Mrs. Taco, San FranciscoAge and Occupation: 29, writer/editorFiance's Age and Occupation: 37, editorEngagement Date: May 13, 2009Wedding Date: August 2010Venue: The Green Room at the War Memorial Veterans BuildingAbout Me: I like laughing and talking with good friends over good food and good drink, be it wine, cocktail, or brew. I write and edit things for fun and profit, but I rarely "write" these days without a keyboard and high-speed internets. Favorites include Mr. Taco, my Boston terrier, San Francisco, getting out of town, and the Roaring ’20s. I was kind-of planning a wedding since roughly 2006, when I discovered "Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?" on the WE channel. I ran and didn't look back with a theme I called "urban vintage," and it culminated in the most magical day a taco could ask for.
Part of our photography package—as it is with many—was a leather-bound album of our favorite photos. We sent our 50 pics roughly three months after our wedding day, which everyone tells me is really unusual. I had to; though completely intangible, the digital and mental clutter was driving me freakin’ bananas.
Not that it was easy to review more than 1,000 photos and pick the best 50. Ashley posted some of her own favorites on her blog, so we took some inspiration from her choices. But there was a lot of back and forth over what was album-worthy and why. Sometimes, the task was fuzzy-making and aww-inducing. Other times, it was more like the eye doctor (“Is 1 better or 2? 1? 2? Or are they the same? Definitely 2. NO WAIT, 1.”) In any case, it was awesome to complete and even awesomer to receive it in the mail.
Ashley used most of the pics we chose and, where appropriate for sizing and theme, arranged them into a beautiful 11-spread deal. She often deals with Kiss Wedding Books, and I can see why. They do great work and I love their website, their packaging, and their vibe.
Cute! It came in a sturdy canvas bag. Personal photos.
Mrs. Mary Jane, Grand Forks, NDAge and Occupation: 26, Instructional DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lead ProgrammerEngagement Date: February 28, 2009Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: City HallAbout Me: I'm a career woman on the surface and a homemaker at heart. I love fast cars and high heels, and my favorite food is cake. Mr. Mary Jane and I are both full-time employees and students, and we just bought our first house. We love to curl up on the couch with buttery popcorn, Sour Patch Kids, and the latest Netflix arrival -- whenever we can get a break from everyday life.
I’m popping in again because I’m so excited to share this with you…
Our wedding album has arrived (and only 18 months after the wedding!). A really long time ago, I blogged about how in love we were with the $1000 (or +) albums offered through our photographer. They were amazing. Seriously amazing.
But after the wedding was over and we were thinking about albums (well, mostly I was thinking about albums…), I decided that an album like that probably wasn’t right for us. My reasoning? I wanted to include our wedding, our cake cutting (which was in our home and had no pro photographer), our family/friends picnic reception (which was on a different day and also had no pro photographer), and our honeymoon (which of course had no pro photog tagging along!). In addition, I’ve also cropped, retouched, and otherwise edited a lot of the professional wedding photos after receiving them from the photographer. Don’t get me wrong: Shawna and Kory did an excellent job editing the photos. But I have personal preferences (can we call them “hang ups?”) when it come to pictures of me, so I put in a bit of time making the photos look exactly how I wanted them. Read more…
Miss Oatmeal, Fresno, CAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical Device Sales RepresentativeFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Police Officer/Captain in the US ArmyEngagement Date: February 16, 2010Wedding Date: May 2011Venue: Private Residence, FresnoAbout Me: I am a toast-loving, list-making, occasionally crazy California girl getting dangerously close to marrying her crime-fighting, patient, man's man fiancé. I’ve never left our hometown of Clovis, CA, I love Anthropologie so much it almost hurts, appreciate promptness, love that our 4lb. Chihuahua, Murphy, smells like Fritos, am irritated by windshield wipers that move too fast for the amount of rain, love me some cold weather, have an unhealthy obsession with boots, and wholeheartedly think that my family is everything. Mr. Oatmeal is, oddly enough, my brother's best friend. He's also the best thing that's ever happened to me, and together we are planning a vintage chic, backyard, spring wedding with a few nontraditional touches while trying to keep up with our crazy lives.
