9/9/10

Mini Melt Downs

I have been quite remiss in blogging lately. I feel like I have a lot of things to talk about (is it possible to have TOO many things to talk about?) but just don't feel like I have a minute to myself lately, let alone to write. I've been traveling every weekend, work is uber busy at the moment with a conference in Boston coming up at the end of the month, trying to fit in happy hours/dinners/drinks/walks by the river with friends who I haven't seen in weeks, not to mention that football is about to start so there go our Sundays. I admit it, tailgating Eagles' games is way more fun for me than debating the value of wedding favors. true.

But in any case, there's just been so much going on that I feel like I'm losing myself a bit.

We are officially, today, 100 days out from the wedding! (people are always astonished I know the exact number, and then I remind them I have a countdown on my blog - which right now is helpful but I think when it hits 50 I may have to put a big black censor bar over it) I am so freakingly excited for being so close - 100 days out means 97 days until Marrvelous's marvelous parents arrive, 99 days until we're sipping on cocktails and local cuisine with family and friends at our house watching most of them meet for the first time, it means 102 days until we take off with the in-laws, my sis and my aunt for a week in Florida and it means 108 days until Wizarding World of Harry Potter!! (comes a close second behind big days I'm excited for in the next few months :)

I've started working on the invites. A bit of a DIY endeavor with the help of a good friend. And thank god for her because if not, let's just say I would have had the printer and the computer (along with the blasted Illustrator software) out the window and on the curb out front within 10 minutes. Then quickly followed by a drain on my wallet as I whipped out the credit card to pay several hundreds of dollars for invitation suites made off-site. We made progress though, and hopefully finishing the deal next week - and will certainly share after they go out.

Still debating about having them printed professionally -- could use some help, is this something Kinkos/Staples could do? Or should I find a little mom and pop printing shop in Philly? It's probably no more than 80 pieces all together so I'm hoping the fee wouldn't be too bad. Thoughts?

10 comments:

  1. Woo! Congrats on 100 days! It'll go so quick and then all of a sudden you'll be in Hogwarts! :)

    On Kinkos - we had them print our programs which were just plain paper, front and back but did need some cutting. For 90 (aka 45 pieces of paper since two fit on a page) it cost us around 80 bucks. Yikes! But we paid it cuz it was last minute and we needed it right then! But for other paper products, we found a wholesaler - there we bought paper and then could cut it to our sizes. Maybe the simple printing fee then at Kinkos wouldn't be too bad. I think its the time and labor for cutting that makes it expensive. Or just stick to standard paper sizes at Kinkos? I'm trying to help but just rambling. And done! :)

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  2. We are in the trenches of the invitiation printing right now. I designed our 3-part invites on Photoshop (90 suites total) and we're having a Cleveland company print them for us and it's VERY INexpensive. We tried to go with Kinko's first but they weren't the most attentive - we've had great service so far at our stand-alone business.

    The only snafu we've ran into thus far is that two of our pieces are lighter print on a darker background, and I wanted the actual paper to be colored cardstock. Turns out you can't do that without doing letterpress as the ink will sink into the dark paper. So we have to ink a background onto white cardstock, which isn't the way I wanted it but oh well that's what happens when you try and DIY with no knowledge of the printing craft!

    Sorry about this long comment, feel free to email me if you want to talk printing further :)

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  3. I think Lisa over at Craft My Bride used Office Depot or Staples to print her invitations.

    You've probably read about my unsuccessful home printing trials. I'm hoping that my printer can handle cardstock better than it handled the magnetic photo paper. But I may have a mini freak out and pay a lot of money at the last minute for invitations, too.

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  4. @Jen - I know, eyes on the prize! (Hogwarts that is ;) I know, I think the paper size is a big issue in all this

    @Kerry - agreed, I thought ours wouldn't be too hard and then I found myself staring at the wall of a stationary store, motionless for 20 minutes until the kind woman walked up and said "Doing invitations yourself?" Was never much of a crafter, guess it showed!

    @Sarah - I did read that! And one or two of the tests we did came out with a tiny teensy weensy streak in the middle and I'm like OH NO, not printer issues! Which is why I'm thinking maybe I just don't even tempt it, just work with her to finish the design/sizing and then go pro!


    So basically - there are 3 pieces in each (well mostly 3, some are only getting 2 pieces bc there are several overseas family members that we already know 100% are not able to make it so we're skipping the RSVP on those - why bother with international postage - twice actually- just for a small postcard looking tidbit when they've all already responded to the STDs?)
    So the invite, rsvp and enclosure - and fairly standard size cardstock. I was going to buy all pieces already cut to size (from the aforementioned stationary store) and take those directly to the printer. Is that what would be more expensive at the printers than having them print 8 x 11 and cutting my own?

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  5. HOGWARTSSSSSSSS! YES!

    It is the light at the end of the wedding stress tunnel. Well, that and being married to Mr. Marrv :)

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  6. That is a great post! Congrats on the 100 days:) Kisses and have a great day

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  7. we printed at home and it.... took a good number of hair-pulling-hours. (each card needed to be hand-fed. holy hell.)

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  8. I have no advice. Only sympathy! It WILL happen and you WILL get married, my dear.

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  9. Hello -- little update on the printer issue -- We've managed to make it work quite nicely with some minor adjustments.

    For the envelopes, we dampened the edge ever so slightly (less spit than licking the sticky part), which helped the feeder brush/roller thing pick up the envelopes. We only put one envelope into the tray at a time. This worked like a charm.

    I'll let you know how printing the card stock goes, but I also found a source online for Epson brand card stock that supposedly works better. Email me if you want further details.

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