I was so excited to be contacted by Courtney Reece to feature her packaging in a guest post here at Paperie Boutique. (And not just because her site launches with a Barney Stinson quote.) Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

I have just put the finishing touches on my packaging with the help of past photographers that have been featured on your site!

I’m a wedding photographer primarily so when I thought about my packaging I wanted it clean and elegant and reminiscent of weddings. But at the same time I wanted there to be a small pop of color because that’s just a little piece of me. Blue is my favorite color and of course it’s a small piece of my logo so added that pop of color in the ribbons I tied around my presentation boxes.

A very important part of my packaging is my thank you cards. It’s probably one of my favorite parts of all my packaging! It never matters how many weddings I shoot, I never feel any less grateful to be a part of such an important and special day. This is just one small way I can show my appreciation by writing a note of gratitude to each client.

My discs came from Discmakers (a huge thanks to Gail Werner for her referral to them). I love them! They were incredibly easy to order and the quality is great! And they look amazing in the white tin disc holders that I got from Effectuality, Inc.

Finally a brief word on my pricing and information guide, you may be surprised to find they were printed at FedEx Office. They were printed on their gloss text paper and I was pleased enough with the turnout not to turn anywhere else for them as of yet. It’s one of the only places I’ve found right now at a comfortable price that doesn’t require a minimum print order which I prefer, since my pricing and information is subject to change. But as you can see, they don’t look too shabby!

The full list of my vendors are :

• 5×7 and 8×10 White Presentation Boxes: Rice Studio Supply
• Small Round Logo Stickers: Zazzle
• Round Cornered Business cards: GotPrint
• Custom Discs: Discmakers
• White Disc Holders: Effectuality, Inc.
• White Presentation Folders: Staples Office Supply Store
• Black Presentation Envelopes: Paper Presentation
• Blue Ribbon: Michael’s Craft Supply Store
• Custom Address Labels/Folder Labels: WHCC (designed by me)
• Copyright info cards/Reproduction recommendation cards: WHCC
  (designed by me)
• Thank you cards and Envelopes: WHCC (designed by me)
• Wedding Pricing and Information Guide: FedEx Office (designed
   by me)

Thanks again to Courtney Reece – stop by her blog and let her know how great you think everything looks!

P.S. If you are interested in advertising with Paperie Boutique, please contact todd @ this domain. If you are a photographer and are interested in having your packaging featured – or are a vendor and are interested in having your business packaging, marketing ideas, or photography-related products featured – please contact robyn @ this domain to be added to the posting schedule!

Today’s guest post is designed to help you “get it together”. Take it away, Millie!

In the Get It Together Kit, I share the systems, workflow and strategies I used to grow my business from a one-photographer studio that had me feeling constantly overwhelmed to a seven-person studio that has enjoyed exponential growth.

The kit is divided into six main sections (which follow an introduction). They are:

Brain Dump: In this section, I share my methods for clearing my mind, setting goals for the business, creating effective to do lists, and finding ways to accomplish those important goals that aren’t urgent, but are extremely important for growing a business.

Love Your Systems: Here, I give detailed examples of the day-to-day systems I’ve created to run my studio. I cover everything from office organization to tracking workflow to storing archived discs for clients.

Email (I Hate You): I get a few hundred emails per day. At one point, it seemed that email was controlling my life. I found a way to win the battle against my overflowing inbox, and I’ll tell you how. There are examples of how to automate your email, specifics on how to organize folders and subfolders in your email management system, and dozens of tips and ideas that will save you time!

Leadtracker: In this section, I cover my methods for tracking and converting leads. I discuss specifics on everything from the questions we ask future brides to the way we keep in touch with prospects to how we set reasonable expectations with a client once a contract has been signed. Even better, I’ll show you how we continue the sales process after the wedding and boost sales and referrals from our vendors.

