Implications of Adding Mobile Technology and Web Site Improvements for Kate’s Paperie LLC.
Technology to Enhance and Increase Profits from Invitation Customization
Audience: Chief Financial Officer & Director of IT

Valentina Kniess
Managerial Application of Information Technology; MIS-535-1274
DeVry University, Keller Graduate School of Management
October, 2014

Table of Contents 1. Abstract………………………………………………………………….3 2. Brief company background……………………………………………...4 3. Discussion of business problems………………………………………...4 4. High level solution……………………………………………………….6 5. Benefits of solving the problem………………………………………….7 6. Business/technical approach……………………………………………..10 7. Business process changes………………………………………………..11 8. Technology or business practices used to augment the solution…………14 9. Conclusions and overall recommendations………………………………15 10. High-level implementation plan………………………………………….15 11. Summary of project………………………………………………………16
References………………………………………………………………..18
Appendix A………………………………………………………………21
Appendix B………………………………………………………………22
Appendix C………………………………………………………………24

1. Abstract
The customized stationery industry has been greatly affected by the e-commerce movement. New market entrants have gained an advantage by using virtual models and competitors have gained a lead due to their online presence. The wedding market is experiencing consistent growth with couples spending record highs of $30,000 on average (Fraiman, 2014), yet Kate’s Paperie has been in a financial decline since 2008, despite our preeminent services in invitation customization. These losses are due to lack of improvements to the company’s online services and hesitation to introduce new technologies. Through use of mobile technology with social networking applications, the company can effectively increase productivity, enhance relationships with customers and vendors, and gain leverage over the competition. In conjunction with an e-commerce website focused on invitation customization, Kate's Paperie can cut down on costs, yet expand its reach beyond its brick-and-mortar foundation.

Implications of Adding Mobile Technology and Web Site Improvements for Kate’s Paperie LLC.
Technology to Enhance and Increase Profits from Invitation Customization 2. Company Background
The first Kate’s Paperie was opened in Manhattan in 1988 by co-owners, Joe Barreiro and Leonard Flax. Named after Leonard Flax’s wife, Kate, the gift shop focused on fine European stationery, handmade papers, and custom printing. Soon Kate’s Paperie grew to a total of five stores, consisting of four locations in Manhattan and one location in Greenwich, Connecticut. For over twenty years the company was considered the best in the industry:
“Kate’s Paperie is arguably to stationers what New York is to America: the tastemaker, the trendsetter – and thus, to many, the standard by which all others are judged.” (http://stationerytrendsmag.com/index.php/magazine/article/meet-the-new-kates)
Joe Barreiro and Leonard Flax sold Kate’s Paperie LLC to Angelica Berrie in August of 2008. Between 2010 and 2011, four locations were closed due to high rents and dwindling profits (Pasquarelli, 2011). The remaining location moved to a smaller store front located at 188 Lafayette Street. 3. Discussion of Business Problems

