Here is a photo of Angie Zabritski, our Vietri representative, presenting Belle Cose owner Jane Carter-Getz (left) with our tenth award. We’d like to thank our wonderful staff for creating the beautiful displays, and our many customers for making the Vietri brand such a huge success here at Belle Cose!

Last night the staff at Belle Cose were lucky enough to get to learn about Riedel stemware, and the reasons we drink different wines out of different shaped glasses. At first we were all skeptical. How could the shape of a glass effect the taste and smell of a type of wine, let alone enhance it? But by the end of our lesson we were all true believers (and also maybe just a little tipsy!).

To host our special event, Riedel reps and husband and wife team Elbie and Debi poured us each four glasses of wine  - two whites and two reds – in the glass that would bring out the best flavors and aromas in each. We learned that the size of the mouth and bowl of the glass had a lot to do with the aromas that were released – the narrower the top of the glass, the more aromas you’d experience (best for crisp, fruity whites like Savignon Blancs and full bodied Bordeauxs), and the wider the rim and larger the bowl, the more muted the flavors (best for oaky Chardonnays). We were most surprised when we tried the different types of wines in different glasses – the tastes and smells were completely transformed! The worst was the “joker” cup, or little plastic cup you’d typically find at parties – it made the wine taste cheap – yuck!

Since now our staff are all experts on Riedel glassware, we’d love to share some of our knowledge and help you pick out the best glasses for your favorite types of wine. And if you’re looking for something a little more universal, we now know all about the Riedel’s versatile “O” glasses that work with both white AND red! In the meantime, we’d love to share some photos and video clips of the event to give you a “taste” of our experience. Bottoms up!

Here’s where we learned about the different rim and bowl sizes and how those help release the ideal amount of aromas for each specific wine:

Finally,  you’ll learn how to properly clean a Riedel glass:

Like Save the Date cards, wedding invitations will help set the tone for your wedding, and should compliment the event itself. They will subtly reveal how your guests should dress, and may even influence the type of gifts guests will give the couple. More formal invitations are best for church ceremonies, evening weddings, and black or white tie receptions. Invitations with more color  and/or casual themes are best for beach weddings, garden party weddings, etc.

Invites are sent out six weeks before the wedding, but you should order them at least three months prior to allow time for engraving, addressing, and mailing. It’s even better to order them as soon as you know the time, date, locations for the ceremony and reception, and guest list.

So: what exactly goes inside of these envelopes once you know the venue, time, date and guest list? Start with the invitation itself – it is the largest of the cards and traditionally comes in three sizes – 6 3/8 X 8 7/8, 5 1/2 X 7 1/2, or 4 1/2 X 6 1/4. The invitation can be a single flat card, have one fold in the center, or be folded twice (into thirds), which is the most traditional format for  wedding invitations.

We’ll write more later about what exactly gets printed on the invitations themselves – while there is some basic information that the invitations need to convey, the etiquette that dictates the wording is so extensive that it needs its own post in our mini-series. In the meantime let’s take a look at what comes next in the invitation envelope: enclosure cards.

There are many types of enclosure cards, and each one serves its own purpose. While you will definitely need to include at least one type of enclosure card, you most likely will not need to include all of them. But let’s review each one and why it’s used.

Reception Cards
These cards are used when the ceremony and reception are at two different places – because they’re in two locations, they’re considered two separate events. The reception card, if you include one, is always placed on top of the invitation itself. Like the invitation, the reception card has its own specific wording, spacing, etc. (more on this later).

Reply Cards and Envelopes
At one time, reply cards would have been considered rude – the lady of the house was expected to hand write an R.S.V.P. to any invitation, and including a reply card would have been an insult to her knowledge of etiquette! But while R.S.V.P.ing has become an increasingly lost art (see our post on R.S.V.P.’s), reply cards have become necessary to provide the host or hostess with an accurate headcount. Nowadays each wedding invitation comes with a reply card with the invitee’s name(s), a to provide the name of  a guest or date (if applicable), a place for the invitee’s response, and a request for a response before a specific date. The pre-stamped reply card envelope is then addressed to whomever will be receiving the reply cards and tallying the headcount.

