Weddingbee Blog

Although I love just about every detail we have incorporated into this wedding so far, our program would have to be my favorite child. It really did take a good chunk of time and creative juice to complete. You’ve already seen a little of it, here and here.

After completing my 6 page comic “book”, I really wanted the programs professionally printed. After checking around the web and other print stores though, I realized that booklets were costly! Up to $500, just for a hundred or so programs! There was no way I could do that.

Mr. Sew had already started making plans for how we’d print them at home, when I stumbled upon a little site called Smartpress.

First, they didn’t make me purchase in quantities of 100, so I could get the exact 110 programs I needed. Second, they were fully customizable, allowing price reductions if I printed the inside in black and white, or if I chose not to have them bound together. And third, booklets were on sale for 25% off!

For 110 programs, with a color-printed cover and 14 black and white pages, it cost $67.45. A total of $81.21 with shipping included.

Seriously, I don’t think I could have found a better price if we had printed them ourselves, if the cost of ink and cardstock paper was factored in. I was pretty proud of myself, and Mr. Sew was happy too. Especially since we didn’t have to do all the printing ourselves!

Figuring out how to correctly size everything was a little difficult, but eventually I got everything into a .pdf form and sent it off. Jill from Smartpress was really helpful in getting everything tweaked to just the right size, and in a week or so I had a big box of shiny new programs!

Want to see?

And on the bottom of the back cover:

Seriously, the quality is good and the price is even better. It makes me want to make more mini-books!

Aside from the comic and the puzzle page, here are the more “programmy” pages we included - (And I’m sure there are grammar/spelling mistakes somewhere. But at this point it’s too late. Errors, if any, are here to stay.)

When I ordered them, I thought it would be nice to hand sign each program, in the “Mahalo” box. Now, however, I’m thinking that probably wasn’t the best decision. Oh well!

Oddly, I asked them not to saddle-stitch (a.k.a. staple) the books together, since it was cheaper that way. Yet when they arrived -

They were stapled. Oh well, at least they didn’t charge me for it! But I was a little bummed out that I couldn’t sew up the books with gold thread, as I had planned.

I guess I could always take the staples out, but seriously - if they’re already bound, why mess with a good thing?

Though, Sewing-mom still wanted to cover the staples by tying some ribbon down the spine. Let’s face it, staples aren’t that pretty and cute. But Mr. Sew would rather we didn’t. He likes the “manly staples” the way they are. So I think he can have his staples. I’m sure we can find something more productive to do with the time we budgeted, anyway. Like figure out what music we’re using in the ceremony. Yep, still not done.

I know programs aren’t necessary, but they are a lot of fun to make and receive. Are you having programs? Will you add any personal touches to them?