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I lied when I said that the Xacto Laser Trimmer was the best paper cutter in the world. So then, what is the best, you ask? Well, it’s one that Mr. D found for me…(See how proud he is in this pic 
!) The best paper cutter EVER is…
…none other than KINKO’s! Seriously - The best $3.20 I have spent throughout the entire wedding planning process…This easily saved us ~4 hours of work!!
I don’t know why I never thought of it before. After a full night of slaving away with me on our programs and still with a long way to go, Mr. D told me to rest and that we’d continue tomorrow. Then, out of the blue, he brought up the possibility of taking the rest of the programs to Kinko’s and whether it was something I might consider. To be honest, I actually don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it…! I guess that once I had decided I would DIY everything, the thought just never even crossed my mind, . So when he brought it up, I thought, dude, let’s go for it!
And now I’m convinced! First, the process took a mere 3 minutes - For $1.60 per slice (we needed two), we cut ALL of our paper. All we did was tell the Kinkos guy our measurements and handed the stack of paper to him. Not only was it efficient, but check out the difference in quality between a regular paper cutter (this was done using a fiskars one, not my beloved Xacto laser one) vs. the finished cut from Kinko’s…
Note to self: In all future DIY endeavors, don’t forget to think out of the box (or just to think practically ) when it comes to execution! Getting professional help does not take away from the personal nature of the process! (I say this, because we still have many hours left of assembling these things 
.)
This is funny 
I, too, am guilty of thinking strictly in DIY terms and ignoring the fact that sometimes it really is easier to have someone else do it! They are a lot better cut, and glad it was so cheap!
Congratulations. Just a note for all of the DIY brides it is really cheap to have a Kinko’s , Staples or Office Max cut your stack of paper. You can usually get up to 200 sheets cut for that one price.
I was planning on doing that at Staples (but now I know Kinko’s does it as well). You pretty much answered my question. I wasn’t sure if they would give me a hard time if I printed everything first then had them cut it out or if they wanted to precut before I print. Sweet. I’ll have to give them a buzz once my cardstock arrives that I ordered over the weekend. 
I didn’t even know they would cut them. I am so using them to cut out my paper. If they can cut it that evenly and that cheaply it’s worth it to save hour of work. I am going to have to cut down all of my pieces but if I spen $30 on that and save myself 5 hours of cutting it is worth it!
How many pages ar in a cut from Kinkos?
Proceed with CAUTION! I have heard some horror stories about Kinko’s cutting (not from personal experience)… so if you have really expensive paper, etc., make sure they know how important it is for the cuts to be perfect!
I go to Kinko’s for all my mass paper cutting needs (the only reason I go in anymore besides shipping =P). But if you have an Office Max near you (I don’t anymore), it’s much cheaper. I believe it’s a little under or around $1.00/cut vs. Kinko’s $1.40-$2ish.
I love kinko’s/staples/office max just for this very reason. Word of caution though - there are times that they are careless - ask to talk to the person that’s actually making the cuts or stick around and watch them do it. I’ve heard of horror stories of people that drop it off and come back later to pick it up only to find their cuts crooked and half of their program/invite/whathaveyou chopped off and offset. Normally a watchful eye helps keep people on task and they understand that this is your wedding program we’re talking about!!
Re: Evie
I haven’t heard horror stories per se, but Kinko’s seems notorious for having bad customer service and some places probably not pay any attention to what they’re doing. I’m lucky to have one near me that has excellent people working behind the counter and guys who realize the importance of being exact! They input the measurement that needs to be cut into the machine itself so there’s no excuse for them to be off.
I agree with Evie though, be very clear about the importance and exactness. Though they could be held responsible for any mistakes if you don’t sign a waiver beforehand (to waive responsibility for any mistakes on customer supplied stock)…I had to sign one once b/c I needed them to trim a very small but exact amount that was very close to some imagery that couldn’t be cut off. But hopefully no one needs to deal with that =).
thanks so much for posting this…it will definitely save us the time and trouble! does anyone have an idea of cost at kinkos of printing, relative to other places? we will be getting invitation inserts printed on pearlescent cardstock (just inserts I designed in Illustrator).