Accommodation Cards
These cards let out-of-town guests know where they may make reservations to stay for the wedding. While this information usually goes out with Save the Date cards, you will want to include accommodation cards in your invitations if you are not sending out Save the Dates.

Admission Cards
Like a ticket, these cards need to be presented to allow admittance to the wedding. These are typically utilized for larger weddings or by well-known people in order to discourage “crashers.”

At-Home Cards
If the bride and groom are moving in together after the wedding, they may include a card providing their new address and a move-in date so that guests will know how to reach them at their new home.

Ceremony Cards
Not all guests are necessarily invited to the ceremony – it may be a small, private event with a larger reception held afterwards. In this case guests are sent ceremony cards. These are the same size as reception cards and should be engraved to match.

Directions and Map Cards
These cards help provide guests with the direct route to your ceremony and/or reception, and should compliment the invitations in color, type, paper, etc. They are helpful for out-of-town guests, or if the reception or ceremony venues are difficult to find or far away from one another. Directions and map cards may instead go out with Save the Date cards.

Pew Cards
If pews are assigned at the church, pew cards may be included in the invitation. Guests will present these cards at the ceremony and are then ushered to the appropriate pew.

Transportation Cards
These cards will inform guests if transportation is going to be provided to/from a specific meeting point to the ceremony and/0r reception. They typically read: “Transportation will be provided” and list a time and place fo where to meet.

Within Ribbons Cards
Pews that are reserved for specific guests are typically sectioned off with a white ribbon, and Within Ribbons cards are sent to guests who are assigned to these pews. Cards are presented at the ceremony, and guests are then ushered to the appropriate section.

Once you have decided what kinds of enclosure cards you’d like to include in your invitation, you’ll need to have them printed, stuffed and mailed. When stuffing envelopes, the invitations should be layered in size order with the invitation on the bottom, followed by the reception card and any other enclosure cards. Reply envelopes should be placed face town on top of the reception card, and the reply card should be placed face-up beneath the flap of the reply envelope. 

Single fold invitations should be placed inside the envelope with the fold facing the bottom of the envelope and enclosure cards stacked on top. Double fold invitations should be placed with the bottom third of the invitation folded up, the enclosure cards placed inside, and the top half of the invitation folded over. The front of the inside envelope should face the back of the outside envelope.

We hope you have a better understanding of the cards inside a wedding invitation, their meaning, and what you’re supposed to do with them. You may also be able to make a more informed decision as to what kinds of cards you’ll need ton include in your own invitations. Stay tuned for our next installment in out wedding invitation mini-series where we’ll go over wording, language, and type. Until next time, take a look at the Vera Wang Blue Lace collection – the blue lace folder opens to reveal the printed invitation (shown at the beginning of this post), and the reception and response cards are engraved or thermographed in blue ink on oyster white cards to match.

We’re thrilled to announce the arrival of our newest addition: Belle Cose Baby! Just this week we’ve added a whole new department to the store, dedicated to the most adorable baby clothes and accessories we could find. We know you’ll want to snap up these precious items as gifts for that new baby in your life, whether it’s your own bundle of joy, or a new niece or nephew, grandchild, god-child, cousin, or just a brand new baby who simply needs to be spoiled!

The Belle Cose Baby department features products from some of our favorite designers, including local Jackson Hole based company Dormouse. Mother-daughter team Linda MacGregor and Daryl Peightal share a vision for a line of children’s clothes and accessories that are “fun, practical, and durable,” and each piece features one of their adorable embroidered critters. Plus, everything is 100% customizable – clothes, towels, tote bags, and other accessories can be monogrammed or even hand-stitched with your child’s original artwork. We love this super soft baby tee in cornflower blue with a playful orange giraffe.

