I wrote the article below for the  Summer 2011 issue of B Wedding Magazine. It covers a few points on how to personalise your wedding stationery. Have a read and let me know what you think.

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Your wedding is set to be the event of the year so make sure your stationery is as stylish and unique as you are by adding a personal touch.

Clare Tunnicliffe, designer and owner of Rosy Days Contemporary Wedding Stationery believes that more and more couples are rejecting standard off-the-shelf stationery, opting instead for something that shows their personality and the theme of their celebration.
Clare shares some of her tips for making your wedding stationery stand out from the rest, without blowing the budget:
1. Co-ordination:
Carrying the design of your invitations into elements of the day itself such as the order of service covers, menus, table settings, guest books and even your thank you cards provides instant style.
2. Colour:
Matching the colour of your stationery to the flowers or bridesmaid dresses brings a touch of elegance to the celebration.
Some brides prefer to keep the colour of the dresses a secret until the big day, so Clare suggests using a complementary colour for the invitations, then co-ordinating the booklet covers, menus, place cards and thank you cards with the dresses.
Recognising the importance of getting the colour right, Rosy Days, offers free colour changes on any of their standard wedding designs.
3. Be part of the design:
Incorporating a little bit of yourself into the design of your stationery is the ultimate in personalisation and a way to get your guests smiling. Clare has recently launched a new personalisation service for all her designs.
“My clients were always delighted with the free colour change option, but I wanted to offer more. Now my designs can be personalised. I can redraw the bride, groom or venue to match their likeness. This option is already proving popular and it allows my clients to have truly unique stationery, even on a tight budget,” says Clare.
4. Theme:
Some brides thrive on the ‘theme’ of a wedding; others dread the thought of it! Clare’s advice is to embrace the “theme” as it can make all those little planning decisions a lot easier.
“A theme can be as simple as your favourite flower or colour. If you don’t have a particular theme in mind, ask your designer for help. Almost anything can be incorporated into the design of your stationery,” she says.
5. Personal to You:
Try to incorporate little touches that are special to you and your guests.
I always suggest that my clients add a favourite poem or message to the inside face of their order of service booklet, and include the directions to the venue on the back. Your RSVP cards should request details of any dietary requirements. You might also consider using the cards to ask your guests to suggest a song for dancing or to share a special memory of you both.  You could share a memory or a photo, for example, the proposal, on your menus. The table names are also a good opportunity for a bit of fun. Traditional sweets, pop songs, flowers, honeymoon destinations and place names – anything goes. This gives the guests something to talk about and saves any hierarchy with table numbers.
Let Rosy Days create something to make your guests smile: FREE personalised bride and groom drawings to the first 5 couples who mention this article when they order over €300 on wedding stationery before the end of June 2011.
See more of Rosy Days Contemporary Wedding Stationery at www.rosydays.ie/weddings

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I was really pleased with the article and hope some of the points above help you in planning for your big day. If you want to discuss any of the options please contact me.

Chat again soon, until then let every day be a Rosy Day !

Love

Clare

xx



Anyway, I have been busy in the last few months and have a range of new wedding designs that will be up on the site in the coming weeks. Sneak previews have been posted to the Facebook page (please Like Rosy Days if you don’t already) and here is a glimpse of one of the designs. Let me know what you think.

Chat again soon, until then let every day be a Rosy Day !

Love

Clare

xx

Happy St Patrick's Day

I am delighted to say that so far 2011 is proving to be a prosperous year for Rosy Days, we have had our strongest 2 months of wedding stationery sales ever !

The start of the year is always one of our busiest periods but this year romance and love seems to be stronger than ever and Rosy Days couples are proving more adventurous and creative with their wedding stationery designs than ever before which makes the work a real pleasure for me.

Be sure to keep an eye on my wedding stationery design range over the coming months as I update it with new designs and feel free to checkout some the lovely reviews from previous Rosy Days bride & grooms.

Well, I had better get back to it as these designs won’t draw  themselves.

I hope 2011 is proving as good for you as it is for me and that you are getting out and enjoying the Spring days.

