Winner of the 2010 WeddingWire Bride's Choice Award

Local Wedding Retailer Receives National Bride’s Choice Award

Chester, VA – January 20, 2010 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced The Cordial Cricket has been selected to receive the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for invitation services.

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

The Cordial Cricket is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that The Cordial Cricket is among the very best wedding invitation retailers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. “We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™”, stated The Cordial Cricket’s owner, Elizabeth Howard. “It has been our pleasure to help brides from all over the Richmond and Central Virginia area with their wedding stationery needs since 2005.”

The Cordial Cricket will celebrate its fifth year in business in February of this year. This award is one of many accolades that owner Elizabeth Howard is very proud of. “We repeatedly hear from brides that the level of service and expertise we provide is second-to-none, which is evident in the reviews we have received on WeddingWire.” said Howard. With economic times changing dramatically, Howard says that brides are more budget conscious now than ever before. The Cordial Cricket ranks service, etiquette and a bride’s budget among their top priorities when working with brides to select wedding stationery. “We take bride’s budgets very seriously and don’t cut corners with service or advice, regardless of a bride’s budget.” said Howard. “We feel that it is our job to help them find an invitation and accessories they absolutely love, and stay within or even under their budget.”

For more information, please visit The Cordial Cricket’s WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/the-cordial-cricket-chester/1bf00f8930b4db29.html.

About WeddingWire, Inc.

WeddingWire is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding vendors. WeddingWire enables engaged couples to search, compare and book over 100,000 reviewed wedding vendors nationwide. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. In addition, WeddingWire has partnered with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO)

About The Cordial Cricket

In business since 2005, The Cordial Cricket is the premier invitation and gift boutique in Central Virginia. Their mission is to provide the most stylish selection of custom invitations, stationery and gifts for both adults and kids. They are located in Festival Park in the Village of Chester, Virginia at 3524 Festival Park Plaza, Chester, Virginia 23831 and may be found online at www.thecordialcricket.com or you may read their blog at http://thecordialcricket.blogspot.com/

Media inquiries please contact:
Elizabeth Howard
804-425-9768
info@thecordialcricket.com

Be A Bargain Bride

Check out this awesome blog post from our of our awesome brides, Linda! If you're a bride, be sure to visit her blog http://beabargainbride.blogspot.com to get great tips & advice! Thanks for your wonderful review of our store and services Linda!

Richmond Internet Awards Nomination

Check it out!!! We have been nominated for an RVA Internet Award click here to read comment #20 for our first nomination. We are so grateful and excited!

If you feel inclined, please take a minute to share your thoughts about our internet usage at the bottom of the page and give us your nomination as well! Thanks to everyone!

January Clearance Sale In Full Swing!!

Yes, you can now jump for joy and grab those car keys, because our January Clearance Sale begins today!! We have marked down items throughout the store for fast sale to make room for all of the great new merchandise that we will be bringing back from the New York Gift Show later this month. We even have a $1.00 section now! Can you believe that?!?

All Holiday Merchandise is now 75% OFF - get it while it lasts!

We have several clearance tables chock full of stuff that is 60% OFF

We have lots of cards that are now just $1.00, stock up on get well, birthday, thank you, wedding, sympathy cards for ALL year long!

There is also a clearance area with 40% off merchandise too!

Don't wait, come in soon as the January Clearance Sale probably won't last the month of January. Happy New Year!!

2010 Here We Come

As the New Year begins, I can't help but reflect on some of the exciting things that we experienced in 2009.

1. Received our official trademark registration on "The Cordial Cricket" from the United States Trademark Office. Which I guess means we can start putting this little trademark thing after our name ® and that no one else in America can use our name!

2. Celebrated our first year in our new location in Chester, VA, which was a huge step up from our first teeny-tiny location.

3. Attended 3 bridal shows and helped hundreds of brides.

4. Had our first ever visit from Santa...still pinching ourselves over that one.

5. Attended the 58th Annual Retailer Excellence Awards as a finalist for 2 national retailer awards sponsored by Gifts & Decorative Accessories Magazine.

6. Wrote our first article for a national publication.

7. Grew our customer list by leaps and bounds!

8. Joined Twitter and forged new relationships with lots of great customers, local peeps and fellow industry folks.

9. Held our first custom silhouette event with local artist Gibson Lane Studio

10. Gave out our first ever "SWAG" bags to excited customers who patiently waited in line for them.

Stay tuned for many more exciting things to happen for us in 2010. We will start the year off right by participating in Richmond's two largest bridal shows in January and in February we will celebrate our 5th year in business! That's right, I started this biz in February 2005 out of my house as a part-time venture and its now 5 years later. I have learned many lessons already in just 5 short years, but one of the biggest ones is that its a much bigger deal to be a 5 year old business than it has ever been before.

Watch out next 5 years, here we come! Shop with us, follow us, be friends with us and help us continue to grow our small business in 2010 and the years to come, we promise to make it worthwhile.

Start the New Year off Right for a Small Biz!!

Do you know a local business that could use some love — in the form of a small business grant worth $35,000?

Intuit wants to help small businesses grow. They’re awarding over $100,000 in grants to 10 businesses this January and February in their Love a Local Business Contest.

Each month, five businesses you nominate will be randomly selected to receive small business grants worth $5,000. Based on the power of your words, Intuit's judges will select one of those five to win their Grand Prize – a grant valued at $35,000.

We would love to win this contest any month! What small biz wouldn't? I know that many of you voted for us in November when we first learned about this contest, however, each month brings a new contest and only the votes for that calendar month count towards that month's contest. So if you would be so kind as to give us your vote again in January and also vote for any other small businesses you love, we would love you back!