Elsa's & Arthur's Wedding @ Rprm 2014.12.08

[Icis]

Our Boutonnieres & Hangers: My Fiance's DIY Section

 

My fiance may not be the most creative person, but if given specific tasks and direction, he just works on it and they look not too shabby.

 

Hangers

We wanted wired hangers that other brides had done. There are a lot of step by step tutorial on this one so I'm not going to go into detail. We just made one modification - we wanted the hangers in gold. We went to home depot and purchased a can of gold spray paint and 12 gauge wire.

 

 

We then took out the bottom rail on the hanger and taped the hook with painter's tape. We got an apple box from a grocery store and used it to spray paint. We were too lazy to prime the hanger first so all we did was applied 2 coats of paint. 

 

My fiance downloaded the font, printed the words on a legal sized paper and proceed on bending the sh*t out of it.

 

The result

 

 

Boutonniere

My fiance has been a groomsmen quite a few times and always noticed that the fresh flowers boutonniere tend to wilt and bend to 50 degrees by about mid-afternoon. We decided to find an alternative option for the boutonniere. We set our eyes on a feather & jewel boutonniere on Etsy but we found it to be too expensive...Ok...so DIY time!

 

Material:

- Feathers: We bought different kinds from Michael's, Walmart, DollarTree

- Skewers: DollarTree

- Feather pin: Ebay

- Boutonniere holder: Michael's

- Glue gun

- Well bond glue

 

My fiance used the glue gun to glue the feathers together on one skewer and then glue feather pin on another skewer. He then use the glue gun to glue both of them together.

 

 

We then put tons of glue in the boutonniere holder and then the result is:

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2014 by Icis

[Icis]

VistaPrint Galore: Kissing Menu/I Spy and Guestbook

 

We can't help but get something from VistaPrint. We wanted to make sure that people have a great time while there.

 

Rack cards

 

We wanted to make sure people take pictures of the whole week there, so we made a rack card that has I Spy list of items to photograph. The front (glossy side) is the kissing menu. Instead of having maracas or bells, we decided to have a list of items that guests can do to get us to kiss.

 

We used publisher to create the look and then imported it into VistaPrint via pdf since Publisher doesn't import well with VistaPrint. We ran into a problem where the Publisher doc was a bit narrower than the VistaPrint's version so we had to made a few adjustments with the sizing and upload it a few times before we are satisfied.

$9 for 100 cards + $8 for shipping (WTF...) = $17.

 

 

Guest Book

I love the idea of having guests write in a photobook for us to read up every now and then. I don't like the conventional ways of making a photobook guestbook because:

1) Guests tend to smudge the words and thereby ruining the book/pictures next to it.

2) Guests generally write "Congrats! Love, <name>" and that's it. Com'on man! Put some effort in that stuff! 

3) The writing tends to fade over time

So I decided to make guests put in some effort in our guestbook. I designed 10 different invitation cards (printed only 7 designs @ 10 cards each) and will MAKE each guest fill out at least 1. My fiance originally designed them all...but I just found that they didn't look that pretty...so I took on the role to redesign them all to fit our theme and my vision (LOL). These cards took much longer time than the rack card because of the special fonts I downloaded and used. When we saved it as pdf the fonts didn't transfer to Vistaprint. We figured out that we had to save it as a jpg so that the fonts are uploaded as we see them. The problem is, again, on the borders and bleed. We had to fix it a few times and upload it a few times before we are satisfied with the look.

 

Examples of some cards (front & back):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ordered 7 designs with 10 cards. Came up to $41.93 + $8 (shipping in Canada is expensive. sigh) + $2.45 GST = $52.37

 

The orders came in. I didn't want to unwrap them because I fear it will be more difficult in transporting them to Mexico.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once these cards are filled by all the guests I intended to scan them in high resolution and upload them as a picture so that I can combine them into one guest-photobook.

[acw271011]

Oh my goodness..... your thread is incredible!! I've loved reading it. Your writing is great and cute to read and I love your ideas. I've been back and forth a dozen times over resorts, and after reading, reading and more reading, I'm looking at Riu Palace Mexico. lol it's funny because their remodelling and bright colours are one of the things I love!! But I'm looking at our renewal off site since we will be a very, very small group - max of 10. I have to admit that some of the review of RPRM made me a little nervous but it looks like a great resort!!

[NotSoWitty]

Eeee! I can't wait until I can see your attachments! The guestbook is one of the things on my mind at the moment and I'm trying to think of a nice way to stage it and a different kind of book since we're having a different kind of party (in that no one will have actually been to the wedding)

[Icis]

Oh my goodness..... your thread is incredible!! I've loved reading it. Your writing is great and cute to read and I love your ideas. I've been back and forth a dozen times over resorts, and after reading, reading and more reading, I'm looking at Riu Palace Mexico. lol it's funny because their remodelling and bright colours are one of the things I love!! But I'm looking at our renewal off site since we will be a very, very small group - max of 10. I have to admit that some of the review of RPRM made me a little nervous but it looks like a great resort!!

