THE STORY OF…our engagement pictures

Our first big event as an engaged couple was taking our engagement pictures. I was so excited about doing something so wedding related but I was also worried we would hate the pictures. When we go on vacations we come back with a lot of pictures taken of the scenery and a few silly self portraits. We just don’t take that many pictures of ourselves. Everyone told me they would be fine. Since they take so many pictures odds were we would find at least 10 pictures we liked. I had decided to use the pictures a lot at the reception to make things a bit more personal. We decided on a photo guest book and escort cards with our pictures on them. We also planned to display a few AND use them on the Save the Dates. Soooo the pressure was on. Luckily our photographers DeeDee and Tiffanie from D2 Photography were amazing and knew just what to do to capture the best possible versions of ourselves. Here are a few of our favorites:

All pictures taken by D2 PHOTOGRAPHY with full copyrights given to us!

Now that we have all the pictures…all 208 of them…I am getting ready to send out the Save the Dates this week!

Were you nervous about how your Engagement Pictures would turn out?

THE STORY OF...the invitations, cont.

Here's a close-up of the finished invitation. I blurred out info to protect the innocent ;o) I love the combo of the burgundy and gold inks!

This was probably the most tedious step of the entire process. I had to print the burgundy F first. In order to do this I had to mask off the scroll frame so the ink didn't bleed through as I needed that part to be completely gold. One I finished that step I had to clean the screen and mask off the F so the gold ink didn't bleed through on that! I think I only had to try about 3 or 4 times before I found the perfect technique. I love the way they turned out and they add a very special touch to the invitations.

Did a previous project help you feel more comfortable doing DIY for your own wedding?

THE STORY OF...the invitations

Not my invitations but the invitations I made for a friend. This is how I am able to feel pretty confident about makin gmy own invitations. Here are the first few steps of that project.

While catching up on my favorite TV shows (love Tivo) I cut 110 pieces of the cream paper which will be the first layer of the invitation with the wording on it.

The next big step was getting the artwork burned to the Gocco screen. I took a photo copy of the design and after taking a few short steps I was ready to print.

The picture below shows the lamp housing, the Gocco, blue filter and the artwork.

I very carefully lined up the artwork to make sure it was straight.

I closed the Gocco and burned the image.

After the bulbs flash and the image is burned the artwork is transferred to the screen.

After removing the paper you can see the images on the screen.

I applied the gold ink and blocking material (the grey strips) to contain the ink so it didn't bleed into the other design I burned on this screen.

I inserted the screen into the Gocco to begin printing! You can see how the blocking material does a great job at containing the ink.

After pressing the machine down I got the first image. Success! I used scraps from the wine background paper I had already cut to form a guide so the paper was placed perfectly each time. Not only did it line up everything but it saved a lot of time when placing the paper on the Gocco.

Then I turned the paper around to do the second image.

And voila! One down...109 to go!

I used the handy dandy drying rack to hold the prints.

Once that was full I laid them out on my floor to finish drying. They were everywhere! Luckily I have a big room!

Did you do any big wedding projects that weren't for your wedding?

THE STORY OF…our invitations and the battle with indecision

One of the first projects I focused on after we picked our venue was the invitations. I have been making invitations and cards for family and friends for as long as I can remember and I knew nothing would be more important than…THE WEDDING INVITATION (cue the singing angels). I immediately put a whole heck of a lot of pressure on myself to come up with the best invitation possible. I slowly began to realize that nothing I came up with would actually meet the expectations I placed on myself. When I came up with a potential design that I loved, I was disappointed when people didn’t faint from it’s beauty after seeing it…which is close to the reaction I was hoping for. Because of that I would start questioning my design and would change it. After all – would people actually tell me if they didn’t like it? Probably not. I went back and forth with several different designs and I am sure friends and family rolled their eyes each time I said “I changed the invitation…again!” The 3rd time was the charm when I finally did hear those angels singing and knew I had the found the design that fit my vision for the invitation. MY vision. I think the most important lesson learned through the invitation process and when planning a wedding is this…everyone is not going to like everything you do when it comes to a wedding. There are just too many opinions out there to please them all. You have to please the most important people – yourself, your fiancé and probably the parents who are paying for this shindig. That’s all you have control over. And after the wedding is over not everyone is going to remember the centerpieces you took hours and hours to pick out or the chairs you paid extra for. They are going to remember if they had a good time and that will be affected by how happy the bride and groom are. If YOU love the invitations and the centerpieces and the chairs, that happiness will be infectious and people will walk away feeling like they just went to one of the best weddings they’ve been to…even if they didn’t love your centerpieces.

Did you struggle making decisions because you wondered what other people would think?

