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Many years ago, I was there at the start of a charitable foundation, sponsored by SAAGNY, a business association of which I was a member. One of our first decisions was to bring some joy the children attending Happiness is Camping in Blairstown, NJ; a very special camp for children with cancer.

We are a little over halfway through 2012. You might look at the calendar and say to yourself "It is ALREADY halfway over?" Well I will look at you and ask "How is it only July!?"

Since late 2011, I have known that 2012 for me would be all about the transition from the title of boyfriend, to fiance, then to husband. There are not many more happy yet hectic times in a man's life.

On April 12th, I asked my fiance Sara, to marry me, she said yes and made me the happiest man in the world. Not long after that came, the planning.

The most important aspect of planning a wedding is knowing who to give your many detailed aspects of business too. Even before I proposed, you come in contact with many different vendors who believe they deserve your business. However, wedding being a long complicated process, it is their job to make sure that they make themselves memorable.

Thusfar, from all of the vendors I have encountered, from the jeweler I bought the ring from, to the photographer who took our engagement photos, all I have received are business cards. Great for getting me their contact information, but not very effective in making themselves memorable.

Corporations though, have gotten it a little bit more. At least Bed Bath and Beyond and Macy's gave us non woven tote bag's with paperwork and catalogs in it when we registered. However, it is the small businesses that should be caring about this more!

A jeweler or a florist's main focus may be on retail and walk-in business, they may love to get wedding business but it may not be their main priority. For this reason, they are not doing everything they can to hold on to prospects who meet them today, but may not need them for 3-6 months.  When I bought my engagement ring, why not give out say a customized padfolio to remember him by? I will need a jeweler for wedding bands down the road, and a padfolio would be useful throughout the wedding process, certainly the profit would outweigh the cost.

This week, my fiance and I will be attending our first wedding fair, I would think we should be leaving with an array of customized products, if not just to separate themselves from their competitors at the show.

It seems to me though, any vendors who do value the business of the engaged and soon to be wed, should be focused on how to be as memorable as possible.

Frequently on this blog, I like to discuss great effective promotional products I come across. However, these stories I relay are always about promotional pieces that I have received. As we are directly in the middle of Graduation season, I would love to relay a story, finally, about a book that I had given to someone. So often in this industry and in this position we get so caught up with selling, we easily forget that we can also be the buyers. We have an exclusive ability to find the perfect item we can customize for someone special. Recently, I went from seller to buyer for a gift for a special someone. That special someone would be my girlfriend of four years Sara.

For a little bit of a quick background, we have been together now for almost 4 years. While we met at work, my first job in the industry, she soon left to go to 

Grad School . She went to follow her dream of becoming a guidance counselor, a career where she could spend quality time helping to mold our youth. So, for most of the time we have been together, she has been working her way through grad school while also working hard day in and day out getting good grades in class. Recently, the time finally came for her to graduate.

I didn't just want to give her something generic or impersonal. I wanted to give her something meaningful. Before I get in to the details of what the gift itself was, I should PROBABLY say a little something deep here about promotional products. Whenever I talk to people, outside of the industry about what I do, my main point is always to let people know, promo pieces don't have to be just a stress ball with a logo.  The nature of the items we sell, are customized products to be that can have meaning to people. When done right, they can be powerful as well as effective. Think about all of the items we sell that are to be given away to at events such as breast cancer or autism awareness events. It could also be an customized item for employee recognition that shows someone that they really are appreciated. You never know when the order you are working on could be touching someone in a meaningful way.

Which brings me to my graduation gift, it was a book I saw through one of our vendors and knew it was the perfect gift. Having been in the industry for a few years I knew the place to go was The Book Company www.thebookcom.com  They are the go-to source for any title of any book you can think of it – literally over 3.0 million titles available.  What is really fantastic about what they do, is that they have so many different options of how to customize your bulk book order of 50 books or more. You can have a custom book cover, an imprinted book cover, or my favorite choice, a 4 color tipped-in page.  Since I only needed one book for Sara, I could not take advantage of the standard customization, so I ordered a sample and used my own team to help compose a perfect message.

For my graduation gift to Sara I choose the Dr. Seuss classic, "Oh The Places You'll Go." It is a wonderful book and a very common graduation gift. This particular copy however, with the help of Motivators Art Supervisor Keri Reiter, she was able to design a beautifully page with a special personal congratulatory message for Sara that I simply placed inside the cover. It was something she never expected, and will certainly always have a special place for her.  Books as promotional products?  Absolutely. It goes to show you that you never know when the next order you place will stay with your customer forever.

Oh…and the school was so impressed that they placed an order for customized books for every member of the graduating class.  Now that is the power of books!

For your free sample please email Roni Wright at roni@thebookco.com and reference “Adam sent me”!