A Word of Advice…

November 12th, 2007 @ 11:17 am by Mrs. Magnolia

I was out of town all last week for work, and coming home on Friday, I had a lot of things to look forward to:

1. Sleeping in my own bed
2. UGA taking on Auburn on Saturday
3. Checking out Mr. Magnolia’s home improvement projects (he painted our living room!)
4. Picking up our invitations!!!!

Friday afternoon, I stopped by our invitation designer’s home and was absolutely thrilled by what I saw. 150 perfectly done invitations, reply cards, and directions/accommodations inserts neatly packaged just for me! (The envelopes had already been sent to my mom, who is sweet enough to be doing the calligraphy for me.)

I met up with Mr. Magnolia and some friends of ours for lunch, and they all loved the invitation. I braved the late Friday afternoon crowds at the post office to buy postcard stamps for the reply cards, and I headed home to diligently apply all 150 and prepare the invites for the drop-off at my parents’ house. I was absolutely giddy!

And then I noticed something… and my heart sank.

Our beautiful, printed on expensive watercolor paper and then matted invitations have a typo.

The date we’re getting married is misspelled. And two weeks ago, I approved the proof with the misspelling.

First, Mr. Magnolia talked me off the ledge. “These things happen, you’re in the driver’s seat, just call and see what our designer can do, blah blah blah…”

Luckily, I have a fabulous invitation designer who reaffirmed that these things happen all the time, and she’s reprinting them for me, for pick up on Wednesday. I’m only paying for two hours labor and the cost of the paper, which is a massive relief.

So, here’s my word of advice for all brides-to-be:

When you get your invitation proof, check it. Then check it again. Then check it for a third time. THEN, send it to your fiance, or your mother, or your maid of honor, or all three. Then, check it again. And just when everyone has signed off on it, and you’re ready to give the thumbs up, check it again.

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13 Responses to “A Word of Advice…”

Member

jess (message) 156 posts, Blushing bee

I’m glad everything turned out okay in the end and can’t wait to see the invititations!

11/12/07 @ 11:26 am (reply)

Member

MissMandy (message) 251 posts, Helper bee

*whew*

What a relief! I’m glad that it all worked out. But you make an excellent point about all that.

I do proofing for a living, so that’s part of my nature. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes, too!

I can’t wait to see them!

11/12/07 @ 11:28 am (reply)

Guest

Yep. Had a friend whose invite was signed by her parents “Nathan and Julio” - instead of Julie. Funny now…not so funny then.

Proof proof proof then proof again!

11/12/07 @ 11:55 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Magnolia (message) 252 posts, Helper bee

Julio! HA!

11/12/07 @ 11:57 am (reply)

Guest

Kimberly N.

Yeah this happened to me also, on the RSVP card…..it was printed as number of GUESS and the printers reprinted immediately.

11/12/07 @ 12:02 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Blueberry (message) 80 posts, Worker bee

Great advice We actually had the same thing come up with our STDs, but luckily the printed-on paper was going to be attached to a backsheet, so it didn’t end up costing us much more to reprint on the other side of the cards, and attach with the typo side down. One of the benefits of DIYing them

11/12/07 @ 12:03 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Robin (message) 45 posts, Newbee

I am glad things turned out okay! You are right, it is a must to have everyone you know proof, because I would get distracted by the design and forget to check the copy! Luckily I had an attentive mom reading over my shoulder.

11/12/07 @ 12:04 pm (reply)

Guest

Tea

glad to hear it’ll work out. i proof things my things manicially. and then i set them aside for a time and then proof them again because sometimes you just get used to how things look instead of how it’s written. that break has helped me catch a few errors!

11/12/07 @ 12:23 pm (reply)

Guest

fatafelice

I once had bridal shower invitations printed with the completely wrong city (Holmdel instead of Hoboken - hey, they both start with an H, right? And in my defense, I hadn’t been living in NJ very long…). Thank heavens for The Papery.

And aparently I really suck at proofing things, because then I approved my magnet STDs with a weird black border all around them…which I then had to trim off of every single one.

Now DH teases me any time I send out any sort of invitation or card by pretending to spot crazy typos (”Honey, aren’t we getting married on the thirtieth, not the thirteenth?”). Cute, huh? But you can bet that I had like six people proof those puppies.

11/12/07 @ 2:53 pm (reply)

10.

Guest

beanchar

Here’s a proofing tip that always works for me— READ BACKWARD. It has something to do with the way our brains are programmed to use logic and fill in the blanks for meaning.

SO, when you are reading text with which you are very familiar your mind will say “OH, ‘Number of Guess’ is really ‘Number of Guests’, I get it!” But if you read the words backwards (not inverting the words, just the order), your brain will easily recognize that “Guess” does not belong in this document (and that your fiance is NOT marrying some guy named Julio! .)

I learned this trick after the theater I worked for sent out 2,000 mailers, that we’d ALL proofed multiple times, encouraging people to buy a “SEASON SUBCRIPTION” in 3-inch high letters! Doh.

11/12/07 @ 3:50 pm (reply)

11.

Guest

L. Johnson

I emailed all my friends and family this morning letting them know that we finally have a wedding date.

In the email I said we were getting married 10-4-2007 instead of 2008.

I sent another email saying “opps…” I don’t know why I feel embarassed about something so silly but I do.

typos happen.

11/12/07 @ 3:52 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

SBH