot of time choosing just the right paper for our invitations, what we settled on was paper that was harvested from managed forests, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified, Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Fiber Sourcing Certified and acid free. We’re confident that doing our part for the environment and providing brides with the best possible product.

Champagne: What’s the approximate turn around time?

Maureen: If you buy one of the products from the store you’ll get a flat 2 week turnaround, complete with Priority USPS shipping.  If you choose one of our custom options, it varies depending on the design we’re creating for you.

Champagne: Do you have invitations for parties and other events related and not related to weddings?

Maureen: We currently offer holiday cards in our store, but we’ve custom design Thanksgiving greeting cards, corporate thank you cards and moving postcards. We can make any sort of stationery that you can think up.

Champagne: What’s your favorite invite right now?

Maureen: We are absolutely smitten with the Sugar Skulls wedding invitation suite. It’s just so fun, festive, and absolutely different than anything out there on the market right now.  You can see it here.

Champagne: What would you say was the most popular style of 2009?

Maureen: Our Retro Telegram has been our most popular this year!  It’s so fun, unusual and adaptable, people can’t seem to get enough of it!

Helpful tips from Bon Moment:

We love Save the Dates! They are helpful and informative. Generally we recommend them to brides who have guests coming from out of state or destination wedding couples. It’s best to send your cards out between 6 and 9 months before you’re getting married.  If you’re getting married on a holiday weekend or you’re tying the knot in Ireland and your friends and family are from California, you might even want to send it a year in advance to give people time to plan. 

A little Save the Date Tip: Be sure to include your location on your Save the Date!  It seems a little obvious, but when you’re getting caught up in the planning it would be an easy thing to overlook!

Invitations usually go out about 60 days before your wedding. Destination weddings invitations can go out 90 days before the wedding, but some brides opt to create a wedding website and include the web address on the Save the Date so guests can get up-to-the-minute information about lodgings and events.

The glorious Emily Post recommends that couples send out Thank You Notes within 3 months of receiving the gift and we agree.  There’s nothing like waiting for the Thank You note that never comes, or maybe even worse, a Thank You note that comes too late!

A little Thank You Note Tip: When opening your gifts, be sure to designate a note taker. They can note the gift and who its from to make writing your thank you notes easier!

Thank you Maureen and Bon Moment for taking time to share more about your business with us! We look forward to working with you again soon!

Check out previous posts from our 30 days of vendors:
Day 1 of 30: Bryan Hoybook Photography
30 days of vendors

Cheers,

Mandi & Rachelle

Make sure you don’t miss our current promotion! Book your wedding or event coordination before January 30th, 2010 and receive 5% off your package!* Dates are booking quickly!

Don’t forget, we offer free consultations so you can learn if hiring a wedding planner would benefit you and if we’re the right match! We’d love to learn more about you, your fiance and your upcoming wedding plans!
*Not valid on previously booked packages. Contract and deposit must be returned by January 30th, 2010.