Go Ahead Lose Yourself Inside This Opportunity

Five Days

2009-10-05T15:49:07Z

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.

Umm....hi!

2009-06-19T21:16:59Z

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. :-)

Save the Dates

2009-02-18T00:15:26Z

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!!

Come to mama

2009-02-18T00:03:58Z

This is my birthday present. Booyah.

It's kinda fun!

2008-11-26T02:13:26Z

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 Photo Contest

2008-11-26T01:40:05Z

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.

Meredith and Dave's babies

2008-10-21T02:33:50Z

hahaha!

2008-10-21T02:11:17Z

Grant's Graduation

2008-10-03T12:40:04Z

Enjoy!

I made a video!

2008-10-03T12:38:07Z

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.

jlsimon56 @ 2008-08-02T12:01:00

2008-08-02T16:05:56Z

This is my godson. He's smiling here because I promised him we could take a gross, stick-out-your-tongue picture afterwards. Which I already deleted. He's also about to get some ice cream with oreos, and he's smart enough to cooperate when necessary.

I changed this one into black and white because it was taken indoors in the evening, and I didn't take the time to set a custom white balance, so the image is quite red. [iso800, f/1.4, 1/90]

Walking around, taking pics

2008-08-02T16:00:19Z

This is why I like having a little, tuck-it-in-your-purse camera (not a little, tuck-it-in-your-back-pocket-then-sit-down camera, right?). A lot of times I don't feel like dragging around my whole camera system, choosing the right lens, bringing three more in case it's not the right lens, extra batteries, extra cards, extra extra extra.... So I bring a little one. And I shoot with it.

EYE CONTACT

2008-07-24T03:20:40Z

Woot! I just saw this picture, from the Oldies concert last weekend. It's The Guess Who. I love when I get eye contact in a photo. Woot!

Complete List

2008-07-22T16:30:39Z

Some days I like it all, and some days I want to elope in Vegas. Actually, most of the time it's minute-to-minute. I'll see a great idea, and I love it and want to EXECUTE, but then I look at the price tag, and that's when the eloping ideas get fired up.

Elizabeth Anne Designs

That site has probably been the most helpful. All the great ideas are all in a row. It was also this site (I think?) that convinced me I needed a videographer, even though before I considered it to be the biggest waste, right after excessive flowers. (I say "excessive" because I do want pretty flowers - just not $5K worth!)

It also introduced me to birdcage veils (nixed by Aaron),

fun shoes (Aaron could care less),

and funky socks for the guys (also nixed by Aaron)
:

Model Shoot

2008-07-07T02:59:46Z

This is Sonya, aka a cross between Angelina Jolie and Norah Jones. Hair and makeup done by Christina, who also threaded my Frida eyebrows. Thank you, Christina!

Courtesy Call

2008-06-27T12:34:45Z

I don't have a home phone. I don't need one. I have a cell phone, and the police station is literally across the street.

But because I don't have a home phone, I don't have anything to put in the "home phone" section. Sometimes, it's absolutely necessary. Like for banks, medical records, etc. Rather than giving out my cell phone number, I usually put my work number. I mean, they don't really need to CALL, do they? Hmm....

Lately, at work, I've been getting courtesy calls. At least one a day. I'm at work, people! Don't you know I'm online looking at wedding stuff?!?!? :-) And it's never a person anymore. It's a recording. You have to press "1" to connect to the representative. Today, I did.

And the phone rang. Like I was calling them! A woman answers, and this is how that conversation went:

Rep: Hello! Would you like to find out more information about reducing your debt?

Me: Actually, I'd like to find out more information about removing my name from your list.

*click!*

DIAL TONE.

She hung up on me! That's not how that's supposed to go! I'm supposed to be the one who does the hanging up! What is the world coming to, when you can't even hang up on the courtesy callers anymore?!?!?

jlsimon56 @ 2008-06-24T21:45:00

2008-06-25T01:49:06Z

I should be at the Dave show. It's going on mere miles from my house. This is the first time in ten years that I haven't gone. I am too old to deal with all that business though. I talked to Jacque at work today, who went to the Hartford show this past weekend. All I remember about Hartford is getting peed on. Two different times! Ugh.