Kate’s Paperie LLC has suffered steady losses since 2008. Our sales in 2007 reached over $30 million dollars, but by 2011 we experienced an overall 50% drop in sales (Pasquarelli, 2011) and we declared only $380,000 in revenue for 2013 (http://companies.findthebest.com /l/18764468/ Kates-Paperie-Ltd-in-Englewood-NJ). This decline was at first blamed on the economic downturn of 2008, but in light of steady growth in the wedding industry and a growing e-commerce, it has become clear that Kate’s Paperie is losing its clientele due to technological advancements in the retail market.
In an attempt to modernize its image, Kate's Paperie changed its mission statement from “come and touch” to “the medium is the message”. We adopted this quote coined by Marshall McLuhan, who ironically predicted the World Wide Web (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Marshall_McLuhan), but stopped there. We pay immaculate attention to the medium of our product, the paper that creates our invitations, yet we have neglected to analyze the mediums we use to sell, train, and promote.
The industry has changed, but Kate's Paperie has not. Custom printing gives us “just-in-time” inventory where we order the product as our customers need it, yet we have neglected to offer it through our website. Instead, we still use vendor sample books to sell stationery, which are so large and heavy that it is impossible to transport them for remote selling. Our employees must sit with each prospective client and help them navigate through these giant catalogues, which is a two hour process, minimum. Each client is then assigned a manila folder, filled with carbon copies and contracts which often are lost. These files and sample albums take up a considerable amount of storage space, valued at over $200 per square foot per year (http://www.loopnet.com/ Listing/18692507/188-Lafayette-New-York-NY/). Due to miscommunication and lost paper trails, we often give discounts to our clients, resulting in deeper cuts into our profit.
The invitation industry was once reliant on brick-and-mortar locations, where customers had to come to retailers in order to place their order for customized stationery. Now, with the introduction of e-commerce and virtual stores, customers are opting to do most of their research and ordering from the convenience of their computers and mobile devices. Because of the affordability of having a virtual business, there are many new market entrants and market creators, such as Etsy Inc, which have changed the culture of the industry. Kate's Paperie has slashed costs in the past by closing most of its high-rent locations, but it has not made any new investments into this growing trend of e and m-commerce, hence no profits. The company is currently looking to expand into new locations in order to attract more clientele, but this would be nearly impossible with our current overhead costs and slim budget. 4. High level solution
The solution that brings the greatest amount of impact with the least amount of investment is to equip our staff with tablets. Employment of mobile innovations can be both simple and cost effective. Tablets, such as the iPad, will give our employees the ability to sell remotely and to better communicate with their clients. With the use of the iPad, we can access our custom printing vendors through their extranet portals. This would allow us to show and sell custom printing without the need of large sample albums. With a few additional applications our employees would be able to do the full ordering process with their iPads, including finalizing printing agreements through DocuSign. Complete customer files will be accessed and managed on iPads using cloud storage through Google Drive. We will also be able to take payments with the tablets simply by adding a card swipe. Kate’s Paperie already uses NCR CounterPoint for its POS systems, so adding the CPMobile application to each iPad would be free (Lundber, 2011).
Kate’s Paperie must also bring our custom stationery, particularly invitations, to the forefront of our website. Customers will be given the option to look, choose, buy, ask questions, and find answers on our website. We will do this in collaboration with a more effective use of social media to promote the quality of our products and services. Etsy reported over $1 billion in sales in 2013 through the use of a collaborative culture and an e-commerce model (Frier, 2013). We can encourage our printing specialists to reproduce that same culture through the use of social media and sharing links with our website. We currently have accounts with Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter, but we do not use them to feature our most profitable product, custom printing. Currently printing associates keep samples of their own custom designed invitations in a filing box, but by adding the applications for each site onto their iPads, they would be able to instantly download their samples for the public. 5. Benefits of solving the problem By introducing tablets and an enhanced website for invitation ordering, Kate's Paperie will cut down on labor costs, overhead costs, vendor expenses, and eliminate excessive paperwork. The mobility and multi-functionality of the iPad pose many key benefits. No longer would time and resources be wasted faxing documents or making poor quality photo copies of design examples. Since printing associates would have access to printing samples and vendor catalogs directly on their iPads, they would be able to easily email clear images of fonts, graphics, and design work.
