Wedding Photos!

Last week I showed you the beautiful box our photographs came in as an example of branding. This week you get to see some of the actual photos! We have over 400, but NEVER FEAR, I would not subject you to that many! So here are a few, with captions underneath :-)

Every table was slightly different, making use of old silver, glass, books and loads of flowers!

We used old books as part of the decor on the tables. I loved that!

The menu was stuck onto the front of a book.

Not posed. Our photographer was awesome at catching moments like this one!

I loved my dress from the moment I first put it on. The detail was amazing!

This mirror is the exact same mirror that my mom had a photo in when she was a bride :-)

The hair stylist did a fantastic job with our hair!

All that build up to this moment, and walking down the aisle seemed to go so quickly!

These ducks were gorgeous. They waddled around throughout the entire ceremony!

*sigh* Love my dress!

Love, love, love this one with my beautiful bridesmaids!

Fun in the water!

His groomsmen wrote underneath his shoes and he had no idea till after the ceremony!

I always wanted to have wedding photos in a forest. I got my wish :-)

Love :-)

Saw this idea on Pinterest and had to try it out!

An Example of Branding

Several weeks ago, our wedding photographer (Derryn Semple) contacted me to say our photos (which we were going to get in digital format on a disc) were ready, she was just waiting for packaging to arrive. My highly impatient self was like, Packaging? Really? Can't she just stick the discs in an envelope and mail them?! A little while later when we finally got the photos, I understood :-)

My grandmother always says "Feast the eyes" when she's making her food (i.e. presentation is just as important as taste), and Derryn certainly feasted the eyes with the beautiful presentation of our photographs :-)

So the point of this post is to show you, an author who's been told over and over that you need to create a "brand" for yourself, how Derryn creatively incorporates her brand into everything she produces.

 First of all, here is her logo:

And here is what our photos came packaged in:

Click to enlarge

 And when you open the box, this is what's inside:

Click to enlarge

The coffee smells so good! (And I'm not even a coffee drinker ;-) ) I love that little bird on her logo, and I'm not likely to ever forget what it represents -- Derryn's photography. I've seen it on her website, her Facebook page, now the box, and the little keyrings that are so pretty we will HAVE to use them somewhere (and so that we'll never forget our anniversary ;-) ).

Oh, and the photos themselves are gorgeous too! I'll be sharing some here soon.

What represents you as an author? A logo? Font type? Colour?

I'm Back and I'm Married!

Hello bloggers!

Last time I wrote a blog post I was a week away from one of the biggest days of my life – my wedding. Excited, anxious, tired, happy, occasionally freaked out, plus a whole lot of other emotions. At that point I hadn’t yet had my kitchen tea or bachelorette party (and was starting to wonder just how close to the wedding my sister had planned them!), we still had to set up EVERYTHING at the wedding venue (which happened during one of the hottest days last year) and, of course, the big day itself was yet to arrive. And you know what?

IT. WAS. AMAZING!

All of it. I got blindfolded, tied up, and driven an hour away for my surprise kitchen tea, where friends and family were super generous and there was INCREDIBLE food, all made by my amazing best friend. My bachelorette party took place at a pole dancing class (so much fun!). And the wedding itself … wow. Wow! I really can’t remember ever being so happy!

I'll post more photos once I get all the official ones.

And then the honeymoon ;-) My awesome husband (I still love saying that!) had planned it all, and I didn’t know anything except that I had to pack malaria tablets. Hulala Lakeside Lodge, Nkambeni Tented Lodge by the Kruger National Park, and Winterton Country Lodge at the Rose Cottage in the Drakensberg. I loved it all!

So, tell me about your Christmas and new year :-)

(And here's a fun photo for you...)

T minus one week!

Eeeek! In just one week I will be married! So I'm officially checking out of the blogosphere until January (though I've been pretty much absent for the past several weeks, what with finishing up school and all our DIY wedding decor...).

