Wedding cards ruined. Any recourse?

u4n90

I would love some advice on this as i'm at my wits end. I'll keep it simple. Wedding on 11th Aug.

Paid in full for invitations upfront and was told 4-6 weeks.

1 week delay off the bat, because "his designer was ill."
Another week added on because of a death in his family back home, which somehow affected the production (i didn't want to grill him during his bereavement, even if it didn't make sense at the time).

Would have accepted all this except we've now been told up to half of the cards are ruined because the couriers stacked heavier goods on top. So he has claimed he will give us a full refund of the ruined cards, or the whole order if we choose, and because of the short time left to get invites out, will give us inferior cards that will still take 14 days to deliver.

Is there any way I can claim money or reduction in costs for the time he has wasted as, if i stick to his schedule, invites are going out 3 weeks before the wedding. (He is "offering" the cheap cards at full price) so in no way am i being compensated for the loss in time or the extr aggravation he has now caused. With catering and seating to organise he is putting us in a horrible position.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lara44

After that litany of errors I would be asking for the full refund and contacting other places, even despite the short timescale.

Lots of places must have invites in stock. Or do you have a personalised design? You may be able to get them turned around in just a few days at a decent printer.

zzzLazyDaisy

First things first - you need to post your invitation cards out. * The wedding is in the middle of the summer holidays and people will be making plans. You can't afford any more false promises and delays.

* Just a thought - did you send out 'save the date' cards earlier? In that case everyone knows they are invited, so the invitation cards are just a formality, right? (sorry I am out of touch with these things).

Still that doesn't alter my advice.

I'd write to him informing him that his proposal is unacceptable. That you want a full and immediate refund of the price paid, to be transferred into your bank account [give details] within 48 hours, to enable you to re-order invitation cards from an alternative source.

Also add that you reserve the right to seek compensation for any additional costs you may sustain as a result of his failure to supply the invitations in accordance with the contract.

Then find someone who can do the invitations for you at short notice.

Or order some DIY cards from ebay for next day delivery

Something like this maybe

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-DIY-Vintage-Love-Bird-Laser-Cut-Wedding-Invitations-and-Envelope-Silver-Cream-/151062089985?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Celebrations_Occasions_ET&hash=item232c009101

Handwritten cards are a lovely keepsake :-)

angelil

Ask for a full refund and then put a Vistaprint order in.

To be honest, though, you were already cutting it close even if the invites had arrived on time...

u4n90

# 3
zzzLazyDaisy

he has confirmed some of them are salvageable but i will not know how many until monday. I would rather still have some of them than none of them. But i have sought another printer and will confirm a replacement order with him as soon as i know how many were destroyed.



Thankfully we did ring almost all guests in a "save the date" manner however its no substiute for an actual RSVP with numbers etc. We're basing the seating and caterings on speculation "maybe he will" or "maybe they'll all come."



As to your mention of compensation, how would this work in practice?

zzzLazyDaisy

u4n90 wrote: »

# 3
zzzLazyDaisy
As to your mention of compensation, how would this work in practice?

Lets say you ordered 200 invitations at a cost of £200.

100 were destroyed. So you went to another printer with a sample and ordered 100 of the same/similar quality and design, but they said that because of the short time the cost would be £120 instead of the £100 it would have cost you with the original supplier. In that case you would go back to the original supplier and ask him to refund the difference as it was caused by his breach of contract.

If you wanted to push the point you could also ask for compensation for upset/distress/inconvenience.

But really, the main focus has to be getting the invitations out ASAP surely? I would have thought that with no save the date cards, the invitations should have gone out sometime ago, especially with it being the holiday season. Are you not pushing time for giving the numbers to the caterers?

phill99

I get stuff designed and printed for my business. The graphics people can turn it around in a day and the print normally takes a week, so it's doable. Try and find a graphics/ printer that does commercial stuff as thy work too a much shorter time scale.

MamaMoo_2

I'd be asking for a full refund and then heading to Snapfish...
I did all my invitations for my boys' christening and everyone was amazed that I'd only paid about 50p each for them!
Had them printed on lovely thick textures card, and they were lovely.

I also used Vistaprint for my wedding invitations and again, people couldn't believe the cost. They were fantastic!

Both ship out fairly quickly too (3 days for me to receive my Snapfish invitations) so you'd at least get the invites out ASAP.