The Invitations, Part 1: Printing

Total cost: $70 roughly including printer ink

Never, ever, never work with a computer late at night without any sort of calming influences or libations.The horror! The frustration! The alignment! I thought I would be clever and make my own invitations using my hp printer, but as I know, and as I should have remembered, computers are finicky creatures and oftentimes will simply behave badly just to get a rise out of you.

My invitations have four parts essentially (originally had three, but after a few choice words towards my Word document, I had to negotiate additional wording into its own spot): the card with the Edward Lear drawing of the Owl and the Pussycat plus quote from the poem, an insert with the actual "this is the time and place", another insert with RSVP information and what to wear, etc., and then an old/vintage postcard with the actual RSVP wording. It seemed easy enough. I started with the easiest part, the RSVP. Done. Then, the invitation insert. Done. Then, the card with the picture and quote and the RSVP information printed on the inside. Not so done. I kept aligning, fiddling with the margins, etc., but to no avail! The card prototypes kept coming out all wiggly. I tried another tactic. I created an additional insert for the RSVP information and forgot printing inside the card. Still, though the wiggles...

My best friend called me to check in on me since she is already married and had plenty of her own planning stress. I let out a string of sailor-worthy curse-words, and she responded, "I was joking about checking in on you. I didn't actually think you'd be freaked out." Well, that's computers for you.

She gave me some good advice: breathe and walk away. I did breathe, but I didn't walk away. I'm not one to walk away from a battle. The day must be conquered! But, the breathing did help, because I'm not sure exactly what I changed that made the difference (the alignment again? the margins? the page layout?), but the printing started to go smoothly. After two hours, I had 60 acceptable invitation cards and about 20 that are in the recycle bin. Sigh. Good thing we purchased 100 of the cards.

This morning I have family, friends, and my soon-to-be mother-in-law coming over to help put these monsters together. I hope someone is bringing mimosas. Part 2: Compilation coming soon...