Fast-Cheap-Great : The Triangle Mantra

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Two Minutes with Wedding Stationeries Provider | Debra Char from Acadia Cards

Established since 2002, Acadia specializes in producing simple, elegant and stylish personalized wedding invitation to match your event themes and colour. Inline with their corporate strategy to streamline and focus their businesses by division, they re-branded their wedding stationery business to Acadia Card in January 2009. Other than personalized invitations, they also cater for other wedding stationeries such as ceremony booklets, reply cards, dinner menus, escort and place cards, save-the-dates, wedding wishes and thank you cards. Acadia expands its services to Cambodia via The Wedding Planners - for clients who are looking at more unique, personalized and customized wedding stationeries.

We take time speaking to Debra Char about her thoughts and creativity behind Acadia Cards.

The beautiful Ms Debra Char....

How long have you been in the business of making pretty stationeries for bride and grooms?

We started in 2002 and it was by coincidence that one of our corporate clients was not able to find someone to customize her wedding invitation cards so we offered our services. Since then, we started making personalized wedding invitations and it slowly expanded to other wedding stationeries.

Do share with us, what is your area of stationeries specialty? 

We do provide consultation to our clients, discussing their requirements, from colour theme, design concept, material selection right to the finishing treatment of the stationeries.

What do you think are the current wedding invitations / stationeries trends for wedding clients?

Every couple wants to have a unique and personalized wedding invitation. So, we do provide suggestions to meet their requirements and at the same time, we also provide advise regarding tradition and custom. Currently bright coloured cards are back in demand and besides that, the warm and earthy toned coloured cards are still popular.

We’ve heard that you do sometimes provide stationeries for brides who are based overseas.  How does this work actually? All through email?

Yes! If a couple have engaged a wedding planner, we will liaise with the wedding planner. But if not, generally we would deal with them through emails. It's all very convenient actually.

Do you think culture and tradition play a big role in how the wedding couple wants their wedding stationeries done?

Absolutely! As most Asian couples are brought up in such a way where they will need to consult parents and/or family before deciding on their wedding invitation design and wordings. As you may well know, in Asia, a wedding is not just about the couple. It is a family matter too. But then again, sometimes, it all boils down to who is paying for the wedding. That would be the decision-maker, really. You see a lot of the couples in Malaysia and Singapore are now paying for their own weddings so the style of the cards are becoming more modernized.

You have traveled to Cambodia. What is your perception of this country?

Cambodia is a really a new market for us and most of the couples that I met during the two bridal fairs that we attended would like to have unique and personalized wedding invitations as compared to their traditional stationeries. However, the colours / colour themes of the cards are still their main concern. For example the stationeries set that we customized for Chris & Pisey's wedding, despite it being a modernized design, there is still bright colours used for it.

Oh yes. I agree. So do you think wedding stationeries like yours will have a market here in Cambodia?

I think so, of course but as our products are still new to the Cambodian couple, it will take sometime for them to explore and understand how personalized invitations or wedding stationeries can be part of their wedding themes.

I agree. But this trend is slowly changing already as we speak. You can see some couples asking for personalized designs for the wedding stationeries too. Anyway, before we part – can you share 5 Top Tips for the bride and groom when choosing their Wedding Stationeries?

An invitation is the first impression of your wedding arrangements to your guests, so make it impressionable!

Order your cards at least 6 months in advance to your big day to avoid last minute rushing

Know what you want and what you need

Always make provision for additional cards

Do consult parents or family members on appropriate invitation wordings as these things can be rather sensitive

Thank you so much Debra for your time!

Meanwhile - have a look at some of the personalized stationeries for weddings courtesy of Acadia Cards below!

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A Regional Network of Alliances To Bring You The Best In Destination Wedding Planning

Folks! Do check out our recent regional cooperation between Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia!

Read more HERE

Two Minutes with Wedding Planner | Swan Xuan from Confetti Vietnam

In our bid to expand our regional network and joint-alliances, we've had the opportunity to touch base with an established wedding planning company in Vietnam and met with the lovely wedding planners of Confetti. Today, Xuan or Swan as she is known, spend some time talking to us about weddings in Vietnam.

The Confetti Ladies

How long have you been in the business of planning the bride and groom’s big day?

Confetti Vietnam was born when I made the decision to leave Unilever. We started in December 2009 and is one of the pioneers in terms of wedding planning for Vietnam. Going into our second year now, we are adamant to work with other wedding planners to tap the market potentials in Vietnam as well as educate potential clients about the benefits of using a wedding planner.  

