ctrlP

CtrlP is dead and here’s why.

We’ve had two great clients. We have gotten to work with a lot of friends outside of Etsy from the blog and those have all been great projects. We’ve landed a couple of projects unrelated to weddings. For the most part, however, working with couples has been a nightmare. It’s the MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF PAPER IN THEIR ENTIRE LIVES and they’re not afraid to be bitchy to get it “perfect.”

We’ve had more than one couple ask us to directly plagiarize another shop’s work.

We’ve had couples get seven revisions instead of the usual two and complain that they didn’t get their value.

We’ve sent couples final proofs for printing stating we are not responsible for errors after they approve the final proofs and when there is a detail missing or something they forgot to tell us – it’s been our fault.

We don’t like weddings enough to put up with it.

We don’t like working with couples and their mother in laws and extended family members and coworkers and that guy they knew in high school and getting suggestions from all of them in “reply to all” chain emails.

We have had couples ask us to design for free because they’re “submitting their wedding to a huge wedding blog and the exposure would be great.”

We have had blogs ask us if we would like to be featured and systematically turned down every one because Heaven forbid it land us a client.

We made our shop’s standard designs a year ago and hate them now.

We started the shop because we wanted to work with rad couples who wanted affordable design and instead, we wound up completely deflated by cheap couples who don’t appreciate design and think we should be paying them for the pleasure of working on their project.

What’s funny is that when you try to offer a service inexpensively to couples because you yourself are on a strict budget, you wind up with clients who are more demanding, less appreciative and extremely time-consuming. They’re never satisfied. Because the couple who spends $30 on their invitations sometimes, not always, but sometimes are doing so because they don’t believe design is worth spending the money.

So, just so you know. If you’re looking for a great invitation designer and aren’t planning on being an asshole to your wedding vendors - check these out:

Ruby and Willow

I adore Kate’s style and designs. She is incredibly talented and friendly and her work is impeccable. You should absolutely be working with her.

My favorite suite: Windsor

Beyond//Beyond

Amma is fantastic. Her blog is fantastic. Her style is fantastic. Take a look through her work and try to guess which ones are my favorite. It’s pretty obvious.

Paperee

I saw these beauties on Postcards & Pretties the other day. They would be fantastic to work with. They have awesome designs and you should be stoked.

My favorite suite: Karen

DIY

DIY your own invitations with these awesome tutorials from Oh So Beautiful Paper:  Kraft Paper Chevron Invitations & Modern Perforated Invitations

Anyway. It’s not a huge deal, really. It’s been an interesting experience. Corporate clients and friend clients are just 10,000 times easier than the girl who hires someone for $100 and thinks she owns them for the next three months. If you want to work together on something, I can guarantee you we won’t hate you. We might even relaunch someday with better designs. Probably not. But we would love to work on your project:  your baby announcement, your blog design or your logo or other design projects.

Because we like you. We really like you. We just don’t like the strangers on Etsy.

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