Sunday, June 12, 2011

Step one: cry. Step two: problem-solve. Step three: cry again.

Last I left you, we had discovered a set of typos in our invitation suite, and we weren't very happy about it.  I immediately worried that I had put the misspellings in myself and the printer had simply reproduced my errors.  I speedily rifled through my email archives and discovered that my documents were clean of the typos, indicating that the error had occurred during the vendor's side of production.  While I was relieved that I was free of spelling guilt, I was just so emotionally spent that I couldn't even focus on problem-solving.  I deteriorated into a moderately weepy mess while Mr. Snow Cone started rallying our Pittsburgh troops to brainstorm for some other options available to us.

Once I had wiped away the tears from my eyes, I notified our vendor of our unhappiness.  Given that the errors in production were caused on her end, I felt it was appropriate to either get a new batch immediately, at no additional cost, or to receive our money back, as we had not received the product we intended.  Fortunately, she responded very promptly, and immediately offered to do a second batch for us in under a week.  Unfortunately, she pointed out that she had sent along some proofs for me to examine a few weeks back, which I had approved.  I had no recollection of this, so I went through our conversation archives, and sure enough, she was right.  And sure enough, the typos were in the proofs that I had given the go-ahead. 

Looking back, here's what happened.  At the time I placed my order, I was worried that we'd be cutting it close with getting our invitations to our guests in a timely manner.  When she sent me the photos, I was really interested in signing off on them to keep production going; I decided to view the photos on my teeny, tiny cell phone screen instead of waiting to get back to my laptop to view them at a fuller size.  On top of the screen size issues, I also let my eyes focus too strictly on little details.  Immediately prior to the photos, the vendor and I had been discussing font and color details; when I got the photos, I focused on the fonts and colors only, allowing my eye to pass over a handful of typos that had crept their way into the proofs.  The fonts and colors looked good, and I wanted to keep things moving along, so I said A-OK to the photos.  Meaning I said A-OK to having them printed with the typos.  Meaning I most definitely played a role in my own invitation demise.

I was perfectly content to let myself be all riled up at the vendor for what I perceived to be her errors; when she pointed out that I had indeed weighed in on this matter inadvertently, I completely crumbled.  I was a sobbing, runny nose, drippy, wet mess.  I was so disappointed in myself for not taking the time to really look over the proofs to ensure that no errors had arisen.  I was angry at myself for being so stern with her about her mistakes when they had, indeed, been our mistakes.  I was upset that our invitations would be delayed by another week.  I was experiencing a maelstrom of emotions, none of them positive.  It was easily the most bruising experience of our planning thus far.

But!  All's well that ends well, right?  The invitation vendor got us a second batch of invitations in barely over 48 hours, and they are exquisite.  Every last detail is beautiful and perfect, and we couldn't be happier.  Now that I'm a week recovered, I can most definitely tell that the invitation typo saga will be one of those stories that gets told to children and grandchildren to illuminate how things can seem downright horrible in the moment, but everything patches up pretty swiftly.  It seems like nothing more than a distant memory now that our lovely invitations are en route to their new homes.  Despite the hundreds of tears that flowed freely on that fateful afternoon, the ultimate conclusion is that we have invitations we love being delivered to people we love, and even Hank 'n' Pat can't really beat that!

Did a miscommunication ever cause a wedding mishap for you?  How did you react?

5 comments:

  1. oh wow! you know, it's definitely easy to make a mistake when viewing proofs on your phone! i'll definitely make sure i don't do that. i'm glad your vendor was nice enough to do the reprints for you so quickly though :)

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  2. Oh my!! That you suffered so much pains me emotionally-- would that all the people of the world not have to bear such albatrosses. Don't fret it though, soon you'll be free of these disasters and on to trifles.

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  3. Jill! This is such a cute website/blog! I found this on Weddingbee and thought it was really cool/random that it was you. Of course, the strawberry blonde part pertains nothing to me, but this is ridiculously helpful in every other sense.
    We "eloped" (everyone knew, it was no surprise) two years ago and have been dragging our feet on a wedding. There are SO many tedious details that I didn't consider. Having this blog is not only helpful to the things we need to do, timelines, etc, but it also is fun to read since it's about people I know!
    I've been with my husband for almost 6 years now and it's nice to see another couple that has been together as long as you two have, especially considering the fact that I'm pretty sure you're the ONLY couple from our graduating class that actually put in the hard work and stayed together despite the long-distance factor (which sucks. I've been there, too).
    Anyways, I wanted to reach out because I'm going to be here in Pittsburgh for a few more years and I know you and Bill are here. It'd be nice to catch up and see how you guys have been, and also to potentially have another couple to double-date with. We have been hard-pressed to find a couple that doesn't want to go out and get wasted. That's not really our scene, and I'm pretty sure you and Bill have other activities you like to do other than that as well.

    Anywho, this is a seriously adorable blog! I'm glad you got the invitations sorted out, I would have been just as upset. It was good that the lady was willing to work with you and get them out to you so quickly! I'll have to get that company's name from you for whenever we (finally) start to plan our wedding.

    Hope to talk to you soon!
    Ciao,

    Ashley Beam (Acosta)

    PS: what graduate program are you in here at Pitt?

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  4. Aww, that sucks, but at least it was fixed!

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  5. Sarah Sahlaney (the real one)June 17, 2011 at 3:10 PM

    Uh thanks whoever stole my identity below. You're right, no one should have to bear such albatrosses, especially Jill of all people!

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