After planning her wedding in 2021, Dieu Doan unlocked a creative chamber. While Doan has always had a fascination with fine arts, she did not expect that her wedding would inspire Bid Adieu, her passion project—especially since she works full time as a physician.

The Lafayette native launched the stationery arts business in late 2021 following her struggle to find affordable stationers to design her wedding invitations. Not only does Bid Adieu boast affordable prices, but Doan prides herself on creating unique designs for each client. 

We got a chance to speak to Doan about her love of art, which you can read about below: 

1. What is a typical day like for you as an artist and physician?

Usually during the daytime, I’ll either have clinic, or I’ll do a couple of meetings. I’ve reserved most of my evenings for any kind of stationery work that I’m doing. Nighttime and weekends are when I work on stationery the most.

 

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2. What is your professional background? How did you get into the design field?

I have a minor in fine art; I did that because I’ve always liked books. In high school, I took a bunch of art classes, and then when college came, my goal was to become a physician, but I still loved art. So I thought, “Well, let me just get a minor in fine arts.” That gave me quite a few classes. I took 3D art and I took a sculpting class.

I loved art, but there was never anything that I really, really, really loved so much that I wanted to start a career in it. But when I did my wedding invitations, that’s when I finally said, “Oh, this is definitely it.” 

3. What are the first things customers see when they visit your website?

On my website, the first thing that they’ll probably see is this little animation with a crest design that I made. I also give a little introduction about why stationery is so important. 

I think in this modern day and age, we’re all so used to sending out emails and just doing everything electronically. We’ve kind of gotten away from sending things like handwritten notes or invitations to our loved ones.

I think one of the big things that I wanted to be able to do was to preserve that kind of old art associated with stationery; just making things that are very tangible and tactile. I really wanted to be able to keep that, even though we live in this really fast-paced world. 

4. What sets your business apart?

What sets Bid Adieu apart is that a lot of other stationery designers offer semi-custom designs, where essentially the client is deciding, “Oh I really like this one,” and all they really do is change dates and names. 

But for Bid Adieu, I made the decision to not offer semi-custom designs and do only custom designs. So if they are interested in using Bid Adieu for their stationery, their invitations are one of a kind and unique. No one else has that invitation because I’m making it special for them.

 

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Whether that be including fleur-de-lis for a strong French New Orleans influence, or a certain color palette or envelopes,  those things are all going to be made special for them for the purposes of their invitation and stationery. 

I just wanted my clients to know that if they work with me, they’re getting something that no one else has.

5. What is one thing you think customers should know about your business that they may not be aware of?

I think one thing that they need to know is that I do all the printing in house. So I am not sending out anything to the printer for printing. I’m doing it all within my home. 

So every single step and every single detail of their wedding invitations are in my control. If they want letterpress, I’m doing that from my house. I’ll order the photopolymer plate that needs to be made to do the letterpress, and I’m rolling it, inking it myself, choosing the ink color and mixing the ink. That is all coming from me. 

6. How do you keep your store’s designs fresh and up to date?

For me to keep things fresh, I have to have something that I want to base my designs off of. It could even be something like Bridgerton. I feel like Bridgerton has already had a huge influence on the current generation. 

 

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I’m mostly looking for things in the world or in media that are inspiring. I think most recently I was looking for some artwork for a New Orleans wedding stationery set I’m doing, and many people in the stationery world are mimicking old paintings, but there were none really that were looking at present-day artists. So I found one! She was very gracious to let me use her artwork for this project. I think just looking for fresh art that can inspire a stationery set is how I keep it interesting.

7. Can you share a hint about what designs shoppers will start to see on your website next season?

I think for me, I am going more toward maximalist design. I’m calling it “hyper-romantic.” Just lots of florals and ribbon and really romantic colors and textures.

8. What was your reason for starting Bid Adieu? When did it open, and how has it grown or changed since then?

After I did my wedding invitations, I realized I wanted to keep doing this forever. As a bride, I felt like there were so many stationery and stationers online who are offering these services at a really, really steep price, but I couldn’t afford them, so I had to take things into my own hands. 

Since I’m also a physician, I don’t feel that I’m limited to offering services that I need to live off of, essentially. I think that opens up my services to brides who love this style, but have more of a mid-range price point. So they’re getting the full customer experience at a much better price compared to some other stationers online. 

I don’t have an official opening day for Bid Adieu, but I’m calling it my wedding date since I did my own wedding invitations. I would say the opening time is probably November 2021. That’s when I decided, “Okay, I’m gonna offer this business.” It has grown quite a bit since then. 

9. What are a few of your favorite designs from your portfolio right now? 

There’s one that we haven’t published yet. It’s one that I did with Hannah Herpin Creative (she’s a photographer based in Lafayette) and Kerri Michael Clark, who happened to be my wedding planner.

That is one of my favorite designs that I’ve done to date. The shoot was done at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I sketched out this floral, blue-on-white pattern of the cup that’s in front of the New Orleans Museum of Art. I put that on there and made it to where it kind of wraps the invitation, but the envelope itself is translucent. And the design peeks through the envelope as well.

It happened to match the dress that the bride chose, which is a white tulle dress with a blue pattern on it. I love that those things ended up matching, because I didn’t even realize they were going to use that dress.

10. What are a few must-have items for fall events from Bid Adieu?

Since I do a lot of things that are centered around weddings, I would really, really love to do an invitation suite that has fall as its essence in a hyper-romantic way. Just the idea of getting envelopes and inks in those typical fall colors is something that seems really special.

Bonus: What are some of your best-selling products and designs?

I think my favorite design that I’ve offered so far is this patterned envelope liner that I’ve made—it’s something that people have really, really loved and that I enjoyed making. 

 

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It makes every invitation sweet, and it’s so customizable in that I can change the different things that I draw in it. So if you want to include your dog or your family crest or something, that can easily be adjusted, and it can be something special within your invitation.

To see Bid Adieu’s services, check out the company’s website.