Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Birthday Wishes for my Baby!!

As some of you know Kelly had a "big one" this year...so join me in wishing her a happy one!!  Happy Birthday Baby...here's to you!!!  :-D


Love,
E

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Spring Break in France

We wish! 

But it is spring break for Alex this week and that means we're swapping out hosting duties during what we like to call:  "Operation Occupy the Six-Year-Olds". 

We recently had one of her friends over and during lunch they wanted to make a video.  Alex is a ham --- you may have caught that by now--- but lately her favorite thing to do is make short movies.

Just for fun we give you:
Spring Break in France
Starring Alex & Bella


Friday, March 11, 2011

Call Us Crazy

A recent conversation with a friend helped me realize that we have severely underestimated the cost of what one might call a "necessity" for our upcoming wedding. I take a lot of pride in our thriftiness.  You might even say that thriftiness is what brought us together.  Well, you could say that because it actually did. But in planning for the wedding I realized there are some places where you can cut corners and other areas you can just, well, cut.

There are, however, certain things that are better left to the pros.

Take photography for example.  We already talked about how much we love photos and I have to say, Evan is a pretty darn good photog, but the thought of us holding a camera out at arm's length, pressing our cheeks together for a toothy grin, made me realize it's probably not the best option for our wedding day.  So, we hired some pros.

Secondly, I bar-tended my way through college.  And while I can make a mean vodka tonic, I'd rather enjoy one made specially for me and our guests, then to ever think about being a mix-master on this day.

And while I actually did attempt to make my wedding dress, an idea that seemed completely logical and perfectly perfunctory at first, it turns out I neither sew nor have any dress making credentials whatsoever.

And after trying on my prototype one might also argue I am severely lacking in taste as well.

Ahhhh.....the search continues..... but I digress....


But back to our "necessity".  We have made a few rules for wedding planning and they go something like this:

1.  This is our day.  We do what means something special to us.
2.  We don't compare ourselves or our day to what anyone else is doing/capable of.
3. If we can make it, grow it, assemble it and re purpose it, it's a go.
4. I am not allowed within 100 yards of any type of fancy paper/stationary store.

I have a few things I am willing to spend money on.  Boots. Soap.  And the occasional, incredible, light fixture.  Aside from that I am pretty cheap.   I have always loved lovely paper and when we first got engaged, I remember walking through our local Paper Source in awe of the mountainous possibilities.  I decided we could purchase some incredible invitations with beautiful paper and loads of fancy design and have the most incredible display of invitational beauty the world has ever seen!


The possibilities were both exhilarating and entirely too many.
 
I tallied up the numbers.

Nope.

Compared some notes (in violation of rule no. 2).

Not gonna happen.

Then made a decision - which might sound easy, but I am notoriously known for my inability to make a decision.  But I did: 


This we can do ourselves.

Maybe we're crazy, but somehow the thought of breaking the bank over paper didn't sit too well with us.  I know everyone says it's important because it's the first impression people get of your big day, and it IS important, but for us that's all the more reason to DIY these babies and give them the personal touch.

Maybe this is one of those posts I will later look back on and shake my head, thinking how silly I was back then!  There is the possibility, that with anything we do, we may fail miserably.

But I think we can handle this.

We're not graphic designers.  Not even close.  I won't even tell you what program I use for graphic-design-type projects (Paint).  And we've never really designed a project like this.  But if the idea is to set the stage for what the event will be, then I think we're on the right track.  After all, almost everything there will have been imagined, constructed, decorated and brought to life by us, there doesn't seem to be any reason why this "necessity" shouldn't be as well.  

So the process has begun and while we're not ready for our designs to be shown, a few more sneak peeks can't hurt.   We did after all say we would be highlighting a few vendors.  In this case, those vendors are us!

 
Crazy?  Maybe.....but that remains to be seen. We have 300 pieces of paper printed already and shipping to us (there are a variety of pieces) and so far, $30 spent.  Music to my cheap and crazy ears.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Story of Us

We're taking a mini-break on house project posts to begin highlighting some of the DIY projects and vendors we have lined up for our upcoming wedding.  We are still in the process of renovating our 3rd Floor Guest Suite (that sounds fancy!) so we'll definitely be highlighting that re-no project soon too! 

The one thing that people have been asking a lot about lately is our choice for a wedding photographer.  We love pictures.  We take a lot of them.  We took 1700 when we made our save-the-date video and on any given weekend, if there is something fun going on, it's not out of the ordinary to snap 300 pics.  For a vacation, 500-1000 is standard. So when it came time to select the photographer(s) who would capture our big day, we wanted to find someone who had the same vision as us.

One our favorite things to do is hook a laptop up to our big screen and reminisce through photos of past life events.  We love the emotion that can be brought back to the surface when you are reminded of a fabulous vacation or a ridiculous night out on the town. So in the spirit of capturing life's greatest moments, we wanted to select a photographer who understood where we were coming from and could appreciate the story that can be told through photographs.

A couple of non-negotiables:

While you can't avoid the shots of the entire family, all together, standing in front of the alter of a church, we just didn't see this being something we would look back on and be able to recall what we were feeling in that moment.  Instead, we wanted real moments captured.  A feeling - a laugh - an awkward dance move, the kind of photos that capture a moment in time, a display of real truth and heart, not an awkward display of family members squeezing together on stage.

We also think we have a pretty cool story of how we met and fell in love.  We wanted to tell that story.  But we needed a couple of amazing artists to help us capture it all. 

Enter the Parsons.

Evan and I credit our meeting each other to a series of serendipitous events.  Fate some might say.  And when it comes to fate, there have been several instances of it in the past few years.  As luck or fate would have it, the youngest of the Parsons brood landed in the same class as Alex this year and we became fast friends.  When we discovered their incredible passion and insane talent for photography, we were instantly smitten!  And when our good friends Nick & Mandy also booked them for their upcoming wedding, we were thrilled to be able to see their work with people we know and love!  So you can imagine our delight when they shared their engagement shots with us this past week.   

Anyone who knows me, knows about my obsession with New York City, so when the Parsons shot our good friends in the city I love and they live in, the results were AMAZING!

Here is a quick look at Nick & Mandy in NYC courtesy of  The Parsons.








To say we are are excited about what they'll do for/with us is an understatement!  We didn't find a good photographer - we found 2!  A super creative husband & wife team that love to tell stories with their photographs and we can't wait for them to tell ours!   

For a more detailed look at these and other amazing stories, check out our friends at www.wearetheparsons.com and check back here soon --- more updates are on the way!


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