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After many technical difficulties, I can finally post my menu designs!! I wanted to design something a little different than what’s normally been done for menu cards, so I decided to have them printed by the same online company that printed my invitations, OvernightPrints. This may sound a bit strange, considering that they are actually a commercial printing company (postcards. letterheads, envelopes, brochures, etc), but they will print whatever artwork you send them so long as it fits their size requirements. After receiving a sample of their postcards last winter, I knew this was how I wanted my invitations printed. Their 5.5″ x 8.5″ postcards are of AMAZING quality, with super thick, glossy, premium stock… no flimsy postcards here!!
Anywhoo, I planned to design the menus in Adobe Illustrator, save them as a PDF file, upload them on their website, and send them off to print! Was it that easy?! Of course not… for some reason, my files were HUGE (100 megs for the front and 150 megs for the back side), and OvernightPrints has a file maximum of 20 megs. Uhmmm, crap… I won’t bore you with all the snoringly exciting details of my trials and tribulations, but let me just say that I ended up sending OP a lower-res jpeg in order to fit their size requirements, and was NOT happy with the print quality. I contacted Customer Service and we worked out a re-print at 50% off, and I sent them my original 100+ meg files which they were able to reduce down to size for me. The final result was picture perfect!!
The front of my menus:
The back of my menus:
(click to enlarge)
They are 5.5″ x 8.5″, glossy on both sides, with rounded corners (I 
rounded corners!!). The reason for all the pictures on the back is because we aren’t doing a slide show, but I wanted another way to showcase a few of our baby pictures! I must say we are pretty darn cute, no? heheh 
Total Cost: $125 (first run print was $85 + reprint $40)
Overstock Prints: A!!
Are you doing menus?
i’m having 2 receptions. a traditional american one and a chinese banquet. we’re going to provide a menu for our chinese banquet so our non-chinese guests know what they’ll be eating! i think your menu looks great! 
I use Overnightprints.com frequently and they do an excellent job printing. In fact, for me, they are local. However, everyone should be forewarned of a few things about Overnightprints. They are very often slow to ship. They’ll finish printing something and then leave it sitting around for days before they ship it. I do quite a bit of graphic design work and 50% of the time it arrives in a timely manner, 50% of the time it arrives half a week late. Secondly, their customer service is also spotty. Half the time, they’re timely and cordial. Half the time, they refuse to help all together. It all depends on who you get as your contact person. So why do I use them so much? Excellent quality, and unbelievable prices! They really do a very good job. Just make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to spare just in case they screw up.
Linda, good advice!! I totally agree about the customer service bit, I did talk to someone who was practically useless, but then I worked with Mary, who was an absolute dream!
no
Those look amazing! We are doing menus too…but on the back we are giving a link to a website to upload pictures…I wish I had seen the baby pics first…lol
i love it! Super adorable and so creative!
We are definitely doing menus. =)
those are really cute! your design work is just impeccable! i’m also doing menus and i’ll be placing each person’s name on the top, so it will double as my place cards as well. i have a silk orchid theme, so i’m planning to punch a small hole in the corner of the menu to place a small dendrobium in it.
We’re doing menus - trying to figure what they’re going to look like :). Yours look great! Thanks for the ideas!
what is the name of the handwriting font you used? i love it!
these are great!!
Your menus are beautiful! Like you, we didn’t do a slide show, so we used our baby pix on our favors - a set of custom CDs. We had menus, which I printed on the backside of our fan shaped programs.
This is so geeky/nerdy, but I am so excited to share the solution to the problem you encountered with the huge files. I had the same problem, but my pro designer friend educated me. You probably did what I did: opened up the baby pix and other original files (which were probably pretty big - real photo size), copied and pasted them into your menu. Well, even tho’ you’re making the pix smaller on your final doc, it doesn’t change the original file size! Wacky, huh? Anyway, the solution is easy: save copies of the original pix resized closer to the size they’ll print out (i.e. instead of a 4×5 photo, make it a 1×2). Use those as your sources, and your final doc will be much smaller. Phew! (Just be careful not to save them smaller than their end-print size; they won’t “size up” nicely.)
thanks for the tip princesskittyHI! that was a great tutorial!
aoedorothee — thanks! i was worried i was geeking out too much…and not clear enough about the resizing instructions. glad to hear it was helpful! (seriously, this problem drove me NUTS! until my friend stepped in with the answer.)
I just looked back on your invite post and your invites are very unique. Is that a vellum envelope you used over your invite? Thanks for your help!
These are super cute, but I’m french and I can tell you that “Menu” doesn’t have an ‘ on the “u”. We spell the word “Menu” just like in english. Just in case you want them to be perfect… But your menus are “magnifique”!!!
Sarah - the scripty font is called Cezanne
PrincessKittyH - Ohhh, how I wish I knew that info before I went thru so much headache!! Good to know =/ hehe
sl524 - Yes, there is a vellum “envelope” that encases the invitation, but it is actually just 1 sheet of vellum cut down to 12 x 8.5 and wrapped around the invitation, not an actual envelope.
Fanny - DOH, I should have looked that up, luckily none of our guests are French! haha
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Mrs. Emerald, Chicago Age and Occupation: 26, Wedding Planner Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Paralegal Engagement Date: October 8, 2006 Wedding Date: September 2007 Blogging Since: November 29, 2006 Venue: Hyatt Lodge, Oak Brook IL About Me: I have been dreaming about my wedding forever, and flipping through bridal magazines since high school, so I am in my element! I am calling our theme "Vintage Inspired French/Asian Fusion." Mr. Emerald is very involved in the planning process, but of course he generally defers to me cuz I have a strong opinion of how I want everything to be :-).
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