They would also be free to make appointments outside of the store. In the past we have lost clients ranging from pregnant mothers to large corporations, including MoMA and the Hearst Corporation, due to our inability to go to them. With the mobility of the tablet that will no longer be an issue. Not only would we be able to bring our entire selection to our clients and manipulate designs to their liking, but we would also be able to close the sale on the spot. Eliminating the necessity of vendor sample albums also gives us more flexibility in future expansion. As we look at different retail sites, we can consider a smaller space. Sample albums take up a minimum of 12 square feet of retail space and the cost of the basic assortment of sample albums costs $4260 (see appendix A). With the use of an iPad and a wall mount, we allow customers to view sample invitations without paying the fee for the albums, nor do we use valuable retail space.
The ability of iPads to take payments also gives us the flexibility to inexpensively add registers to new locations and easily add more registers to our existing store during the holiday season. Over a dozen cash drawers and receipt printers were made available after closing our other stores. We can use them with CPMobile to make instant registers, or we can use the iPad for credit card sales only, truly making it a completely mobile register. An added benefit of using NCR Counterpoint along with iPad means that we will have easy access to Apple Pay, an application that would allow our customers to pay from their mobile devices. NCR has been working closely with Apple to “integrate this new method of payment into their operations, providing an easy, safe and secure way to pay with a single touch” (Ruane, 2014). The applications that would be added to the iPads would not only enhance customer relations, but are also free or of minimal cost. These applications include Skype and Google Hangouts that would allow our employees to converse directly with their clients either through video conferencing or instant messaging. Video conferencing also makes it easy for vendors to give our employees additional training on their products. In the past we have asked vendors to travel from as far away as California, but now we can arrange training in a way that would be convenient for all of us. Google Hangouts would also increase the accessibility and productivity of our employees. Many times a client will come in or call with a question that only their particular salesperson knows the answer to. Instead of the client waiting for the next day that salesperson is in, we can reach our colleague through Google Chat. Since printing associates also work off of commission, there is an added incentive to reply quickly through these convenient means of communication. Encouraging our associates to use social media to feature new designs not only promotes the uniqueness of Kate’s Paperie’s custom printing, but is also a selling tool. It expands our visual merchandising beyond our store windows and customers can refer directly to a sample on an employee’s Pinterest board. Brides could use our Pinterest sight to easily collaborate with their family, fiancés, and bridesmaids as to the best selection. This is not only a means to inspire customers, but also coworkers. The ultimate result will be heightened employee morale. Featuring our selection of custom invitations on Katespaperie.com will have a twofold effect. First of all it will allow us to reach a global market. The wedding market in the United States has shown continual growth, but overseas it is explosive. In countries such as India, weddings are a 25 billion dollar industry with a 30% annual growth rate (Kannan, 2013). The average amount of guests is 500 and includes four separate events (Gupta, 2014). Using the ubiquity of the internet will allow us to tap into this lucrative market. Second, having an access point on the internet for our clients to look at and discuss invitations cuts down on labor costs. A minimum of two hours is dedicated to each client for each appointment. Most of this time is spent with an employee showing different samples to the perspective client and helping them navigate through the printing vendor albums. Invitations on the web arranged by different collections will help our clients narrow down their decisions and maybe even make a final decision. Our consultants could even email links for specific collections to their clients prior to appointments. Just by cutting appointment times from an average of two hours to one, Kate’s Paperie would save $24,344 per year.
Through the implementation of tablets, use of social media applications, and adding the ability to purchase invitations through our website, we would greatly reduce our waste, gain productivity, and increase our profits. The savings over a five year period would be nearly $300,000 (see appendix B). These low cost, multi-functional options would expand our selling power and enhance customer engagement. 6. Business/technical approach
We must purchase the primary hardware, which includes the tablets. In analyzing which tablet would suit our needs best, the iPad with retina display would be our best choice. 66% of small businesses choose and iOS device over Android (http://www.businesswire.com/news/home /20130507005462/en/Sixty-Six-Percent-Small-Business-Owners-Mobile-Technology# .VDgeAdXF_pC). The iPad suites our needs with a 9.7 inch screen, 16 GB drive capacity, 10 hour long battery life, quality web cam and digital camera (1.2MP and 5.0MP respectively). The partnership NCR has with Apple is the biggest factor in choosing the iPad. NCR, our POS provider, has already created POS applications for the iPad. Since we have already purchased CounterPoint liscenses from NCR, we would have access to these applications for free. In the near future, we will be able to accept payments through the NCR/Apple “Apple Pay” app. We also have extra cash drawers and receipt printers from NCR that we can use in conjunction with the iPads.
We will need to purchase a total of ten iPads through Apple; one each for our custom printing associates (6), the printing manager, and two to use as printing kiosks/registers. We will also purchase an additional three year warranty with zero deductible through SquareTrade for each device. We will need two credit card readers and two adjustable and lockable tablet wall brackets (for printing kiosks). The total initial fees will be $5,439.98 (see appendix B).
