Things have been so crazy! My future in-laws were in town and we were showing them around the big city. It was a lot of fun but also very exhausting! I'm ready for a vacation of my own...
So last Friday our save the dates came in the mail! Yay! I'm not ready to reveal them just yet. I want it to be a surprise to those who receive it in the mail! But I would like to share a little bit about the process. Jeff designed them using photoshop, on our fabulous new computer. He did an amazing job and got it done super fast. Jeff is a major perfectionist when it comes to his graphic design work so he impressed me with his efficiency in this project. We decided to print them using VisaPrint and their free post card special.
I googled "free vista print postcards" and followed the link. Basically you get 100 free postcards and just have to pay for the shipping, and in our case an extra 5.99 for uploading your own design, which we did on both sides. We also opted for faster shipping so I think our save the dates cost about $25 or $30 total. Not to bad I think.
They came in the mail 4 days before they were scheduled to arrive! I was so excited to tear open that package. Unfortunately, my excitement quickly evaporated because the quality turned out to be just so/so. The edges aren't cleanly cut and the design is crooked and/or the spacing is off on some. It's not really that big a deal. I'm not too upset because after all, they were pretty much free. The image is clear, and the paper is a nice quality. I just think they look like we printed them at home and were lazy about cutting them.
Jeff seemed a little more annoyed about the quality than I was. I understand, he put all that work into designing them and the spacing is off and crooked. But he agrees that we got what we paid for, so we'll let it slide.
Even with the quality issue I would still recommend using VistaPrint for your save the date postcards. You really can't beat the price and I'm sure they will still look great up on the fridge at our friends and families houses. My advice if you are going to use them would be, if you upload your own image don't create a boarder around the outside because half of it might be cut off... You'll see what I mean when I post a picture.
Where did you get your save the dates? Did they turn out the way you wanted?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
What makes love true
Alternate title: Our Tiffany love story
I've shared our proposal story, but I have not shared the story of my ring, and how it has given us an unforgettable experience.
My ring came from the famed Tiffany and Co. While shopping for rings Mr. Castle went to a couple different places but settled on a princess cut solitaire from Tiffany's. He wanted to get me an engagement ring that is timeless, and classic. My engagement ring style has been around since 1886 so he knew it would always be fashionable and could be something we pass down to our children one day.
I love my ring. I'm not the kind of girl who had a ring style picked out before getting engaged. I wanted Mr. Castle to pick something that he thought I would like and boy did he do an amazing job. I couldn't stop looking at it for about a month after our engagement. It's so shiny and sparkly!
Anyway, here's where I get to the part about that unforgettable experience. Mr. Castle came across a listing on an acting website looking for "Tiffany Love Stories." Love stories that involved a piece of Tiffany jewelry. He submitted our engagement story and they picked us to share it on their website! What this entailed was eleven people coming to our apartment to do a photo shoot and record audio of us telling our story. The result is amazing.
Unfortunately I can't post the video here directly so you'll have to follow the link to see our story. And please do because its pretty cool!
Taking part in this was such and amazing experience. The people who came to our apartment were so wonderful, and the photographer John Dolan was awesome and took the most beautiful pictures. Not only did we get to be featured on the website and have this awesome experience, but they gave us a Tiffany gift card! I'm thinking Wedding Band???? And we got copies of all the pictures :)
I've shared our proposal story, but I have not shared the story of my ring, and how it has given us an unforgettable experience.
Personal Photo / Sorry for the crummy phone photo
I love my ring. I'm not the kind of girl who had a ring style picked out before getting engaged. I wanted Mr. Castle to pick something that he thought I would like and boy did he do an amazing job. I couldn't stop looking at it for about a month after our engagement. It's so shiny and sparkly!
Anyway, here's where I get to the part about that unforgettable experience. Mr. Castle came across a listing on an acting website looking for "Tiffany Love Stories." Love stories that involved a piece of Tiffany jewelry. He submitted our engagement story and they picked us to share it on their website! What this entailed was eleven people coming to our apartment to do a photo shoot and record audio of us telling our story. The result is amazing.
Unfortunately I can't post the video here directly so you'll have to follow the link to see our story. And please do because its pretty cool!