Today I have a treat for you. Well, really, it’s a treat for me and Mr. Oatmeal. OK, it’s just a treat for me.
On Christmas morning we were given a spectacular gift from my brother. I’d say that it was the best gift given in the Oatmeal household this Christmas, but I’d be lying. Mr. Oats and I gifted my brother a ShakeWeight. Enough said, right?
Anyway, it was our wedding guestbook! Here I am opening said gift, and my brother is beaming with pride over his gift-giving abilities. (And yes, that is our little Murphy, in a hoodie.)
Mrs. Cola, Mountain View, CAAge and Occupation: 27, Product Communications and PromotionsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Managing Partner and Senior DesignerEngagement Date: March 5, 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: The Mountain Terrace, Woodside, CAAbout Me: I’m a Washington State native, enjoying life in Silicon Valley California with my fiancé, our three kitties and one leopard gecko. I like reading wedding blogs, Photoshopping wedding design mock ups, making lists, and planning, planning, planning! I’m a bit of an anomaly, on one side I’m a very girlie girl, I collect shoes, I lay out my outfits 4-6 weeks in advance, and I’d never leave the house without my hair curled and makeup on. But on the other side, I’m a total tomboy, I love to go camping and hiking, play drinking games (hey, I’m Irish!) and most of my closest friends are guys. My fiancé and I are planning a DIY-focused wedding with a balance between easygoing (what he wants) and chic and stylish (what I want), and are tying it all together with elements in lavender, sage, butter cream and chocolate.
There are only a few things left to do to wrap up everything from our wedding.
At some point we need to figure out how we’ll be displaying our wishing stones from our guestbook in our house. I also plan to make a shadow box display with some photos, our invitations, some dried flowers from my bouquet, Mr. Cola’s boutonniere, and our LED luminary escort cards. And sooner or later we’ll need to order an album for ourselves.
But one of the big wrap up items has already been taken care of: parent albums!
We gifted these to both sets of our parents for Christmas, and they really enjoyed them. Just like Mrs. Cheeseburger, we (I) designed them through Adorama, and while the results were very nice for a gift, I’m not sure we’ll use them for our own album.
Using the Adorama design interface was quite easy. Read more…
Mrs. Trail Mix, New YorkAge and Occupation: 26, PE TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, MBA StudentEngagement Date: March 2009Wedding Date: June 2010Venue: Tannery Pond at the Darrow SchoolAbout Me: I'm a country girl who somehow found herself living in the Big Apple and loving every minute of it. I'm planning a rustic, country-chic wedding in my hometown in upstate New York and it's going to be a Party with a capital P. White wine, flea markets and running keep me happy and my friends, family and fiance are my world. I'm a little bit crafty, a little bit crazy but mostly just crazy in love.
Before I got married, I never really understood what was so difficult about making an album. You pick out some photos, decide on a layout and badda bing, badda, boom, album done.
Um, yeah…not so much. It turns out, making an album really is as much of a b*tch as everyone says it is.
First of all, at least in my case, I was trying to narrow down 2,156 photos to about 60 or so. Friends, let me tell you, that is no easy task. I wanted to make sure we chose the best of the best, the photos which truly represented our wedding and where everyone has their eyes open and was smiling pretty. It took me almost a month just to choose the pictures!
Then I had to decide what kind of album I wanted to make (this one is for my parents, I’m sure ours will be a solid year or two coming). While our photographer seemed to offer competitively-priced albums, I just couldn’t come to terms with spending so much money so I decided to go the DIY route.
Mrs. Hot Cocoa, Boston/Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 31, JD/PhD StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, Medical StudentEngagement Date: May 30, 2008Wedding Date: March, 2009Blogging Since: April, 2008Venue: Ritz Carlton, Marina Del ReyAbout Me:
I am a professional student by day and an amateur cupcake taster, bargain shopper, and wedding planner by night. I am obsessed with NPR, the Food Network, paper, dance shows, Anthropologie, post-structuralist theory, Weddingbee!, "The Office," and celebrity gossip. When not procrastinating from my dissertation, I spend time catering to Jellyby, our overly anxious shih tzu, and getting to know Mr. Hot Cocoa. We have only been dating for fifteen years, so it's like I'm in love with a stranger! From the East Coast, we are planning a Jewish-Chinese Extravaganza in L.A., where we both grew up.