 

Thanks @@acw271011! I try not to worry about RPRM's reviews, but we just really like the colonial look of the the RIU resorts. That was the reason we picked the RIU chain in the first place. Since RPM remodeled we are definitely sticking with RPRM for the look.

 

Eeee! I can't wait until I can see your attachments! The guestbook is one of the things on my mind at the moment and I'm trying to think of a nice way to stage it and a different kind of book since we're having a different kind of party (in that no one will have actually been to the wedding)

 

Hey @@NotSoWitty! I was in your shoes not too long ago and I couldn't see the attachments. Frustrates the Bejewels out of me. Keep up the posting and you can see them in no time!

Edited August 21, 2014 by Icis

[tygrrlily]

Your guestbook print outs look so good!  I love the art deco-ish vibe

 

Just a question - did the writing/images print clearly? I don't have publisher, but have been using powerpoint to design some (basic) things.  I converted them to pdf and tried uploading to vistaprint, but it says the resolution is too low so I'm wondering how it'll look printed

 

Thanks

[Icis]

Your guestbook print outs look so good!  I love the art deco-ish vibe

 

Just a question - did the writing/images print clearly? I don't have publisher, but have been using powerpoint to design some (basic) things.  I converted them to pdf and tried uploading to vistaprint, but it says the resolution is too low so I'm wondering how it'll look printed

 

Thanks

Hey @@tygrrlily, thanks! Everything printed out clearly for our designs and words. I don't recall Vistaprint saying our resolution is too low. Have you tried perhaps using word? Or finish designing from PowerPoint and then export/save it to Word? PowerPoint is a presentation program so it may change the size or resolution of the images. Also try to save it as a JPG and see if that works. If it is something basic, will it be easier to design right on Vistaprint?

[Icis]

Hiring my own minister

 

I wrote a lot about different vendors on my journal because I found out that I am only allowed to write a review of the vendors on the VENDORS REVIEWS section if the vendors themselves signed up to be listed on this website. Therefore, I tried to write about all my research in this journal hopefully for all future brides.

 

I picked my own minister for the ceremony because it is cheaper than the resort's minister and I can customize my ceremony with the minister of my choice.

 

The following are a list of ministers I found around the Riviera Maya/Cancun:

 

• Noe Camacho (http://www.cancunweddingvows.com/)
• Stephen Spiegel (http://www.mexicorabbi.com/)
• Petra Rattue (http://www.minister-petra.com/)
• Cancun Weddings (http://cancunminister.com/)

They are all about the same price (+ or - $50). I read up their bio and their reviews and decided on having Noe Camacho perform our ceremony. Noe was quick to reply to my emails and we chatted via email (word document) about how we met, what we expected from the ceremony, etc. 

[tygrrlily]

Hey @@tygrrlily, thanks! Everything printed out clearly for our designs and words. I don't recall Vistaprint saying our resolution is too low. Have you tried perhaps using word? Or finish designing from PowerPoint and then export/save it to Word? PowerPoint is a presentation program so it may change the size or resolution of the images. Also try to save it as a JPG and see if that works. If it is something basic, will it be easier to design right on Vistaprint?

 

Thanks! I can't export my stuff to word (mac ppt is weird). I'm trying to change the size of the actual slide on ppt to see if that works hrmm... thanks for the tips though!

 

Your wedding date is so close to mine that reading your thread motivates me to keep on working on things

Edited August 27, 2014 by tygrrlily

[Icis]

Thanks! I can't export my stuff to word (mac ppt is weird). I'm trying to change the size of the actual slide on ppt to see if that works hrmm... thanks for the tips though!

 

Your wedding date is so close to mine that reading your thread motivates me to keep on working on things

 

@@tygrrlily, I hope changing the sizing works! Try blowing it up by 50% or more for importing into VistaPrint. You can always reduce the size after you imported. When you save the powerpoint as a pdf (I'm assuming you are saving it on letter size), how large is your image on the pdf?

 

My friend is getting married this Saturday and she is running around like a headless chicken (even though she hired a wedding planner). Three months ago she said she doesn't need help and everything is done. All of a sudden this past week she has been asking everyone to help her with running errands, gluing DIY projects, meeting planner, etc. I can help, but how about asking a week ahead so I can change my schedule? My wedding is three months after hers, and I was already planning and completing tasks waaaaay beforehand. I would be super stressed if I have to follow through my wedding planning last minute. 

 

We are going to be married 8 days apart (gotta escape the Canadian winter somehow)! Gotta keep the fire in the eyes burning and keep on trucking along!