We certainly look forward to working with you too. So, tell us more about wedding planning in Vietnam. When did it start, how did it grow, etc.. ?

For the wedding industry in Vietnam, since 2007, most of the other related wedding services like photography, florists, gowns were already popular amongst the clients. Moving on to 2008, some of these vendors offered "full-package wedding services" but it stopped at planning for traditional ceremonies. However, the term of "wedding planner" was loosely used and it did not symbolize the true meaning of the profession and the job scope it entails. As such, a lot of misunderstanding were created. However, every country develops and the people's mentality, perception and mindset changes too. In 2009, the true concept of wedding planning emerged and when Confetti started, we were all about educating and promoting wedding planning services. As a halo effect, people got to know and understood wedding planning.

Now, we believe that the wedding planning business in Vietnam is on the right track and we expect more of the medium and upper class clients to engage the services of a wedding planner. Hopefully, we could reach a status where we are a necessity rather than a luxury - much like in Malaysia or Singapore.

That's a long way to come and we have the same hope for Cambodia too. Do share with us more about your working style. What is your working process from A-Z?

Confetti is not so much a style, but it is the differentiation our the wedding concepts we offer. We believe that weddings are personal and as such, each wedding concept has its own story, a different look and is unique. This is our aim - to create this concepts for our clients.

When a client comes to Confetti, we will do an initial consultation to find out what they truly need.

Secondly, we propose the wedding concept based on their love story, their personality and other relevant factors. And finally, it is all about implementation - that is bringing the approved wedding concept to live.

I'm curious again...Do you think there is a difference between wedding planning now and 5 years ago?  

More and more of the younger generation are returning to Vietnam after spending some time abroad and they bring with them new knowledge, new needs because many have been exposed to the Westernized version of a romantic, personalized wedding. These new generation is what is making the changes here for the wedding industry in Vietnam. Their demands are different and we strive to cater to these demands of a personalized, unique and well-coordinated wedding concept.

What is your hope for the wedding industry in Vietnam? What do you wish to see more of?

One of the biggest concerns for all wedding planners here is when it comes to customs and tradition. It is the traditions, the strong yet conservative traditions that sometimes leave the bride and groom in a dilemma. They want a modernized wedding but their families may want them to stick to tradition. As such, getting the right balance to meet the clients' needs is a tough job for weddding planners here. I know it's completely the same as other Asian countries. I'm pretty sure you guys go through that in Malaysia and Cambodia too.

Half a year ago, secremony (secret-ceremony and destination weddings) seem to be a new trend here in Vietnam, where a different destination and landscape offers the bride and groom a chance to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city and exchange their vows in front of their closest friends & parents only. I do hope this trend will be continue to grow in the future. I believe this is what makes weddings romantic and meaningful. They are touching and beautiful.  

Oh, I totally agree. Usually, what we do in Malaysia is that we carry out the traditional wedding ceremonies as per normal and then the couple may have another wedding ceremony, more westernized and modern. It is a trend now in Malaysia for couples to have 2 or 3 receptions just to please everyone including themselves. In Cambodia, it is a whole new different story though. Think Cambodia as being Vietnam, 5 years ago *smile*. 

So, in a market where middle-class segment is growing and people are becoming more open-minded, where do you see your creativity and styles coming in? How?    

I don't quite care much about classifying my target clients in terms of economic status. Wealth doesn't mean open-minded, middle-class doesn't mean willing to afford a modern wedding style. We offer our service as creators of wedding concepts - a chance for them to personalize their weddings and make it unique and memorable. If they are open to this concept and this idea of personalizing their wedding, then we can work together. The first rule is that they must accept, otherwise, it will be difficult for us to plan anything.

Again, totally agree with you. Before we part – can you share 5 Top Tips for the couple when choosing their Wedding Planner?

For the bride and groom in Vietnam, when choosing a wedding planner, we would advise them on the following 5 tips : 

Check out the wedding planner’s own style  & differentiation

Gauge first impressions about the planner via a face-to-face meeting. This is important to see the chemistry between planner and client.  

Request to see past portfolios to get an idea of the type of work they have done before

Ask what is the wedding planner's principles and workstyles.

And lastly, it is always good if there is a word of mouth recommendation from a friend who have use the planner before!

Thank you so much, Swan for your time! I am looking forward to working together with you in Vietnam soon :)

Meanwhile - here are some of the weddings that the Confetti team has done over the years in Vietnam!

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