Little White Invite

Little White Invite is one of our preferred vendors. Jill Leven makes beautiful creations for our brides. We hope you enjoy reading her responses to the questions below.

How did you get into invitations?

I got into invitations because of my wedding planning business, Eat, Drink, and be Marry. I was tired of meeting with graphic designers and printers that wanted thousands of dollars for an order and it was always blowing my clients’ budgets. So I did some research on how to sell invitations on my own and started selling to my wedding planning clients and saved them a lot of money in the process. Word got out about my invitations and I started selling to other couples that weren’t my wedding planning clients. My invitations got so popular that I decided I needed to create a company just for that and that’s how Little White Invite was started. Through the years I’ve learned how to do custom design and I now carry over 20 different product lines!

What is your favorite part about invitations? 

Everything! I LOVE paper, fonts, embellishments, designs...literally everything. It’s so fun to take a blank canvas and piece everything together to make one amazing collection. There are so many options that it never gets boring.

What invitation did you have the most fun making? 

I always love an invitation ensemble that has some type of embellishment. Whether it’s a ribbon, a wax seal, a jewel...something to dress it up makes it feel special and personal to me. It’s like a cherry on top of a sundae!

What invitation challenged you the most?

It’s not necessarily an invitation that has been challenging, but dealing with budgeting and expectations is the biggest hurdle. Styled photoshoots that look amazing are often laid out in a way that is just not possible to create en masse or reality. For example, I’ve seen so many styled photos shoots where a piece of ribbon is placed so beautifully for the picture, but there is no way it functions in real life to get it to wrap around or lay that way. Clients see the pictures and fall in love with that one invitation, but there is no way to create it for them because it isn’t a real option. Finished invitations are a 3-D product and inspiration pictures are presented in one dimension...when I design, I’m always thinking in 3-D.

Are there any myths about wedding invitations?

Lots, but the main one is that couples think they are more affordable than they are and they usually underestimate the cost by at least 50%. And I understand...it’s not like they’ve done this before, but when you figure colored copies are 77 cents each, you can’t expect to get a customized invitation, response set, and details card for $100 for 100. When you think about each piece it takes to make one set (one invitation card, one inner envelope, one outer envelope, one response card, one response return envelope, and one detail card) you are looking at six individual items not just “one invitation“ AND they are high-quality materials and printing techniques, too. It adds up and most couples don’t think about the individual pieces they need and how much it costs.

Do you prefer wedding invitations over other event invitations?

Wedding invitations are my specialty and I love them because there is just so much that goes into them and there is so much meaning behind it. Not to say that a new baby announcement or graduation invitation isn’t just a special, it’s just that a wedding invitation is a collaboration of joining two people together while enhancing their vibe and wedding theme, formality, and colors into the paper. These pieces of paper usually get framed, saved forever, and shown to their children and grandchildren down the road...it’s really special.

What should brides know about you?

I truly want to help you find the perfect invitation for your big day! I have my clients answer an online questionnaire that tells me everything I need to know about what styles they like, what colors they are using, what embellishments interest them, the budget they need to work within, etc. Whenever they come to see me I’ll have usually put in almost an hour's worth of work to prepare for our meeting, hence why I only work by appointment...you get my undivided attention and time before and during the appointment. I also pull samples of things that will work and/or create something special just for them AND everything I do has to work within their requests. And with these uncertain times, I can also offer virtual appointments or work with clients back and forth via email and they can also order directly online.

What should brides know about wedding invitations and RSVPs?

Don’t wait until the last minute. Professional printing and design take time and it’s just the nature of the business. Wedding invitations to go out 6 to 8 weeks before the wedding and RSVPs should be returned a month before the wedding date. Not only do you need to allow time to get everything printed, but you also have to go through the design process, the proofing process, the printing, and shipping, the assembly process, addressing and stamping, and this all just takes time. We offer all of these services if brides don’t want to do and our professional tools create perfect results time after time, but it does take time.