Cash bars:

• Ashley’s View on Cash Bars
• Crystal’s Opinion on Cash Bars

Trash or Treasure the Dress:

• Ashley’s View on Trash or Treasure
• Crystal’s View on Trash or Treasure

So now it’s my turn to pick the next topic and I was inspired by a recent story on CNN about a couple who held their wedding in a bowling alley. The articles talk about weddings and saving money in a bad economy – it’s a good read. What caught my attention was one particular line in the article:

Rebecca Dolgin, executive editor at The Knot.com, said weddings are recession proof.

So here is my question(s) for you Ashley  – do you agree? Are weddings recession proof? Did the current ecomony effect your wedding budget and planning process and have you seen it having any effect on other brides?

Watch for Ashley’s answer on Bride on a Budget and then I will be back to weigh in

Photobook arrives – it’s like Christmas in July

The Book & Cover

Some Of My Favorite Pages

Pricing:

I’m a pretty budget savvy person so one of the first things that caught my attention was the price.  Lulu.com Photobooks start at $9.99 for a soft cover, 20 page book and $19.99 for a hard cover, 20 page book.  Very budget friendly!

Sizes and Templates:

I really like the range of options that Lulu offers for their ebooks. My particular book is an 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 square book. I am a huge fan of square albums (its the scrapbooker in me lol) and its generally a more expensive option when it is offered which isn’t often.  I really like that this size/shape was available for the same price.  Other sizes included 8 1/2 x 11, 9 x 7, 5.25 x 3.5 (guest book album?) and 3.75 x 2.5 (brag books for grandmas?).

Lulu.com also offers a great selection of templates that you can use depending on your preferred style: classic, modern, romantic, vintage, nature inspired, etc.   Now – I am a graphic designer and I had already designed the pages for my album so I choose full photo templates for each page and then uploaded my own designs as a photo for each page and for the cover. I love that flexibility – you can use one of their templates if you wish – or if you have some graphic design or digital scrapbook ability you can design your own pages like I did. Just make sure you respect the bleed areas.

Building a Photobook:

I found the Photobook creator very easy to use. You can upload pictures from your computer or from your albums on Flickr, Facebook, etc.  You then choose the layout you want to each page (one picture, two pictures, three pictures, text boxes, etc) and drag and drop your photos into their spaces.  You can save your progress and come back to it late if you need to until you are ready to publish.

Show off and/or sell your Photobook!

The neat thing about Lulu is that it’s both a self publishing company AND a bookstore. You can create your books there and sell them through the website. You set the prices you want to charge and when a book is purchased, Lulu prints and ships directly to the customer. This feature is great for photographers who want to offer their brides affordable, flexible album options. You create the album and set your price. The bride and her family can order as many copies as they wish whenever they wish.

There are a few different options you can pick when you publish. You can choose to keep the album private (so only you can order it). You can also choose to have your book available by link only. This means you can give the link to friends and family so they can preview and purchase a copy if they want. I choose this option – not because I want family to buy my book – but because then family and you guys can go see the preview (Click here to check it out lol). This option keeps your book from being included in their public database – which is the third option if you have a book you want made available to purchase for the general public.

Quality

I am quite happy with my photobook. I choose a hardcover book and it is quite sturdy. It’s only 20 pages thick so it kind of reminds me of a child’s hardcover picture book lol – nice and sturdy.  (Yes, you can add more pages as well).  I was impressed by the color quality as well – the pages were crisp and clear and the colors were bright. My photos came out looking gorgeous on each page.

GIVEAWAY – GET YOUR OWN PHOTOBOOK!!!!

So – we’re going to give away a photobook to one lucky reader! You can use it to create a wedding album or an album showcasing your wedding planning process (showers, parties, etc), your honeymoon, or whatever you wish. You will be able to choose your size, hard cover or soft cover and up to 20 pages at no cost. Giveaway Ends August 4th at midnight EST.

Here’s how to enter:

Sign up for our newsletter in the sidebar – all newsletter subscribers will automatically be entered to win!

You can also earn additional entries by Twittering our giveaway. Send your tweet @CrystalUnrau to ensure that your extra entries get counted!

If you’re looking for unique ways to create a perfect dream wedding on a reasonable budget, this newsletter is for you. Through-out your wedding planning process, we’ll provide you with ideas and projects to help stretch your budget along with contests, giveaways, coupons and other special offers to help you save on the things you need for your big day.

The first issue will be going out on THURSDAY so make sure you subscribe today! You can subscribe in the sidebar or by visiting our Newsletter page.