Some of our other favorite products in the Belle Cose Baby department include the “Take Me Home” outfits by Serena & Lily, “Sweet Baby” onsies, bibs, shoes, cups, and dishes by Natural Life, and keepsake spoons by Basic Spirit. But that’s not all! You’ll have to come by Belle Cose to see the rest for yourself, and one of our staff can help you pick out the perfect gift for the baby in your life.

Engagement Announcements
So, you’re engaged – congratulations! This is exciting news that you’ll want to share with all of your friends and family. Typically couples end up making what feels like a million phone calls in addition to posting an announcement in their local newspaper, but there are other ways to spread the word as well. Although it is not compulsory, you may consider sending out formal, engraved engagement announcements. Your parents may also want to throw an engagement party, and in this case they will send out formal invitations to the event. While some couples do not choose send engagement announcements or have engagement parties/invitations, they are always an option!

Bridal Shower Invitations
Before a wedding, a friend or non-immediate relative of the bride will typically host a bridal shower, tea, or luncheon. Bridal showers are occasions to give gifts that help the couple establish a home together - this tradition has taken place a dowry, which used to be given to the couple by the bride’s father. The invitations for the bridal shower are usually informal and hand-written, but can be formally engraved as well. They are a great place to mention the couple’s registry information (since it is inappropriate to mention a bridal registry on the wedding invites or save-the-dates). Often times a bridal shower will have a gift theme such as linens, recipes and kitchen ware, garden, travel, or lingerie. If this is the case, the theme should be mentioned in the lower right-hand corner of the invitation.

Save the Date Cards
Do not underestimate the importance of Save the Date cards! While they do not include R.S.V.P. cards for guests to fill out and return (those go out with the wedding invitations), Save the Date cards do inform guests that they should start planning accordingly to attend your event. Save the Date cards should match the wedding invitations, should be sent out between six and three months prior to the wedding, and include information on where out-of-town guests should make hotel reservations.  These cards are also a great place to direct your guests to if you your wedding website if you have created one. Wedding websites are a new phenomenon, and are ideal for providing guests with more information about the venue, accommodations, the couple and/or wedding party, and any bridal registry information.

Rehearsal Dinner Invitations
The Rehearsal Dinner is hosted by the groom’s family, and takes place the night before the wedding. It is an occasion for the groom’s family to honor the bride’s family, and invitees typically include members of the wedding party, some family members, their spouses and dates, and out-of-town guests. These formally engraved invitations are sent out by the groom’s family two weeks prior to the wedding, and should compliment but not match the wedding invitations.

Phew – that’s a lot to do before the wedding, and lots of invitations to send out! We love when there’s a consistent theme that runs through each of your invitations and/or announcements, and wanted to share one of our favorites – the Yellow Poppy Collection by Kate Spade. This collection has options for Save the Date cards that compliment invitations to any event leading up to the wedding, or the wedding invitations themselves. But use your imagination when it comes to mixing and matching – while there are guidelines and customary procedures that go along with invitations for pre-wedding events, this is a great opportunity to be creative, express yourselves as a couple, and set the tone for your big day.

At Belle Cose we know that a prompt “réponse” is one of the most necessary social courtesies, and  if you’ve been following our series on stationary etiquette you’re  now well-educated on the proper technique for R.S.V.P-ing.  We hope you are putting your new skills to good use – perhaps since our last post you’ve even had the chance to politely reply to an invitation to a professional conference, baby shower, or Easter brunch! 

But now that we’re all experts in the etiquette of the polite social reply, what happens when the roles are reversed? You are now the host of a social engagement -  with so many types of occasions that require a mailed invitation, how do you even begin to think about the invites?