AT&T will be used as our wireless provider. They provide shared data plans along with the ability to convert each iPad into its own hot spot. The 30 GB plan should suffice for now (total fees of $345 per month, see appendix B). 30GB allows for 1000 emails, 1000 photo uploads, 200 apps, and over 600 hours of web surfing. If we find that we need more or less data, we can easily switch plans.
Once we have the iPads and wireless connections, we can immediately upload the necessary applications. We will work directly with NCR to download and implement the CPMobile applications that work in conjunction with our existing CounterPoint system. The DocuSign app will cost us $20 per month. Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and G+ apps (including Gmail, calendars, and Google Hangouts) are all free. Google Drive also has a limited free option; however I recommend the upgrade with unlimited storage for $10 per month per user.
The final portion to this approach is changes to the website to include custom invitations. We already have a website, webhost, web designer, and photographer. We need to add a tab for invitations assorted by style. Our customers generally shop according to four categories: classic, modern, color, and letter press. We can pull readily available samples and vendor images to make these collections. Many of our vendors already group their samples in this format so transferring them onto the webpage will be quick and efficient. Key filters should also be offered (price range, colors, method of printing, etc…). Hyperlinks should also be made between our social network posts to the invitation page of our website. We also must add a Q&A portion to our website to help inform and guide our customers.
7. Business process changes Implementation of the technical approach at Kate’s Paperie will need and naturally bring about certain changes to the way we do business. It is better to implement these business process modifications right away, and address all other processes that need adjusting as we encounter them, rather than waiting. These processes include how we address client appointments and process their orders, where our custom printing personnel are located, how we ring our customers up, and introducing a new process for website orders. The mobility of Kate’s Paperie’s custom printing sales associates mean that they may have to leave the store location in order to do business. We have to consider how this will change coverage in the store and what kind of transportation is necessary. Luckily the schedule is currently created so that when an employee has an appointment, there is someone else on staff that can handle walk-ins. The schedule format is the same, only the location is different. We will need to monitor how long these out of house meetings last and make adjustments to the schedule as necessary. All employees, and especially management, will need to pay close attention to the shared appointment schedule in Google Drive. I suggest that whenever an associates adds an appointment, weather in house or not, that a notification is also sent to all staff reminding them to look at the schedule. Our associates will need a means of travel if the appointment is not within walking distance. Luckily in New York City, the quickest mode of transportation is also the least expensive – mass transit. We should add MetroCards to our locked petty cash and create a log to account for them. I suggest we use the pay-per-ride cards ($2.50 per trip) instead of the monthly unlimited ($110). The unlimited is only a better value if we have more than 24 out of house appointments per month. Prior to each appointment, a file or link of sample designs should be emailed to the client. This will give them a chance to make some decisions and ask questions before the actual appointment. These files can be pre-assembled (similarly by category as we plan to do for the website) and the associates would make some quick deletions or additions to make the selection better suited for that particular client’s needs. The “Order Process Check List” form will need to be updated to include this as a step. I suggest that since we have the use of DocuSign that we use it to its best potential. In the past when an order adjustment was made, or additional proofs were required for an order, the customer was told about the additional charges, but no formal changes were created to the original invoice or contract. Even though we have a clause stating, “any changes may accrue additional fees,” some customers would fight the price adjustments and win. We have lost money on several orders because of this. Now when a change is made, we can easily email an invoice listing the additional charges. The client must sign off on the changes and charges before the order will be released for print. The printing manager’s role will expand. Essentially, we will gain an additional printing associate through the sales on our website. The printing manager will have to make sure these orders are processed. Depending on order volume, we may have to add an additional staff member dedicated only to website invitation orders. The printing manager will also have to monitor our social network sites to make sure that the printing associates are creating posts and design boards featuring their invitations. It will also be the printing manager’s responsibility to make sure that all associate posts are tasteful and do not violate any of Kate’s Paperie’s policies. Ultimately, the way and where we sell will change. Printing associates will no longer be locked into the printing department. Instead, they will be encouraged to engage customers in the store itself and use their iPads to cross-sell custom printing products to those purchasing off-the-shelf products. During the holidays and other busy seasons, iPads will be quickly transformed into mobile registers. Sales associates will be able to process small transactions directly on the sales floor.
8. Technology/business practices used to augment the solution
