Hi friends! I have an invite problem and I'm not sure what to do.
We hired a graphic designer to make/print our invites for us. I have known her for awhile as she has made blog designs and Christmas cards for me. When the FI and I got engaged her and I talked about invites and when we should get started on them and whatnot.
Flash forward almost a year, the graphic designer and I started talking at the beginning of November, she told me that as soon as she received payment from us we would get a digital proof a week later, and once edits were made, she would move on with the printing. The FI and I agreed we wanted to send them out the first week of January so people wouldn't confuse them with Christmas cards (all of our guests know when the wedding is). We paid her on November 23rd. A week came and went and we didn't see a proof. I emailed her on the 3rd and asked about the proof, she said she would get it to me no later then the weeks end. Sunday (9th) evening came and I was getting impatient, so I emailed her and she said they were almost done and I would have a proof Tuesday evening (11th). TUESDAY EVENING CAME...AND WENT! I emailed her Wednesday morning (12th) and she said she has lost everything she had worked on and was having to start over. I called FI, cried through it and kept my cool and told her no problem, just to get them done ASAP as I needed to send them out no later then the first week of January.
She kept her deadline this time and we finally got a proof of just the invite on Friday the 14th, we got an RSVP proof on Monday the 17th and info card proof on the 18th. We finally got proofs and everything done on the 18th. She told me the envelopes would be to be by the 24th (which they were) and invites would be to us no later then the 26th (THEY WEREN'T HERE!!!).
On the 26th (yesterday), I sent her an email asking when she thought they would be here and she said that she didn't want to stress me out over the holiday but that the printer she was going to had their printer break down and they were in the process of getting it fixed. When she sent me the message on the 26th, she said that she had called the printer that morning and they told her the printer was FIXED and that they should be working on them ASAP. I sent her a message this morning and asked her if there was an update on the invites and she said they told her she should have a proof this afternoon and that I was a top priority of theirs and that she would keep me updated. I sent a message a little bit ago asking if there was an update and she said they didn't call her this afternoon but that she would call them first thing in the morning.
She still doesn't have a proof and I still don't have my invites, in fact they aren't even being printed yet. I've stressed to her so many times how important it is that they go out the first week of January, as I'm already cutting it close. My FI's parents are coming to town from Mexico for a week and we are hoping to send invites home with them to deliver.
She promised to overnight them to me as soon as they were printed and I even offered to have them printed locally to me if I had to. I'm kind of lost at what to do and don't have a back up ready even if I needed it.
What would you do? I know, shame on me for not getting the ball going earlier. I thought for sure everything would be okay considering we had talked about the timeline way in advance.