Until next time, may every day be a Rosy Day !

Love

Clare

xxx

Happy New Year 2011

It almost seems too late to wish everyone happy new year now but seeing as my next opportunity isn’t for quite a while….. “Happy New Year”. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year break and that the snow has now gone from wherever you are and life can get back to normal. Rosy Days had a great festive break, if a little manic !

The latest edition to the Rosy Days team arrived in mid-November (wee Maisie) and that coupled with the weather made for an interesting December. In addition to Maisie, 2010 was a good year for Rosy Days and I hope it was for you too.

Looking forwards, 2011 holds high hopes for us and we hope to be able to grow our greeting cards and wedding stationery ranges over the coming months so please check back on a regular basis to see what is happening. I promise to get back to posting updates to the blog on a regular basis (once a month at least) and with a bit of luck I will even be able to get my act together and get back on Twitter and Facebook a bit more so Follow or Like Rosy Days if you haven’t already.

Right well that’s all from me for now.

I do hope that you engage with the blog and post back messages, I would love to hear what other people have planned for 2011 or what your highs were from 2010.

Until next time may every day be a Rosy Day !

Love

Clare

xxx

Time & time again, the colour I’m asked for is purple, so much so that I’m wondering is this a fashion choice (It has been very much in vogue on the fashion catwalks for a number of seasons…) or does something run deeper in our subconscious that makes purple the colour to represent love & commitment?
Certainly the beauty of Purple lies in its variety – you can choose from Lavender, Amethyst, Violet, Grape, Damson, Indigo, Mauve, Plum, Heather, or Aubergine and still not touch the surface of this vibrant tone!
As a combination of blue, the coolest colour on the colour wheel & red, the hottest shade, purple has a balancing effect and is used to symbolize fantasy, royalty, religion, creativity,imagination & magic.

In addition to this, as a close relation to pink & red, it’s right up there with the romantic tones.

If you’re considering purple but still want to stand out from the crowd, consider using it as your main background colour, and injecting a bit of fun or contrast by highlighting small details in a complimentary colour:

For a Spring wedding, you could team a light Purple or Lavender with an Apple or Lime green. Amethyst or Violet works well with a bright Yellow or Turquoise for a Summer celebration, and matching a Plum with a burnt Orange fits perfectly with Autumn shades. Finally, you can warm up a Winter wedding combining tones of deep Aubergine with aCrimson red.

If this all seems like colour overload for your style, why not consider selecting your favourite purple & adding neutral highlights such as cream or beige, or playing with different shades and tones of purple for a more conservative but still contemporary approach.
The choice or combinations available is endless, so have fun & experiment with shades that you wouldn’t normally try.

One of the first things I tell any Rosy Days bride is that my designs look dramatically different in various colour combinations. As such, I’m happy to work with you and make a number of colour changes so that you can select the one that’s best for you.
Please Contact me now for a no obligation colour consultation, email: rosydays@eircom.net
By the way, I love purple …’cos it’s a deeper shade of pink!

Until next time, may every day be a “Rosy Day”.

Clare

Xxxxx

To be honest I hadn’t heard of the charity before but 5 seconds on Google and I was on their site reading all about the fantastic work this charity does.

Their mission statementquickly gives a clear understanding of what they do with the simple understated ambition of “…towork together to improve the lives of Russia’s forgotten orphans.”.

Cassandra told me about Julia, a Russian girl that she sponsors and supports, and how a recent letter from her was the inspiration behind this fund raising event in Clontarf Castle on 8^th July. As well as all the other wonderful work done by this charity some of the money raised on the night will go towards allowing Julia to travel to see her brothers and sisters who live in orphanages in different areas of the region.

