"What if I just designed my own graduation announcements?"
I threw out the suggestion partially because I had no desire to hop on a bus and trek all the way across campus to the student center on the day when seniors were placing their orders, partially because the official Duke ones didn't use the Oxford comma on the inside, and partially because I knew they would cost, like, $27 a piece.
But mostly because they looked like this:
Womp. Boring and formal and definitely not worth an entire month's paycheck from the Coffeehouse.
Then there was the whole "designing custom invitations is my dream job" thing. It just made sense.
Fortunately, mom was on board, so I started coming up with an idea of what I wanted my graduation announcements to look like. I recruited Zach to take a million pictures of me one Sunday afternoon (boyfriend of the year -- I interrupted his nap), and I had the entire thing finished by the next day. Why are my projects for school never this fun?
I emailed my parents a proof and they responded immediately with a thumbs up, so I responded immediately with a "how many should I order?"... and thus the immediate responses stopped. Granted, the period of unresponsiveness was only about an hour long, but I was pumped to order these. So pumped, in fact, that I grew impatient and ordered them anyway, even though I had no idea how many to get. I thought 100 sounded like a nice number, and it was cheaper to print 100 of my own than to order 25 of the official Duke ones (completely serious), so away I went. Shortly after I submitted the order for 100 graduation announcements, mom replied and said that I should get between 40 and 50. Whoops.
Once they arrived and I began addressing them, however, I had a moment of panic where I wasn't sure if 100 was going to be enough. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and let me be the first to tell you: I have been blessed with one of the most epic villages of all time. A village full of family-family, church-family, high school-family, college-family, & camp-family. And while I have worked incredibly hard to be able to cross the stage and receive my diploma, I recognize that it took an entire village to get me to this point.
So that's what these announcements were really about to me. Not as much "hey, come to Durham and sit through an incredibly boring commencement ceremony with an incredibly boring speaker that I have absolutely no desire to sit through myself except it's Mother's Day and my mom says I have to." But a lot more "hey, YOU mean something to me, and I just wanted to say thanks for your love and support and encouragement throughout my life, particularly the past four years."
:)
While I wanted to be creative, I also wanted the announcements to reflect Duke. I used the official Duke typeface (Garamond) and the official Duke color (PMS 288). You mean to tell me that you don't know your college's official Pantone Matching System color? I'm appalled.
I also used the same inside text as the official Duke announcements, but I included the Oxford comma. You're welcome.
Only a million people have asked me so far if I actually kept track of how many cups of coffee I have consumed or how many papers I have written during my undergraduate career, so I'll assume you're currently wondering the same thing. The number of days is completely accurate, as is the number of courses and professors (and basketball national championships). Everything else is estimated, but it's fairly accurate... if anything, it's underestimated.
And that, my friends, is the story of how I designed my own graduation announcements :)
Keep me in mind if you're having any type of event requiring invitations & I'm still unemployed in a few months.
But seriously.
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Lastly, because it's Friday...
Row 1 [FAMILY]: newest cousin addition; more cousin time; sister's soccer game; sister & my kitty
Row 2 [ART & NATURE]: printmaking class; laptop case; day; night
Row 3 [EVENTS]: Easter weekend; TOMS One Day Without Shoes; sister's prom; favorite blogger wrote a book
Row 4 [GROWING UP]: last Coffeehouse shift; addressing graduation announcements; job interview
You can follow my Instagram feed at @simplybeffie, or view all my Instagram pics here.
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Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 45 pages left to write, two more class periods, two independent projects, two group projects, a group presentation, a final critique, an exhibition, and an art department exit interview in the next ten days... or else I will get to send out "just kidding: I'm not actually graduating" announcements. Let the games begin :)
