JMS Creative owner and designer Jo Stratfull takes a look at why a visit to their Milton Keynes showroom has been compared to a task on The Apprentice, and how this could help you make the most out of your visit to conquer your wedding stationery.

Tonight sees the final of The Apprentice on BBC1, and we’ll (or at least I’ll) be watching avidly.

You may well be wondering what on earth that has to do with wedding stationery, and asking yourself how it can possibly help you in your wedding planning. Well, it’s all in the preparation.

Quite often in our consultations, people comment that they feel like they’re on The Apprentice. I can assure you that This has nothing to do with me assessing people’s business acumen, and I am yet to dismiss anyone from our ‘Board Room’ with the words “You’re fired”.

The comparison to The Apprentice comes from those tasks where the candidates sit in a room with a designer.

You know the tasks I’m talking about – the ones where the candidates have to create things like packaging or advertising material, and they sit in a room with a graphic designer shouting instructions at them!

The tasks that they’ve had two minutes to prepare for, and yet they are expected to come up with something perfect when they’ve got no experience in the area.

As an Apprentice superfan, these are amongst my favourite tasks as the interaction between the professional and the candidate intrigues me.

The room environment and being able to direct a designer does have a synergy with our design consultations, and I guess that’s where the comparison comes from.

Where it stops, however, is with some of the shocking mistakes that the designers on The Apprentice allow the candidates to make. I get that it’s not real life, and if it was, then that poor designer would most likely steer their clients in the right direction with their expert advice.

Luckily, we don’t live in TV Land.

We aim to empower you in our design process and we sit alongside you, a computer and a showroom full of inspiration. Together, we bring your design to life.

And whilst we encourage you to be forthright with your ideas, we will also advise you on what does and doesn’t work. The final say will always be yours, because after all, they’re your wedding invitations. However, we are there to offer you our years and years of experience to gently hold your hand and guide you towards a design which will have your guests replying with eager anticipation.

After all, what’s the point of spending an inordinate amount of money on your special day if you’re not going to do everything you can to set the right tone and give your guests the perfect first impression?

If you plan to come and see us, the likelihood is that you will have more than two minutes to prepare for your visit, unlike the design tasks in The Apprentice. Although we can help you at whatever stage you’re at, we thought it would be helpful to give you some advice on a few things to think about before you arrive at our specialist unit in Kiln Farm, Milton Keynes.

So, if you’re thinking of taking advantage of one of our design consultations, or popping into our showroom to browse the many items of stationery on display, here are our three top tips to get the most out of your visit:

Think about your venue, and what atmosphere you want to create

The style of your venue can be an excellent starting point for choosing your wedding invitations.

For example, if you’re opting for a venue like The Sculpture Gallery at Woburn, or the stunning grounds of Whittlebury Park, then you’re likely to want your invitation to have a very classic feel with some elements of nature perhaps.

We are a recommended supplier at both of these venues and have created countless invitations for couples getting wed there, and the styles from our classic and nature ranges are very popular choices.

However, if you were to choose a place like Furtho Manor Farm as your venue (where we are also a recommended supplier), then a more laid back, informal approach is likely to be required from your invitations. Our Rustic range has some fantastic options for barn locations.

What kind of feel does your venue have, and how could your invitation help convey that?

Think about the colours you’d like to include

The colour of your bridesmaids’ dresses is typically included on your wedding invitations as an instruction to your guests not to wear that colour on your Big Day. We have a huge range of card and ribbon swatches to take a look at when you visit.

It’s important to understand that exact colour matches are unlikely to happen, especially when materials are different – a hot pink pearlescent card will look different to a hot pink chiffon dress for example.

If you don’t want to include a colour then that’s no problem – we can show you a whole pallet of neutral colours.

Do you have a swatch you could bring along to help us get as close as possible to your colour scheme?

Think about the budget you have in place

Always remember that you don’t need one invitation per person. It’s likely that the number of invitations you need is just over half your number of guests. So, even one of our higher priced invitations will be only a few pounds per head.

If you get the opportunity before you visit, think about the number of invites you may need by jotting down the names of your guests as you would write them on an invitation. Write one invitation per line, and then count the number of lines you have. This will give you a good idea on how many invites you will need.

When you visit our showroom, all of our wedding stationery is clearly priced so that you know exactly where you stand at every point. There are no awkward conversations where you have to ask the price – each style has a price attached to it and that’s what you’ll pay. They only time that will change, is if you make a change to that invitation by perhaps introducing more material to it.

It might be that you find an invitation or save the date style that you love, but the design isn’t right. That’s where we come into our own and we design your invitation, on the style you want. You will still only pay for the price of that style.

How much per invitation are you prepared to pay for that perfect first impression?

Ultimately, our showroom and our service is tailored towards you and giving you the best possible experience on your way to creating a stunning set of stationery that reflects you and your Big Day.

And at the end of our time together, what we really want to hear from you is, “You’re Hired”.