So, I am proofing pictures instead. I vacuumed my badly-needed-vacuuming apartment and have been sitting here ever since. Here is one that just jumped out at me. I will add more if I feel like it. It is almost time for bed....

I like the little pieces of paper - she's reading from hers, and he's got his safely tucked behind him. And, I LOVE the guy down by the water in his swim shorts. When you have a beach wedding, you get everything that comes with it!

The morning of the wedding day

2008-06-21T02:50:39Z

I shot a beach wedding two weekends ago. It was HOT but it was GREAT. I took over a thousand photos, and I'm only 1/4 of the way through them. I arrived an hour ahead of schedule (I had only been to Gloucester once before so I didn't want to get lost). The bride and her gals were sunbathing on the deck. Loved it! Ha! I took a little walk down to the beach to scope out the tent and where the ceremony was to take place. It was such a gorgeous beach.

I knew I wanted to go with a old-time beach feel with these pictures. Kind of washed out by the ocean and the sand.... There were sand dollars all along the shoreline. This was a private beach, so it was still nice and quiet in the morning.

I headed back to the house to see what the girls were doing. Everyone was doing SOMETHING. I stayed out of everyone's way. I snuck upstairs to see the dress. It was so simple and so gorgeous. Made me rethink my "I must have lace" plan....

That's all I've gone through. More to come.... Plus we have a wedding to shoot tomorrow, so that will get me going on these, so I can get to those. Actually, tomorrow's a double-header, since we are shooting a concert directly after the wedding. I'm going to meet David Cassidy tomorrow! (He's not a Monkee, as I thought. My mom set me straight. Davey Jones was a Monkee. David Cassidy is from the Partridge Family. You know, with the redhead. Blah, blah, blah.)

Engagement Shoot

2008-06-18T01:17:58Z

I love doing these, for lots of reasons. Most of them are geeky in a photography sense. Like, there's always only two people, so I can shoot wider, which is more fun to do. The two people are very much in love, so they glow and are happy and all that stuff. They're willing to do just about anything. It's not as once-in-a-lifetime as the wedding is - if it rains or something, or if the couple scores tickets to a Celtics game, we just reschedule or go somewhere else or just make it work. No pressure.

We know him through work, and Karin also knows him through church. We now know her through him.

Inside the Casino

2008-06-18T01:06:00Z

It doesn't look much like a casino. Gone are the ideas of recreating a speakeasy, of hiring some blackjack dealers, and of handing out poker chips. People see the pictures I've taken and say how SOUTHERN it looks. I'm taking that as a compliment, thank you very much. I saw a photo of paper lanterns strung along a porch, and it looked so pretty. (I'm not going to do it, because really no one will notice if there are paper lanterns or not.)

As you can see, there will be minimal decorating done inside by me as well. The place is decorated enough! The DJ is going to set his shit up on that stage there. The windows behind him overlook a dirty river. The curtains are a tad on the ugly side, but did you notice that? No, you didn't. Chances are, no one will. Those tables and chairs are included (which is nice, because renting those things is crazy - $10 per chair?!?!?). We have the option of using those long banquet tables, which is very popular right now. Good thing I can decide later.

If we'd stayed with the original idea of green-and-orange, everything would have clashed. We switched to dark grey with some pale pink - it's going to look SO GOOD in this room! It's hard to see in the pictures, but I swear that some of that fresco work is painted a dark grey. I swear! Don't look closely.

The other nice thing about this space is its hardwood floors. We don't have to deal with an ugly carpet that looks like some child drew all over it with Crayola markers. And then ate his markers. And then threw them up, all over the carpet. We don't have to worry about anyone tripping over the transition from the ugly Crayola carpet to the makeshift dance floor. No, my friends - THE ENTIRE FLOOR IS A DANCE FLOOR. Bring it.

MACRO

2008-06-06T23:36:54Z

My baby Sony camera has a macro setting. It's kinda cool. I don't have a macro lens for my other cameras, so if I want to get some macro awesomeness, I have to pull out the Sony.

So the other day I was sitting in my car (while it was in PARK) in Karin's half of the driveway at her apartment, waiting for her to get there so we could drive all over God's creation to find a parking spot in town while the entire state of Vermont had driven their eco-friendly, gas-efficient vehicles and taken all but one parking spot.... Yeah. Longest sentence ever.

