I care.

Interesting conversation with the FH last night.


The way that this most recent discussion started was over envelope labels of all things, but we've had little versions for weeks.

We are two months behind on sending out Save-the-Dates. TWO MONTHS. They need to go out yes.ter.day.

I'm pretty sure M questioned my sanity when I told him I wanted all the Save-the-Dates outlined in orange.

M: "Why do we need the edges to be orange?"
Me: "Because it will add just a little touch that people won't expect and might enjoy."
M: "I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't asked me which edge color I liked best."
Me: "Yes, but someone will notice. It's something easy we can do to make them a little more special."
M: "I don't think anyone cares."
Me: "I care."

Then we moved on to how we were going to address them. Poor M.

M: "I think we should just buy address labels and print them."
Me: "I'm going to design a wrap-around label that will have the invitee's address on them."
M: "Can't we just do that for the invites?"
Me: "We could, but this will pull everything together. From the beginning it will look stellar."
M: "But my parents already have a file with all their addresses in those little address labels."
Me: "I don't like the little address labels. They are impersonal and lack any kind of tie-in for the way the rest of the invite suite will look."
M: "We should just do the fancy ones for the invitations."
Me: "Then I will just hand write them this time." (Yes, I dislike those little labels enough that I was willing to hand write 125 addresses.)
M: "I don't think anyone cares."
Me: "I care."

Then we discussed stamps.

Me: "We should get the King and Queen ones."
M: "Why?"
Me: "Because they are cute, and they interact, and they are the King and Queen of Hearts and say 'Love' on them."
M: "Does that matter?"
Me: "To me it does."
M: "I don't think anybody cares."
Me: "I care."

Last night I brought envelope wraps again.

Me: "I really think we need to do the nice wrap-around label."
M: "Isn't that just more work?"
Me: "It won't take any longer than addressing them by hand. And I realized that we need to have our website on there so people know where to stay." turns computer around "And look how awesome they look."
M: "They do look really good. I like them. But I thought we were doing them for invitations."
Me: "We can do different ones for invitations."
M: "I don't think anyone will notice."
Me: "I will notice, I will care. This is what I do, it must look awesome."

Before anyone starts throwing certain 10-letter B-words around. Let me explain.

And I'm pretty sure he gets where I'm coming from, and I felt a little overzealous explaining it to him, but I really wanted him to understand where I was coming from.


See, I'm a Graphic Designer. I went to school, I have the degree, and although I get to do very little design that makes me happy in my current job, I have a couple of freelance clients, and I design for a living. It is what pays my bills. (Even, and especially, wedding bills. :D)

So therefore, my Save-the-Dates, and my Invitations are not just a wedding necessity. They don't just need to look nice because that is what you do for weddings, because that is the proper thing to do. We can't just pick them out of a book, because that is the most outrageous cop-out.

I need to design them and they need to be masterpieces because it's a matter of pride.

This is what I studied, this is what I do, and to do anything less than something stellar for my own use would be a tremendous failure.

This is why I care. This is why I come off a little control-freakish in nature. Because I am putting my design, my brand, out there.

And I think that all of my teachers and myself would be disappointed if they looked like I did them in five seconds or less. :(

Will they be perfect? Probably not. Will they match? Yes. But mostly, I will be putting out a product that I loved making, that means something special to me, and that looks like a completed project. So, yes, in the end, even if I'm the only one...


I care.