Bridal Funk...
I’ve been so upset regarding the invitation situation that it’s turned me off all aspects of wedding planning lately. We started with the process MONTHS ago – by going to local stores. I went in swearing that invitations were NOT going to be something I was overly focused on, I knew the insane amount of money that could go into them. I then proceeded to promptly fall in love with two of the most expensive elements of wedding invitations – pockets and letterpress. In the end, I’ve chosen to sacrifice letterpress (doesn’t really fit my event formality wise) for pockets! I love pockets of all types – my bridesmaid dresses have pockets, I was in love with those Kangaroo shoes as a kid, and I just think they are neat, and, maybe, just maybe, the pocket will be useful to our guests for storing info related to the wedding and they can use it to easily organize their directions, travel confirmations, etc.
I didn’t fall in love with any pocket invitations at the stores. So I turned to Etsy. Really I was looking for someone with creativity and time to work with me on designing and doing some of the prep work for putting these bad boys together (read: cutting paper) after my DIY save the dates that ate up a significant portion of my life for a month. I'm picky, I had a lot of ideas, and I didn't want to spend the money on having EVERYTHING done soup to nuts for me. I found a seller who was looking to built her “invitation consulting” business and we agreed on a GREAT PRICE ($150.00 plus paper) for the work of designing, printing, and doing all the cutting and paper ordering/coordinating. During the design process we spent a LOT of time on the phone, and maybe I began to realize that my designer wasn’t totally up to speed or as experienced as I wanted. Really, this was fine as well – I took on the bulk of the designing, font selection, layout, etc. (though her husband did design an awesome logo and monogram that I love). We went back and forth with PDF proofs and I thought we were finished. She was going on vacation for 2 weeks, and sent them to me the day before her vacation. I received them and was very disappointed. The color for one of the enclosure headings didn’t match the others, the alignment of the text was off, and the margins were IMPOSSIBLY small, to the edge of the paper – the product just looked sloppy. I hemmed and hawed about what to do – and decided that this was one of those things that would haunt me forever, so I contacted her and explained my issues, and we are going to work to get them fixed and my invitations will go out a bit late (maybe 6 – 7 weeks prior to the wedding).
Lesson Learned: ALWAYS see a physical proof of YOUR final product. If something is wrong, fix it, and get ANOTHER physical proof if you have any reservations.
The whole thing puts a huge knot in my stomach and makes me really upset to think about, because at this point I COULD have just done them myself, I feel like they are never going to look how I want them to, and I’m sort of in the “Eeyore” state of mind lately. Meanwhile – awesome things are happening: my bridesmaids threw me an amazing surprise shower at Gray Ghost winery this weekend, lost 5 pounds through lots of cardio, picked out wedding bands that we both love, engagement pictures turned out phenomenally, and our pre-marital counseling is really teaching us a lot about communication/conflict resolution, yet this invitation thing is the cloud that always hangs over my head…
Has anything put you in a bridal funk? How did you move past it?
I didn’t fall in love with any pocket invitations at the stores. So I turned to Etsy. Really I was looking for someone with creativity and time to work with me on designing and doing some of the prep work for putting these bad boys together (read: cutting paper) after my DIY save the dates that ate up a significant portion of my life for a month. I'm picky, I had a lot of ideas, and I didn't want to spend the money on having EVERYTHING done soup to nuts for me. I found a seller who was looking to built her “invitation consulting” business and we agreed on a GREAT PRICE ($150.00 plus paper) for the work of designing, printing, and doing all the cutting and paper ordering/coordinating. During the design process we spent a LOT of time on the phone, and maybe I began to realize that my designer wasn’t totally up to speed or as experienced as I wanted. Really, this was fine as well – I took on the bulk of the designing, font selection, layout, etc. (though her husband did design an awesome logo and monogram that I love). We went back and forth with PDF proofs and I thought we were finished. She was going on vacation for 2 weeks, and sent them to me the day before her vacation. I received them and was very disappointed. The color for one of the enclosure headings didn’t match the others, the alignment of the text was off, and the margins were IMPOSSIBLY small, to the edge of the paper – the product just looked sloppy. I hemmed and hawed about what to do – and decided that this was one of those things that would haunt me forever, so I contacted her and explained my issues, and we are going to work to get them fixed and my invitations will go out a bit late (maybe 6 – 7 weeks prior to the wedding).