We got married eons ago, but look at the gorgeous surprise that arrived at our door this week: our wedding album!
Our wonderful photographer, Leigh Miller, created so many beautiful images of our wedding weekend that it took Mr. ADD and Ms. Procrastinator forever to choose the photos for the album. I must say, though, that it’s actually kind of fun to have the album come so many months after the wedding. Not only were we wedding’d out for a while, we were also so saturated with media from the weekend that I don’t think we would have appreciated the album quite as much. Now that some time has passed, it’s lovely to have a chance to reminisce about the wedding itself (and to curse the pounds we’ve put on since).
Leigh uses Cypress for her albums. The company’s bookbinding and matting work is meticulous, and their album designs are timeless and beautiful. Read more…
Mrs. Oyster, DallasAge and Occupation: 30, Music TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 46, Art TeacherEngagement Date: January 9, 2009Wedding Date: July 2010Venue: The Tower ClubAbout Me: I'm a Texa-Californian with a penchant for sparkly things and a tendency to think a lot. I've been known to sing random songs or dance when there is no music on. My fiance and I love world culture, we love to travel, and we have an incredibly eclectic taste in music. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate our marriage with our family & closest friends. We're planning an “urban black-tie” wedding and hope to incorporate our personalities and some of our own interests. We look forward to a life of love, laughter, good music, beautiful art, and to creating our home together with our four (!) cats.
A while ago, someone on the boards mentioned her disappointment that some bees seem to disappear for a bit after we’re married. She wondered why it sometimes takes us a while to write about the wedding after it has happened. For some reason, her comments were stuck in my head for months.
I can’t speak for every bee, but guess what? We can’t write about the wedding unless we have pictures of it! And I have no digital pictures yet (except for a limited preview).
While we’ve had our proofs for several weeks, our photographer, like many others, doesn’t send discs until the album is completed, which brings me to this post. Read more…
Mrs. Hippo, New York City/Dallas, TXAge and Occupation: 34, Event Planner for a Non-Profit Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Finance ITEngagement Date: August 8, 2009Wedding Date: March 2011Venue: Samuel Lynne Galleries and Marc EventsAbout Me: I’m a thirty-something bride living in New York City and planning a modern-ish wedding in Dallas, Texas. I love trashy reality television (Jersey Shore, anyone?), online shopping, Sunday brunch, Central Park, and random celebrity spottings on the streets of Manhattan. While I love NYC, I miss good Tex-Mex, my college friends, central A/C, and being in close proximity to a Target. I’m thrilled to finally be planning an event that’s not work-related and to be marrying my best friend in what I hope will be a unique and personal ceremony followed by a reception with plenty of good food, good drinks, and dancing (regardless if it’s good or not).
I was hoping to get some use out of our engagement pictures, and after reading how pleased Mrs. Cheeseburger was with her AdoramaPix wedding album and seeing how Miss Meerkat had used AdoramaPix for her guestbook, I was sold. I went to AdoramaPix.com and created a 26-page 8″ x 10″ photo book to use as our guestbook. Not only was it super easy (and dare I say fun?), but the book just arrived yesterday and I am totally impressed with the quality. Let’s take a peek, shall we?
I used one of our landscape photos to create the wraparound album cover.
Mrs. Sand Dollar, HoustonAge and Occupation: 24, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Electrical TechnicianEngagement Date: January 8, 2010Wedding Date: September 2010Venue: MacLean ParkAbout Me: I'm a domestic diva down to the core. I heart cooking, sewing, baking, decorating and making sure we have a hand-crafted home. The best part about the wedding is I get to incorporate it all! I make sure I put my art degree to good use by screen printing, craft knife cutting, and a whole lotta graphic design. We're having a big-time party on a small-time budget, and I promise to show you a boot-scootin', barbecue-eatin', finger-lickin' good time! Mr. Sand Dollar and I spend most of our time on DIY projects or traipsing around the outdoors with our two pooches Rory and Juno. I'm looking forward to sharing our journey with all of you!
