The Quick List: Making Your Holidays A Bit Easier

As we are right in the trenches of holiday shopping and all together holiday prep, I wanted to share a few tips for making this season a bit easier. 

#1. Holiday Cards-  As always, you have some options. You can buy cards (and upload your images) online in a 'one stop shop' like minted.com or vistaprint.com complete with printing and shipping, create your own template (I have used Microsoft Publisher) to send to your printer or you can buy stock cards without personalization (Target, Walmart, Kmart, etc.).  Well there is a NEW, affordable, time efficient option: using a professional template.  Blue Brush Studio on etsy.com offers uploadable templates on sale for as little as $3 and range up to $18!  I'm so excited about this new discovery, the one time purchase allows you to customize with your own photo(s) and print to your own printer instead of paying the printing and shipping fees associated with online card shops.   For that small template price, you can even splurge and print the cards off at a professional store like Staples or Kinko's.



#2. Gift tags- don't buy them.  Seriously.  They are such a waste since they are a one time use item.  My solution is for gift bags with tissue paper, fold a corner and write the 'to and from' on the tissue paper.  That way, the recipient can cut off that small section and re-use the tissue paper later.  

 

#3. Quick & easy recipes for your holiday parties- Most of us don't have time to make an elaborate dish for every holiday gathering this season.  While my tried & true recipe involves chocolate-covering pretzels and chips, I'm trying to expand my horizons.  Here are a few quick links to my favorite holiday recipes I've seen recently & I'm dying to try out!

http://camillestyles.com/2011/12-tastes-of-christmas-minty-meringues/

http://camillestyles.com/2011/12-tastes-of-christmas-candied-orange-peel/

http://theplungeproject.com/fab-friday-finds-cake-batter-recipe-roundup this link has 5 recipes!

New Look For Felicity C Weddings

As a business owner, I am always looking for ways to improve.  As a busy event planner, the advertising and marketing areas definitely end up taking a back seat to new & current clients as my schedule gets busier.  This weekend I was in Kent Island, MD for the Williams wedding which was amazing and I can't wait to get the professional pictures to showcase what a beautiful day it was.  I stayed at the same hotel as the wedding party all weekend which gave me the great opportunity to get a lot of company work done on my laptop (the freedom of being with my laptop alone without the distractions of being at home) and one of my accomplishments was finally conquering the navigation of my website options.  Hooray! 

I have given the Felicity C Weddings website a makeover, Oprah style, to lighten it up a bit as well as reorganize the pages and the info to make everything clearer.  I use Vistaprint for my website & materials and I highly suggest this company for any small business owners- it just takes time to sit down and evaluate your options. Until recently, my old format was the only option available with this design and I am so thrilled that VP has given me more formats.  In true makeover style, I am super excited to show this new website off and in contrast, I can't help but be a bit bummed that it took me this long to follow through with the update.   I'm sure that I will continue to make changes here and there but please take a look and let me know what you think of the new layout.  Enjoy! 

Here is a sneak peek, for the full tour go to the Felicity C Weddings website