So there I was, bored. When I'm bored, I like to shoot. (Hell, I like to shoot regardless of my mood!) So I pulled out the baby camera and tried some things out. Then I decided I wanted to see how close I could get to my eyeball and still have it in focus. Remember, this baby camera is a point-and-shoot, and you really can't expect much from them.

Can you?

Behold, oh visitors from the nether-areas of the interweb: the macro setting! I included a crop. How gross/cool is that?!? Now you all know more about me than ever. You can actually SEE the camera, and my hand holding it. SO GROSS SLASH COOL.

Done and done!

2008-06-04T02:31:19Z

Finally! This has been a semi-annoying part of the planning for me (us) so far. Ugh. I am SO GLAD we found a nice place to have our reception. Now I can finally take a break from all this planning craziness. Well, after I book a caterer. And a DJ. Hmm.

Introducing....the reception site! YEAH! It's in Providence, so it'll be quite easy to get to, and there will be plenty of accommodations for the guests. It's called the Roger Williams Park Casino, and it's in the same park complex as the zoo (which is still miles away). Here's a shot from the outside. The inside is also gorgeous, but I can't give too much away, can I?

Hello!

2008-05-31T00:45:23Z

No matter how long of a break we take, we always can get back into concert photography.

These were all taken at last weekend's Earthfest, at the Hatch Shell in Boston along Storrow Drive. Karin and I walked around with two cameras each, which is pretty typical for us. The strange thing was, we chose which lenses to use independently from each other, yet we still managed to put on the exact same ones. I'm loving the fisheye (and I have since I got it back in Spetember - anyone who says it's too specific of a lens to be able to use often enough needs to get their hands on one of them, and then they'll see its awesomeness and versatility).

See? Of the five images I selected to share, FOUR are with a fisheye. :-)

It has begun....

2008-05-30T03:37:04Z

Wedding season! We had an engagement session last night, in Boston near Rowes Wharf (not Rose Wharf, as I thought....). The light was GORGEOUS and the bride and groom were up for anything. Literally, anything. They were throwing fake punches, spinning in circles till they were dizzy, and dodging traffic. They sat on the ground in all sorts of years' worth of city funk, sat on the grass in all sorts of buried-within-the-grass city funk, and tried to avoid eye contact with the screaming homeless guy and with the woman who almost backed into a taxi cab because she was so intent on watching what we were doing, rather than what was happening in her rearview mirror.

Anyway. Lost was on tonight (three hours straight!) so I didn't get as much accomplished as I would have liked. But, here's one that jumped out at me. You can't pose stuff like this, folks.

Alphabet

2008-05-29T01:00:48Z

A - Attached or single? Attached
B - Best friend? My sister Elaine - although when I told her this, she said it was pathetic.
C - Cake or pie? Cake. Chocolate.
D - Day of choice? Thursday. Lost.
E - Essential item? Keys
F - Favorite color? Grey
G - Gummy bears or worms? Bears - I like the white ones best. I'm not racist.
H - Hometown? I don't know. In Illinois, I guess?
I - Favorite indulgence? C Ice cream.
J - January or July? July
K - Kids? We'll see how it goes. I'm WAY too selfish for kids right now.
L - Life isn’t complete without? Laughter and jokes.
M - Marriage date? 10/10/09
N - Number of brothers and sisters? Two sisters and one brother
O - Oranges or apples? Apples - I hate peeling away all the rind from an orange.
P - Phobia and fears? Mice/rats/birds. Ugh. They're so DIRTY. It's their eyes, the beady little eyes.
Q - Quote? Shelby was right - it does look like a brown football helmet!
R- Reason to smile? Blue sky, 60+ degrees, etc.
S - Season of choice? Summer
T - Tag three people: nah
U - Unknown fact about me? I can't put a book down once I start reading it - I HAVE to get to the end.
V - Vegetable? Peas
W - Worst habit? Cracking my knuckles. I started doing it after asking my dad what New Years resolutions were, and he gave me some examples. I really wanted one, so I started cracking my knuckles so that the following January, I'd have a legitimate resolution. Look at how that backfired.
X - X-ray or ultrasound? X-ray
Y - Your favorite food? Ice cream!
Z - Zodiac sign? Taurus (explains why I'm so stubborn!)