It's not enough just to have a website and hope people find you these days.
If anyone had told me I'd have to become a website designer, SEO, Analytics and Social media guru as well, I would never have believed them!
It's not enough that us creative folk make things in the hope of selling them to our 'ideal' client, we have to actually hunt down and join in the places our 'ideal' clients hang out.
BLOGGING
Now... I've been blogging for what feels like forever. At first I had another blog which I generally used as a diary about my own personal life. A way of documenting everything that happened on a day to day basis. A lot more fun that keeping a pen and paper journal as I could add photos too. That blog eventually turned into encouraging, motivating and supporting others that were fellow creative's.
When I started 'Inspired by Script' I was mainly doing calligraphy commissions for the public and private sector. Mostly bespoke work in a variety of forms. Then, with the arrival of the foiling machine my work took on a whole new pathway and as everyone who has known me for a long while.... the rest is history. This blog is now mainly consisting of my Wedding Invitations and Stationery. As the blog is attached to my website, most of the visitors are arriving to read about wedding stuff..... however there is more to me than that... so perhaps I'll make it a bit more personal... like I did my other blog.
FACEBOOK
Well, you have to find new ways to attract your customers and with the general age group my Brides and Grooms come from it's really no good hanging around Yahoo Forums, like we did in the old days... oh hell no! We now have to hang around Facebook, not a hard transition for me to make from blogging. Facebook is a sort of 'Micro Blog'. A pretty quick way of getting your latsest pictures out there almost before your paint has had time to dry.
The only real issue I have with Facebook is that they constantly push you to pay them for people to actually SEE your work. That's never going to happen from me! I'm a Yorkshire lass.... we don't spend money unless we have to right? Facebook even tries to get you to pay for more likers! What? So even if you see someone with 1,000's of page likes it's not a reflection on real people who have genuinely liked your page!
My blog is free... so why should I?
No... the best way for people to see your work is by LIKING, SHARING and COMMENTING.
You can help me out here (Puts a really cute, smiley face on) https://www.facebook.com/InspiredByScript
TWITTER
Ohhhhh Twitter.... and tweeting and all that stuff. Nope, try as I might, I just don't 'get it'. Me and Twitter never really hit it off when it first came out... and I'm no further forward. I think the problem I have with it is, it's more for words than pictures... I'm much more a picture kinda gal, which is why.... https://twitter.com/SuePixieSimpson
PINTEREST is the place for me. It's over flowing with creative people. I'm not sure whether it's a good marketing tool and whether I'll ever get any customers from it... but it sure as hell is a great place to have your pictures shared and inspire others.
I not only have boards for my own work, but colour inspiration boards for couples as well as boards for great recipes, inspirational quotations, out and about, garden ideas as well as creative boards for my arty friends.
Pinterest is a virtual pin board and an absolute must for me!
Find our pinterest board here if you haven't already
http://www.pinterest.com/pixiesuesimpson/
Well.... that's Social Media covered..... but there's oodles of other stuff we need to learn too. Apart from building the website, we need to keep on track of HOW people these days actually use the internet, how they find people, how they shop, how long people spend on your site, visitor to sales conversion rates, In-bound marketing, Search Engine Optimisation....Zzzzzzzzz.... have I sent you to sleep yet?
For the most part, that vast majority of people work by trial and error.
With my own website, I try something for a month... so how the visitor stats go and then change it. It's all very much swings and roundabouts and as soon as you've learnt one thing... the industry has canged and you've gotta learn something new.
One thing I know... pictures gain far more interest than words. No-one wants to read anything these days. My first website was VERY wordy, this one less so and there are others that rely solely on pictures with the smallest amount of words possible.
Perhaps it's the way of the world?
This instant everything.
Perhaps we need to be kept amused and entertained?
Perhaps we are bored with the old ways and need constant stimulation?
What's your thoughts and feelings on this? Do you have the same issues too?
Feel free to comment below or send me an email to inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk
I'd love to hear from you on this one!
Monday, 29 September 2014
Saturday, 27 September 2014
A Vintage Style Wedding Dress for under £45!
O.K. I admit it.... I'm not really a dress kinda gal. I'm normally found in jeans as they are much more practical around the studio. However, this year the hot, sunny weather seem to have gone to my head a little bit and I've bought not 1, but 4 new dresses! The latest from Lindy Bop has to be my all time favourite! The most gorgeous shade of turquoise ever and covered in butterflies.... gorgeous!
