Well.  There are five days until the wedding.  We are excited.  And READY.  It's pretty cool to think that everyone will be coming in town just for us.  Very humbling.  I really just hope everyone has a good time.  The weather forecast is a little iffy (keeps alternating between partly cloudy and RAIN).  I'll take partly cloudy over rain any day. 

I am working today and tomorrow, then I am off until October 28th.  THAT is a vacation.  I'll be spending Wednesday confirming with vendors and packing things up.  It will be nice to have a clean house again.  I can't even fathom that we'll be on a beach next week.  I feel like there's too much going on in the immediate future to even THINK about anything past Saturday.

When we get back, it will probably all be the same, except we'll have more free time.  We are already talking about the next house projects.  The latest plan is to add dormers upstairs, which will really add space.  Instead of a bedroom and walk-in closet, it will be two bedrooms with regular closets.  The downstairs bedroom will be the TV room, and the front room will be where he paints and I craft.  Yes, it's the biggest room.  At least our priorities are straight.

I also keep thinking that I'm forgetting something.  Elaine and Meredith are giving me great advice.  I hope everything goes smoothly.  (I am talking about the wedding again - no transition there, sorry!).  Most all our vendors are paid in full.  We did AWESOME with keeping on our budget.  I am nervous about the parts when all eyes are on us (like the walk down the aisle, the dances, the introductions).  When I get nervous I talk a lot and try to make a ton of jokes.  I hope all our vendors show up and do their thing.  I hope all our guests show up and do THEIR thing.  I hope no one complains to me.  I've worked really hard to make this a painless event for everyone.  I know I've overlooked things.  Oh, well! 

I probably won't update again.  This is it.  Next time I'm back, I'll be an old married lady.  Weird.

So it's been a while.... 

I was just reading through the recent entries.  (Recent meaning within the last year.)  I still love those save-the-dates.  I did switch fonts for the invitations.  (Which are now ordered, yay!).  

The photo of the church in the previous post ended up coming in runner-up in the NCL Latitudes photo contest.  The winner gets a free 7-day cruise.  The runners-up get nothing.  

We are moving to Rhode Island at the end of the month.  I am trying to purge a lot since the house is quaint and I don't want to junk it up with so much crap.  I want to stay organized because the summer will be busy, and the wedding is so close.  

I will do better with updates.  :-)

Well, we mailed them on Saturday (Valentine's Day!) so people started getting them today!  It's so fun to hear people's comments.  Traci called me at work as soon as she got hers.  My mom emailed me.  Aaron's sister Alice-Anne left me a message on facebook. 

Ok I took photos.  I actually had to make another b/c they're all sealed.  Haha. 

Here is the envelope with its (blank!) letterpressed label.  I wrote the addresses on all pretty-like.  Yeehaw. 


Closeup of the label.  The etsy sellers was shopheartsandanchors, Sarah, and she was a doll. 


So then you pull it out of the envelope.  The envelopes are stardream "coral" but it looks like pale pink.  I wanted the euro flap, but I am starting to LET THINGS GO.  You'll see another thing I let go in a second.


And here is the outside of the pocketfold.  We made these from custom-cut paper from Anchor Paper.  The paper has a linen texture, and is a lovely charcoal grey.  Tom from Anchor Paper chose the paper for me based on what I described.  I think he did well!


We sealed the flaps down with a wax seal of wedding bells (Aaron's choice - I really didn't care for any of the designs so he picked).  I didn't burn myself once!  We did all 50-60 flaps with one package of wax sticks. 


So then you open it up, and here's the inside:


That's a magnet from Vistaprint at the top, held on with black photo corners.  I didn't want to do magnets but Aaron thought they were the best idea ever, so....that's the other thing I let go.  He loves me.  Haha.  The bottom card is a postcard (free from Vistaprint!) tucked into the bottom pocket.  I took it out here:


If you flip over the postcard, the accommodations information is on the back.  I designed the postcard and the magnet in Illustrator and Photoshop. 


Closeup of the accommodations card.  It has the same circle pattern as the magnet, but only on the edges.  Fonts are Century Gothic and Feel Script.  I liked the Feel Script but now I am thinking it's not formal enough and I want to maybe use Bickham Script.  We are using the circles b/c it's a famous quilt pattern.  Also, we like that quilts are passed down in families, like their own little scrapbooks.  Aaron and I both are very close w/ our families, so we thought a quilt pattern would be cool.  Right....right??  This pattern is called Wedding Rings.  :-) 


And the front of the card.  My dad chose the pic of me.  You can see my twin sister's hand in the lower left corner.  I think he cropped her out of the photo.  Apparently we never took photos separately.  Aaron chose his own picture.  Aaron made fun of my bangs.  We were poor.  My momma cut my hair. 


And finally, a wicked closeup of the little logo that was more of an accident than anything else.  And I like it!  I am thinking I might have this put onto the side of the cake, like a monogram?  I will definitely try to incorporate it in somewhere else. 


Sorry so long.  I am chatty.  They cost 59 cents to mail, but I got 62 cent stamps b/c they were prettier (dragonflies!  Instead of some old guy wearing a Hawaiian lei!). 

THANKS FOR LOOKING!!

This is my birthday present.  Booyah.

Here are other options. 

To tell the truth, this photo already looked HDRed, so all I really did was a vignette, and some other snazzy things. 




This one didn't look HDRed, but it had a lot of contrast.  Damn the white sky. 

NCL (Norwegian Cruise Lines) is having a photo contest.  The stipulations are: you have to have taken an NCL cruise, and the photo you submit must have been taken while on the ship or in port.  Seeing as I took almost 800 photos, I figured I'd have at least one.  Right?

Since I finally figured out how to put CS3 on my computer (yeah, just in time for CS4 to be released), and I on-my-own figured out how to put actions into Photoshop, I decided to play around with that a little.  

BEFORE:



BEFORE:


AFTER:


So what's the general opinion?  You can only submit ONE photo.  I am going to see what else I have.

Enjoy!

These pictures are all from my Grammy's birthday party. I made them into a video! I am so awesome. Haha. Just kidding. Pretty cool, though, huh? I have another one to share. BRB.