At Belle Cose we believe that a good invitation is the perfect blend of creativity and etiquette. The invitation is where you set the tone for your event – it should match the event in formality (or informality!), and will inform guests of the appropriate dress. While there are guidelines as to what information and structure needs to be included on certain types of invitations, the look and feel is entirely up to you. The tone of the event will come across by way of colors, layout, images, paper, texture, ink, embossing, typeface, shape, and size of the invitation; think of this as an opportunity to make creative choices as to how you will provide information about the event.

But aside from all the flourishes, there is specific information that any invitation needs to convey. You will need to tell the guests who is hosting the event, what kind of event it is, where and when it takes place, and information as to how the guest should R.S.V.P.  You also may want to consider including instructions on dress code, especially if the event is formal (for example, there are subtle but important differences between black tie and white tie – you wouldn’t want your guests to be confused!).

If you were inviting guests to a sit-down dinner and reception celebrating your father’s 80th birthday, you might want to follow a format similar to this one:

INVITATION LINE: Mr. and Mrs. Richard H.Taylor
REQUEST LINE: request the pleasure of your company
EVENT LINE #1: for cocktails, dinner, and dancing
EVENT LINE #2:  in honour of
EVENT LINE #3:  the eightieth birthday of
EVENT LINE #4:  Mr. Frank H. McKean
DATE LINE: Saturday, the fifteenth of June
TIME LINE: at seven o’clock
ADDRESS LINE: The Boca Grande Club
CITY AND STATE LINE: Boca Grande, Florida
REPLY REQUEST LINE: The favour of a reply is requested

Many invitations to social engagements may follow a similar structure, depending on formality. Another less formal type of invitation may read:

REQUEST LINE: Please join
INVITATION LINE: Meg and Dick Taylor
EVENT LINE #1: for a Halloween Party
DATE LINE: Saturday October 31 st
TIME LINE: at 9:00pm
ADDRESS LINE: 395 Loudon Road
DRESS CODE LINE: Costumes are encouraged!
REPLY REQUEST LINE: R.S.V.P (518) 555-1212

So while there are many ways to structure invitations to your social event, there is still basic information that the invite needs to communicate. The design and layout of the invitation will dictate the tone of the event, but it is the fundamental information that will tell your guests who is hosting, what kind of event it is, and where and when it takes place. 

We’ll leave you with these delightful invitations by Sarah LeClere. A blank printable card is attached to a charming hand-drawn image; each one conveys that the event is going to be festive, fun, beautiful, and as thoughtfully put together as the invitation!

For one of the first installations in our series on Stationary Etiquette, we wanted to cover a basic, but often overlooked formality – the R.S.V.P.

Why has this convention, a seemingly obvious social task, started to disappear? New York Times Op-Ed contributor Rand Richards Cooper tackles the topic in his article It’s My Party and You Have To Answer. He speculates that invitees are less likely to respond when the invitation is sent out as a digital e-vite. Cooper says that in the age of cell phones that we hate to commit to an event, preferring to “micro-adjust to our schedules as they unfold around us.” At Belle Cose, we think that e-vites, while less time-consuming than mailing out physical invitations, project an air of informality. Why would guests feel compelled to formally R.S.V.P. when the invitation isn’t exactly formal? To get an accurate and polite response to your invitation, we encourage sending something in the mail as opposed to sending out an e-vite.

But why is it so important to R.S.V.P.? Aside from a social courtesy (the host has not only been kind enough to invite you to a party, but also has taken the time to send you a special invitation – it is only polite to respond!) an R.S.V.P. is necessary to give the host/hostess an accurate headcount. He or she will need to know how much food to serve, how many and refreshments to provide, how many places should be set, or how many party favors or grab-bags will be needed.

To correctly respond to an invitation, there are several steps you must take to follow for proper etiquette. First, the invitation should provide you with instructions to accept or decline. It will list a phone number, email address, physical address, or provide an R.S.V.P. card to respond. For phone numbers and emails, simply call/email the host and let them know if you’ll be able to attend. The invitation may also say “regrets only.” In this case, the host assumes you are coming unless you call to decline the invitation.

