Icecoldpenguin
May the Force Be With You
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2010
Cute rings!
Thanks
Preliminary Message: This post has nothing to do with the designer of my invitations. She was amazing and did a phenomenal job. I could not ask for more. What happened was simply an oversight by me and by her and she is in no way at fault.
Now for the story.....
It was Thursday evening and DF had just returned from Chicago. We went to meet my mom at Michael's to buy the adhesive to assemble the invitations for the wedding. We took a while to figure out which one to buy exactly and we settled on one that said permanent really big and extra strong hold. From there we went and got some burgers to give us energy to do this.
We were only doing 30 invitations and when we finally got to my apartment it was about 8:30pm. I got out all of the pieces for the invitations here is the list of what we had:
*Black pocketfolds
*purple mattes
*invitation cards
*times guides (go in pocketfold)
*RSVP Postcard (goes in pocketfold)
*Park Ticket Card (goes in pocketfold)
*accomodations card (goes in pocketfold)
*registration and website card (goes in pocketfold)
*purple belly bands
*purple envelopes
*stitch .65 cent stamps from zazzle large size
*yoda .32 cent stamps from zazzle medium size for postcards
*custom with picture address labels from zazzle
*custom monogram stickers in square from zazzle
So we set everything out and tried to figure out what our plan of attack was. We tested the adhesive and it really seemed to work so we decided that we would each do the following:
DF (Greg):
would adhere the invitation cards to the mattes
Teresa:
would adhere the matted invitation cards to the pocket folds
Mom:
Would adhere the back of the belly band to the pocket fold and fold them all over so they could be stuck down with the sticker
After all of this was completed we would go back and put in the inserts. Everything was going splendidly as we assembled everything. Greg of course got done first and he decided he would go and put the postcard stamps on the postcards.
This is where everything BLEW UP!!!
I already knew the stamps for the postcards were too big but what I had not realized is that there are USPS regulations that say I can NOT put them on the opposite side of the address (as in the left side). Here is an image to go by.
When Greg researched it and we started to find the technicalities and I started to panic for a few reasons:
* RSVPs are due by May 15th which means as long as I get them out by saturday it gives them a month to respond which is already short.
*Due to the above I do not have time to get the postcards re-designed to move the address down on the card and make room for the stamp it will take too long
*Due to the above reason I do not have time to get zazzle to print new custom yoda stamps and plus I paid a lot of money for those stamps!
So now we are at the point of what the Hell do i Do!!! As I am freaking out internally and mad externally at myself for not checking this I go and post on the Disbrides groups asking for help. Of course Victoria was online and she starts getting upset because she didn't leave enough space with her design. I tried to assure her it was not her fault and that no one caught it! I did not even think to check that.
In the meantime my mom is on her phone and I looked at her to find out what she was doing. She tells me " you need to sit there and calm down and do something else until I am finished" hahaha I felt like a scolded 5 yr old but it was funny.
My mom got on the phone with the younger brother of her best friend who just happens to be the postmaster at the USPS location her works at. How convenient right?!?!
Aaron agreed to meet us at a burger joint so he could see my invitation and the postcard and try to come up with a solution. Keep in mind by now it is 10:45pm.
So we meet him and he looks at it and starts coming up with all these ideas of stamps I could use. He suggested the celebration forever stamps because they are small enough to go on the card but we would have to fold them over the top of the postcard a little which he said would be fine and they are landscape which means the image won't be sideways. Here is what they look like.
So now I am sitting there stuck with what am I going to do with 40 .32 cent stamps? I can't use them on regular mail because they are not .45 cents. So Aaron suggests I use them on my thank you cards and better yet buy 40 disney postcards and use those as my thank you cards then i can use the stamps and the thank you cards will go with my wedding.
I simply could not believe that Aaron someone who knew nothing about my wedding and is a guy (no offense guys) was able to come up with such an amazing idea. Maybe it is because I was so distraught that I did not think of this but I am so glad he did. So now I have a plan for my thank you cards! He did make a point to say to put the stamp on before I write on the cards because people make that mistake all the time and they don't leave room for the stamp.
So after this we go on our way back to our apartment because we still have to finished the invitations! It is about midnight now and we are all getting exhausted. Mom and I finish out the invitations doing the adhesive. We then make an assembly line out of the inserts minus the RSVPs and start putting them in the invitations. Greg comes to help towards the end and we finished at about 12:45am.
This morning my mom located 40 celebrate stamps and also took my sample invite to see what the postage would be. I got lucky and it will only cost .65 cents to mail the invites so the stitch stamps are enough postage!!!
Tonight all I have left to do is the following:
*put the celebrate stamps on the postcard RSVPs then insert them in the pockets
*close the pocketfolds and seal the belly bands with the stickers
*put the invites in the envelopes and seal them
*address the envelopes at school today
*drop them in the mailbox
So while this wedding crisis may not be the same or even the magnitude that would cause other brides to freak out it did for me. I am still not 100% on the solution because I got the yoda stamps specifically to go with the postcard because of the wording on the flip side...see below:
There is a yoda quote on the RSVP and I just thought I had designed it all so well with putting a yoda stamp on them too. I know the colors will go better with the celebrate stamp but you guys know how it is.
So for future brides what did I learn:
*if you make a postcard RSVP make sure it is the right dimensions for what the USPS requires for a postcard
*make sure your return address is on the Right (not left) side of the card
*make sure it is far enough down that there is room for a stamp
*if you order from zazzle get the smallest stamp you can get for this project
I hope you guys have a magical day!
Teresa