Monday, December 20, 2010

Deliver Me From Evil...The Wedding Program

In my previous post, it seemed that the business who told me they could handle the layout and printing of our wedding programs, indeed, could NOT handle it.  I'm not one to name names which is why this store is not listed but it rhymes with the word 'maples.'  Again, I didn't say it, you can just guess it and think about it in your head.

Once my niece and I got back to my parent's house after our awesome girl's day, I called 'maples' to see the progress of our programs. 

Me: "Hi, I'm calling to check on the status of the order I placed on Monday (it's now Wednesday - wedding on Friday).

Twit: "Uhh, yea, um, we can't do it."

Me:  <PAUSE>  <Heart Palpitations>  "Excuse me?  Why didn't someone call me and tell me this yesterday?"

Twit: "Well, you said you were going to call and check the status this evening, so we're telling you now."

Me: "Are you freaking kidding me?" 

<CLICK>

I was about to explode with frustration and anger. 

Who knew the stress level would be this high a mere two days before one of the biggest days of my life?

Thankfully my brother was there and he convinced me to call them back and speak with the manager which I did.  I went over the conversation I had with the Twit and the continued to ask him if he thought this was good customer service to which he promptly answered no.

It was 5:30pm, I called a competing business which I will GLADLY give their proper name: Fed Ex Office formerly Fed Ex Kinkos (I had no clue they changed names).  Anyway, I called them, told them what I needed to see if they could do it and to my delight, they could.

An hour later I am finally back to my parent's feeling much more confident about the programs.   They did the job like a pro shop should...a far cry from 'Maples.' 

This was a lesson learned...don't wait until the week of your wedding to do your programs.  Not a good idea.

I'm back and I'm married!

So much has happened since last February 2010. For starters...I'm married! Wahoooooooooooooooo! It was an amazing, happy, joyous day in our lives and my next couple of posts are going to be my wedding re-cap.The countdown to our wedding went something like this:
"Oh, we've got a year, PLENTY of time!"

"Wow, six months away, better get cracking on the to-do list!"

"Seven weeks out...WHAT!? That's coming close.

"To my colleagues:"Bye! I'll see you guys in two weeks!"

Walk out to my car..."Holy crap! Only one more week until the wedding!"

The week leading up to our wedding was of the most stressful weeks of my life. One that, quite frankly, I really would not care to repeat.The only major thing left I needed to absolutely get finished were our ceremony programs. I refused to pay to have them designed, so I just whipped them up myself on Microsoft Publisher, copied it to a cd, printed out a copy and off to Staples I go. They weren't able to do it. Okay, no problem, I bought a different program on Monday, re-did the entire program and back to Staples I went. I handed everything over to a different person. I explained how I wanted it to be and was told, "No problem. When do you need it by?" I left feeling much better. Cross this one off the list and off to the next.

Tuesday came and went like the wind but it was also a day I was anticipating as my brother and his family were finally coming to the Philadelphia area to stay with my parents. I was headed there on Wednesday to have a girls afternoon with my four year old niece. Wednesday morning I got ready to head to my parents with Bride t-shirt and all on. The week prior i made a small care package to be waiting for my niece, Mira at my parent's house. Her t-shirt said 'flower girl'. I mean...how cute would we look trapsing around town in our Bride and Flower Girl shirts? I ring the doorbell to my parent's home only to have my brother, John open it with a big smile. Once he saw my shirt, just starting cracking up and called for Mira. And there we were, Aunt and Niece, two peas in a pod ready to tackle our DAY. OF. FUN.

Our first stop? ColorMeMine

Mira is obsessed with all things Snow White and princess. As we scoured the pottery shelves of the vast possibilities for our creativeness, Mira picked her project. A princess hand mirror. We scoured some more only to find, yes, that's right, a Snow White figurine. My eyes got wide when I saw it. I showed Mira my find and her eyes grew wider than mine. We sat down to paint and talk about life in general. Okay, so we really just talked about princess stuff (life in general) and about how I was send Mira not only her mirror, but the Snow White figurine that I was working on. Good thing I adore her!




By the time we were ready to leave the pottery store, our bellies were panging for some food. Mira prompted responded to my, "What do you think you would like for lunch?" question with a firm and matter of fact, "Noodles!" Her favorite food. Off to the OliveGarden. Okay, not the coolest place we could've gone but one thing I did know was they had noodles and lots of them!


Lunch was DEEEEEE-LISH! One quick stop to get a cookie and back to my parent's we went.


Stay tuned for Wedding Program Hell.