If you've left a comment on my blog in the past few weeks and I haven't responded or visited your blog in return, I am really sorry, and I'd like to say

THANK YOU

to all of you for your support of my writing/publishing journey this year. It has been incredibly exciting to take my first steps in the publishing world, and it would not have been nearly as fantastic without you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

and 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And if you're still around on December 15th, I'd love it if you could check out the sixth day of the Twelve Books for Christmas on No Thoughts 2 Small, where my book will be featured and you could WIN a copy!

xx Hugs and wedding cupcakes for you all :-)

Wedding DIY: Table Decor

Along with the help of a fabulously creative family friend/designer person, we're doing our own table decor for the wedding. Every table will be slightly different and we're going with kind of a vintage theme using silver and glass and flowers and ivy.

So I've been rummaging through my mom and grandmother's kitchens and doing stocktake of their stuff! It's been fun! Here are just some of the things I found... (And anything with a tag on is from my mom's recent wedding decor shopping spree!)

Yes, our fabulous family friend can even make spoons look like decor items! (Who would have thought...)

And, uh, we'll obviously remove the biscuits from the cookie jar and figure out something marvellously creative to do with it. (And those flowers were from our we've-been-dating-for-FIVE-years anniversary last week! Soon we'll have to start counting from zero again ;-) )

Wedding DIY: Invitations & Bridesmaids' Dresses

When I wrote this Masquerade post at the beginning of the month saying I'd be taking a break from publishing Creepy Hollow stories for a while, I thought my life would become less stressful. *Sigh* Did I really honestly think that?! I'm feeling more and more overwhelmed by school work, wedding preparation (why is there something wedding-related to do EVERY SINGLE DAY?!) and my newest writing opportunity (short stories for Gr 8 and 9 English FAL textbooks - very cool ;-) ) - and there are still blog comments from WEEEEEKS ago sitting in my inbox that I haven't got to yet!

Anyway, here are a few things I've been up to lately...

Invitation DIY

I love craft projects, so I never even considered getting someone else to make our invitations. Problem is, measuring and cutting out so many pieces of cardboard, paper, lace and ribbon (not to mention the folding and sticking together part) can take quite a while!
(Have I ever mentioned before that I have a possibly unnatural love of lace and ribbons? Well, I'm saying it now. Lace and ribbon rock.)

Bridesmaid dress DIY

We couldn't find ready-made dresses that we liked for the bridesmaids, so we went pattern and fabric hunting. Actually, that's the royal "we". I didn't do any hunting. I went to school while my fantabulous mother did all the hunting and presented her findings to me for a yay or nay :-) We're having satin with a floaty layer of chiffon over it, and a pretty sparkly layer covering the bodice. Length: above the knee.

Gift registry shopping!

And yesterday we went gift registry shopping!

Me: Ooh, take a photo of me scanning something! Wait. This is something coffee-related. I don't want to scan this.
Fiance:Yes! Coffee! We have to scan that.
Me: Fine, I'll just pretend. *Cheeeeese!*
Fiance: [click]
Me: How is it? Do I look like a freak?
Fiance: Hmmm. More like an insect.

That White Dress, and an Antique Cafe

I found a wedding dress!

[If this kinda thing bores you, skip down the photos of the Antique Cafe at Churchill House!]

I finally got to go wedding dress shopping this past weekend. My sister flew here specially for the Big Shopping Event (she goes to university in a different province) and I had made appointments at three different bridal shops. And here are my thoughts ...

Omgit'ssomuchfuntryingonweddingdresses!

I thought I'd found The One at shop #1, but it was kinda over the budget (sigh...). At shop #2 we were trying to convince ourselves we'd found The One, and we paid the holding fee to keep it there for a week, and I went away thinking we'd probably get that one, even though it wasn't as amazing as over-the-budget-dress. But at shop #3 the awesomely lovely lady who was helping me into dresses was busy telling me about the "wow" moment. She said, "I can't really describe it, but I know it happens, and when you find the right dress you'll just go ... wow." And as she finished saying that and finished lacing up the back of the dress I was currently in, I said, "Yeah, um, I think this is the wow dress!" And as I walked out and looked in the long mirror, I actually started getting teary, and then so did my sister, and my mom! And we all knew ... this is the wow dress :-)

Teeheee! Now we need to find a venue (as our original plan has sadly fallen through ...).

In between the shops of the Big Shopping Event, my mom organized for us to go to this little antique place for lunch - The Antique Cafe at Churchill House. Everything is old and nothing matches and it's just plain awesome!!

Don't you love it? :-)