The Dandelion Patch

WHAT:
Weddzilla.com was created by a bride for future brides - with one
goal in mind, to simplify the planning of your most important day!
Don't become a Bridezilla! Let Weddzilla do the work for you... for
FREE! Relax and watch vendors come to you and compete for your
business! It's your special day - why should you have to do all the
work?

WHEN:
August 27, 2008 from 7pm - 9pm

WHERE:
Clarendon Ballroom 3185 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, Virginia 22201

HOW:
It's Free!

Register Here!

VIENNA: 111 Church Street NW, Suite 101 Vienna, VA 22180 703.319.9099

RESTON: 11923 Market Street Reston, VA 20190 703.689.2240

As you probably know by now, The Dandelion Patch is THE best place to go for your wedding invitations. However, what you may not know is that we also offer a large selection of personalized gifts that would be perfect for any bridesmaid or maid of honor.

Imagine this.... you are a bride and while you and your maids are getting all dolled up by Amanda Moran (my all time favorite makeup and hair gal), you are all wearing matching spa wraps with your personal monograms. And someone says "say cheese"... the moment may look something like this:




Ok, true story. Congrats to Krista Cunningham and her pretty maidens all in a row for showing off our popular spa wraps! Coming in 8 different colors, these personalized items make for perfect gifts and even better bridesmaid photos!

Chic: Urban & Suburban
By Karin Tanabe for Bisnow on Business (posted August 12, 2008)

Suburban Chic

Banish the stereotypes. These days, girls' nights out are about building businesses. In 2005, when Heidi Kallett heard from her girls group that The Dandelion Patch, a fine stationery store in Vienna, was for sale, she called the store the very next day and made an offer. President of the Junior League of Northern Virginia, overseeing 600 volunteers at the time, she had to wait six months until her term was over to buy the business, and the owner waited for Kallett.



Kallett in front of hundreds of invitations. "People crave attention and personalized items. I think we're at the bottom of the bell curve and it will only go up from here."

"I was looking for something to develop on my own, not necessarily a store, but as soon as I heard about the Dandelion Patch, I stopped looking." Not yet the brand she had in mind, once in possession, Kallett changed everything but the name, exhausting the lease, re-branding, moving locations in Vienna and opening a store in Reston.



"People always expect the best for my kid's birthday parties," says Kallett outside her Reston store. "I could never send an Evite, I would be run out of town."

"We get to deal with the fun stuff in life: weddings and babies." The wedding industry is "huge," says Kallett, who gives kudos to Martha Stewart for the industry's renaissance. She admits that Dandelion Patch is for the girls. "Men only come when dragged by their girlfriends or wives." But dragged they are. With a little luck we'll be expanding inside the Beltway. "We'll know in September. We could also be urban chic soon."

Today I was invited by my good friend, Joe Ritchie of Prospective Inc. to attend a luncheon at Il Fornaio in Reston Town Center to learn more about getting more involved with Wolf Trap. Now, being "Mr. Reston", everyone knows Joe. However as I watched the most experienced networkers work the room, I realized that business cards were being swapped at lightening speed.

Enter my girlfriend... who I'll call Molly. She is a stay-at-home-mom, volunteer extraordinaire and an absolutely connected woman. In this environment, she also works the room with one of our hottest items at The Patch-- personal calling cards. Given that her cards represented her personality (brown and blue with a monogram-- purchased at The Patch, of course!) she certainly stood out in the sea of plain vanilla business cards.

If you don't believe me, Time magazine published an article highlighting the popular come back of these oldies but goodies. I've edited it for your reading pleasure:


May I Offer You My Calling Card?
By Harriet Barovick

In the 1800s, there was a certain logic – and a cool distance – to the formal calling card. Those who were part of, or sought a place among, the social élite would deliver a card with their name engraved on it to someone's home to request a visit. But now that you can IM, e-mail or text pretty much anyone immediately, the Victorian practice seems laughably outmoded, right? Not so, according to a growing number of enthusiasts reviving the old-fashioned social-networking tool. "Is it technology fatigue? A colorful way of branding yourself? We're not sure," says Peter Hopkins of Crane & Co., where sales of the cards have doubled in the past two years. "But the demand is clear. They are our fastest-growing item."

For a flagging stationery industry, calling cards – essentially nonbusiness business cards – have brought a welcome dose of energy. Some are teenier than standard business cards, others much bigger, and many come in bright colors that seem anything but stodgy. Among the buyers: playdate-seeking parents eager for a sane way to exchange contact info, retirees who miss having business cards to hand out (Memphis stationer Baylor Stovall calls them "cruise-ship customers") and itinerant young professionals whose cell phones and e-mail addresses are their most reliable locators. Elaine Milnes, a stay-at-home mom in Grand Rapids, Mich., got fed up with searching for pens on the playground and made a card for herself (title: Caroline's mom). She thinks her playdate cards have caught on because they're "a nicer way of connecting than plugging someone into your cell."

For young job-hoppers, a calling card offers not only a sense of permanence but also a chance for self-expression. In June, Mitch Stripling, an emergency planner who recently moved to New York City, printed cards with cell-phone, e-mail and descriptor ("neo Victorian calling card thingy") info for his 10-year college reunion in an effort to reconnect with people he knew he wouldn't have a chance to speak with at length. "I wanted to get away from the whole status thing at reunions, so a business logo didn't feel right," says Stripling, whose card was a buzz-generating hit at Williams College. "Having my own little logo frees me up. It's a way to be expressive of me outside of whatever job I happen to be doing at the time."

Perhaps the biggest reason the cards have delighted jaded 21st century types is that they work. Says Stripling: "I can't say for sure if it was the card or just the effects of a reunion, but I heard from around 30 people from school in the weeks after." Some are even planning visits.