Home

About Us : How May We Be of Assistance?

Site Terms

Accommodations Cards

— These cards are provided to guests before the wedding with suggestions of hotels and car rentals. It is best to send these with your Save the Date cards or in an earlier mailing.

At Home Cards

— These cards simply state where the newlyweds will be living after the wedding.

Announcement

— An announcement is a piece of stationery designed to announce an important event. Mostly used for the birth or adoption of a child, when you move, or a corporate event.

Assembly Required

— When “assembly required” is noted on an invitation, this implies that there may be a ribbon to tie or the attachment of 1 or more pieces.

Bread-Crumb

— a common navigation tracking method used on websites. As you select categories from the menus, your selection gets added to the end of the “bread-crumb” trail and enables you to see the path you took to where you are at that moment. You can select any point in the trail to back up in the navigation.

Calligraphy

— artistic, stylized or elegant handwriting or lettering often used to address envelopes or place cards.

Calling Card

— a card that has a name and possibly a phone number. Many years ago, these cards were used to leave at someone’s home when visiting. Today, they are used mostly to attach to a gift in place of a greeting card.

Camera Ready Artwork

— for our uses at Paper Affair, it’s high quality, clean and clear line art … black print on white paper. No grays, shading or half-tones. If provided digitally, it must also be of very high resolution, no less than 600 DPI, in a PSD, TIF or JPG format.

Direction Card

— enclosed in your invitation, this is a separate card that assists people in the direction to your event.

Ecru

— This is an off-white or eggshell color used in formal stationery.

Engraving

— A highly skilled craft dating back to the 16th century, engraving is the original form of raised printing. Your invitation wording is etched into a copper plate. Under tons of pressure, the paper is forced against the plate, slightly raising the surface of the paper, with the ink adhering to the raised surface. The result is finely detailed, raised letters with a slight indentation (fondly called the bruise) on the reverse side of the paper. The process of engraving is relatively expensive, but makes a lasting impression. Once items have been engraved, the plate belongs to you for a lifetime of use.

Engraving Die

— the plate used to produce an engraved image. An engraving die will contain the mirror image of your requested typeset. It may be used over and over for engraving your stationery or kept as a keepsake and displayed along with your framed wedding invitation.

Embossing

— This printing method, sometimes referred to as “blind embossing, is similar to engraving in that it produces a raised print on the paper surface but for embossing, no ink is used. Just like for engraving an embossing die is used to press into the paper. The raise created in embossing is much deeper than in engraving, therefore the fine, sharp lines, as are produced in engraving, are not as possible.

Etiquette

— the body of rules of social conduct that tells us what our society considers appropriate and acceptable behavior. Adherence to these guidelines can help make our personal and professional relationships more comfortable and effective. We tend to feel more at ease when we understand what others expect of us. The etiquette that we follow when sending a letter or invitation, like etiquette in other areas, revolves around three basic building blocks: Common sense, courtesy, and usage. See Etiquette for our grand list of tips and guidelines.

Extra Postage

— this implies that your invitation may need more postage due to the size or the weight. See your local post office for cost.

Font / Typestyle

— Paper Affair offers over 100 unique lettering styles to choose from. We can help you decide what font best compliments your invitation.

Letterpress

— is defined by the letterpress printers as relief printing. This means that a raised surface is inked and pressed into a sheet of paper. In the finest letterpress, the printed image is crisp and sharp, because a dense layer of ink is deposited only in the floor of the impression, leaving the walls of the impression clean. Letterpress printing is labor intensive, and printing really well is especially time-consuming and requires a great deal of skill. Years ago, letterpress was virtually abandoned in favor of faster and less expensive printing methods better suited to the mass market, but it’s recently gained resurgence in popularity.

Lithography

— A method of printing in which ink is applied to paper on an offset press. There is no dimension to the print as it lies completely flat on the paper. It’s a clean and modern print style and most importantly, applicable on any paper that can run through an offset press.

Live Help

— A live chat with a service representative. When online, you can click on Live Help and speak directly with someone for answers to questions, tips and advice or to check the status of your order … anything at all.

Monogram

— A monogram is the combination of a person’s initials. A traditional monogram includes the first initial of the last name largest and in between the first initials of the person’s first and middle names. While not classically, “etiquettely” correct, it’s become popular to create joint or married monogram, with the initial of the common last name appearing in the middle, the woman’s first initial to the left of it and the man’s to the right. See examples:

Jane Anne Smith = JSA

Jane and Fred Smith = JSF

A monogram may also refer to any combination of initials to form a unique representation of the bearer’s identity. It could be his initials straight in a row or simply an ornate last initial.

Motif

— A motif is a design that can be added to stationery or invites to add a bit of uniqueness to the typeset. Motifs are quite often used throughout a trousseau invitation set; one element tying all of the pieces together.

Moving Announcements

— these are sent to family, friends and colleagues to announce a residence move. It is important to include your new address, phone, e-mail and the names of the people that moved.