Taking part in this was such and amazing experience. The people who came to our apartment were so wonderful, and the photographer John Dolan was awesome and took the most beautiful pictures. Not only did we get to be featured on the website and have this awesome experience, but they gave us a Tiffany gift card! I'm thinking Wedding Band???? And we got copies of all the pictures :)
But the best part was getting to share our story in a unique way with our family and friends. We live so far away from some of the most important people in our lives and for them to be able to hear us tell our story was priceless. I'm so happy that we will always have this video to look back on and remember our engagement. I can't wait show to our children someday so they can see how romantic their daddy was :)
Image via Whatmakeslovetrue.com / Photography by John Dolan
I hope you liked our video!
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Honeymoon anyone?
I am sooo looking forward to going on our Honeymoon. I have never been out of the country, well that's not true I've been to Mexico but when you're from Southern California Mexico doesn't really count... I didn't need a passport to get across the border. I've had my passport for about a year and I can't wait to get my first stamp!
So where to? Well we both didn't want a beach location. I love the beach, but it's not what we envisioned for our honeymoon. I enjoy sitting, relaxing, reading a good book and sunbathing on the beach, but Mr. Castle is not a huge fan and likes to do none of those things. We both decided we want more of an experience, a chance to explore a new place together, our own little adventure if you will.
We had two locations on our brains... both in Europe, both full of Art and history, and both awesome. The first...
We had two locations on our brains... both in Europe, both full of Art and history, and both awesome. The first...
Image via Travelista
Italy has always been a place I wanted to visit. I am dying to go to Vatican City. (That's the Catholic upbringing in me) Rome, Venice, Florence and the Amalfi Coast are all on my list of places to visit someday. My father is strongly encouraging it. He's been twice and had amazing experiences. It was looking like this was our pick but then my Dad went on another trip that sparked a new idea in our brains.
Image Via Paris-VacationApartments
Paris... Le sigh, the city of romance. My Dad raved about his trip to Paris. He was pleasantly surprised with how much he enjoyed the city, and made it very appealing to Jeff and I. And just like that Paris was now on the table.
There are pros and cons to each. In Italy we could visit different cities, most likely Rome, Florence, and Venice. But that also brings up a con, having to plan the travel between cities and make itineraries for each. We also might feel rushed in each city we visit. In Paris we can stick to one place which will probably makes planning easier. But then I think about the amazing food in Italy, and seeing different parts of one country would be amazing.... But Paris is so romantic, I mean Paris on your Honeymoon!!! C'est magnifique!
Mr. Castle was really liking the Paris idea because we could visit Disneyland Paris... Because as I have said before we a huge Disney nerds...
After a lot of research, talking to friends, family, seeing what we could afford we decided.... to do both! I don't know what we are getting ourselves into but we have two weeks to explore two countries and possibly five cities. We fly into Rome and out of Paris. At first I thought it might be too stressful to figure out the logistics of this trip, but it actually hasn't been that bad. Plus Mr. Castle has been mostly in charge of things.
Have you decided on a honeymoon? Would you chose one location over trying to visit as many as your could? Do you think we're crazy? Lol
Saturday, October 1, 2011
WARNING: Cute photo content!
Otherwise known as Engagement photos! One of my awesome bridesmaids hooked us up with her friend who is starting his engagement/wedding photo business here in NYC. Since he is just starting out he offered to take our photos for free! He was amazing and spent the afternoon with us in Central Park and other various locations around the city. He was a blast to work with and really let us do our own thing, which we appreciated. Ok I'll stop blabbing and show you the photos!
I like making faces...
Good shot of our outfits. I got my dress from modcloth.com
I really like this picture but I'm also blinded by my white legs
Being coy
My favorite of the day
I'm pretty strong...
Here are some captions to explain what is happening in this picture sequence
Photo#1 Yum, ice cream!
Photo#1 Yum, ice cream!
Photo# 2 Mr. Castle steals a HUGE bite of MY ice cream, without asking first!
Photo #3 He offers me a bite of his...to try and even things out and I'm not interested. My ice cream was clearly better...
All Photos by the amazing Aaron Lenhart
We are very happy with our photos and I can't wait for you all to see how we used them in our save the dates! Did you have a good experience taking your engagement photos?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Birthdays and Countdowns
This has been a really busy week! On Monday I celebrated the birth of one of the most amazing people I know! You guessed it, my fiance! We had a pretty low key celebration. I make a yummy cake, ordered in food, and used his birthday as a reason to finally purchase...