Flowstand: What’s a flowstand? One of my proudest inventions. It’s an efficient fool-proof way to organize contracts, travel arrangements, payments, wedding details and more. I show you exactly how I created this system (there are even x-rays of my folders!) so that you can create your own.

Break it Down: This chapter takes you through my workflow step-by-step. I’ll explain the editing and production system we use to edit so many weddings at one time. The process is completely scaleable—it worked when I booked 15 weddings per year and it still works with a studio that handles 90+ weddings. We cover backing up files, rating files, editing, using actions, blogging, designing albums, and assigning tasks to team members to create a workflow chain.

But Wait, There’s More: Throughout the kit, I also share extra tips, resources, discount codes for my favorite tools and equipment, and worksheets that will assist you in starting to….Get It Together.

The Disc: In addition to our 100-page book, you’ll also receive a disc that includes the exact wording we use for simple client communications, the expectations sheet we send to brides, and a 90 Day plan to get you started on goal-setting for your own business.

If you think when you purchase the kit that you’ll just get a 100 page book then think again! The Get It Together Kit Disc has everyone raving about the kit even further. Some have said the information provided on this Disc is worth the price of the kit alone (as if there was not enough in the book itself). Take a peek at what you’ll find on the disc!

I’ve set up a discount code for $20 off the Get It Together Kit (the code is “paperie“). The code is good until July 16th, 2010.

But one lucky reader at Paperie can win the Get It Together Kit! Here’s how to win:

First, follow Get It Together Kit on Twitter.

Next, To win just go to your blog, Facebook account, Flickr account, or Twitter account and post the following:

Get it together now→win “Get It Together Kit” from @GITKIT / getittogetherkit.com at Paperie Boutique / paperieboutique.com by @shutterblog

Post the URL(s) to your link(s) in the comments for THIS ENTRY. Comment(s) must be posted here by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Friday, July 2nd.

Please note: The link you post must direct to a public account. We cannot verify links on private, friends & family only, or passworded accounts and they will not be eligible to win this item. If we have to subscribe to your feed or page or request permission to see it, you will automatically be disqualified.

You can enter up to four times total – one entry each per public, non-private blog URL / Facebook / Flickr / Twitter account.

You have four chances to win but only one chance PER LINK – please do not post the same link multiple times – duplicate links will be removed. And post your 1-4 separate links in separate comments to have multiple chances to win!

Comments are moderated and may be slow to be added today but they will be added by late afternoon or early evening.

Comments on this entry will be numbered in order of posting. The winning number will be chosen by Random.org, and the winner will be contacted within 24 hours of contest’s end to claim their prize. Good luck!

UPDATE: The winner has now been posted here – check it out!




And don’t miss our latest offering…

For years, we could not find an attractive dry erase board for the studio. Being a visual person, I work best when I can see everything laid out in grids or patterns. I wanted to see EVERY single client’s job in process at a glance. It was important to me to be able to know when every wedding was shot and where each one was in our workflow process. I also wanted to know just how much work we had left to do.

Ready-made dry erase boards available at office supply stores didn’t serve my needs and looked too institutional. I even tried customizing them: I purchased black tape and made my own grid lines, but the final product was an eyesore in my otherwise cute studio. Because I didn’t like it, I didn’t want to use it. Enter the “Flowboard“. We provide you with a downloadable PSD (Photoshop) file complete with a video link once purchased to walk you through making the Flowboard for yourself for just $75. This will allow you to create multiple copies of the board, print them as large as you would like and frame them however you wish. The options are limitless since you are in control of the finished product.

Thanks so much to Millie Holloman and the Get It Together Kit for such an amazing promo and contest!

Don’t forget HB Packaging is taking photo box color suggestions in yesterday’s post comments! This is your chance to talk them into boxes and accessories that will match your branding and color scheme!

And check out the new MOOsLETTER—my candy button bags are featured!

If you purchase MiniCards through Sunday you will get free shipping on your order with code A2MEEH.