Getting an album made can be one of the most daunting tasks post-planning. Which company do I choose? What layout? Paper quality, finish, cover stock? It’s overwhelming! As quickly as I wanted to wrap up the whole wedding process (as is evident from my recap schedule, I like to wrap things up in a very neat package as soon as they’re done), I didn’t want to become overwhelmed with dedicating so much time to an album—especially after I had spent so much time editing and creating a wedding DVD. So, I decided to create a brag book, with Blurb.
In short, a brag book is a small bound book printed with most of your wedding pictures, in a single-photo-per-page layout. It’s normally also given as a gift to parents so they can easily tote it around and show the photos to all their friends, hence the name “Brag Book.” I chose the 7×7 square from Blurb, and for just under $35 (after finding a free shipping coupon) I received a 165 page book with the premium paper upgrade. I chose Blurb simply because I had used it before, and have always been really happy with the results. About a week later, I received my book.
Mrs. Meerkat, Kalamazoo, MI/Riviera MayaAge and Occupation: 30, Application EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: July 26, 2008Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: Al Cielo / La LagunaAbout Me: I’m a tech-savvy tomboy with an affinity for hot tea and good sushi. Us Meerkats are just a couple fun lovin’ geeks from Michigan. We love anything having to do with movies, books, video games or technology and we hold a special place in our hearts for our two very spoiled shih-tzus, Wicket and Bravo. We also LOVE to travel. We love it so much it only took us 12 hours after we got engaged to decide to have a destination wedding. We are working our little Meerkat tails off planning a rustic-chic, travel themed destination wedding in the Riviera Maya with a semi-formal, vintage-turned-modern, outdoor at home reception back here in Michigan.
It came! It came! Our photo guestbook arrived in the mail today!! I am so happy with how it came out. I was trying to go for a Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark -type feel and I think I accomplished it.
Mrs. Meerkat, Kalamazoo, MI/Riviera MayaAge and Occupation: 30, Application EngineerFiance's Age and Occupation: 23, IT ConsultantEngagement Date: July 26, 2008Wedding Date: December 2010Venue: Al Cielo / La LagunaAbout Me: I’m a tech-savvy tomboy with an affinity for hot tea and good sushi. Us Meerkats are just a couple fun lovin’ geeks from Michigan. We love anything having to do with movies, books, video games or technology and we hold a special place in our hearts for our two very spoiled shih-tzus, Wicket and Bravo. We also LOVE to travel. We love it so much it only took us 12 hours after we got engaged to decide to have a destination wedding. We are working our little Meerkat tails off planning a rustic-chic, travel themed destination wedding in the Riviera Maya with a semi-formal, vintage-turned-modern, outdoor at home reception back here in Michigan.
Definition: Geek - One who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics, etc.
I confess. I am totally a geek. When I get into something, I research the subject until I can tell you every little thing about it. Every aspect of our wedding has been researched with geek enthusiasm and picking a company for printing our photo guestbook was no exception.
When I started doing the research I was really surprised how little information there was out there comparing different companies to each other. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of reviews for each company, but that wasn’t much good to me unless I had some kind of baseline to compare them to.
Seriously, the guy who wrote this, Jason Dunn, out-geeks me any day. (Yes, that is a compliment, in case you were wondering. *grin*) Read more…
Mrs. Sprinkle, Los AngelesAge and Occupation: 26, Preschool Teacher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Television Production/WriterEngagement Date: December 24, 2008Wedding Date: September 2009Venue: The Marvimon HouseAbout Me: I'm a Bay Area native trying to create a life for myself (and my fiance, and our three cats!) in the vast city of Los Angeles. I love vegan red velvet cupcakes, pilates ,and mid-century furniture. Mr. Sprinkle and I met when my band toured through his city (we bonded over cake and a mutual love of Morrissey) and we are getting married on the four year anniversary of our first date. When I am not teaching preschool (or blogging!) you can find me perfecting recipes, petting kittens, hiking in Griffith Park, and overusing exclamation points. We are planning a vegan, green-as-possible, DIY wedding, and I couldn't be more excited to share all of the details!
