Mrs. Dolphin, Gainesville, FLAge and Occupation: 24, Graduate Architecture StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Interactive Interface DeveloperEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Plantation Bay Country ClubAbout Me: I’m currently a Graduate Student at the University of Florida studying Architecture. I enjoy playing Scrabble with my Fiance, rooting for the Florida Gators, making any drink that involves a blender, cleaning (yes... I’m crazy), design... GOOD design that is, the new Pepsi with natural sugar, taking pictures, discovering new places in the U.S., and obsessing over doing (and designing) everything myself for our upcoming wedding!
After spending 2 hours this morning trying to figure out the best way to make our wedding album with Adorama, I decided to forget about trying to use their online software. The easiest way to make our album to all my type A wants/needs is to make it from scratch, via Adobe InDesign.
InDesign and I became BFF this past year when I was putting together my thesis book, so it was only natural that we rekindle our friendship and make a fantastical wedding album to give to our parents/grandparents and for ourselves.
Mrs. Cardigan, AustinAge and Occupation: 21, Student/Soon-to-be Special Education TeacherFiance's Age and Occupation: 20, Student/Soon-to-be Accounting Systems AnalystEngagement Date: August 16, 2009Wedding Date: January 2011Venue: Vintage VillasAbout Me: I'm a native Austinite who was raised as a die-hard Aggie. Luckily, I'm a pretty persuasive girl because I managed to convince my high school boyfriend (now fiance!), Mr. Cardigan, to ditch his hardcore Longhorn ways and join me up at A&M, where we currently reside with our adorable dogs, Cullen & Ranger. We're currently planning a bright, cheery wedding with a ridiculous amount of DIY projects that I can't wait to tackle! I love crafting in any form, reading, and margaritas (I think I love them the most!). Organization is what keeps me sane and I love helping others, which is probably why I ended up as an education major. It gets a little chaotic sometimes when you're planning a wedding among all of the papers, projects, finals, and certification exams, but we're having the time of our lives and we can't wait to get started on our journey as husband and wife - and we're so excited to share our wedding with the hive!
We had our engagement photos done several months ago, and I really really love them. The only problem? Ever since we got them, they’ve just been sitting around on my computer, not really doing anything.
I mean, sure, I put them on our wedding website. And we’re both using e-photos as profile pictures on Facebook. But, we didn’t really spend all that money on an engagement shoot just to have pretty Facebook photos, right? So, I decided to finally do something about it!
That’s right – I made a photobook! I had been procrastinating on making one, because I just couldn’t decide which company to use…there are so many to choose from, and we all know how I am with making decisions. I figured I’d keep going back and forth forever, and we’d never really end up getting one. But, when we registered at Target a couple of months ago, we got a $20 gift card to Shutterfly. Decision made! Shutterfly it is.
I had a blast making our photobook, and I thought it was nice that I was able to include some of the photos that aren’t necessarily our favorites (meaning they won’t end up on FB or our wedding website) but that we still liked. Read more…
Mrs. Cowboy Boot, Santa FeAge and Occupation: 25, Magazine EditorFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Artist and Whitewater Rafting GuideEngagement Date: April 28th, 2008Wedding Date: October 2009Venue: Devil's Thumb Ranch, ColoradoAbout Me: I grew up in Los Angeles and have since lived in San Diego, Boston, Italy, Hawaii, New York City, and Santa Fe. I speak Italian and love pasta. My real passion is the outdoors, though. When I'm not at work, I'm snowboarding, hiking with my two dogs, mountain biking, surfing, cross-country-skiing, or boating New Mexico's rivers. Despite my boyish love for adventure, I'm a girly-girl at heart and am overly-excited to pull off the romantic, vintage-inspired, country wedding of my dreams.
The benefit of getting married? Among other things, you don’t have to hem and haw over what to get your parents the following holiday season. It’s obvious: A photo album. There are so many websites to go through (like Blurb and Snapfish and Shutterfly), but if you have a Mac, you can also order a book directly through iPhoto.
That’s what we decided to do. I checked out Blurb (because so many bees had given it rave reviews), but I was actually scared away by the design process. Instead, I opted for iPhoto’s super simple drop-and-drag process. You can customize every page to hold up to four photos and even set it to have just one image bleed off the page. Want to see my favorite layouts?