Anyway... I bet you are wondering where this is leading yes? Well, after buying a dress from them and seeing the amazing quality of the the dress, the fabric and the finishing I just had to have another little look-see and there it was! the
The dress details are:
AN ELEGANT VINTAGE 1950's INSPIRED SWING DRESS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LINDY BOP.
DRESS FEATURES:
- FLARED SKIRT SECTION.
- GOOD QUALITY SATIN FABRIC. NOT TOO LIGHTWEIGHT AND NOT TOO SHINY WITH A LITTLE STRETCHINESS TO IT.
- SIDE POCKETS.
- RUCHED BUST.
- HIDDEN SIDE ZIP.
- AN IDEAL DRESS FOR PROMS, WEDDINGS / BRIDESMAIDS OR OTHER SPECIAL OCCASIONS.
- AVAILABLE IN PALE GOLD OR IVORY.
- A PETTICOAT IS REQUIRED TO GET THE LOOK IN THE PICTURE.
And all for a bargain price of less than £45! Yes... you heard that right!
And what's really great about this dress is it comes in loads of colours and patterns and would make a stunning Bridesmaid Dress!
So if you're into Vintage, 50's, swing.... pop over and take a look at their fab website!
Wednesday, 24 September 2014
DIY Bride - Bath Bomb Wedding Favours
There's nothing like something that's hand made for your wedding favours. For me it shows that the couple have done a little bit more than shoved a few sugared almonds into a round net and tied it up with a bit of ribbon. Even worse... just bought a job lot of something from eBay.
Well... for the DIY Brides out there... here's a great idea!
DIY BATHBOMB FAVORS!
What's even better is.. they are cheap and easy to make!
Surprise your guests and show them you care.
For full instructions, head on over to
and see for yourself how easy they are.
AND we think they'd look great with some of our personalised favour tags too!
Monday, 22 September 2014
Ordering Wedding Stationery - How reading this can keep you out of trouble!
"I’d like to order some
wedding stationery, but don’t know where to start". How reading this can keep you out of trouble!
It’s an email I get
frequently and that’s when ordering from a small companies, who give you a
one-to-one , with many years of experience can come in really handy.
There’s nothing wrong with
ordering a ‘few extra’ for last minute guests, but ordering double the amount
can cost a small fortune and is a costly mistake.
So we’ve put together a few
pointers to prevent this from happening.
First off: SAVE THE
DATE
These are sent if your
wedding is more than one year away and you want your guests to attend a
destination wedding or if your guests live some distance away. They may need to
save up for this.
ALLOW – 1 per family
DAYTIME INVITATIONS
Daytime guests are sent 1
card per family, so when ordering remember not to order 1 per guest! You may
think this is common sense… but trust me… I’ve heard people do this on more
than one occasion. When we get enquiries for unusually high quantities of
invites we usually double check!
ALLOW 1 PER FAMILY… PLUS A FEW EXTRA for mistakes when writing out and
extra guests you may have forgotten.
EVENING INVITATIONS
Evening invitations. There
is no need to send an evening invitation to the guests who will be attending
your daytime wedding as they will already know that there is an evening
reception/party.
ALLOW 1 PER FAMILY plus a few extra for mistakes when writing out and
extra guests you may have forgotten..
R.S.V.P. – ALLOW THE SAME NUMBER AS FOR YOUR DAYTIME &
EVENING INVITATIONS
ORDER OF
SERVICE/ORDER OF THE DAY
This depends on how your
money budget is running. Yes it’s nice to have one each, but 1 PER COUPLE
is perfectly fine.
MENUS
The number of menus you
order depends on how you are going to present the menus on the table. You can
order flat cards if you want to have them at each persons place setting or more
commonly 1 PER TABLE
PLACE CARDS –
Of course for place cards you’ll need 1 PER PERSON
WISHING TREE TAGS
Wishing tree tags or something similar are becoming more and more common.
The most common mistake is to order 1 per guest. This is not necessary as 'usually' one of the couple will wrote a card out on behalf of the family. So, I'd suggest
ABOUT ! PER COUPLE or FAMILY
THANK YOU CARDS
Please
don’t forget to thank you guests for attending your wedding and giving you
gifts. It’s the very least you can do.