Lesson Learned: ALWAYS see a physical proof of YOUR final product. If something is wrong, fix it, and get ANOTHER physical proof if you have any reservations.
The whole thing puts a huge knot in my stomach and makes me really upset to think about, because at this point I COULD have just done them myself, I feel like they are never going to look how I want them to, and I’m sort of in the “Eeyore” state of mind lately. Meanwhile – awesome things are happening: my bridesmaids threw me an amazing surprise shower at Gray Ghost winery this weekend, lost 5 pounds through lots of cardio, picked out wedding bands that we both love, engagement pictures turned out phenomenally, and our pre-marital counseling is really teaching us a lot about communication/conflict resolution, yet this invitation thing is the cloud that always hangs over my head…
Has anything put you in a bridal funk? How did you move past it?
Labels: custom invitations
posted by Diana at 11:16 AM
5 Comments:
I was in a funk over invites but it was over a crappy printer who really almost screwed up the whole job. No worries, it will all work out.
What are you doing with invites? Are you going to DIY? I have a great printer I ended up working with to print the invites one of my students designed for me. Good luck:-)
TOTALLY sympathize about the invite situation. We had a designer/friend do them and every step along the way i kept feeling bad. "please make the font bigger" was my request like 4 weeks in a row.
And we are sending ours out at the 8 week out month. we didn't do save the dates, so this is semi-unacceptable to me.
I was/am in a total funk, but the invites are supposed to be here tomorrow and I'm just praying that I love them.
...cuz we never saw a physical print, just the pdf. yikes. cross your fingers.
I'm hoping not to have tooo much issue with invitations because we're doing the linen ones and I've already seen a physical sample and we loved it so much. but I'm thinking you've inspired me to get them done a little further in advance than I was originally planning, just to make sure they're ready to go when the time comes...
i have an ordering situation that has almost put me in a bridal funk - i'm choosing to be a positive patsy instead of a negative nancy though. it was with invitations, however (i did those myself); it was with my wedding dress. i'm having a victorian themed wedding & looked high & low for an affordable dress that looked elegantly victorian and not frumpy. my mother finally found a made-to-order one on an online shop for a dress maker out of state. so i contacted the maker, made sure the order would be possible and then placed my order using paypal. at first the dressmaker stayed in contact, letting me know about the fabrics she'd ordered, etc. then the time frame that my dress was supposed to be completed came and went. still no dress. no worries, so i contact her about it. this time her reply takes nearly 2 weeks, but she finally emails me back to let me know that although delayed, the dress will certainly be ready soon. this goes on and on for months, with the communication from her becoming more & more scarce & me becoming more & more concerned that i'll never see this dress. last i heard from her (nearly a month ago now) her latest excuse was that she was out of state for a family medical situation and would have a friend back home mail the dress to me (making it sound as if it is already completed, which i seriously doubt). at this point i was already pleading with her to just return my money to me if she wasn't going to actually ever get me my dress. so the time in which i would have received the dress had her "friend" mailed it to me came & went & still no dress & no reply to the endless emails i sent her. the last email i sent her alerted her that i would be contacting paypal, an attorney, the police and whoever else i would need to see that i got a refund.
so that's as far as the situation has gotten. still no word from the dressmaker & now i have to add to all of my other wedding planning worries (the wedding is in 2.5 months!) finding a lawyer and finding a new dress. not to mention my $5,000 wedding budget doesn't have room for either of those things. but yeah, i'm trying to keep my head over this whole thing & not let it ruin being engaged & planning a beautiful wedding and marriage for me.
any advice on this, ladies? aside from chalking it up as a lesson learned the hard way? thanks! =)
Don't worry, it'll be fantastic!
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