Mrs. Dolphin, Gainesville, FLAge and Occupation: 24, Graduate Architecture StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Interactive Interface DeveloperEngagement Date: February 14, 2008Wedding Date: May 2010Venue: Plantation Bay Country ClubAbout Me: I’m currently a Graduate Student at the University of Florida studying Architecture. I enjoy playing Scrabble with my Fiance, rooting for the Florida Gators, making any drink that involves a blender, cleaning (yes... I’m crazy), design... GOOD design that is, the new Pepsi with natural sugar, taking pictures, discovering new places in the U.S., and obsessing over doing (and designing) everything myself for our upcoming wedding!
The husband and I have decided that we will be designing our own wedding album (more like I will be designing it). I’ve thought of a few ideas of what ’type’ of album we would like, and have been checking into a few companies that will provide us with what we want (without being a professional photographer and paying out the a** too… I apologize for profanities… but do y’all really pay $800 for a wedding album?).
The husband and I want to go for something a little more in the nontraditional category, in terms of wedding albums. We aren’t really into the leather covers, the black matted photos, or even the single image covers (although as we go through the design process, this may all change). We want an album that reflects our wedding, our personalities, and the time we lived in when we got married. I know… that is a lot rolled up into one wedding album; but hey, you gotta dream big, right? Anyways, I’ve found a couple of cute album covers (with even cuter insides), as I’ve been thinking of what type of ’look’ we want for our wedding album.
Modern and Funky Wedding Album Cover found via Finao* *Finao only sells to professional photographers, nonetheless it is still a great source of inspiration
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!
A few weeks after we finished our engagement shoot our photographer, we started discussing our options for purchasing prints and albums. Jessica offers competitive pricing on gorgeous albums and large prints, and we decided to indulge in both.
We selected about 50 pictures (yes, 50! Our wedding album is going to take us years to get down to a reasonable number, I’m sure) to go into our 10 x 8 coffee table album, and gave Jess free reign with layout and image order.
The results are truly amazing. You’ll have to forgive my awful photography of her beautiful work. But I had to try to show you how wonderful our book is!
Mrs. Cupcake, PhiladelphiaAge and Occupation: 27, Graphic DesignerFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Construction Project ManagerEngagement Date: February 10, 2007Wedding Date: September, 2008Blogging Since: December 7, 2007Venue: The Desmond Hotel in Malvern, PAAbout Me: Mr. Cupcake and I hit it off at a Halloween party and immediately began a long-distance relationship. After two years, he moved to my neck of the woods, and a year and a half after that, he proposed at the “place we fell in love.” I am a true perfectionist who enjoys designing and creating more work for myself, so wedding planning is my perfect outlet. Mr. Cupcake and I are both old souls, and we hope to weave that aspect of our personalities into our wedding day.
Ever since we got our wedding photos back from our photographers last February, I have had a very big to-do hanging over my head:
Mrs. Cupcake’s to-do list 1. Create wedding albums for parents
Finally I was able to cross this biggie off of my list this Christmas (with glee, might I add). In early December, I hunkered down and designed 12″ x 12″, 50-page hardcover albums, which I had printed by Blurb. I had never used Blurb before so I was quite nervous for the outcome, but after reading so many rave reviews from the hive, I took the chance… and I am pleased to say that I am extremely satisfied with the final result.
Mrs. Pug, New York City/Half Moon Bay, CAAge and Occupation: 33, LawyerFiance's Age and Occupation: 32, dittoEngagement Date: July 2008Wedding Date: March 2010Venue: Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon BayAbout Me: The Mr. and I are two 30-somethings who enjoy tasty sweets of all kinds, our neighborhood wine store, and cuddling with our pug. NYC is where we live and the city we love, but we’re doing the deed out in Northern California. We are trying to keep the affair small, intimate, and manageable. Our motto is: the less people, the better! (I’m kidding.)
I mean, who needs those things anymore? Well, I do! Particularly if I want to make our DIY faux-tobooth/guestbook work (after the wedding, I will put people’s pictures in a guestbook next to the messages that they left us).
So, what do I need for this fxbooth?
Equipment
Since Polaroid film is, for the moment, no longer in production, I am thinking of turning to the Fujifilm Instax camera:
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.
Mr. Mary Jane and I wanted to give our parents and grandparents something special to remember our wedding by. Aside from the obvious framed photo, I decided to make some photo books for them. There are a lot of options out there at various price-points. I chose Shutterfly for a few reasons:
I’m generally happy with stuff I get printed there.
I have ordered a Shutterfly photo book before, and was impressed by its quality.