My Account

— your own personal piece of Paper Affair. By logging into My Account you can view and edit your personal, billing and shipping information as well as view your past and present orders and their statuses. To view proofs, you must login to My Account. And by registering, your checkout will be simple as all information is stored in our database.

My Basket

— your shopping basket, where the items you’ve ordered and plan to purchase are. You can edit the items from here and review your total order for accuracy. This is also where you may add or remove items or alter quantities before checking out.

My Wishlist

— a clipboard in which you can store items you wish to look back at and possibly compare with othersÉbasically a basket of maybes. You may add as many items as you like to My Wishlist. The items remain in My Wishlist for 7 days.

Online Proof

— A digital version of your proof viewable online. You will be notified when your Online Proof is ready for viewing. It will be accessible via your account login and password. Your online proof will include the typeset overlaid onto a full color scan for the closest possible rendering of the finished product.

Pew Cards

— Pew cards are small cards with a number written on them to indicate to special guests that they have an assigned seat. These cards are sometimes referred to as “within the ribbon” indicating that guests that receive this card can sit anywhere within the ribbon. These cards are usually mailed in advance with the invitation or given to guests before the wedding.

Place Cards

— These cards are placed on tables to inform guests of where they are sitting. They can also be used to let people know what table they will be sitting at.

Press Proof

— A preview printing of the typeset you’ve approved before the full order is printed. A press proof is produced either on white or ivory card stock or if requested, on a few pieces of the actual stock. Additional fees are associated with press proofs.

Proof

— A preview of a typeset before it’s actually printed on your chosen stock. It allows you to see what your order will look like before it goes to press. We require that all of our customers see and approve a proof before their order can be printed. The purpose of the proof is to check for typos, accuracy and punctuation as well as to approve formatting.

Rain Card

— This card is included in your wedding invitation if your ceremony or reception is held outdoors. The card is used to inform people of where your event will take place if the weather does not permit you to have your event outdoors.

Reception Card

— This is included in your wedding invitation to inform guests where your reception will take place. It is customary to include a reception card when the reception is not taking place at the same location as the ceremony.

Reply / Response Card

— A response card is very important to include in your invitation. This allows guests to let you know if they will be attending your event. In most situations, caterers need to know an exact head count before they prepare the food. The response card should include a self-addressed stamped envelope for the guest to send back to you.

Return Address

— It is very important to include a return address on the back of your envelope. Most people only print the street address, city, state and zip code.

R.S.V.P. vs. Regrets Only

— R.S.V.P. is a French term meaning that the favor of your reply is requested whether you are attending the event or not. When you request for regrets only, you will only receive responses from the people that are not attending your event.

Save the Date Card / Announcement

— these are sent to guests who may need to make travel arrangements for your event. On these announcements, it is important to include what the event is for, the date and the location. You should mail these cards out 3-6 months before the event.

Speed Shop

— a method of navigating our website in which you enter key words, categories or themes, sku numbers or vendor names into the Speed Shop field. The assortment that is revealed will be a direct result of the search values you entered. We’ve associated each of our products with a wide variety of identifiable search elements so you can hone in on exactly what you are looking for using this tool. Keep in mind, words you insert in Speed Shop may produce items that you don’t feel fit within your specific search. The term you inserted may have been listed somewhere in an item’s description, thus included in your resulting assortment.

Thermography

— generally referred to as “raised“ printing, thermography is achieved when a resin powder is dusted over the ink just after the ink is applied to the paper on an offset printing press. The paper is then run through an oven which causes the powder to melt and harden and the ink to “raise” giving it a dimension similar to engraving. It is a very elegant result of slightly shiny raised letters that sit on top of the paper and is the most popular printing process Paper Affair produces.

Third Party Vendors

— service providers that Paper Affair has formed a close working relationship with. They provide additional printing methods such as engraving, embossing and letterpress as well as outstanding product offerings that further enhance our own selection. They each have their own fonts, ink colors and production schedules. Paper Affair associates only with the most upstanding vendors; those whom adhere to the same commitment to service as we do.

Typeset

— the completed physical rendering of the elements chosen for your personalized item including the font, wording, formatting, etc.

Typesetting

— the process of creating and typing your invitation into a viewable document.

Typestyle / Font

— Paper Affair offers over 100 unique lettering styles to choose from. We can help you decide what font best compliments your invitation.

Vellum

— there are many definitions of this term. Paper Affair refers uses this term in reference to translucent paper. Vellum comes in an assortment of colors and styles and makes a beautiful overlay to any invitation.

Wedding Announcement

— this is sent after you are married to people that were not invited to the actual ceremony. It is customary to announce your wedding when you have eloped or had a small ceremony.

Wedding Program

— A wedding program is used to acknowledge the important people taking part in your special occasion, the order of the ceremony and also to remember loved ones. It is also nice to include explanations of special rituals that you may be using in your ceremony.

Wording Suggestions

— A compilation of wording samples used and created by our customers and staff. This is a complimentary service that we have always offered our customers. Feel free to add any suggestions!