Creating e-Stationery
Creating a new Invitation e-Card
Creating a new e-Card is easy. Scroll down to the bottom of the e-Stationery start page and locate the menu that reads
Design New.... Select the type of e-Card you want to create (i.e. Save the Date, Invitation, or
Thank You). Next, pick a stationery style. A style is just a basic look and feel for the e-Card: you will be able to
choose colors and imagery in the next step.
If you're creating an Invitation, you will also need to select an event from your Event Manager to associate this
e-Card with. If you don't have any events set up, don't worry: just select the "New Event" option and a new
event will be created for you.
Click the "Next" button to go to the Edit screen for your new e-Card.
Edit and Customize
When you create a new e-Card, you are automatically taken to the Edit screen. To edit an existing e-Card, just click
the "Edit" link for the e-Card from the e-Stationery start page.
Each section can be collapsed and expanded
The Edit screen is divided into four sections: Preview, Color Options,
Content, and Mailing List. Each section can be collapsed or expanded by clicking the
section's "Show" or "Hide" tabs. One thing to remember: no matter how many changes you make in the Editor,
the changes are not saved to your e-Card until you click the "Save" button.
The Preview Section
The preview shows you how your e-Stationery will look to your guests. As you make changes in the sections below,
such as changing colors or updating the wording, the Preview will update automatically. The Preview takes a lot of
space on your page, so you may want to collapse it to hide it, and expand it whenever you want to take a peek at
how the e-Card is coming along.
The color change palette
The Color Options
You can modify all the colors for your e-Card here. The starting default colors are set up to match your website,
but you can change them as much as you like. There are six different color types to modify (such as text color,
background color, and so forth). Not all e-Cards use all of these colors, so sometimes some of these will not apply.
To change any color, click on the square color swatch to view the palette pop-up.
You can select a color from the color palette by clicking on a swatch, or use the Color Slider tab to mix your own
custom colors! Resetting a color to default
If you ever want to go back to the default colors matching your website, just click the reset icon
for that color. Another trick: if you know the HTML color code of a color you want to use (i.e. #FF33CC), or the
color's RGB values (i.e. R:255, G:51, B:255), you can use the Color Slider tab and enter the codes right into the
appropriate fields.
The Content Section
The Content section is where you'll update your text and imagery. Not all e-Cards include imagery, but many do.
Each text field on your e-Card is represented here, and you can change the font, alignment, and text size for each. There
many fonts to choose from, so you can make your e-Card as elegant, whimsical, or wacky as you like!
Some text fields have more than one line of text. In these fields, you can include more than one line of text, or
just one line if you prefer. Text for any field can be aligned left, right, or center, adjusted by the Alignment
dropdown. The text size dropdown is set to the default size for the default font. You can increase or decrease the size as
you prefer. If you change the font for a text field, you will probably need to adjust the text size as
well, many most fonts are sized differently.
Changing your e-Card imagery is easy as well. Scroll to the edit section for any adjustable image and use the image
selector dropdown menu to browse through our library of
imagery; selecting an image will update the thumbnail to the left as well as the Preview section.
Height sizing options are presented when uploading an image
You can also upload your own image to replace any imagery option! Just click the "Browse" or
"Choose File" button (depends on your browser), and select an image to upload from your computer. The image should
be large enough to match the Requirements shown. When you've selected an image to upload, a set of options will
automatically be presented that allow you to crop, or trim, the image height to fit the stationery. You can crop from the
top, center, or bottom of the image. Only images that are too tall to fit will be cropped.
To upload your image, select your crop preference and click the Upload File button. After upload, the thumbnail and Preview section
will automatically adjust to show the new image.
The Mailing List
The mailing list contains all the guests to whom you will be sending this e-Card. For more on managing your mailing
list and sending out email links to your e-Cards and email reminders, see the next section, Adding Recipients
and Sending e-Card Emails.
Adding Recipients
To add a recipient for an e-Card, you only need to know their email address. If you've already added guests with email addresses to your Guest Manager (see the Planning Tools > Guest Manager articles), then you're already a step ahead and can import those guests easily as recipients of this e-Card.
Select "e-Stationery" from the control panel and select to edit the e-Card in question.
Scroll down and open the Mailing List pane by clicking the "Show Mailing List" tab.
Enter email addresses for all your recipients into the recipient list box, separated by a Return or comma. You don't have to add all your recipients now; you can add new recipients later, even after you've sent the initial recipients the e-Card. You can also import recipients if you've added them to your Guest Manager.
Quickly send to all your guests, or to those associated with any event
If you don't want to bother with importing guest names and just want to include all guests in your Guest Manager address book, you can check the "Send to ALL guests in my Address Book" check box. Or, if you'd like to send to all
guests that are invited to a particular event in your Event Manager,
select the "Send only to guest of..." option.
For more on Guest and Event Managers, see the Planning Tools articles.
Sending
Select "e-Stationery" from the control panel and click the "Send" link for an e-Card. Or, if you're already editing an e-Card, you can send your e-Card to your recipients at any time by clicking the "Send This e-Card" button. What you are
actually sending to your recipients is an email linking to the e-Card. You can therefore send them more than one email, and at any time:
for reminders, messages, and so forth.
Select recipients before sending
The Send screen displays a list of all your recipients as a summary, and you can uncheck the names of those recipients who you
do not want to send an email to. This is handy for sending a message or reminder to only some guests, or to send the e-Card to newly added
recipients who have not yet received it. Any recipients who have not been sent the e-Card will be checked by default, and if
all guests have/have not received the e-Card, then all recipients will be checked.
Sending an e-Card Email
The other options on the Send screen allow you to further customize the sent email. The Sender Email will
be specified in the email as who this message is sent from. We suggest you change this from the default to your own email address, or
one that your recipients will recognize. Many email services will assume any script-generated bulk email is spam, so if your recipients do
not have this email address listed as a known address with their email service, they might not get your email.
Enter a subject and email message to suit your needs, and specify how you would like the link to your
e-Card to read.
Emails are sent in MIME format by default, which adds font styling and a nice graphic envelope background. Some email services
might not correctly display HTML formatting, however. If you are having issues with guests not able to read your emails, try checking
the "Send plain text email" box, to send the email in plain text. Your guests will still be able to view your e-Card as always; the
text formatting is just for the email they receive. A sample email is shown below.
All recipients will also have a corresponding profile in your Guest Manager.
Guest profiles include a Correspondence section, so you can track correspondence sent to and from each of your guests. By
default, all e-Stationery emails sent will be included. You can uncheck the "Record this sent correspondence..." box if you do not wish to record this email in the
recipients' guest profiles.
Also by default, all e-Stationery includes a link to your wedding website on the bottom. To remove this link, simply uncheck the
"Include a link to my website..." box.
Click the Send button to send your recipients the email! The email they receive will be styled as in the example below:
Sample email inviting a recipient to view an e-Card
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