the proofing process

Proofing the wording on your wedding stationery is a very important task which requires a lot of care and attention to detail to ensure that all the details on your stationery is perfect.  Occasionally mistakes do happen and while I will always work to minimise them, unfortunately due to the nature of the task, errors can occur.  Please read the following carefully to help minimise this risk and ensure a smooth process for you and me!

WHAT IS A PROOF?

A proof is the document sent to you which shows the exact wording, fonts and layout of what will be printed and used in your stationery.  A proof must be checked over carefully and approved before anything can be printed.  Checking a proof ensure that spellings, dates and times are correct, the fonts to be used are what you have chosen and the layout is what you expected.  It is always the client's responsibility to proof read.  I do not proof read for errors.

ITEMS TO BE PROOFED

Proofs must be approved for day & evening invitations, orders of service, orders of the day, thank you notepaper, inside messages on thank you cards & menus.  I do not produce proofs for table plans, table name cards or place cards.

THE PROCESS

You will be required to submit all wordings to me so that I can prepare proofs.  This can be during a consultation at the studio or you can send them by email.  You don't have to worry about fonts or formatting at this stage, just a basic text document is fine.  Once wordings have been received, I go ahead lay out the proofs.

The proofs are then emailed back to you in PDF format.  You should ensure that you have appropriate software installed to allow you to read this format.  You can expect to see your first set of proofs for invitations a few days after you have submitted your wording to me.

You check the proof carefully and either approve it with no changes in which case we're good to go to print.  Or you come back to me via email with a note of corrections / amendments to be made.  Please note I do not accept amendments via telephone or by handwritten notes, email only.

I will continue to make the changes requested until you are completely satisfied.  However I do reserve the right to charge an additional proofing fee of £10 per round of changes if the number of changes is extraordinarily high.  Most clients require no more than 2 rounds of changes.

Once the proofs have been signed off, production can commence on the order.  Production will not commence before the proofs have been approved.

Any turnaround times quoted begin after proof approval is received.

Please Remember: If a mistake is printed that you have approved, all reprint costs will be at your cost. Perfect Match Designs is not responsible for errors or mistakes printed on approved proofs.

SOME HINTS & TIPS FOR PROOF READING

• Proof from a printed source rather than relying on reading on a computer monitor or worse still, a phone!
• Read the wording out loud.
• Read everything backwards.
• Double check spelling on names, check dates (including the year), check times, check address details.
• Don't forget to check all the details on information cards, reply cards and reply envelopes.  Not just the invitation.
• Always give it to at least one other person to do all of the above as well and preferably someone who is not the bride or groom or the host of the wedding.  If you can give it to someone not familiar with the details of the wedding, they won't be able to make assumptions or sub-consciously fix errors.

GENTLE REMINDER:  PLEASE PROOFREAD CAREFULLY - IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!