Weddingbee Blog

Extra, extra! Read all about it! That’s right, our first wedding newsletter is out in in-boxes everywhere! Well, by “everywhere”, I mean my wedding party members’ in-boxes! I designed the entire thing using my trusty MacBook Pro, PowerPoint, Picasa, Picnik.com, the ever-handy Google image search, some inspiration from Mrs. Eggplant’s newsletter, and my own imagination and creativity. Check it out!

For the cover I used one of our engagement photos taken by our very talented photographer Lindsi Jones (she just got back from shooting back to back weddings in Mexico & Las Vegas!). I used a barcode generator to make it look like a real magazine cover and as a way to sneak in our wedding date! I set the page orientation to portrait in PowerPoint and used the picture as the background so all the text would show up on top. There’s really no tutorial to this, just a lot of trial and error with different fonts and sizes and positioning of the text. (All sources found on last page.)

This is where I really began to draw a lot of inspiration from Mrs. Eggplant. I included a little “On the Cover” section like they do in real magazines! The next page included a screen shot of our wedding website for a “Find Us on the Web” section.

Still drawing from Mrs. EP, I decided to credit all my wedding party members in the “Contributors” section. I found a little scroll-like flower using Google to lay in the background to add some interest. Sorry I had to white out all the names. I don’t think my wedding party would be too pleased with their names plastered all over the web!

For the “Meet the Party” portion, I alternated between the guys and the girls instead of completely separating them. Aren’t they a good-looking bunch?

Next up was information on the trip to Vegas we’re planning for our bachelor/bachelorette parties. There was also a section on ways to save on the trip (I’m a huge cheapskate, so of course we’re making the trip as affordable as possible!).

As part of the Vegas feature, I listed potential shows and events for the guys, girls, and everyone. We’re planning separate parties for one night, so it’s important to choose gender-specific things to do!

The next page in the newsletter was devoted to giving the wedding party a chance to leave their impression on our wedding. We’re letting them choose songs to be introduced to at the reception!

We then had a “Groomsmen’s & Bridesmaids’ Corner” section. For the ladies I gave them a chance to vote on different bridesmaids dresses. If you remember, I already picked a dress but I’m having second thoughts and decided to open it up to a vote to seal the deal! For these slides I used a “texture” background.

The last feature was on the “After Party” which will be held on River Street, less than a mile from our reception site. I once again used a picture as the background.

Lastly was the “Sources” page. I’m so used to crediting my work for Weddingbee, that I decided I might as well give credit where credit’s due for my newsletter as well! We included another e-pic and a note asking for the wedding party to send a confirmation that they received the newsletter.

It took me 4 days to finish as I struggled to find time around my internship and got exhausted with many trial & errors. But I finished by my “deadline” to send it out on the 150 day mark. I can’t believe the wedding is only 5 months away! *eek* I like it so much that I may print it out for a wedding scrapbook memento. I’ll probably hang on to this issue as a template for the next newsletter.

How are you getting out important information to your bridal party? Have you taken a creative approach?