Nessa Sander, aka Cardgirl, is a San Francisco-based invitation designer. You can learn more about her business by visiting card-girl.com. She also runs a do it yourself invitation site at cardgirldiy.com. Enjoy my interview with Cardgirl. You can listen to the audio interview or read the interview transcript.

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I read on your web site that before you started designing invitations, you had always loved designing with paper. Where do you think that passion for paper began?

You know, I think I’ve always had this love for art projects. I remember, even as a kid, I loved when it was a rainy day and I could stay inside for recess and work on at projects. And then later in life, I took a class in college on color design. And that was when we actually had to use a lot of different papers and colors, not just working with a color wheel but to actually create things. And that was when I really got into designing with paper. I then, of course, started doing stationery, and… Yeah, so the scrapbooking thing kind of got big and so there was a lot more available in the stores as far as paper and the cool things you could do with paper and all the, you know, all the little trinkets, the hole punches, the glues, the sparkles, all that kind of fun stuff.

What kind of stores would have the stuff you were looking for?

You know, there was this one store. I’m originally from Portland, Oregon and there was this one store called Paper Zone and they just had everything. And so I spent a lot of my time there and I remember, not stationery stores per say, but there were a lot of scrapbooking stores. This was probably about, maybe 7 years ago and that was kind of when scrapbooking was a new big thing. So those were the types of stores I was going into, specialty paper stores I would say.

And were you that person who would send all of your friends the beautiful cards around different events?

I totally was, haha. Valentine’s Day came around and I had a lovely card for everybody. I spent so much time on my Christmas cards, and yes, definitely, I was really into that although I have to admit that now that I do this for a living, I’m probably the last one that you’re going to get a Valentine’s card from, unfortunately. Although I am pretty good at getting my holiday cards out. But yes, I had so much fun doing that. I would spend hours. I’d come home, I had a corporate job at the time and I would come home from work and the first thing I would do is get out all my paper stuff and just go relax in front of the TV with a little project. That was kind of my therapy.

Tell me about designing your own invitations for your wedding.

Well, you know, that, that was kind of a funny, a funny turn of events. I actually, I had looked all over the place for wedding invitations and I had no intentions of making my own. And I had actually, you know, I had a really hard time. This was again about 6 and 1/2 years ago. The world of invitations was very different then and there just wasn’t a whole lot to choose from so I ended up hiring someone to design my invitations for me. And through the process of working with her, I discovered that I just needed to do it myself because I was a little too particular and I didn’t have a huge budget for paying for something really really nice and she just… It wasn’t quite right what she was coming up with, so I had tons of fun working with my mom actually. I spent my entire life at the paper store and had a blast designing my invitations. In the end I probably ended up not quite saving as much money as I had hoped because I had spent so much money going to the store and buying every little thing possible and every sample but I had a great time doing it.

Nice. And did you print them yourself or did you bring them to a printer?

You know, I did all the design myself and I did it using Microsoft Word. This was before I had all my design software. I took it to a local print shop and they printed them for me. And I brought them all the paper and the files and everything and they were very helpful. It was at Minuteman Press actually, and they’re still around.

Ok. And what kind of feedback did you get from your guests once they saw the invitations?

You know, I got a lot of phone calls after I sent them out, people saying how unusual they were and how much they loved them and of course that was fun to hear since I put so much time and energy into them. That was where Card-Girl was born.

And let’s talk about your web site. And it’s card-girl.com. When did you start the site?

I started my web site in 2003. It would have been February of 2003 and it was kick-started by doing my own wedding invitations. I just really… Once I did my own wedding invitations I just really got into designing invitations and also had decided after all the trouble I had had looking for my own wedding invitations, that there was a market out there for this type of service. So I started just kind of planning parties, my own, so that I could send out beautiful invitations. And then I just kind of gradually started spreading the word about my business and that’s when the web site popped up, kind of simultaneously with the business.

Maybe your initial customers were the folks that you sent those invitations out to and invited to your parties.

Yes. Definitely my first customers were friends, family, friends of friends, which was nice. A lot of people supported me to get things off the ground, so thank you to all those people.

Yeah, and then I imagine when they sent out the cards that you had helped them design and print, that word of mouth continued to grow.

Every invitation client job you complete is like a marketing piece because then they send out all of their invitations to all of their guests and then the people who are maybe in the market for invitations or love the invitations call wondering where they got them. So yeah, it was kind of like a grass roots word of mouth effort and it’s been good.

You post regularly to your blog and at your companion site, CardGirlDIY.com. How fun is blogging and do you consider it a creative outlet?

I do consider it a creative outlet. I started blogging last fall and you know, I just, I was never really into reading blogs or never thought I would ever write my own blog but I had a friend who kind of got me started on this idea and since I’ve been writing my blog, I just love it. It’s… I get to… It’s a creative outlet that is different than my invitation business which is fun. I can write about kind of whatever I want and let my personality come out a little bit in my writing and I just think it’s such a fun way to connect with other businesses and other creative people. I’ve just really enjoyed it.

Let’s talk about some specific popular invitations. If a client came in today, what might you steer him or her toward? Anything special?

Well, you know, I always love, I always love to do something unique and different. I’ve noticed actually, a recent change in the way things are looking which I am really happy about because I did start getting a lot of orders for a while that were kind of looking the same. So it’s really fun to have a bit of a change. I love, love when people use really bright, vibrant colors on their invitations. I just think that’s so much fun. And when people are ok with kind of stepping out of the box.

Recently, I had a client come to me with… She’s kind of doing a vintage wedding and she has all these old vintage buttons and she wants to incorporate those into her invitations. So it’s my job now to come up with a really creative way to incorporate the buttons yet have classy invitations yet keep them kind of timeless looking while using really fun colors. Her colors are orange and greens.

As far as swaying people towards a certain design, I would say I don’t necessarily do that because everything is custom and so I’m trying to incorporate the designs into their specific wedding, but I do encourage people to step outside the box a little bit and do something maybe a little more fun than what they had planned. And again, I just love the bright colors.

I’m sure they come out of the sessions they have with you psyched that you gave them a new idea and something hadn’t of thought of before they came in.

Yeah, it is one of my favorite things is the brainstorming session with a client. The great thing about doing custom invitations is I get the ideas from them. They kind of start the brainstorming and then we get to work together to come up with something really cool. I had another client who is… I guess her dad is a geographer and they have all these really cool maps. She wanted to incorporate those into her invitations. So things like that, yeah, it’s really fun. And I hope people are excited when they, when they leave my meetings but yeah, it’s fun to come up with all kinds of cool ideas and see what we can make happen.

And when your client does get back to you and they’re just blown away and completely satisfied, how rewarding is that for you?

That is like the best thing in the world to me. I love… One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to work so closely with all of my clients and I really get to know them throughout the process and I just love when someone calls or e-mails saying, “I love my invitations. I’ve sent them out. I’m getting phone calls from my family. Everybody loves the invitations.” And they just… My favorite comment is when people say that the invitations are just so me. That makes me feel like I did a good job of coming up with an invitation that suits my client. So yes, that is very rewarding.

Thanks to Nessa for talking to me about her business and her blog. If you’d like to know more, visit her web sites, linked below. And if you’d like to hear future interviews like this, subscribe to our free podcast.

Recommended Links:
Cardgirl Custom Invitations
Cardgirl DIY (do it yourself) Invitations & Stationery

Joshua Birch