If you remember my post about his computer dying, if not you can find it here, this was a much needed present. I'm still figuring out how to use it... I've always had a PC. Jeff, being a designer, is a Mac pro. He's promised to give me some lessons as well as get started on our save the dates and invitation designs! Now that we have the computer I feel like we can finally kick the wedding planning into high gear, especially because...
How did this happen!? Well as they say, time flies... I got my "7 months to go!" email from project wedding this morning. It stated that I should be working on booking a florist, picking out bridesmaid dresses, and starting to research and plan our honeymoon. Well, our florist is booked, bridesmaid dresses are close to being picked and our honeymoon research has begun. So that makes me feel a little better. :-)
I'm looking forward to the next 7 months of planning. I'm sure it will be a thrilling adventure!
Just for fun, and since my last post was about our engagement photo outfit, here's a sneak peak of our engagement photos!
Always making me laugh
A new computer!
Image via Apple.com
If you remember my post about his computer dying, if not you can find it here, this was a much needed present. I'm still figuring out how to use it... I've always had a PC. Jeff, being a designer, is a Mac pro. He's promised to give me some lessons as well as get started on our save the dates and invitation designs! Now that we have the computer I feel like we can finally kick the wedding planning into high gear, especially because...
How did this happen!? Well as they say, time flies... I got my "7 months to go!" email from project wedding this morning. It stated that I should be working on booking a florist, picking out bridesmaid dresses, and starting to research and plan our honeymoon. Well, our florist is booked, bridesmaid dresses are close to being picked and our honeymoon research has begun. So that makes me feel a little better. :-)
I'm looking forward to the next 7 months of planning. I'm sure it will be a thrilling adventure!
Just for fun, and since my last post was about our engagement photo outfit, here's a sneak peak of our engagement photos!
Always making me laugh
Photo by the amazing Aaron Lenhart
Did you freak out at 7 months or get excited?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Finding the dress
No, not that dress, I'm talking about my engagement photo dress! We took our engagement photos back in June, and before I share those thrilling photos I want to talk about how I chose what to wear. I took the engagement photo shoot as an opportunity to splurge on a new dress. As I believe I stated in a previous post I'm pretty frugal and need an occasion to go shopping. So I took the occasion and went searching.
I was looking for something girly, spring-ish, whimsical and fun. I imagined a fancy sundress in a bright color. I looked at Macys, found a cute orange dress, but it didn't fit right. I went to Urban Outfitters, tried on some nice dresses but none of them had the right feel. I tried Forever 21 and didn't like what I was seeing. I even went to Anthropologie, which meant I was REALLY going to splurge on a dress, and came home empty handed.
My favorite stores were not bringing any results. While chatting with a girlfriend about my hunt, she lead me to a website which turned out to be a gold mine.
There were so many cute dresses! And the prices weren't bad! I think I spent about an hour just browsing the site. I finally needed to give myself a break so I put some dresses in my wish list and turned off the computer. The craziness of life kept me away from my search for about a week and when I came back I found that all of the items on my wish list were out of stock! What!? It had only been a week! I then learned that there are only a limited number of each dress available on the site and the good ones go fast. I then sort of stalked the site for the next couple of weeks looking for the perfect dress. And then one evening I found it.
One of my fashionable friends happen to be staying with us and I quickly called him into the room for his opinion. He gave me his approval and I ordered it then and there. I didn't want it to be sold out the next time I checked. It came in the mail about 4 days later and it was perfect!
I think the dress worked out great and I can't wait to share the pictures! Did you have to hunt for the perfect engagement photo dress?
I was looking for something girly, spring-ish, whimsical and fun. I imagined a fancy sundress in a bright color. I looked at Macys, found a cute orange dress, but it didn't fit right. I went to Urban Outfitters, tried on some nice dresses but none of them had the right feel. I tried Forever 21 and didn't like what I was seeing. I even went to Anthropologie, which meant I was REALLY going to splurge on a dress, and came home empty handed.
My favorite stores were not bringing any results. While chatting with a girlfriend about my hunt, she lead me to a website which turned out to be a gold mine.