Wedsy is a great resource for brides. It’s an independent project that offers up a selection of some of the most popular wedding items currently available on Etsy. It’s a great way to weed through the massive lists of items available for sale and find the best wedding options quickly.

Wedsy is still a fairly new service but I expect it will grow to be bigger and even better then it already is in the months to come.

But blah, blah, blah enough excuses. The point is, I can stop thinking about work and start thinking about the WEDDING again! Haha!

I think I might have mentioned this before, but I believe that Wedding TV is an insomniac’s best friend. It’s not often that I can’t sleep, but sometimes I’ll hit a Starbucks a little too late in the day and I pay for it ALL NIGHT. Last night was one of those dreadful nights. So I snuggled up with my favorite blanket and a DVR full of Platinum Weddings and Say Yes to the Dresses. And I started thinking, “this is a GREAT time to be a bride”, I mean seriously girls, we’re really lucky. There is so much great wedding related media right now. Amazing websites. Great TV shows. This is a time when wedding photography and videography are at their best. Dresses are gorgeous. Trends are palatable (ie. No puffy sleeved monstrosities). Yay for us! Yay for 2010! Yay for a blog full of future Mrs.

SOURCE SOURCE

Here are a few of my favorites

I love this sash. I think it’s beautiful, elegant, classy, timeless, all those things I aspire to be! I think there are probably a gazillion things you could do with it, but I think it’s wonderful tied around the bouquet as they show it.  Or maybe as a sash around my dress? Who knows!

Source

This is available through Etsy seller, Michael Angela, she’s got oodles of other wedding related items that warrant your perusal. Check out the “New MRS.” aprons too. I’m a sucka for aprons.

Source

Here’s another fav. Personalized wedding monograms. Yes. PERSONALIZED. For… get this… FIVE DOLLARS!!!!!!! Etsy seller Double Trouble Designs also has a blog… on which I’ve spent wayyyyyyy too much time. I feel like I need about 20 different personalized monograms. How do you choose?!?!? And where exactly do they go?? Yes, on our programs would be nice. And maybe somewhere on our invitations? But where else? I’m not sure… but that’s not going to stop me from buying one… or 20….

Source

Yes. I started a new job. Technically it is my dream job. But I have to admit, there have been a couple days when I sat at my desk and thought “I need to have better dreams”.

I guess I would have been more enthusiastic about my dream job, but the day before I was supposed to start (6 months ago today, in fact), J and I got in a horrible car accident. We were rear-ended on the interstate. The impact catapulted us across three lanes of busy interstate traffic, slammed us into the concrete median and spun us around so we were facing traffic. J landed in my lap covered in blood and I thought he was dead. Thankfully, I was wrong and the wreck didn’t accumulate to much more than a broken nose (his) and a totaled car (mine) and a lot of frustrating insurance claims.

Two good things came out of the wreck. A shiny red hard top convertible and a new and increasingly poignant attentiveness behind the wheel…

On to 2010. 2010 is THE YEAR! A wedding in a couple months. And who knows maybe after that I’ll get knocked up by my hot hubby!

Tangent: can one get “knocked up” by their hubby? Or is “knocked up” reserved for the un-wed?

Tangent of my Tangent: why “knocked UP”? It’s physically impossible to get knocked UP, you can get knocked DOWN, or knocked AROUND, but knocked UP? Can’t happen…. and I certainly hope it doesn’t have some sort of 19th century X-rated meaning, if it does I don ‘t want to know….. Knocked UP makes me think of one of my least favorite Southernisms “cut ON the light/stove/washing maching etc.” you can’t cut something ON, only OFF. Sigh. Oh well.

I have a couple resolutions. Aside from fruitful loins and a successful fabulous budget friendly wedding and keeping tangents at bay… if those can be considered resolutions.

1. Lose all the dang weight I gained after the accident (and then some). After our brush with death J and I had a tendency to think “life’s too short, what’s one more cookie?” well to answer my emotionally disturbed and pudgy self, one more cookie = LOTS more pounds.
2. Have some sort of realistic savings plan. We’ll be combining incomes so I’d like for us to get started off on the right foot.
3. I’m habitually 15 minutes late for everything. I can get up 30 minutes earlier than usual and still be 15 minutes late. NO MORE LATENESS. It’s pathetic. And immature.
4. Be nicer.  To my family. To my J. To myself.
5. Keep a cleaner home. I hate cleaning. But I want to be a good wife. And isn’t that part of it?
6. Make a friend. I haven’t made any awesome female friendships since college. My mom has been bff’s with the same lady since I was in utero. When I was home for Christmas my mom said “I hope you meet a ‘Rita’”, which made me kind of sad that I didn’t already have one in the South.

Hope you have a happy and safe New Years!