Reading through the charity web site it is obvious that over the last 12 years “To Russia with Love” has made a real difference to the lives of many Russian orphans who don’t normally have access to support services. Not only have funds gone towards the essential maintenance of family relationships but also to providing the best possible start in life to these children so they can grow to realise their full potential. Below is a short extract from the web site that highlights this second point,

“…100% of the young people leaving the Orphanage in 2007 went on to enter College/University and are living in flats/hostels supported by ‘To Russia With Love’where they are doing extremely well. We have our first Lawyer graduating next year and have two fabulous young women entering Medical School this year. We also have 100% of the children leaving Hortolova Orphanage this year accepted into Higher Education programs.”.
So if you are interested in a great night out and the chance of winning some amazing prizes such as bikes, hampers, whiskey, ROSY DAYS CARDS!!, handbags and much more, or if you just want to help support this fantastic charity contact campbell.cassandra@gmail.com/ 0879235991 or check out the facebook page for more details.
The night promises to be great fun and a exceptional way of “Celebrating Life”.

I hope to see you on the night!

Until next time may every day be a “Rosy Day“.

Clare

Xxx

Pushed to the end of a long list of “Things to do”, wedding stationery can easily be forgotten until the last minute when it becomes a frantic dash to find any old standard stationery.

But why is this ? When you think about it,  your wedding stationery is the first official contact you will have with your guests as the bride and groom and the design and tone of your invite can often be a strong indication to the type of wedding you are planning: traditional, contemporary, colourful, elegant, unique, fun, etc.

Here at Rosy Days we don’t under estimate the importance of wedding stationery and we don’t just limit that view to the design and colour (although in our opinion these are the most exciting bits!).

An increasing amount of couples are asking for advice on what their invites should say on the inside. The traditional text states that the bride’s parents are delighted to invite you to the wedding of their daughter etc. While still a popular choice, many couples don’t feel comfortable with this, either because they are paying for their big day themselves or because they just don’t feel it reflects who they are.

Below is a small sample of text options for wedding invites to help give an indication as to the different styles and options you might consider.

If, once you have read this blog post, you have any questions on wedding stationery, Rosy Days would be happy to help and work with you to sort out your requirements to ensure that your big day gets off to the best possible start!

At the end of the day the most important thing about your wedding stationery is that you are happy with it, happy that it reflects who you are and what you want your wedding day to be about. If your wedding stationery meets these requirements then it must be right

Until next time may every day be a “Rosy Day“.

Clare

Xxx

Sample wedding invitation text

Bride & Groom hosting the wedding

Parents of the bride

Couple with Both Sets Of Parents

OK OK, so 3 months since the official launch of the Rosy Days blog and I haven’t done very well at keeping my promise of posting updates at least once a month, Ooooops!

It’s been all go here in Rosy Days the last few weeks, we’ve had our new Valentine’s day cards out in shops, we’ve completed another design commission and delivered several wedding stationery orders. That’s my excuse anyway.

So Valentine’s day is now but a distant memory and it’s time we turn our attention to mothers all around the country.  Yes that’s right Mothers Day is on Sunday (14th March) so if you haven’t done so already get to your local Rosy Days stockist and buy a lovely card to go with the lavish gift you’re going to buy. As someone who is themselves approaching their second Mothers days I have to big up the importance of the day in the vain hope that I too may get some pampering from Molly and Richard (her dad).

So what nice surprises and treats does anyone else have planned to celebrate this special day? Remember our mantra here at Rosy Days is “celebrating life” and there is surely no finer event to celebrate so please use the comments section below to share your celebration plans. If you are a mother yourself, tell us what hopes you have for the big day or what special treats you have had in the past that meant a lot to you.

Whatever you do on Sunday as a mother, father, child or family I hope you have a lovely day.

Until next time, may every day be a “Rosy Day”.

Clare

xxx

It’s been driving me bananas all weekend… what was everyone talking about on Facebook? Red? Black? Beige? Polka dot?

Was this another one of those crazy Facebook games that I never have time to participate in? Alas no, according to the Telegraph on line, this is actually a campaign to raise awareness of Breast Cancer whereby women literally reveal the colour of their bra! Cheeky!

No one knows who started it yet, but there’s certainly no denying that’s its got people talking. Rosy Days says good on you girls! Who needs expensive marketing to raise awareness of a good cause.

Oh I almost forgot…Mine? Why pink of course!

Until next time, may every day be a “Rosy Day”,

Clare

xxx