Linette & Seth's Wedding Guest Book

Happy Thursday! This week has flown by amazingly fast, but that happens when I'm winding down from a trip AND also being called into work at the spa.

My husband and I just got back from a fantastic trip to Massachusetts for my sister-in-law's wedding. As a gift to her, I made their wedding guest book. As the wedding was 2-3 weeks away, I chose a template from the Heritage Makers template gallery, rather than starting from a blank canvas.

One thing I love about Studio is that everything is customizable! While I was hoping to make minimal changes to the chosen design, there ended up being a few, of course, but easy ones. The only time consuming element were the possibilities! ;-) The book turned out to be beautiful...

Take a look at where it started:

*click on "full screen"*

...and this was their final design:

*front cover*

*first page*


*left page*
a picture was taken of each individual/couple/family who signed the guest book. That pic will be inserted to the frame next to their sign-in.


*right page*


*back page*


*back cover*

TIP: If you plan on making a wedding guest book for yourself, or someone you love, be sure to purchase special pens for signing! For our own wedding, we used Slick Writers (ordered online from Jo-Ann Fabrics) ~ they dry quickly, so it won't smudge. We ended up having to visit a Jo-Ann Fabrics in Massachusetts last week because the bride was unable to before the wedding. Unfortunately, the store did not have Slick Writers, so we had to gamble on other brands. Gelly Rolls are NOT good (we learned the hard way :( )! We bought a second set, which worked MUCH better...and as soon as I find the pen, I'll let you know what it is... in the meantime, you can absolutely count on Slick Writers.

Another Wedding!

In 9 more days, there will be another wedding in the family! One of Andrew's sisters, Linette, will be having a backyard wedding at her fiancé's parents' house in Massachusetts. She went through one of the quickest engagements I have ever seen! Translate that to: roughly 3 months.

Linette has a very laidback attitude and figured it would be "easy" to plan since it was just a backyard wedding. Andrew reminded her of everything she needed to look into and keep up with. No matter how small a wedding, there's still work and papers to get in order. She's recently found out the details of the "wedding world" and is fascinated. NOW she understands why I was sucked in and am getting my certificate to be a wedding consultant!

As part of our gift to her and fiancé, Seth, I created their guest book using Heritage Makers. Even in using an existing customizable template in the gallery, it still took days to complete! LOL ~ not that that's a negative...but of course, I want Linette and Seth's approval...so, there were revisions, emails, texts, and a phone call till it was exactly what they wanted. This afternoon it went into publishing, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will arrive in Massachusetts with plenty of time/days to spare before the wedding!

I will be sure to post pics of the guest book after the wedding next Saturday.

I LOVE Heritage Makers!!!

Hello Dear Readers!!!

I know. I've fallen off the radar... the past 6 months have been great, happy in love, and busy! Many changes have occurred in my own life as I've tried to find my perfect job(s). Yes, it has now turned into a plural...and none of these jobs have anything to do with the other! It's my way of keeping things interesting. ;-)

My newest endeavor, which ultimately has to be my full time job is as an independent publishing consultant/designer for Heritage Makers. I'm my own boss, have flexible hours, and I get to meet new people, tell them about Heritage Makers, and play on the computer to design Photo Storybooks! You can check out my site at http://StorybookWithCharm.com. If you're interested in ordering or setting up a Premier account, let me know ~ I can get you the best deals!

I've also set up a new blog that you can follow for project ideas and the lastest Heritage Makers discounts: http://StorybookWithCharm.blogspot.com ~ Check it out and follow! :D There's no doubt I'll be adding new wedding ideas and projects that catch my eye!

Below is a copy of my latest blog, Wedding Ideas. If Heritage Makers is of interest to you ~ as a client or if you want to be a consultant, like me, please feel free to contact me at charlene@storybookwithcharm.com! I always love talking about HM!

