Merry Christmas You Filthy Animals

The cost of sending out holiday cards, since 2011:

2011

This was the first year of our marriage, and I used a Groupon for Picaboo. I only ordered 50 cards, which was definitely not even close to the amount needed (foreshadowing). I had to order 20 more photocards from Snapfish to finish spreading holiday cheer.

Picaboo Order: 50 for $25 (Groupon price)
Snapfish Order: 20 for $14.19
2011 Forever stamp rate: $0.44
Price per card, including postage, for 70 cards: $0.99

[Printed copies of these cards are hiding somewhere in our 700 sq. ft. apartment, but after searching every logical place Sunday afternoon, I came up empty handed.]

2012

This is the year I took a Adobe Creative Suite class and got fancy with my own personal design using an engagement photo from Spring 2011 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I printed them at Vistaprint, using their standard postcard size. They sell matching plain white envelopes for a small additional charge. It’s a great deal as long as your design and production are perfect from the start (foreshadowing).

Vistaprint order with envelopes, including shipping & handling: 100 for $29.51
2012 Forever stamp rate: $0.45
Price per card, including postage, for 100 cards: $0.75

2013

This is the first year I don’t use a professional photo. We asked another tourist to take a photo of us in front of the Eiffel Tower when we went to Paris that October. I had been dreaming of this card since we made the decision to go to Paris sometime in 2012.

Vistaprint order with envelopes, including shipping & handling: 100 for $27.86
2013 Forever stamp rate: $0.46
Price per card, including postage, for 100 cards: $0.74

2014

It all broke in half.

2014 brought us back to a professional photo, using a photo taken by Tiffany’s wedding photographer. When I uploaded my design the first time, I received the “low resolution” error on Vistaprint. This was a warning that my design might not print clearly. I ignored it because I am an arrogant idiot 90% of the time. Only after hitting submit on my order, I realized that the picture of Josh & I didn’t fill the entire square I had created in the design; there was a little white sliver visible at the top. Rats!

A Vistaprint order is like an Amazon order: you can’t stop it for anything. I should also mention that I was doing this uploading and ordering after midnight, but I am sure that is obvious from my precision work. I immediately fixed the picture alignment and purchased again, without envelopes. This is where I should note that Vistaprint shipping isn’t pricey, but every mistake adds up in the shipping column.

Both orders arrived and looked like #1 blurry, crooked mess and #2 just a blurry mess.

#1

Pen is for spotlighting my Photoshop fail

#2

I realize these photos don’t highlight the blurriness of the low resolution, but in person it is like looking at a photo when someone smeared Crisco all over the picture frame glass.

I took a few days, consulted some Adobe tips, fixed my resolution issues and ordered again.

Josh and I got super popular in 2014, and I ran out of cards with people left to receive by hand delivery. (I sometimes use a card or two for attaching to a gift or as a thank you note for co-workers and such). I didn’t need 100 more postcard prints from Vistaprint, and no way would I give out one of the 200 uggo misprints. I decided to upload my design and have FedEx Office (RIP Kinkos) print some more cards. I *thought* I ordered 8 postcard size prints. Instead, I ordered 8 glossy 8x10s.

I asked the FedEx clerk for ordering assistance when I picked up my glamour shots. They told me how to properly order 8 postcard size prints (you ask for 4 prints on one 8.5×11 piece of card stock, then they cut them into four postcard sizes for you). Totally logical!

Vistaprint order #1 with envelopes, including shipping & handling: 100 for $25.72
Vistaprint order #2 without envelopes, including shipping & handling: 100 for $19.98
Vistaprint order #3 without envelopes, including shipping & handling: 100 for $14.98
FedEx Office order #1: $8.41
FedEx Office order #2: $7.84
2014 Forever stamp rate: $0.49
Price per card, including postage, for 108 decent cards: $1.17

2015

This year, we returned to the normalcy of 2012 & 2013, with the addition of some prints from Snapfish to bulk up the reserves. I got a little click happy on the order page and said, out loud, “I am not dealing with this again” and ordered 25 photo prints to make sure I did not have to return to the FedEx office on 14th Street.

I really only needed 8 additional cards, just like 2014. Oops! At least each print was only $0.15 each!

Vistaprint order with envelopes, including shipping & handling: 100 for $18.72
Shutterfly order of 25 photocard prints: $3.75
Package of 10 Paper Source envelopes: $3.50
2015 Forever stamp rate: $0.49
Price per card, including postage, for 108 cards: $0.69

See you in 2016 Vistaprint!