I'm glad that I have a minor in marketing because one of the most frightening things to contend with in the preparation to become active in our agency's book is that fact that we have one opportunity to show who we are and what makes us unique as the expectant mother (and father) sort the stack of letters into "yes" and "no" piles or decide whether to save our web profile as a favorite. So, how do you take 10 1/2 years of marriage and all 30+ years of your life and distill it into 4 pages?
We began our process by looking at samples from other couples who have worked with our agency. When we did, both Troy and I realized that we did very little reading, but spent time commenting on the photos. It was valuable to know that that's how we "read" a letter, because that was how we approached the letter going forward.
Our agency gives their clients 17 templates to use, or you can choose to have a graphic designer create your letter. Since we had a budget for "marketing" and it wouldn't allow for a graphic designer, we opted for the templates. Knowing that we were visual people, and comfortable with the knowledge that we had a collection of good photos from which to choose, we immediately identified the template that would allow us to use the most photos. Even at that, we only had 15 photos to convey all facets of our lives that made us the couple we are. So we knew that beyond the 900 word allowance we had, we could further tell our story with the overall design of the letter.
We began by identifying those personality traits we wanted to highlight. It was like a company identifying their corporate culture. We wanted to show our sense of humor. We wanted to show we were laid back and friendly more Casual Friday than Business Attire. We like being outside, and living in the country. All of this was important for our letter layout.
First, we chose a letter template that looked less formal. It didn't lack professionalism, but the overall layout was casual with photos turned slightly on their axises and corners overlapping. The other template had a very symmetrical layout, with color blocking and the look was simply "to slick" for the people that we are. Next, we had to decide on a color palate. I tried many in variations in blues, yellows and reds, but in the end, we chose earth tones with the overall color a nice sage green, boarders of maize yellow, body text in charcoal grey and the headings in rust red. Now that I think of it, it's the same color palette as our living room, so it truly describes us. Finally, we tried font after font, and finally decided that a serif font (the ones that have the little feet on the letters) was again too formal. We chose a sans serif font that looked less stuffy and more relaxed.
Now that the layout was telling the story of who we were, we could move on to the content. In may ways, this was easier than the layout, because the message was more blatant, the story more obvious. The most important is the front photo, the main photo of us as a couple. Our agency had lots of rules about what photos we could use and which we couldn't, most of which were pretty standard portrait photography rules. The most important of these was that we had to look natural, approachable and friendly. My dad, the photographer who took our photo, did a wonderful job capturing this, but I think it may have been my mother who insured the success of the photo as she said something that generated a laugh just before my dad took the photo. The result is the single best photo of my husband and I in our 10 1/2 years of marriage.
The rest of the photos were chosen with care: a variety of horizontal and vertical shots and candid and posed photos. We wanted to show us engaged in pursuing our interests but also tried to show the relationships we had. And all the while we wanted to show those "corporate culture" characteristics we had identified early on.
In hindsight, the 900 word text was easy to come up with. We simply wrote from the heart and told all of the ways we could share our lives with a child.
We hope that the final product will not only be appealing, but real too. After all, we only have one chance to make a first impression.
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