DIY Save The Dates

I knew that we wanted to use our engagement pictures on our save the dates. So once we met with Chris, we looked through all of them and picked about ten of our favorites.

I have used a lot of graphic design programs through my major and career. So it was no surprise to me when I couldn't find anything I liked that I wanted to pay someone else to do. As soon as we received our engagement pictures back I went to work and designed a postcard in Photoshop. It took about 2 hours for me to get everything the way i wanted it. Here is the front:

and the back (I used inspiration from Ms. Knitting on Weddingbee for the postcard lettering and stamp layout):

With having to send so many out and worried about the thickness of paper going through our printer, I ordered them through Vistaprint. They came fast and with an awesome coupon the price you couldn't beat. When they came I made some slight modifications to them. This is what they looked like when they arrived.Notice the big blocks of white on the top and bottom. Yeah they needed to go! So I used my trusty paper cutter and trimmed the top and bottoms to match the thickness of the white lines within the save the date.

Then I took a round corner punch and punched all the corners. Here is a comparison of the ending product and my design I received in the mail.

Did anyone else make their own save the dates?

Engagement Pictures

In my last post I expressed my concern for the dreaded weather we were having on the day of our shoot, and how I was totally clueless on what to wear. Well, the day started off rainy and dreary, and then like magic, a half an hour before the shoot ir stopped. It was still cloudy but we knew Chris could work his magic.

It didn't start raining again until after we had changed outfits and were almost done, but you can't even tell from the pictures. (Again, did I mention that they are amazing?!)

So enough talking, here are some of the awesome pictures that he captured!

Fall Engagement Shoot

We scheduled our engagement session for October 24 of last year. We wanted it to be in the prime fall foliage season of Upstate NY. the only problem was, the entire day before and morning of the shoot it rained on and off. I didn't know if our photographer would cancel it and reschedule or if he would have us brave it through the rain.

The other thing that I was worrying about though was what to wear? In dealing with the weather I had a million questions running through my noggin. Do we dress for rain? Will we do an outfit change? Do we want to do something casual? Do we want to be dressed in both? Do we dress for rain? And it goes on and on.

Instead of going out and buying new outfits we both rummaged through our closets. I, like many other women, am notorious for buying things I "need," only to out them in the back of my closet and have them resurface a year or two later with the tags still on.

These were a couple of inspiration pictures I had found while purusing some magazines. (These are all from my Blackberry so I appologize for the quality.

I loved the color combination here.

I liked the layered look here, and it would work great for fall weather.

I liked the layered look here again, but also the boots.

So I put two and two together and pulled two outfits, for both of us, from our closets. We decided to go with a more casual look and the a more dressed up one, nothing crazy like suits though.

The casual look would consist of neutral colors.

Standard v neck t shirt

Some grey booties (these are not the ones I wore but similar)

And a green cargo jacket to go over everything with a dark pair of jeans (Again, not the jacket but similar)

 Then Kevin wore:

A similar white and blue plaid button up, with dark wash jeans

A greyish/light green cargo jacket

And sketchers shoes

For the more dressed up outfits I wore:

A blue floral dress I had. I wore a long tan button up sweater over it.

With similar cognac colored tall wedge boots.

Kevin's outfit was:

A similar white, blue, and grey argyle sweater, with dark jeans

And black square toe dress shoes

This is how the two looks came out.

Casual

A little dressier

Did anyone else use clothes they already had for their engagement shoot?

Sawicki Studios

Lets start off by saying we LOVE our photographers! Chris and Jen Sawicki are a husband and wife team right out of Amsterdam, NY. They are exactly what we were looking for when it came to photographers. They are personable, fun, and do great work, for a very reasonable price.

Right after getting engaged we began putting some feelers out for photographers in the area. Some we liked, some we definitely didn't like, and we had a bunch of maybes. Because it would have been impossible to meet with all the people we were looking at we had to base our opinions mainly on their website, portfolios, and how their tone was reflected in their email responses...if they ever got back to us.

I left Kevin in charge of contacting Chris and Jen, and since their studio is right around the corner from where we live we set up an appointment. As soon as we walked in I just knew they were it! They were funny and answered every question we had. I think we liked them so much because they were just like us, don't take themselves too seriously and have a good time with each other, and their work reflects that. Images like this is what sold us. So without further ado, here is some yummy eye candy.

All images by Sawicki Studios

As we are talking to the two of them Jen asks me if so and so is my grandmother. Now let me say that this is not an unusual question, having 14 children everyone knows my grandmother and we are related to about half of the town. I say yes, come to find out we grew up together. When I lived upstairs of my grandmother her family lived right next door and we used to play together when we were little. Small world I know. So that was just icing on the cake, we were sold, and put a deposit down.

Did anyone else have any nice surprises when booking a vendor? Was it someone from your past and you didn't even know it?

The Ugly Crier Face

Growing up I was a rock. Nothing affected me, I never cried. I was a tom boy at heart, had a thick skin, and wouldn't crack for anyone. I don't know when the hell that all changed and I became a blithering, sad sap that will cry at the drop of a hat. Seriously, watching a movie (Into the Wild) bawled, reading a book (7th Harry Potter) not just bawling, but heart wrenching sobs. Seriously, it has gotten ridiculous. My cousin got married two years ago, here I am a bridesmaid, standing up on the alter and I swear my face looked like this.

Source

And that was just from hearing the wedding march. For real what is a bride to do? I know I am going to cry walking down the aisle, and I'm okay with that. What I don't want is images from our fabulous photographer, and all of them to look like the above exhibit! 

How do I tame the waterworks?