So, the other day I received a message from a customer who had purchased a monogrammed door hanger as a wedding gift. She wanted to know if I could make a wood cake topper. SURE! I had never made one before but I knew that I could. New Product! Yay! But then she explained that it was for the wedding she was attending the next day and it was an emergency situation. The bride's dog had eaten the cake topper 😬. I knew this was going to be no small task. It has to not only be perfect but fast and did I mention I have never made one before? It was already almost 6pm and the wedding was the next day. My processing time is usually 8-10 days (although I usually complete in 3-5) I like to be sure I have time for trial and errors, you know, the unexpected. She passed my info on and the brides other sweet friend reached out and assigned the task to yours truly. I told her I would checkin in an hour and let her know how it's going. Sure enough an hour later I had completed the design going off the photo I had received and it was printing time! Well, let's just say the first print was a bust.
My glowforge laser destroyed the back of the cake topper. There was so much burn and the letters were so thin. It was not the result I had hoped for and I knew it had to be done right, the wedding was the next day. I was now sweating. It was now 9pm and I have to start again!! The friend and I are in constant contact. She wants the bride to get a new cake topper and I want to give them a perfect cake topper and time is not waiting for any of us.. So back to the design. I thicken the letters (which meant I had to redo the entire design I won't even get into the glitches I encountered with trying to thicken and weld the font. I will save that for another blog) added more adhesive paper to protect the back and 2nd print....burnt! AHHHHHHHH! I AM SO FRUSTRATED! IT IS NOW 1AM and I haven't eaten. I'm ready to scream! I am stressing out of fear of failure when my boyfriend came up with this genius idea 💡. Add another piece of wood under the wood I'm printing on and see if that bottom piece will catch most of the laser burn. Why didn't I think of this?!?! He is so my hero and why I love him. IT WORKED! PERFECTION! 2:30am the Wood Cake Topper was finished and beautiful on both sides. I am not going to lie after the 1st 6 hours and 2 failed prints I was swearing this was the worst idea to try and take this on, I can't fail a bride and I would never make another lol (Oh how dramatic I can be when things are less than perfect). But every obstacle is an opportunity for growth. This order taught me how to work through design program glitches and how to prevent my glowforge from burning the back of small projects. I have got to learn to breathe lol. I was so happy that I was able to help and I went from hating the cake topper to just loving it lol. I never had the opportunity to meet the bride but I do hope that she loved the cake topper it looked gorgeous on her wedding cake. A big thank you to her friend for sending me photos of the cake 😍. Her friends are beautiful people and so incredibly kind. She is so blessed. They were rallying together to take the stress off of her so she can prepare for one of the biggest days of her life. I also hope she loves the monogrammed door hanger her friend purchased as a wedding gift. I added a lot of extra love (flowers) to make sure it was grand! I love my customers. I genuinely appreciate every order that I receive and take the execution of each order so seriously (to fault at times lol). I just want the end result to be pure bliss! 😅 I don't want to just blog about how great things are because the truth is every business owner has challenges and business owners are real people with real feelings, struggles, and stress just like our customers. I care so much about my customers being happy I stop everything including eating to focus lol I want to be real with you and just tell you how it is lol 😆 I will struggle but I won't quit until it's perfect for you.
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