THE STORY OF...cost saving tips

Everyone has a different experience when planning a wedding. It depends on so many things. Where you live, what kind of venue you choose, what your budget is…and on and on and on. I thought it would be helpful to share any cost saving ideas I have discovered during my planning.

Our venue, like a lot of venues, has a food and drink minimum you must reach one way or the other. You can invite 300 people and pick the cheapest meal option or have a small guest list and provide a more extravagant dinner. Either way you have to spend that minimum amount. When we got the first price estimate for our wedding we were only $3 and some change over the required minimum. Since that included everything we wanted we were thrilled with the price. After some time we realized there were a few things we didn’t really need and we were able to adjust the way we were spending our minimum. Since we are having an open bar we decided we didn’t NEED to have wine at each table or champagne for toasting. Since wine was available at the bar why did it need to be on the table as well? Sure…it makes it easier for wine drinkers to get their fix but what if the bottles weren’t empty at the end of the night and we still had to pay for them? Any why couldn’t guests use the drink they already had to toast with? With these changes we were able to provide guests with a choice of beef, fish or vegetarian for dinner. While this didn’t really lower our costs since we had to still spend the minimum, we were able to provide more options for our guests. They can still go to the bar for their wine with the added convenience of choosing their meal. Plus, it made the RSVP card really fun!

In what ways did you cut costs or find a better way to spend your money?

THE STORY OF...our DOC

Since I had decided I would be doing a lot of DIY for the wedding, I knew I would need some help the day of the wedding. There was even a point in time when I was going to do all the centerpieces myself. That idea was thrown out the window but that is for another post. Our venue included a day-of-coordinator, or DOC as the wedding world calls them, but I felt slightly uncomfortable relying on someone I would meet only a few days before the event to set-up for the big day. (SIDENOTE: Our venue has since changed their DOC responsibilities to include coverage a month before the wedding and the day of…they also allow you to choose between a few people…before they used one company. This changed after I had already found my DOC.) I tried to tell myself it would be OK and I could always ask some family members to check on things for me throughout the day. That was until I met Richelle…just one cubicle over from mine at work. I never thought I would fine a DOC there since we work for a newspaper. But she was a wedding planner before she got here and a fantastic one at that. After talking about weddings she offered to do DOC for us. We found out we are both borderline OCD and born only 3 days apart. So while I am hanging out in the bridal suite sipping champagne the next best thing to setting up everything myself…Richelle…will be handling EVERYTHING! It was such a huge relief to find someone I could totally trust to handle everything. And a bonus…since we work together I can always ask her questions if I have any. It’s the best! I actually found a wedding she did on Weddingbee PRO in a post by Amelia Lyon Photography. Here’s a link to the post!

http://www.weddingbeepro.com/2009/02/26/anne-mark-married/

Did you find a vendor in an unexpected place?

THE STORY OF...my DIY

I am basically creating everything for the wedding besides the food and the flowers. I am a big DIYer so it was never really a question in my mind about whether or not our wedding would be mostly done by me. Plus – it will save money! I also have to admit that I am slightly OCD so I love having control over how things turn out.
I have a bit of an organization problem...that being I have to be organized at all times. For example...I had to have matching storage boxes for my closets so everything looked nice when I opened my closet doors just to get my clothes out for the day. I wasn't like this when I was younger so I guess it came with age. Once I started making a lot of cards and invitations I knew I needed a better way to organize my craft supplies. Luckily I have a Dad that is capable of anything. I came up with a plan and a few short days later my Dad had created my beloved CRAFT CENTER. I can't even start to explain how functional this craft center is now that I am working every day on wedding invitations. I can't imagine what I would do without it! Without further ado...my ultra fabulous CRAFT CENTER made expertly by The Dad.

My craft table fits perfectly under the bottom shelf so I can tuck it under and get it out of the way when I'm not using it. I bought some matching storage boxes and some smaller containers to keep all the small stuff in one place.



This is what it looks like when I pull my desk...a bargain on sale at Aaron's Brothers that my parents and I found a few years ago...out from under the shelves. It's still within reach of all the supplies I might need. Since it's on wheels I can angle it for perfect viewing of the TV! Very important to be entertained when cutting mounds of paper. My parents had the idea to back the shelves with beadboard and I found the perfect paint color to add some character. I was obsessed with the paint chips when I went to Home Depot to pick it out.



This craft center has been invaluable now that I am doing wedding projects! I love it!

How do you organize your crafting?

