do you charge for wedding stationery samples?

[cardsbykatie]

Just wondering what people do at wedding fairs etc...if you make bespoke stationery, do you charge a small fee for people who want samples? I'm just thinking that with a bespoke service you would need to buy new things depending on what someone is after so if you don't charge anything it could get quite expensive! I'm starting to go to some wedding fairs so trying to get everything sorted!

Thanks,

Katie

[Millsy83]

Perhaps you could charge them, and if they then go on to place an order take the price off the final bill....... that way, you're getting money to cover costs, but they are getting the samples for nothing.

I've not done wedding stationary yet, but I'd be interested to hear what other wedding stationers do.

Not sure if I've helped??!

Sally x

[Pagan]

I don't sell wedding stationery at craft fairs, only at wedding fairs, but I do let every customer know that I do wedding stationery either by telling them or pointing out my banner which shows it. With my wedding stationery a sample can be ordered through the website at a cost of £2.00 per sample which can be deducted from any order placed.

HTH

[sparkysdad]

Perhaps you could charge them, and if they then go on to place an order take the price off the final bill....... that way, you're getting money to cover costs, but they are getting the samples for nothing.

I've not done wedding stationary yet, but I'd be interested to hear what other wedding stationers do.

Not sure if I've helped??!

Sally x

I would do "part samples" free - incomplete cards that show part of the detail or style, and as Millsy said, maybe charge £5 as a sample fee for a set of stationery (invites, RSVP, Order of Service)

Would also suggest that you do what advertisers do when doing a mock up - fill the text areas with random "mock latin" or similar, to show where text goes, without using the actual words.. then the sample is useless as a card in case your potential client is just after a freebie to send to a friend!
estus sic lorem quo filiale berestus

[Millsy83]

estus sic lorem quo filiale berestus

Um, care to translate???! :o

[Caroleecrafts]

I have just done some bespoke samples and not charged, I have gambled with the possibility of a large order for invitations day and evening, place cards and order of service, so the cost of the samples would pale. However, if no order taken then yes I have lost the money but will probably ask for the samples back (fat chance) but would try.

May carry on with free samples at present but the other choice is to charge for samples but offer the amount paid as a voucher off any order over a certain amount, as I have only just added wedding favours etc to my business, am going to carry the loss for the short term.

The other things is the time spent with the couple getting the wording and discussing designs etc may also not be recouped. We spent 1 hour going through ideas plus the cost of materials, my time making samples, so I am already down now keeping my fingers crossed etc.

[KullakitaCards]

At the moment I don't charge for samples, but as my business grows, I probably will later on. My wedding stationery is mostly word of mouth at the moment, but as I promote my site a bit more, and hopefully get requests for more stationery, I think that it makes more sense to charge a small fee to discourage anyone who is not really interested.

A current order that I'm doing is for a friend of a friend who actually insisted that she paid for the samples!

Emma.

[sparkysdad]

Um, care to translate???! :oThere's nothing to translate, it is gibberish, but that's the kind of stuff you can put in mock ups when you want the look of text, but don't have or want to use the actual text..

It just looks more like words than lkdflkgdfgkd likfgjldfkgjdfkl lkdkdf ldvlkjfglk dflkdfgl does!

[xrheax]

I charge if they request more than one sample.

My mum told me to charge for samples, because I make them up for the person who wants it. However, I worried that brides who had to pay for a sample from me versus another supplier where they could get samples for free would choose someone else.

If the couple place an order their entire sample cost is refunded.

I do get a few brides asking for samples for guestbooks and boxes, at which point I have to explain I only send samples for cards, place cards, menus etc. I do provide several images for them though, before I make their order up.

[Chrissy]

I charge just a small fee for samples so any losses incurred are small ones

[The Bead Fairy]

Perhaps you could charge them, and if they then go on to place an order take the price off the final bill....... that way, you're getting money to cover costs, but they are getting the samples for nothing.
This is what we did when we used to sell stationary, as customers seem to get samples from different places & then choose, so this way we were never out of pocket, and customers generally seemed fine with this system, although you always get one or two that expect something for nothing!

[sparkysdad]

This is what we did when we used to sell stationary, as customers seem to get samples from different places & then choose, so this way we were never out of pocket, and customers generally seemed fine with this system, although you always get one or two that expect something for nothing!

The "something for nothing" ones are never going to be satisfied either, so not the best customers to have..

[capecodwedding]

No,
Absolutely not!(welcome)

[Saseydon]

Oh this is a beautiful dress May I as why you dont want it? What is the new dress your found?I would suggest trying to sell it on ebay. It may be quite difficult to resell a wedding dress because people dont wear wedding dresses too often so they are not a hot and fast selling item. There are many online sites where women try and resale their dresses. I cant think of the name, but try an internet search. Good luck.

[Leahlewi]

We've been running a wedding stationery company called Imagine Wedding Stationery for 6 years.
For the first 2 years, we didn't charge for samples. At one point, we ended up getting over 100 sample orders a week but only about 15% of them were converting through to orders. It was really really stressful and expensive too.
For me, it was a really brave step to start charging for samples and as soon as we did, our sample orders dropped massively. I completely freaked out until I noticed that our sales hadn't dropped at all. In fact they started to increase a bit too.
People will take anything they can for free. If you charge for your samples, even if it only covers your costs, they will only order the samples if they are actually interested in your products (or in copying them ha-ha!!!)

Leah
imagine wedding stationery &
imagine doing it yourself

[sparkysdad]

We've been running a wedding stationery company called Imagine Wedding Stationery for 6 years.
For the first 2 years, we didn't charge for samples. At one point, we ended up getting over 100 sample orders a week but only about 15% of them were converting through to orders. It was really really stressful and expensive too.
For me, it was a really brave step to start charging for samples and as soon as we did, our sample orders dropped massively. I completely freaked out until I noticed that our sales hadn't dropped at all. In fact they started to increase a bit too.
People will take anything they can for free. If you charge for your samples, even if it only covers your costs, they will only order the samples if they are actually interested in your products (or in copying them ha-ha!!!)

Leah
imagine wedding stationery &
imagine doing it yourself

I do think "being a bride" is becoming a significant hobby for many girls/ladies/mothers etc.. I don't mean that at all maliciously - the whole bridal industry is geared towards kind of fairy princess fantasies (and I don't mean you crafters who spe******e in bridal accessories etc either!).. There are such huge expectations of weddings/brides and so on.. It is easy to see how it becomes such an "event" that everybody can plan for - even without the small necessity of a significant other in many cases!!

I am sure bridalwear shops get lots of girls in trying on gowns with no intention of buying.. and it is no surprise that stationery companies large and small get inundated with requests that do not lead to orders, so I think your example just goes to show that charging a modest sample fee is acceptable to "real" brides, even though we all flinch from the possibility of losing business by charging..:confused:

[suejspencer]

I think charging a sample fee is good. I had a bad experience with a work collegue a few months ago. She loves my cards and wanted me to make her wedding stationery. She wanted a photo of the castle she was marrying at and different papers and pearls, diamantes etc. So I bought quite a few different products for her to see, then she picked and I made a couple of samples. She loved them and I was over the moon.

She then came back after the weekend, (after I had gone out and bought some of the products) and said that her hubby-to-be did not like them and didn't want them after all. My other work collegues said I should charge, so I showed her all the receipts of what I had bought and she paid. I felt so bad. So now I will charge for any samples (even if they are friends) and I will wait to get a deposit before shopping!