Staples is actually a bit cheaper than Kinko’s. I believe they are 75 cents per cut. As someone stated previously make sure that they understand that the cuts need to be perfect.
evie and fadedblue, i was pretty nervous about them botching it all up too (esp because this was ALL my paper and i didn’t have time to order and print more). but they could tell how nervous i was and i was very specific about the measurements, and they did it right away in front of me i think i would’ve been a bit nervous to leave them there and come back, so luckily they weren’t too busy.
i think the more specific you can be on where exactly to cut, the better. the service they provided us was awesome, quick, and accurate :-). i’m sure it ranges depending on which kinko’s you go to though and how attentive to detail the staff person is.
all i know is, they did an amazing job on ours :-)!
ooh and i’ll have to check out office max and staples in the future too
i don’t know…the laser paper trimmer is pretty awesome! =)
we cut all the inserts for our pocketfold invitation at kinko ourselves. it was weird going into the store JUST to use their self-serve trimmer, but no one asked us any questions.
we actually bought a trimmer but i didn’t like the result. instead of looking for another trimmer, FI insisted on going to kinko’s. it worked out perfect!!! their trimmers are the BEST, seriously!
oh i so wish i had thought of this yesterday when i was cutting the inserts for my invitations.
wOw, wish i had known about this earlier. i thought you were going to say mr. d is the best paper cutter ever, and he cost only $3.20. my husband was my paper cutter ;).
it is a good idea but I think the person I had was careless - they cut all my paper on a slant so the paper on the top was a lot large than the paper on the botoom 
As a former employee of both Kinkos and Office Max, I can attest to the ease and cost-saving measure of using their cutting machines–but as others have said, speak up and don’t be afraid to have exacting demands. And while I’m not sure if this is the case all of the time, most of the best, longest-tenured employees at these stores tend to work Monday-Friday during normal office hours, so if you can sneak away and drop off your order then, you’re more likely to get someone who knows the ins and outs of all of the equipment behind the counter.
OMG. NOW you tell me! We almost broke up while cutting our paper. (Ok, maybe not that bad, but it sucked big time.)
this is an awesome idea! we didn’t have a good experience with it, but it’s worth a shot if you can find someone good to do it…
here are my tips:
- call ahead to ask them if their laser trimmer is working and is aligned perfectly (we went to one location where the trimmer wasn’t working, and a second location where the trimmer wasn’t aligned properly and was putting a notch into each cut!)
- ask them to do a sample run on some scrap paper they may have lying around (this would have saved us having to buy 2 more packages of paper because one of the locations promised they had a properly aligned trimmer..but it wasn’t)
- ask them to assess the thickness of your paper before they do their cuts (the fourth location we tried put in a stack of 100 sheet of heavy weight paper to do the cut all at once, and the cut came out on an angle because the stack was too thick…so there was a huge difference in the size of the top sheet of paper and the bottom)–we found that lots of 50 sheets worked better
as you can probably tell..we went to four different locations to get these done..and in the end, they still came out crooked, so DH had to cut them one by one with our dinky paper cutter…
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Mrs. Daffodil, San Francisco/Los Angeles Age and Occupation: 26, Nonprofit Strategy Consultant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Resident Physician Engagement Date: December 29, 2006 Wedding Date: May, 2008 Blogging Since: August, 2007 Venue: Church w/ floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Valley; Westin in downtown LA About Me: I moved around a lot growing up, but consider myself a Southerner at heart. I love scrapbooking, dancing, doggies, and diet coke. I am all about personalizing everything and hence, I'm a DIY bride who is just loving the entire wedding planning process! Mr. Daffodil and I met in our college fellowship group and were "just friends" for three years before we started dating. We've been together for four years now and can't wait to get married in sunny SoCal, Mr. Daffodil's hometown.
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