In the event that the host has listed a physical address but no R.S.V.P. card, you should mail your reply in the same tone and structure as the original invitation. You should include:

1) your name
2) whether you accept or decline the kind invitation of
3) host or hostess’s name
4) the type, date, and time of the event
5) the reason you are not attending, if applicable

If there is an R.S.V.P. card included, the host will have specified the names of the people invited. This will indicate whether you are allowed to bring a guest, date, children, etc. You should mark the people who are able to attend, and never bring a guest unless you are specifically invited to do so.

After you have responded to the invitation, you should make proper arrangements to attend the party, and pay special attention to the attire suggested. The formality of the invitation will either imply the formality of the dress code, or the invitation will explicitly say “black tie attire,” “casual attire,” or “___ themed attire” for costume parties.

Finally, once you have responded to the invitation, you should uphold your obligation. Only under extreme circumstances should you fail to attend the party once you have R.S.V.P.’d that you will be there.

We’ll leave you with this sample R.S.V.P. card by Ashley Woodman for the William Arthur Simplyput collection. Your guests will respond in style with scalloped bottom edge and tangerine-lined envelope.

Here at Belle Cose we are loyal supporters of snail mail. We love a hand written note, an embossed invitation on textured paper, or a beautifully designed card. We love writing out personal messages to our loved ones, and we love the excitement of receiving envelopes in the mail.

But even while digital communication has gotten so casual, at Belle Cose we know that there are still occasions where you’ll want to send out a more formal announcement or invitation: think weddings, babies, landmark birthdays, special parties and events, thank-you notes, or RSVP’s. Or maybe you simply want to hand-write a letter… imagine that!

We could write a dissertation on the proper protocol for composing cards and correspondences – there’s just an endless amount of information on what kind of paper, ink, structure, and tone you’ll need in each of the instances you’ll want to put anything through the mail.  

This is why we’ve decided to start a series on stationary etiquette. We’ll aggregate the best information from all the experts to give you the most accurate code of conduct for your calligraphic communications. We’ll feature some of our favorite stationary and give you ideas for new and creative twists on classic correspondence, and we’ll even ask you for you about what you did to make your announcement or invitation original and unique.

Now, because it’s always appropriate to send a thoughtful thank you note, and also because we want to thank you for reading our blog, today we’ll leave you with these adorable animal thank-you cards by William Arthur. We love the quirky, hand-drawn creatures litho-printed on the thick white 3 3/4″ x 5 1/8″ note cards. We think these are the perfect way for both children and adults to share their appreciation.  

Now stay tuned for the next installment of Belle Cose’s Stationary etiquette, or stop by the store for a stationary consultation for your special occasion!

Here at Belle Cose we know you’re ready to celebrate the return of warmer temperatures; you’ll want a fresh new look for your table when it’s time to entertain. But without totally remodeling your kitchen, what are some simple ways you can spruce up your kitchen and living room?

“For a festive spring-time spread, we love clean, pastel greens and blues like the ones Vietri is using right now,” says Ashley Merrit, one of Belle Cose’s design-minded staff. “The little birds on this platter are so perfect for spring.” Adding just one of these statement springtime pieces to your china collection is a great way to freshen up your decor: serve Easter brunch on a pastel colored tray, or display easter eggs in a hand-glazed sky-blue bowl as a table centerpiece.

“These have been flying off the shelves too”, says Meritt, holding up a bouquet of faux tulips. “People just put them out and they’re good to go!” Ready-made flower arrangements are another simple way to add a touch of spring to your home: put them in one of our Vietri pitchers for springtime style that doesn’t even need to be watered!

For even more springtime decorating tips, swing by Belle Cose and one of our staff will help you find that perfect piece to spruce up your table. Be sure to check out our website for easy ordering as well!