THE STORY OF...our venue

When we first discussed marriage I automatically went into wedding mode. I knew approximately how much our budget would be and I wanted to know what locations would be realistic for us. I didn’t want to day dream about a particular place and then find out we couldn’t afford it. Sometimes I take a while to make a decision but once I do it’s pretty much impossible to change my mind. That is why I had all but 3 vendors booked over a year before our wedding date. When we found the venue, there was no way I was going to wait to secure a date. What if it got booked? What if we had to find another location after I had my heart set on this one? So we booked it – after seeing only 2 locations. Yes – I know. We probably should have looked around more. Maybe we could have found a better deal, etc. but I personally knew this was the place for us. And we both loved it. Not only is the location perfect and beautiful but the icing on the wedding cake is that the catering manager there is AMAZING! I emailed several locations asking for information and to this day I still haven’t heard from some of them. She responded very quickly and even sent me an approximate cost for our event that same day! As anyone who has ever planned a big event knows – communication is very important. She answered so many questions before we even signed a contract and makes you feel completely comfortable asking anything that comes to mind. So – without further ado – our venue!

The Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach!



The hotel is right across the street from the beach which means we can go over there for pictures! The ballroom where the reception will be over looks the beach. You really can’t beat the views. The ceremony will be in the pool area and the cocktail hour will be a few steps away on the Surf Hero Patio – more ocean views there. I don’t know how we were so lucky to get such a wonderful place for our wedding. I am so excited! Here are few more pictures!

The ceremony will take place where the colorful tables are.



I have no words...the picture speaks for itself!



This is where the reception will be. Check out the views!



How many venues did you look at before you found the one?

THE STORY OF...the proposal

Jeff really wanted the proposal to be a surprise but I am hard to surprise and I knew the proposal was coming. Because of that Jeff picked the day after Christmas because he knew that when I realized he wasn't proposing on Christmas Day that it had to be on 12/27 when he made "dinner reservations" at a nice restaurant. The day after Christmas we had plans to go decorate a tile for charity for the Historical Society of Dana Point. Since it was the day after a holiday, I was tired and didn't feel like getting ready to go out. Jeff must had been stressing out about my lack of effort when I was getting ready...but he didn't act anxious at all! I finally managed to get myself ready and we drove from my house to Fired Up in San Clemente. When we got there we were greeted by the owner and I was told to pick out a table we wanted to use to paint our tile and Jeff would handle the paper work. When they both returned to our table I was asked if we wanted to see an example of a tile that someone else had decorated. When she placed the tile in front of me I realized it said "Amanda will you marry me? Love, Jeff" Once I realized what was going on the tears came and I said yes after Jeff said many nice things to me that I barely remember. Jeff had given the store owner my camera to get pictures of the whole thing. It was the most perfect proposal and he totally surprised me! Here are the pictures!

Even from the side you can see the shock on my face! And the look of "Haha - I gotcha" on his!



Now I know why girls always have their hands over their mouths. I didn't even realize I was doing it!



Cue the "ugly cry face" as my new best friend is slipped on.



Newly engaged and showing off our very special tile.



Outside the very cute store it all happened in.



This is the picture I took with my cell phone that I sent to all my friends to share the good news. I tried calling a few people it just got overwhelming so I used technology to make it a bit easier.



Were you surprised by your proposal or did you know it was happening?

THE STORY OF…how we met

I guess I broke the rules by finding him in a bar but I choose to believe we are the exception to this rule. Luckily I had an intoxicated sister and a helpful brother-in-law with me because I was the sober driver that night. When I say sober I mean sober – I was drinking coffee…in a bar. I saw him walk in with friends and he immediately stood out. I was entertaining myself most of the night people watching but something made me follow him around the bar with my eyes while we were sitting at a table in the corner. After a few distractions I lost track of him only to discover he was sitting with a large group of people at the table next to us. Fate you ask? I say YES! The group I was with started to dwindle as people left to go home. But something told me I had to give this guy my number or I would look for him every time I came back to this particular area. BUT I was stone.cold.sober. There was no way I had the guts to give him my number when I had never done something like that before…plus he had walked in with some girls. I didn’t want to be the girl that hit on a guy with his girlfriend sitting there. So – my BIL offered to find out if he was single. Needless to say this got him some weird looks and the attention of most of the people at the table. We finally convinced my drunk sister to talk to him for me. After what had to be a funny conversation with my sister, he had my number and a very quick glimpse of my face when we left. I was pretty much convinced I had screwed up and he would never call me. Luckily I was wrong. He called me the following Thursday – out of pure luck one of his other friends had been given a girls phone number and they said…”If you call yours, I’ll call mine” - and we had plans for a group outing the following day. The rest – as they say – is history. We have been together ever since! Now, over two years later we are planning the wedding of our dreams. Well – maybe my dreams. Not sure how much he actually dreams of weddings!

Did you meet your significant other in an unconventional way?