Image via Wikipedia
There were so many cute dresses! And the prices weren't bad! I think I spent about an hour just browsing the site. I finally needed to give myself a break so I put some dresses in my wish list and turned off the computer. The craziness of life kept me away from my search for about a week and when I came back I found that all of the items on my wish list were out of stock! What!? It had only been a week! I then learned that there are only a limited number of each dress available on the site and the good ones go fast. I then sort of stalked the site for the next couple of weeks looking for the perfect dress. And then one evening I found it.
Image via Modcloth.com
One of my fashionable friends happen to be staying with us and I quickly called him into the room for his opinion. He gave me his approval and I ordered it then and there. I didn't want it to be sold out the next time I checked. It came in the mail about 4 days later and it was perfect!
I think the dress worked out great and I can't wait to share the pictures! Did you have to hunt for the perfect engagement photo dress?
Friday, September 23, 2011
My Orange Shoes
I've been thinking a lot about whether or not I should go the colored shoe route. I love pictures of brides with a pop of color coming from their shoes. My cousin wore these beautiful purple shoes at her wedding, which unfortunately I think her dog chewed them up... but they were beautiful!
So naturally I began the search for orange shoes. I found some great inspiration pictures.
But when it came to finding the shoes in the size and style I wanted, I was coming up short. Or tall. I don't want a super high heel, 2 1/2 inch max. It was hard to find my perfect orange shoes for a reasonable price.
Then I started looking at ivory shoes and saw how much selection I had....
I could always have the shoes I like dyed, but there is always a risk of it not being the right shade of orange. Or I could get a cute orange flower to clip onto my shoes like this...
Fast forward to this morning. I got to work a little early so I decided to do some window shopping at Urban Outfitters, always dangerous, and I came across these...
I wanted to get some flats to wear toward the end of the night. My feet are not used to wearing heels and I'm not enthusiastic about the idea of enduring blisters and pain just to wear shoes that will be covered by my dress anyway. These shoes could totally solve my problem. I can wear ivory heels maybe with the flower clip for the ceremony, first dance, etc, and put on my orange flats for the dancing.
But my frugal mind wasn't sure if I should buy the flats right then and there... Maybe I'll find something better, maybe I'll hate them in a month, maybe my feet will grow. I get buyers remorse before I even make the purchase. I will try and talk myself out of buying anything. I'm very frugal. But not this time...
I bought them and I'm pleased to say I'm happy with my purchase. For $30 I got some cute orange flats. Hopefully my buyers remorse won't set in, but I don't think it will. I've worn them around the house a bit and they are nice and comfy. Now to continue the search for the heels!
Are you also getting flats for your big day?
So naturally I began the search for orange shoes. I found some great inspiration pictures.
Image via allfashionon.com
Image via diy.weddingbee.com
Image via allfashionon.com
But when it came to finding the shoes in the size and style I wanted, I was coming up short. Or tall. I don't want a super high heel, 2 1/2 inch max. It was hard to find my perfect orange shoes for a reasonable price.
Then I started looking at ivory shoes and saw how much selection I had....
Image via Endless
Image via Endless
Image via Amazon
Image via Amazon
I could always have the shoes I like dyed, but there is always a risk of it not being the right shade of orange. Or I could get a cute orange flower to clip onto my shoes like this...
Fast forward to this morning. I got to work a little early so I decided to do some window shopping at Urban Outfitters, always dangerous, and I came across these...
Orange Flats!
Image via americancheerleader.com
I wanted to get some flats to wear toward the end of the night. My feet are not used to wearing heels and I'm not enthusiastic about the idea of enduring blisters and pain just to wear shoes that will be covered by my dress anyway. These shoes could totally solve my problem. I can wear ivory heels maybe with the flower clip for the ceremony, first dance, etc, and put on my orange flats for the dancing.
But my frugal mind wasn't sure if I should buy the flats right then and there... Maybe I'll find something better, maybe I'll hate them in a month, maybe my feet will grow. I get buyers remorse before I even make the purchase. I will try and talk myself out of buying anything. I'm very frugal. But not this time...
Personal photo
I bought them and I'm pleased to say I'm happy with my purchase. For $30 I got some cute orange flats. Hopefully my buyers remorse won't set in, but I don't think it will. I've worn them around the house a bit and they are nice and comfy. Now to continue the search for the heels!
Are you also getting flats for your big day?
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