We received a $20 coupon for Shutterfly when we started our registry at Target.
I started the process by narrowing down our wedding pictures. We were provided with over 500 shots, and I had already whittled it down to about 150 “good ones” (in which neither of us was making a strange face or generally being odd). I went through them again and found about 50 that I really thought were great and/or meaningful to include. I also threw in some shots I’d taken (e.g. one of our rings, some from the picnic), and some that my dad and FMIL Mary Jane had taken during the cake-cutting at our house.
When I finally had the photos selected, I painstakingly edited each of these photos for blemishes, red-eye, and other distractions. Then I color-adjusted all of them so that there were two types of photos: color and black-and-white. I decided to omit sepia, vintage-toned and otherwise treated photos because I really wanted a crisp-looking album. Read more…
Mrs. Deviled Egg, PittsburghAge and Occupation: 27, Public RelationsFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, AccountingEngagement Date: December 24, 2007Wedding Date: May, 2009Blogging Since: October 21, 2008Venue: Historic auditorium and meeting hall in one of Pittsburgh's commuter citiesAbout Me: I am obsessed with all things crafty, especially scrapbooking, knitting, jewelry-making & cake decorating. I also love being an aunt, wrapping presents, watching football (Go Steelers!), shopping at yard sales and consignment stores, procrastinating, singing and learning to play the guitar. When it comes to wedding planning, I'm excited about working on DIY projects and finding creative ways to stay under budget. Of course, nothing is more exciting to me than knowing that the wonderful Mr. Deviled Egg will be my husband.
Here I am, almost seven months after our wedding day, and I am still making wedding-related decisions. But, the things to be decided now are all fun things because they have to do with our wedding album design!
While I sent our photographer, Ticia Mangino, a list of our favorite photos from the day to include on the inside of the album, I didn’t realize that I had so many options for what would be on the outside.
Ticia uses Finao for creating wedding albums for her clients. Lucky me!
Mrs. Ramen, PhoenixAge and Occupation: 26, Optometry StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Industrial DesignerEngagement Date: January 3, 2009Wedding Date: December 19, 2009Venue: Phoenix Art MuseumAbout Me: I'm an SF-born, Seattle-raised girl, transplanted to Phoenix where I'll be getting married, and planning all the way from Orange County where I go to school (yes, it feels as crazy as it sounds). I loooooove Yogurtland, am slightly very obsessed with all things paper, am heavily addicted to wedding blogs, deeply desire a puppy, thoroughly enjoy cooking, cry when I watch (almost all) movies, thrive on solo car-karaoke, can't stop being sarcastic, am neurotic about taking pictures of almost everything I eat before I eat it, and aspire to travel the world. My super-talented fiance and I are attempting to DIY a majority of our massive (~350 guests) "clean & modern, yet romantic, but completely unexpected, with a teeny dash of vintage" wedding, stay within our not-so-massive budget, and somehow get a really luxe (but still fun!) look/feel at the same time. In music terms (since we're both really into music) think Coldplay meets Motown meets Kanye meets Sinatra.
So, I ordered 2 photo guestbooks; one from MyPublisher and one from Blurb. I was able to get a really great deal from Blurb with a 20% off coupon and free shipping code, while I was completely ridiculous and forgot to use the Costco 20% discount for the MyPublisher book. OOPS.
Aside from my slightly costly oversight, I’m here to report back!
To level the playing field, I got the premium paper in both and did the photo dust jackets. There is obviously a discrepancy in size, as well as in price. In the end, I spent about $35/book (I didn’t add any additional pages).
First, we will start with the MyPublisher book. Read more…
Mrs. Avocado, SeattleAge and Occupation: 23, StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, ConsultantEngagement Date: July 27, 2008Wedding Date: October, 2008Blogging Since: June 30, 2008Venue: LDS Seattle Temple & Hotel 1000About Me: Somehow this little farm girl found herself a genuine Pole to fall in love and eventually move away to Poland with. I am an LDS bride attempting to plan a private religious ceremony, ring ceremony, seated reception for 100, and an open house while coordinating for guests flying in from across the United States and as far away as Poland. I try to avoid fads, excess waste, and saturated fat. I strongly endorse photography, DDR, calorie counting, rss feeds, cooking, and utilizing your resources.
