I feel bad, but...

After spending 36 hours on wedding photos, I did those invitations for the non-profit. It wasn't quite blood, sweat & tears, but there was angst, frustration and wincing. I did my best. I was supposed to give them to the mother, and the lady at the non-profit. No one said who to give them to first or anything, so I did them both the same day. (Roughly 60 miles round trip, by the way, for no other purpose than that)

Get an email from the daughter today with some changes. Some are valid, like, "hey, you need to add that there's a cash bar" sort of thing. Then there's, "you need to add this particular fact about the speaker" ... ok, fine. We're getting a little nitpicky, but alright. Then there's "your document isn't vibrant enough" (it's BLACK AND WHITE), if you can't make it better vibrancy, we'll have to "figure something else out" (read: I'll just do it myself) ... also, I need to "print to a higher quality pdf image" ... (by the way, you can change the dpi yourself with adobe reader) You can't actually put in the image of the speaker in the file, we'll use a jpg, etc, etc, etc...

What we need to take away from this is that:
The mother/daughter duo is going to nit pick this to DEATH. Not just the design, not just the text, but silly concerns over whether my file type will work. And they're going to KEEP finding reasons that my "files won't work", as evidenced from the beginning.

So you know what? I did something shocking (for me). I actually said forget it. I emailed the daughter and (in nicer, more tactful words) said that it'll be easier on everyone if she just does it herself since she doesn't believe that anything I do will work. I also called the non-profit and nicely explained that I can't do it - and why.

I would feel really rotten, but see, this time-crunched daughter already has all the files. Plus she has her mother right there to tell her what to put IN the files. She already knows the printer, and what he "can or can not" work with. So by my estimate, if she's TERRIBLY time crunched, it should take her 30 minutes to update last year's invitation with this year's information. Regardless, it'll take her less time and make her happier than to email me back and forth for what could be weeks. Basically, I don't know where it would end, and I am NOT - absolutely NOT - putting myself through this. If it makes me a bad person, so be it. I'm just not a nice enough person to get yanked around like this. Because really - every time I need to update the file - it would be another trip to the non-profit to drop it off, which is another 60 miles on my car. Sorry...I draw the line. I won't take that much 'abuse' for not only NO profit, but losing money in gas and car damage and time.

So, if you're the praying type, pray this goes over okay. I'm really not trying to start trouble and I said things as politely as I could. I really do think it's best for EVERYONE involved. I just ... I cringe at drama.

But ay yi yi yi. Women are so catty. :(