Welcome to Day 12! Wanted to discuss enlisting help for your crafting projects today. You must be able to disseminate some of these tasks to helpers (invitation business owners) or your bridal party (brides-to-be).
The last thing you want to do is burn yourself out, or be up all night before your wedding punching holes and tying string. There are (typically) people dying to help you out, you just must be able to look at your job and break it down to manageable "chunks" and then enlist help for those identified chunks. Its a simple as that.
General guidelines to follow when enlisting:
- Now please keep in mind that you will need to find willing "crafters" inside your circle. This will make things go more smoothly. I don't know why, but some people don't like to work with paper items and crafting tools (what's wrong with them?)
- Also, don't give out loose, soft timelines. People are busy. Give them a hard deadline to meet so that you are not disappointed.
- Take the time to fully explain your expectations and do a demo (and have them do one for you to ensure they got it) if necessary.
The following are some steps/chunks that may or may not exist inside your projects. Just examples of how you can begin to break larger jobs down into smaller tasks:
- Proofreading before printing - This is so key... Who is reading over all of this information prior to it being printed? Surely its not just yourself. Enlist help in this area. Show it to your fiancée, your family members, your maid of honor, etc. Lots of times, this information has been viewed so many times and in so many ways, that it requires "fresh" eyes to ensure an accurate review.
- Trimming/Folding/Collating/Hole-Punching - Are you going to take on the mundane task of trimming and bindery your printed pieces? If so, definitely consider breaking down the quantity in 10's or 25's and handing out stacks. You'll be happier, trust me!
- Tying ribbon - Ensure that whomever takes on this task knows how to tie ribbon and that they are able to do it consistently. Once these programs are placed in a basket in front of the church, consistency on placement of the holes and the way the ribbon has been tied will impact its presentation.
- Gluing/Mounting - Make sure you purchase enough of the right kind of adhesive and encourage some kind of training to make sure that its being applied properly so you won't hope you held on to this task. Also, don't be afraid to hang on to the task that you feel you are best at...
- Affixing Embellishments - As long as you have the correct adhesive, this is one of the easiest tasks to hand out. Have more than one person do this and you'll look up and it'll be done.
- Bundling/Packaging - How will these paper items/projects get from point A to point B? Think about how to actually put these together. Rubber band in 10's or 25's and make sure that you make the final count. Stationers, its a nice gesture to include a few extra... Always appreciated by the client. If you want to make sure that they know you did, put the 2-3 extras off to the side and affix a pre-printed card (business card size is fine) that reads: "We have included 3 additional pieces with our compliments" and your company name. This gesture is definitely memorable.
- Delivery - After its packed up, get it in the right person's hands so they can get them to the church/reception location. Someone dependable, you usually know immediately who this is!
We'll be back tomorrow! --ct