The first practice we should implement to augment these new systems is training. Apple offers free workshops on how to use the iPad. Everyone who is given an iPad to use, must also sign up for a workshop. There are five Apple locations in the city, two of which are within walking distance from our store. Workshops are offered several times a week.
We should also set up training dates on how to use the different applications. One class needs to be specifically on how to use CPMobile, another on how to use the social and Google apps. The printing vendors will gladly give us additional training on how to get the most use out of their web portals for paperless ordering.
We must establish and add to the employee hand book policies and procedures for the iPads. Employees will have to sign for their use and use them within Kate’s Paperie’s policies. We can assign GPS tracking to each device, but will this infringe on privacy when they have the iPads with them outside of work? We should also consider software for employee computer monitoring. Currently we only have six printing associates, but as we grow we may want to consider this. Software starts as low as $99 per device and monitors activities that include excessive bandwidth usage and internet activities (http://employee-monitoring-software-review.toptenreviews.com/spectorsoft-cne-investigator-review.html).
As soon as we establish these changes, Kate’s Paperie should also look at continuing its mobile development and make it part of its business plan. M-commerce is steadily growing and is becoming the means by which consumers are making most of their purchases.
In a few years, smartphones, netbooks, and tablet computers will be the primary means of accessing the Internet, with business computing moving increasingly from PCs and desktop machines to these mobile devices. (Laudon p. 181)
We should start creating plans for developing mobile applications that we can offer our customers. Some applications to consider would be Katespaperie.com for mobile, an easy checkout app, a “design your own stationery” game, and a wedding etiquette guide.
9. Conclusions and overall recommendations to management Kate’s Paperie is struggling financially, and we must implement modern solutions in order to survive in this quickly evolving world of technology. The solutions proposed here are possible to implement on our tight budget and promise to give large rewards. Through the following five recommendations, Kate’s Paperie will cut down on labor costs, overhead costs, vendor expenses, and eliminate excessive paperwork:
1) Mobilize our salesforce in order to attract and retain clients.
2) Use mobile technology to cut down on costs while giving us flexibility and the ability for further expansion of the brand into new locations.
3) Eliminate paper files in order to keep organized, have easy access to client order details, and save valuable space.
4) Use free mobile applications that are readily available to us in order to communicate with our clients, our peers, and to feature our products.
5) Add the ability to order personalized invitations on our website. These recommendations can be applied easily, quickly, and inexpensively. Many of the tools we would need are already at our disposal, but we are not using them to their potential. With an initial modest budget we can implement the following steps to obtaining higher gains with less waste:
10. High-level implementation plan
1) Purchase the initial hardware: ten iPads with Retina display, .two NCR/ iPad credit card readers and two lockable tablet wall brackets.
2) Bring cash drawers and receipt printers out of storage.
3) Purchase the 30GB Shared Data Plan with AT&T with hot-spot capability.
4) Format each iPad with the necessary applications and links for POS, data storage, social networking, and vendor communication.
5) Update the website by adding the ability to browse through and purchase customized stationery.
6) Create policies and procedures about company mobile computer and internet usage. Inform the staff of these new policies and implement them.
7) Create and implement a staff training schedule for hardware, software, and application usage.
11. Summary of project If we were to step back and take a look at the legacy that is known as Kate’s Paperie, we would see 26 years dedicated to fine quality and unmatched service. Kate’s Paperie has raised the bar and established the standards by which all other stationers are judged by today. Many changes have happened since 1988, and commerce is very different today from what it was a quarter of a century ago. Kate’s Paperie deserves to last another 26 years, but in order to do so we need to modernize the mediums we use to bring our products and services to our clients, assist our employees, and enrich the overall selling experience.
Mobile and web technologies are now the new medium for the retailer. Today's customer is accustomed to a selling culture that is offered at their convenience. As a brick-and-mortar retailer, we are bound by our location and by business hours. More and more of our clientele are turning to websites such as Etsy Inc to purchase their custom stationery and our competitors have gained advantages by selling invitations online. Kate’s Paperie’s profits have been on a steady decline ever since the growth of e-commerce.
We must stop ignoring these advancements and instead embrace them. We must use mobile technology and the selling power of the internet to our advantage. Implementation of this plan to introduce iPads and enhance the website will have immediate tangible gains. Matt Bancroft, president of Mobile Helix said, “Mobility has the potential to disrupt business in much the same way as the internet” (McCafferty, 2013). Let us use this power of mobility to not only reach out to our clients, but to also reduce spending. We already have the advantage of being the most experienced and knowledgeable stationers our industry, now we must make ourselves mobile in order to offer this advantage to our customers.

