Tips For Executing Large Invitation Quantities

By Christyo8 @CTDESIGNSINC
We just got through executing the largest invitation order in our company's history... 340. The largest quantity before that had been 250. As I went through this process, I thought it would be nice to share some tips on how we got through it, in case you are staring down a similar challenge.

The invite had a mounted invitation on the front with a custom pocket and belly band.

  1. Have everything trimmed at the printer. You will save yourself a lot of headache if everything comes to you already trimmed. Trimming by a guillotine cutter is the most accurate and neatest way for stock to be cut so you also will not have to worry about consistency.

  2. Get help. Quantities over 300 and even over 250 are just too high to do on your own. Unless you have months to complete the order, you will surely feel overwhelmed. Give different people (find some paper enthusiasts, they will show greater care) different jobs. You should be able to come up with different tasks inside of each order, i.e. collating, gluing, packaging, etc.

  3. Give yourself enough time to complete. Even when enlisting help, you want to make sure you are allowing enough time for the invites to be carefully crafted. The less time you allow, even though you will likely have willing volunteers that say "no problem", a rushed job is often a messy job and your guests will notice imperfections.

  4. Break down the quantity. in 10's or 25's. Banding materials in lesser qtys. will help the project feel less overwhelming. Think of the job in "stacks" vs. OMG, I still have over 200 to go.

  5. Walk away and give yourself breaks. It will help if you stop and do other things and come back to the project when you are fresh. Doing the same task over and over for a set period of time can lead to messy work and also frustration.