Last Day To Register - "For Brides Only"

Just a reminder, today is the last day to register to attend our upcoming bridal event. Brides who wish to attend must register by close of business today, October 31st in order to reserve a seat. This will be an event of a more intimate style than your typical "expo" or bridal fair and space will be limited, so please make sure you email us or give us a call at 804-425-9768 to reserve your spot. Please plan to arrive at 2:00, as brief presentations by each vendor, with tips you won't want to miss, will start at the beginning of the event. Please feel free to bring a friend or two, just let us know how many will be in your group when you register. See below for all of the details. Hope to see you there!

If you are a bride-to-be or you know someone who is, please join us for our premier wedding event For Brides Only, on Sunday, November 2, 2:00 - 4:00 at our new store in Chester. Preview the latest in wedding invitation and save the date styles, receive advice from industry experts, register for gifts on our new Bridal Gift Registry and see new must haves for every bride-to-be. This is an exclusive invitation only event and will be limited in size to ensure that the brides who attend can receive the utmost in attention and service. To say "I Do" and register to attend, please reply by October 31. Respond by emailing us with your name, wedding date, mailing address and a contact phone number.

Cordial Cricket Curiosities

Did you know...Our store is the only retailer of Mariposa products south of the James River?

Confessions of a Cordial Cricket Customer

I have lots of wonderful customers, and I am not just saying that, I mean really wonderful customers! I take a lot of pride in getting to know most all of my customers personally as well as their taste in gifts, likes and dislikes. It really makes helping them with their shopping decisions a whole lot easier and I gain at least a friend a day in the process. It is the highest reward to read comments like the following that we recently received from a customer. I just had to share!

"Shopping with your store was (and continues) to be such a pleasure. When I was preparing for my wedding, your help with the invitations, napkins and personalized favors was probably the least stressful part of planning my big day. The quality of service your store delivers is exceptional, both your products and your hands-on customer service. Also, the variety of unique items are wonderful pick-me-ups for special gifts. I will certainly continue to shop in your store in the future!"

~ Natalie, Chester

Support of a Local Community Program

From left to right (Jeff Jarrell - Sir Tux Formals, Elizabeth Howard – The Cordial Cricket, Carolyn Thompson – The 2008 Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Christmas Mother, Elizabeth Wells – Goodman & Company, George Emerson – Emerson Construction)

We held our annual Holiday Open House event at the store on Saturday, October 18th. It was great fun to kick off the holiday season with beautiful displays featuring a wide variety of holiday cards, party invitations and merchandise perfect for gift giving and entertaining. We offered special sales and provided our customers an opportunity to give to others in need this holiday season.

This year our store is sponsoring the local Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Christmas Mother program for the upcoming holiday season. Since the 2008 Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Christmas Mother, Mrs. Carolyn Thompson, also happens to be one of my customers, I invited her to join us at the store during the open house event to accept donations on behalf of the organization and greet customers. Carolyn gladly accepted the invitation and spent the day accepting donations from many generous customers. Donations included new items such as toys, children’s books and non-perishable food, as well as monetary donations. I also asked some other local business owners to join me in making corporate donations to The Christmas Mother. Together we raised just over $1500 in monetary donations, making the event a huge success. Some of the local business who made donations were: Emerson Construction, Goodman & Company, Sestra Bridal & Evening Wear, Sir Tux Formals, Flagstop and The Village News. I would like to personally extend a huge Thank-You to my fellow local business friends who made monetary donations to The Christmas Mother during our Open House.

The Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Christmas Mother program exists to ensure that in our community no family is without food, no child is without toys and clothing and no elderly person is forgotten as we celebrate the holidays. We will continue to accept donations of new kids toys, books, non-perishable food and monetary donations at our store until December 7th. We will also continue thanking those customers who bring donations by discounting their purchases 10%. To read more about The Christmas Mother program visit their website.

Stockings with Style

I know that many of us are not ready to face the fact that the holiday season is right around the corner, nor are our checkbooks! However, being in the business of retail, we have already been getting ready for the holidays at the store for weeks. When you have to look at the cutest holiday party invitations and read holiday cocktail napkins with the funniest sayings ever written all day, it does kind of get you in the holiday party kind of mood. If this stylish stocking invitation doesn't make you want to grab your calendar and pick the date for your holiday party, open house, bunko or girls night out ~ I just don't know what will!

So grab your calendar, call the caterer & order this invitation from the trendy Whitney English collection for your holiday party, before they are gone. Trust me, this one will be gone!

Welcome To Our Blog!

Welcome to our new blog! For those of you not yet familiar with The Cordial Cricket, visit the About Us page on our website for the whole story. For those of you who have no idea what a blog is, consider it your every-so-often dose of information about things I feel are fabulous, necessary or just plain fun. You know, the kinds of things you are always telling your closest friends about that you saw and just had to buy one for you and one for them! I will do my best to write about interest topics and share hopefully helpful thoughts on entertaining, gift giving, wedding trends and of course, stuff that is cute! If you like our blog and want to stay abreast of our latest trendsetting topics, subscribe to our blog updates or just bookmark this page and check in often.