Wedding Ideas
Okay, I'll admit it...after my November 2009 wedding, I miss wedding planning! And if I knew about Heritage Makers this time last year, I would've been going project-making crazy!!! ;D

Instead, I'll settle for spreading the news to current and future brides. Heritage Makers offers so many starting points for your wedding needs! Invitations are already on the product list, but here are some other thoughts as you or your loved one gets ready for the big day!

• postcards can be used as Save the Date cards
• playing cards can be used as place setting cards, response cards, or change of address cards
• scrapbook pages can be divided up and used as response cards or place setting cards
  
• scrapbook pages or canvases can be used for to showcase your beautiful engagement
• photos & framed for display at your wedding!
• storybooks can be used as guest books, and of course, wedding books!
  
  ...you get the idea... The possibilities are endless! Take a look at some of the customizable templates in the Studio.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Two Months a Mrs.

It's hard to believe that it's been one year and one week that I was engaged and already IN the wedding planning process! And it's been two months of wedded life. And yes, it's been great! Might I say that it, more or less, still feels like we're dating ~ only that Andrew's storage boxes (and my own) filled my (now "our") apartment for a month! So much so that we couldn't walk from Point A to Point B without stubbing our toes, ankles, shins into something - no matter the distance! ...and I couldn't get my luggage through when we returned from our holiday vacation on the east coast.

The time that led up to the wedding was hectic with preparing welcome bags for our out of town guests...a project that took up more time than I imagined; creating a newsletter ~ another project that took longer than expected, but once I was on a roll, I couldn't stop!!!; and creating a music playlist. We selected ALL of our music ~ a daunting task, that I recommend couples who are going to do this, to start a month or two before their wedding (*at the latest*). Being musical people, we assumed we'd be able to pick out music for our pre-ceremony, ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, and dance without a problem! Easy peasy! Not so much. It was just the opposite. BECAUSE we were musical people, we both had TONS of music, and TONS of music preferences, which we ended up having to compromise on. We were up many late nights and didn't finalize it all till the day before our wedding.

Many projects filled my time in those last weeks, which I will break down into separate posts in the next few weeks. As organized and "on top of things" as I was, without knowing the final guest count, there were so many details I couldn't take care of until the last few weeks.

With that said, the day was absolutely beautiful! The Disney Fairy Tale Wedding team and Brian Bosch's team did an AMAZING job, all of our guests had a fantastic time, and everything turned out more beautiful than I could've imagined!

Traci's Brides + 2 Grooms

Just wanted to share this picture. It's been sitting on my desktop for weeks now with the hopes of sharing...so, here we are. :-)

This was taken at the D23 Expo on Sept. 12th at the wedding booth...the day I missed meeting David Tutera... :( ...but got to meet my fellow Disney Brides I've been tweeting with the past few months! =D

(L to R) Keahon, Ashley, Lacey, Traci, moi, Andrew

The Invitations

Invitations were one aspect of our wedding that we were going to make our DIY project... yyyyeah... That was until I discovered that most places where we could get DIY kits would cost about as much as some invitation designers! Granted, we would have to go with a standard set that the designers have and do away with customization... and so, I left it up to Andrew. He would be designing our invitations (with me looking over his shoulder to pitch in my two cents), so, I felt it was ultimately up to him.

He chose to go with a designer. I'm a big fan of the Green Wedding Shoes blog ~ especially considering it's where we found our photographer. So, I suggested we check out her recommendations. After going through one designer after another, one stood out from them all, and drew an immediate "awwww!" from me. And that was TearDrop Weddings. Her artwork is cute, smart, and SO original! Not to mention that even going with her standard sets, she STILL adds a bit of customization by making the characters look like the bride and groom ~ no extra charge!

When we received the invitations, I couldn't help but make a bit of a DIY out of it by dressing them up a bit! We went to Michael's and bought packs of transparent white paper sheets to wrap around the invites and tie with a ribbon. It did added SO much to the presentation!

For our stamps, we customized them at Zazzle.com with our proposal picture!

After dinner treat 3

That's all the photos for now. Time for bed! Rise and shine at 6:45am
again tomorrow!