Something lovely arrived at our home several weeks ago: Read more…
Mrs. Lamb, NorfolkAge and Occupation: 25, Homeland Security ConsultantFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Graduate StudentEngagement Date: January 2009Wedding Date: January 2010Venue: Trinity Presbyterian Church/Harrison Opera HouseAbout Me: I’m a Homeland Security Consultant with a tendency towards pulling office pranks, taking lunch breaks, and drinking Wawa shakes. I’m also an English major with a serious obsession with alliteration and rhymes. While I’m not keeping America safe, I’m training for half marathons and the Escape from Alcatraz swim. Or moving for the third time this year. Or baking. Or wedding crafting. Or crying about wedding planning. All the while, I’m getting myself into Lucille Ball-esque scrapes and making Jim Carey-esque faces. Our big fat Czech/Baptist/Jewish/Italian wedding is a combination of vintage eclectic, DIY, and little spoonful of sugar from our Event Coordinator. It’s going to be a Norfolk flavored wedding with the verve of an only-daughter-blow-out bash!
This is the story of how we ended up with 3 wedding albums. It all started by wanting to save money.
While many albums are absolutely gorgeous (and drool worthy, believe me, I’ve drooled), we weren’t sold on the idea of spending $1000+ for our wedding album. I searched a lot of sites, I looked at Adorama based on recommendations, and I just wasn’t feeling anything. I didn’t want to start from scratch and design pages in InDesign. I didn’t care about the book laying flat. Long story short, I just about gave up on getting an album. Read more…
Mrs. Firefly, New YorkAge and Occupation in 06: 31, AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 35, FinanceEngagement Date: April 11, 2004Wedding Date: June, 2006Venue: Battery GardensAbout Me: I was born in the city of Donetsk in the former Soviet Union (now the Ukraine) and grew up in Brooklyn. Many of my parent's friends are from Russia and the Ukraine as well. We want all of our guests to have a great time and hit the dance floor so we've hired a band that can play both Russian and American music; not to mention a mean rendition of the Gypsy Kings and chair-raising hora!
Many moons ago, I promised an update on when/if I ever put a wedding album together. Well, I did it and I love the result!
Our wedding photos were shot in film by the wonderful Leah McCormick. While Leah gave me DVDs with the digital images, they weren’t the best resolution and the black & white images just didn’t scan right. I had always assumed that I’d need to get a “traditional” album. My sister’s photographer had gone through Cypress and the album was stunning, but it cost more than $5,000 and is so, so delicate. It seemed like a great idea 4 years ago after getting married, but not so much after 2 kids with sticky fingers and expenses up the…
For 4 years—during which many family, birthday party, and vacation albums were put together—I ignored the issue. Then, this past spring, a work colleague shamed me. Read more…
Mrs. Cheeseburger, Baltimore, MD/State College, PAAge and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical StudentEngagement Date: June 28, 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Catholic Church Ceremony & Hotel ReceptionAbout Me: I'm a passionate girl from Pittsburgh, currently living in Baltimore for school, who loves Penn State, seeing movies, football, thunderstorms, black and white photos, Christmas, good beer, my amazing friends and family, and of course, my mister! We met, fell in love, got engaged, and will be married at our alma mater (go lions!) in a traditional Catholic ceremony followed by a hotel reception with lots of DIY details. It means so much to have our families and friends meet at our favorite place on earth to celebrate our love for one another - I truly couldn't ask for anything more!
After we got our wedding photographs back, I immediately started thinking about the albums for our parents. We had given our parents some gifts at the wedding, but these albums were also part of their wedding present from us, and I knew they were looking forward to having them. My mom mentions quite often how the only pictures from the wedding that she (physically) has to show people are all non-pro shots that she got developed during the 3 month lag before our pro pics arrived.
Our photographer has some wonderful small-album options, and we had had a good experience when we purchased our engagement album from her. However, her options are not cheap. Our engagement book ran us about $200+ for an 11×8 book with 24 spreads. We needed two books, with at least that many pages (though likely more), and we preferred a higher quality album than what we could afford with her.
