Yes, size DOES matter!

I'm talking about font size here everyone, amongst other things! I recently had a call from a b2b who was looking for a stationer to rescue her after being badly let down by another company. She had received the invitations and was pleased with them apart from the fact that the envelopes were not quite big enough to allow them to be sealed normally as there was a large bow across the front of the invitations, and the flaps had to be taped down leaving a very inelegant bulky item to be posted. This leaves me posing the question of why a stationer would go to the trouble of hand making each invitation only to have it forced into an envelope which is clearly not man enough for the job - I want my bespoke and handmade work to arrive with the invitee looking as good as when it left my office not crushed and crumpled, and if I were buying a product that had been carefully handmade and this was reflected in the price I would expect it to arrive looking good!

But then things got worse in that she kept having to chase for other items she had paid in full for such as the Order of Service booklets and the Post Box. When they did finally arrive the poor bride found that she could barely read the text as it was in such a small font. Now, she is young and in good health and had problems reading the text, so imagine how some of the guests whose eyesight was not so good may have struggled with using the service sheets. At most weddings there are generally older family members and those with less than perfect eyesight, and us ladies especially after a while primping and getting ready for the day don't want to be struggling with putting glasses on and off during the service and messing up our hair/hat/fascinator! 

I've seen and printed out the pdf version of the Order of Service that she was emailed to proof and it prints fine on A4 but when the A5 booklets came through the font size was around half the size of that in the pdf - I suspect that this was done purely to allow all the text to fit on three pages instead of working on the text to make it flow properly over four pages. I personally feel that this was a very sloppy and lazy solution to a problem, and that it is the job of the stationer to ensure that the text looks good, is legible, and flows correctly. Furthermore it is the job of the stationer to advice the client - if the client chooses to go ahead without taking advice then so be it, but if I feel that the job is not being done properly then I will say so, after all it's my reputation on the line!

Order of Service sheets are hard work, there is no getting away from it, that's why most people prefer to pay someone with experience of them to do the job, but if a company can't be bothered to do it properly then they shouldn't be offering the service in the first place. I always make sure that I tell clients how the pdf files are saved (e.g. A4 landscape) so that they can print them out and see properly how the text looks - a proof is not just for checking spellings and grammar! Where possible I also send or deliver a hard copy of the document fully made up.

Does this sound like a rant? Yes? Good, because you're more likely to remember it! The good news for this lovely bride is that we have managed to rescue the situation and the fresh Order of Service booklets are now ready, the Post Box has been rescued and other on the day stationery are well under way.