I’ve had our wedding album in hand for a few months now and finally got around to taking some photos so you can see how gorgeous the finished product is. The album was designed by the company Albumesque, and assembled by the company KISS wedding books. Both are companies that work exclusively with photographers. I wanted an album that focused on clean and simple design elements that allowed the photos to really remain the focal point. All photos by Kelli Nicole Photography.
The album came with this lovely floral case. I store it inside whenever I don’t have it out to show it off to protect our big investment from accidental damage.
Mrs. Bee, New YorkAge and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee PublisherFiance's Age and Occupation: 33, InternetEngagement Date: May 7, 2004Wedding Date: March 5, 2005Venue: Westside Loft, New YorkAbout Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
Yesterday I attended Darcy Miller’s private showing of Family, a special exhibit showcasing her whimsical illustrations and passion for scrapbooking. The pieces in the collection focused on her wedding, travels, and family, and ranged from shadowboxes, to scrapbooks, to journals to actual items from Darcy’s family life. You could see just how passionate and creative Darcy is when it comes to preserving memories, and I must say that it was truly inspiring!
Once upon a time I was an avid scrapbooker, but that was a hobby that fell to the wayside when the buzz of daily life intervened. I still have all my wedding keepsakes stored in a box because I hoped to scrapbook them all one day. This exhibit renewed my desire to preserve my own family’s memories in similarly meaningful and beautiful ways, because you don’t necessarily have to be super crafty to replicate some of Darcy’s amazing ideas below!
A shadowbox featuring tickets, pictures, and items collected on a family trip to Paris.
Mrs. Gloss, Boston/MaineAge and Occupation: 24, Designer/soon-to-be ArchitectFiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Systems EngineerEngagement Date: May 23, 2008Wedding Date: August 2009Venue: SS Katahdin/Lakeside TentAbout Me: I don't like nickels or the skin that forms on pudding when it's in the fridge for too long. I couldn't live without Pantone markers, fountain soda (3/4 diet, ¼ regular Coke), run-on sentences, or ridiculously oversized sunglasses. I will try to DIY almost anything and am just OCD enough to make most of it work. I am truly excited about having all my family and friends together, becoming Mrs. Gloss, and having amazing photos to prove it!
While I’m waiting, sometimes not so patiently, for our wedding photos to be processed by the lovely Erica Lyn, I cannot help think about what I will do with them. Our photography package does not include an album (although we obviously have the option of purchasing one), so I have a number of options to consider. We could do a Blurb/MyPublisher-style album; the quality is decent and the price really cannot be beat. But then I see the professional photographer albums with their really thick, lay flat pages. I !start drooling and think it would all be worth it!
Mrs. Crab Cake, Columbus, GAAge and Occupation: 25, Registered NurseFiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Director of Education and Living History for a museumEngagement Date: April 6, 2008Wedding Date: June, 2009Blogging Since: November 26, 2008Venue: Holy Family Catholic Church, reception: National Infantry MuseumAbout Me: I'm a perfectionist trying to balance two jobs, motherhood, my craft obsession, and wedding planning. I am obsessed with all things wedding, especially creative ideas for saving money and DIY projects. A Southern Belle at heart, I love anything southern, especially sweet tea, grits, afternoon thunder storms, crab cakes, and good old Southern hospitality. Mr. Crab Cake and I are planning a vintage inspired wedding with tons of Southern flare (can y'all say that with a thick Southern drawl?).
A few years ago, my mom passed down her wedding album. My parents were married in 1979 in a very small ceremony. The reception was held in my grandparents’ backyard and my grandmother’s homemade spaghetti was the only thing on the menu.
Needless to day, it was a simple affair. Her album is similar.
Yes, my maiden name was Seeds. Like you plant in the ground. Blech. Read more…
Mrs. Toucan, BostonAge and Occupation: 25, Full-time Research Assistant, Part-time Graduate StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, ActuaryEngagement Date: February 18, 2007Wedding Date: June 7, 2008Blogging Since: November 07, 2007Venue: St. Catherine of Genoa, Jin Asian Cuisine RestaurantAbout Me: I’m a Gemini to the extreme. On one side, I’m a girly girl. I read countless bridal and fashion magazines, and have an obsession with keeping up with the latest Hollywood gossip. On the other side, I’m a sports fanatic. Despite being a full-time bride-to be, full-time research assistant, and part-time student, I’m also a full-time Red Sox fan from spring training to October, and a full-time Patriots fan from mini-camp to February. I devote almost as much time researching my for fantasy football team as researching for our wedding!
All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
