I promise, this is the final post about my Save the Date’s!
I know that I already lamented about our printer problems, but there are a few things that we learned with our Save the Date process that I’d like to mention…because if I could do it all over again, I would change a few things! Perhaps you will be smarter than me, and potentially learn from my mistakes? If you missed them, here is Part 1 and Part 2
*First, make sure you are using a computer that isn’t going to freak out on you when you’re printing. I did get a few questions/comments about why I didn’t just do a mail merge. Yes, that seems like that would have been the good plan to implement. Whoops. However, my computer is touchy, and recently it has been freezing up at the drop of a hat…probably because I have used up almost all of my memory. Which reminds me, I need to clean out my computer. So aggravating. Anyway, use MAIL MERGE if you can!
*Secondly, I would make sure that my magnets/Save the Date’s included the city where the wedding is taking place. Since our current address is in Virginia, and the wedding is in Florida, I didn’t realize that it would cause confusion! Someone called my parents and asked if the wedding is in California! I am really not sure why they thought that…perhaps the VA looked like CA to them???
*Third, I would be certain that we sign both our first and last names in the cards for guests who don’t know us well! This wasn’t a problem for most of our guests, as most of the guest list was aware they were receiving a card in the first place, but there were a few of my dad’s coworkers who had no clue who “Katie and Justin” were. D’oh! I feel incredibly dumb.
*Last, but not least, we would make sure my mom checked the glue dot package before sticking them to the magnets/cards. As we were doing it, I thought to myself that the glue dots felt pretty strong, but we kept going anyway. When I got home over Thanksgiving, I asked my mom if she still had the package the dots came in (she has just given me the roll). Sure enough, on the package the box was not marked “light tack,” or “medium tack,” but SUPER HIGH TACK! Well, no wonder people were having a hard time taking the magnet out of the card…sorry everyone!
All in all, I’m glad that we were able to see what problems arose while creating our Save the Date’s…I’m thinking of it as a practice run for the invites, and I am hoping that we won’t run into similar problems with those!
Did you learn some important things while creating your invites/Save the Date’s? Any good tips to share to keep people sane?
I didn't make our save-the-dates myself; I found an enterprising etsy seller to do it for me. If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have STDs at all. We sent them to fewer than 20 families (only out-of-towners), and now I just wish I'd have saved myself the headache. But I love them all the same, and I'm glad we have it on our refrigerator. =)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing this! I see all these DIY blogger brides and the crafty, creative, amazing things that they create and feel like I can't keep up with them (I am sooo not a crafty person)... we rarely hear the things that went WRONG in the awesome creation process. So... thank you for being a REAL PERSON trying to DIY (rather than a jr. Martha) and sharing the mishaps with us! =)
ReplyDeleteOh you poor thing! I fell horrible that you had such a nightmare with these things. Most of my DIY projects involve my computer and a graphic design file that my sister has created for me. As I said before, I've had all kinds of problems with alignment, matching colors and fitting text. sigh Oh well...it usually works out fine in the end. I just wish it wasn't such a hassle.
ReplyDeleteI did not fight this but used www.FreshImpressions.us for our magnets. The girls really were helpful.
ReplyDeleteI am a horrible procrastinator, we still need to do our save the dates. Thank you for the 'what I would have done if' wrap up. That is very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, it's annoying to think you plan and plan and then things still don't turn out as you'd like them to come out. I'm sure they did come out nicely.
ReplyDeleteAs for tips, my biggest one is to have help and let things go when they don't turn out. My programs got miscut (professionally) twice. I was too tired to do it a third time and just made do with what I had. It wasn't what I planned, but was still ok at the end.