ALLOW 1 PER FAMILY
ATTENDING
There we have it, I
hope this helps a little.
If you have any
questions about ordering wedding invitations and stationery or anything else
you think we may be able to help with, please leave a comment below or get in
touch. We’d love to help.
Email: inspiredbyscript@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 01609 776 866
Opening Times: Tuesday –
Saturday
10.30am – 4pm
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Tumbling Heart, Red Inspired Wedding Invitations & Stationery - Lyndsay & Craig
This is what happens when you carry a theme right the way through...
Tumbling Heart, Red Inspired Wedding Invitations & Stationery - Lindsay & Craig
Lindsay & Craig chose the Tumbling Heart Design
For their daytime invitations....
And evening invitations too....
The venue, Allerton Court Hotel, Northallerton,
also offered a menu choice
and these were sent with the RSVP's
Once the R.S.V.P's are back, it's time to make the seating plan...
The red border reflects the colours chosen for their
Bridesmaids dresses......
And the silver on ivory complimented it beautifully.....
We offer many solutions when it comes to table names and numbers
Flat cards need something to stand on.... like a mini easel
or one of the many card holders available
We prefer to make these
Stand Alone cards......
And of course we can introduce you colour scheme into them too....
And we made the place cards to match.
All the names are written in Calligraphy
Which offers a truly personal touch.....
We use Gouache paint as it's far less likely to bleed and smude
and once dry gives crisp lines and is also opaque
so you can easily have white letters on a dark coloured cardstock
In the modern age of computer lettering
people LOVE to see their names hand lettered
and in the case of unusual names, it's very often the
only thing they have ever had, which is personalised with their names
I mean.... it's not often you see this is it?
And of course.... once the celebrations are over,
it's important to THANK YOU GUESTS!
A little acknowledgement goes a long way!
So.... there you have it. A full wedding order from start to finish. Sadly the 'On the Day' stationery often gets overlooked when it comes to Wedding Photography, especially in the UK. But the 'On the Day' items are as important as the balloons and table sprinkles. It would be lovely to see how everything comes together... especially when Menus and Order of Services and Order of the Day are involved too. But unless I gatecrash the party or hire a private photographer, it's unlikely I'll get to see it.
I'm sure... along with all the other bits and pieces of the wedding day, the whole thing looked fabulous and of course... the most important thing is, that everyone had a really great and memorable day.
Monday, 1 September 2014
Winter Inspired Wedding Invitations and Stationery- Karen & Tony
Planning a winter/Christmas wedding is probably the most challenging.
Instead of fighting it, Karen & Tony decided to embrace it.
All the ideas are Karen's... I was merely the person
who executed her ideas.
"Your ideas are our inspiration!"
For the Invitations, Karen went along with a Holly theme....
She liked a previous design I had done, so we simply added Holly Leaves
instead of the plain leaves......
Once all the R.S.V.P's are in....
we can concentrate on the 'On the Day' details,
which help to enhance and personalise the Wedding reception.
The 'Order of the Day' Cards
were the same border as used in the Invitations.
We used Red and Green inside
The table names too had the same border...
this time without the heavy line above and below the design
as this would have made the border too overpowering
and the letters to light-weight,
it's all about balance.....
Rather than place cards, Karen wanted Holly leaves
with holes, to tie onto the wedding favours,
which are to be Cumbrian Gingerbread in little gold chests
And.... voila!
Here they are 78 cut out holly leaves
With consultation I decided that Gold just had to be used for the calligraphy,
not only will to compliment the gold box... but looks pretty classy too!
I don't get to do as much calligraphy these days as I used to...
so it's nice to get my fingers covered in paint and keep my hand in.
Instead of our usual Wishing Tree Tags,
Karen suggested we make some red and green foiled baubles
Here they are before the holes are punched and the ribbon added...
And along with a poem seen at the centre/top....
the order is complete.
A few days earlier, I'd been playing with some doodles
and made them into tags to add to my mail order packages.
Just something a little different and quirky.
A little bit of fun brightens everyones day
and we just can't help those creative juices coming out to play :-)
I'd love to make a selection of designs, directed at the December/Christmas couples... but for once, apart from Holly and Snowflakes, my idea pot is empty.
Anyone got any bright ideas?
Did you get married in December?
If so... what was your theme?
Leave a comment or email me at
I'd love to hear from you!
Sue x
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