References

Checkerboard Stationers (Ed.). (n.d.). Album order page [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from http://www.checkernet.com/select/orderalbums.asp?Cobrand=CB&Site=Checkernet&vk=1777211146
Constant Contact, & BusinessWire (Eds.). (2013, May 7). Sixty-six percent of small business owners use mobile technology. Retrieved from BusinessWire website: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130507005462/en/Sixty-Six-Percent-Small-Business-Owners-Mobile-Technology#.VDW7M57F_pB
FindTheBest.com (Ed.). (n.d.). Kate's Paperie Ltd, company detail. Retrieved from http://companies.findthebest.com/l/18764468/Kates-Paperie-Ltd-in-Englewood-NJ
Fraiman, S., XO Group, & TheKnot.com. (2014, March 27). TheKnot.com Releases 2013 Wedding Statistics [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.xogroupinc.com/press-releases-home/2014-press-releases/2014-03-27-real-weddings-study-average-cost-of-wedding.aspx
Data from 13,000 brides
Frier, S. (2013, November 12). Etsy tops $1 billion in 2013 product sales on mobile lift. Retrieved from Bloomberg.com website: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-12/etsy-tops-1-billion-in-2013-product-sales-on-mobile-lift.html
Gupta, S. (2014, August 8). Big fat Indian weddings get bigger and fatter. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2014/08/08/indian-weddings/
Kannan, S. (2013, October 30). How technology is changing Indian weddings. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-24727035
Laoudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2012). Management information systems. In K. C. Laudon & J. P. Laudon (Authors), Managemetn information systems (Custom edition for DeVry University ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hadd. (Reprinted from Management information systems, Vol. 12)
LoopNet. (2014, September 16). Beautiful SoHo Store on Lafayette Street: 188 Lafayette, New York, NY 10013 [Advertisement]. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18692507/188-Lafayette-New-York-NY/
Commercial Real Estate Agent
Lundberg, J. (2011, September 26). NCR Introduces CPMobile, Transforming the Way Specialty Retailers Run Their Business [Press release]. http://www.ncr.com/newsroom/resources/ncr-introduces-cpmobile-transforming-the-way-specialty-retailers-run-their-business Marshall McLuhan. (2014). In Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan
McCafferty, D. (2013, December 12). Mobility's potential remains largely untapped [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from CIO Insight website: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-strategy/mobile-wireless/slideshows/mobilitys-potential-remains-largely-untapped.html
Pasquarelli, A. (2011, June 19). Kate's Paperie Fights for Survival / The Paper Trace. Crain's New York Business. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110619/SMALLBIZ/306199976
Ruane, K. (2014, September 9). NCR to help industries integrate Apple Pay [Press release]. http://www.ncr.com/newsroom/resources/ncr-to-help-industries-integrate-apple-pay Schweitz, S. (2010, April 14). http://stationerytrendsmag.com/index.php/magazine/article/meet-the-new-kates. Retrieved from Stationery Trends website: http://stationerytrendsmag.com/index.php/magazine/article/meet-the-new-kates
2014 best employee monitoring software review [Fact sheet]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2014, from TopTenReviews.com website: http://employee-monitoring-software-review.toptenreviews.com/spectorsoft-cne-investigator-review.html

Appendix A

Vendor Sample Albums (basic assortment)

Vendors Crane & Co | Checkerboard |
Albums
Classic Weddings | $350 | Timeless Weddings | $195 | Letter Press Weddings | $425 | Cheers! Party | $175 | William Arthur Weddings | $350 | Simcha Bar & Batmitvah | $175 | Vera Wang Traditional Weddings | $400 | Lifestyles | $ 45 | Crane & Co Occasions | $250 | Checkerboard Design Library | $125 | William Arthur Baby | $250 | Checkerboard Holiday | $ 50 | Crane & Co Business Stationery | $250 | Checkerboard Corporate Holiday | $ 50 | William Arthur Social Stationery | $200 | | | Crane & Co Design Library | $225 | Laser Printing | $145 | William Arthur Design Library | $165 | | | Crane & Co Holiday | $200 | | | William Arthur Holiday | $235 | | | Total initial vendor sample album investment: $4260 |
Data compiled from Crane & Co Stationers and Checkerboard Stationers (http://www.checkernet.com/select/orderalbums.asp?Cobrand=CB&Site=Checkernet&vk=1777211146)

Appendix B
Appendix C
Top 25 Most Expensive Places to Get Married
Based on average cost of a wedding in 2013, couples spend the most on their weddings in the following areas in US. 1. New York City (Manhattan): $86,916 2. Long Island: $57,343 3. North/Central New Jersey: $51,287 4. Chicago: $48,449 5. NYC Outer Boroughs: $47,121 6. Santa Barbara/Ventura, CA: $44,214 7. Rhode Island: $42,469 8. Westchester/Hudson Valley, NY: $42,444 9. Connecticut: $41,745 10. Philadelphia: $40,350 11. Los Angeles: $38,735 12. South New Jersey: $38,620 13. Washington, DC/Northern Virginia/suburban Maryland: $37,487 14. Southern Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas): $37,210 15. Boston: $35,512 16. Houston: $35,475 17. Louisiana: $35,008 18. Lehigh Valley/Poconos, PA: $34,488 19. San Francisco: $33,836 20. Orange County/Inland Empire, CA: $32,021 21. Baltimore: $31,964 22. Chicago Suburbs, IL: $31,489 23. Detroit: $31,044 24. San Diego: $30,885 25. Maine: $29,854*
(http://www.xogroupinc.com/press-releases-home/2014-press-releases/2014-03-27-real-weddings-study-average-cost-of-wedding.aspx)