Bummer

[jfugina]

So, I made this huge wedding album for my BIL's wedding, and I ordered 8x8 books from Shutterfly. The books were perfect, but some of the photos were hard to see the detail, so I ordered a 12x12 version and offered the smaller size to my MIL. Well, the book arrived today, and while the 8x8 books were totally fine, this one has the pages in the wrong order.

I first flipped to the back and noticed that the entire reception section seemed to be missing, but then I flipped through and found it - at the VERY beginning. So this wedding album starts with the reception, and then 14 pages in, goes on to what I intended to be page 1.

Shutterfly said they're just going to send me another book. They're not making me return this one. I'm glad they're going to fix the problem, and even more glad that I won't have to jump through any kind of hoops to get this one back to them. But it's not like I can really give this book away in its current state. I went to great pains to arrange the pages so that the order made sense, and it told the story of the day.

Once I have the new book (and I verify that it's not screwed up), I'm considering trying to cut the pages out of the binding, re-order them, and somehow re-bind them. Does that even seem possible? If I could somehow get the order fixed without making the book look like utter crap, I could give it to my BIL and they could give their smaller book (I gave them an 8x8) one to her mother or her sister. But I'd want it to still look nice and be sturdy.

What do you guys think?

[jmp1022]

I think it would be hard but maybe someone else has a idea

[ChristyB]

I don't know how much room you have along the left hand side. It could possibly be done VERY carefully, removing the pages, but in the rebinding process lose the left margin

[jfugina]

Yeah, Rob suggested that if I didn't mind losing a little bit off of the pages that he could take the inner pages to a massive paper cutter at work. He said it would trim off all of the binding in one clean cut. But then the question becomes, how to put it back together again, and is there a way to use the cover?

I think that once I get the replacement, it will be worth getting out a knife and seeing what I can come up with. It's not like the pages are completely jumbled. If I could get the first 14 pages sliced neatly off the front, and then re-attached at the back somehow, that would do it. I think it's at least worth trying something.

[jmp1022]

Are the back of the pages follow in order?

[pamcook]

I would think you could use a BIA and make the cover workable somehow. Really - what do you have to lose? Take your time to see how it's bound (I think it's just adhesive - but really strong adhesive). Definitely worth a try.

[jfugina]

Jill - the very last page is as it should be. It is white on the back and has the last page of the book on the front side. The 14 pages (7 sheets) at the very front are in order themselves, and should be inserted before that last page.

Pam - I've thought about the BIA option. I'd definitely lose some of the design, but I was careful not to put anything important at those inside edges. I'd still have the challenge of how to re-use the cover, but the BIA is not outside the realm of possibility.

[pbp908]

Just a thought, but if you use the BIA, instead of loosing the margin, why not add paper to the edge to create a margin? Since it's the BIA instead of an album, it won't matter if it's 14 x 12 instead of 12 x 12. Then you could also reuse the cover.

[cnedaria]

If you want it to look nice, and are willing to do the work, trim the pages up and then make up a whole bunch of 1" strips folded in half. Tip in your trimmed pages to the strips in pairs to make signatures and sew the whole thing back together. Making sense? Use some scratch sheets to mask off a thin line along the edge to glue and you'll get even tension across the page and everything will work fine.

Clear as mud? It will look nice, but you'll have to spend an afternoon gluing the pages to the binding strips...

[jfugina]

If you want it to look nice, and are willing to do the work, trim the pages up and then make up a whole bunch of 1" strips folded in half. Tip in your trimmed pages to the strips in pairs to make signatures and sew the whole thing back together. Making sense? Use some scratch sheets to mask off a thin line along the edge to glue and you'll get even tension across the page and everything will work fine.

Clear as mud? It will look nice, but you'll have to spend an afternoon gluing the pages to the binding strips...

Jen - I do think I understand what you're saying, and it's somewhat similar to Pam's suggestion of adding an edge to use with the BIA. And I'm keeping it in mind, but the thing that strikes me about the adding an edge approach, is that I probably lose the ability to re-use the cover. Because there will be even the smallest slice where the amount of pages is effectively doubled, the book as a whole won't fit into the cover any more, since the spine appears to be sized to accommodate only 50 of those printed sheets. Know what I mean? It also seems like it might lend itself to fanning, even if I didn't try to fit it into the existing cover.

All great ideas ladies, and I'm considering them all. I've got this thread bookmarked so I can review all of the suggestions before I go cutting into it.

[n8tvtexan]

Its good that they are sending you a replacement. I would love to see your final result.