About two weeks ago I was going to get ahead of the game by ordering our Christmas Cards. Over the past ten years or so, I've preferred to design and order cards online so in that time I've probably used every 'big name' stationary company out there. Some I've liked, others have missed the mark. Some have been affordable, others are absolutely insane unless you somehow found a great coupon to use. Eh, I'm not 'married' to any of them, so every year a search would commence for style, pricing, options, quality, etc.
As I got ready to order this years cards, I spent a couple evenings doing the typical internet search for a handful of companies to browse, then looked at the styles they offered this year, and the prices (of course) and then the shipping charges.
In the end I found one I was going to use, but begrudgingly. I just wasn't happy or excited about any of the options 'out there' this year. They were all the same (literally - the same designs on a number of the big companies!) and although I went through the motions of the design and had it sitting in my 'cart' I couldn't bring myself to hit the purchase button. I decided to hold off that night and wait to order them in the morning.
Boy am I glad I did! The next morning as I checked emails, I had an email from a company called "Purple Trail" asking me to review their Holiday cards. Since I don't have a 'go to' company for our holiday cards, photo gifts or other stationary needs, I was happy to give a new-to-me company a try.
Purple Trail offers a large variety of holiday cards - from general holiday greetings to religious-based; from photo cards to non-photo sentiments, even PET based holiday cards! From photo gifts to business needs, stationary, custom made planners and a plethora of photo gifts.
My experience:
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| A large variety of styles, sentiments and price points for almost any event, invitation, wedding or holiday card/invitation |
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| CUSTOM MADE PLANNERS Y'ALL - !!!! |
Let's get designing!
After looking over their website, I dove into the card styles and picked two I liked. At first I was going to choose between them but then I stopped and thought, 'why'? So I designed our photo with two different styles. The editing was pretty similar to a number of other sites so it's user-friendly and fairly easy to dive right in to personalize your photo and cards.
I love the look of matching, customized envelopes with our cards. Purple Trail offers plain white envelopes with your order for free, but for just a little more you can choose a matching design and have them printed with your name and address on them.
For those that are either too busy or just don't like addressing and mailing their own holiday cards, Purple Trail offers a mailing service! They will address, stuff, seal and mail your cards or invitations directly to your list of recipients.
What did I think?
First off: GREAT customer service. When designing the shaped card in the photo below I accidentally had my photo up a little to high in the editor and didn't notice. When I placed my order, they caught it - and emailed me to let me know the head of the tall-guy in the photo was going to be cut off a bit and although they would be happy to print them that way if I wanted to, they invited me to go back and edit the card before they printed.
Thank You for that catch! Yes, I obviously didn't want to chop his head off. I edited, they printed and sent.
I wanted to review both the scalloped edge card as well as a more typical rectangle so here are photos of two styles Purple Trail offers. The rectangle below is absolutely lovely! The colors of the blue and red are just a little bit different than a lot of companies and the quality of the print is top notch. NOT ONE complaint or 'con' to find. Not a one.
And do you see the gorgeous 'wood grain' backs to my cards? LOVE LOVE LOVE. The natural weathered wood look is so popular now, and the white and gray shades of the wood coordinated perfectly with our beach themed photo.
The quality of the print on the envelopes was beautiful. No smearing, no smudging and bright colors throughout. No fading or change of ink shade. Quality control gets a thumbs up!
If you are looking for holiday or Christmas cards and invitations for 2017 I highly recommend Purple Trail; but more importantly I think is to mention they would be worth checking out for other items as well. Custom guest books for weddings, bridal showers, etc. Custom daily planners. Calendars. Photo coffee or tea mugs. Invitations, birthdays, t-shirts, graduation gifts...
Good people, great products and fair pricing.
Thank You Purple Trail for allowing me to work with you and introducing me to your wonderful products in return for my honest opinion.
