Etsy Finds: Your wedding could use a bit of Etsy and these sweet portrait stamps!

Posted on May 28, 2013 by himaniamoli in Planning | 2 Comments

Welcome to our new series about our favorite Etsy finds! Every few weeks we’ll scour Etsy (hard work, we know) for the best and most unique bridal goodies for you. Ready to get inspired and browse our amazing finds? Great!

Our first Etsy find is the custom, hand-carved rubber stamp portrait of you and your significant other. Sound crazy? Well, it kind of is. Crazy awesome! The supremely talented Lise Grossman of the Etsy boutique lilimandrill will literally take a photo portrait of you and your loved one and carve your faces into a rubber stamp.

This stamp is great for the zillions of Save-the-Dates, Invitations, and Thank-You notes you’ll be sending in the next couple months. Seriously, it’s more stationery than you’re ready for. But if you’ve got this nifty little stamp, we guarantee you probably have 300% more fun organizing and mailing all your pretty paper goods. Heck, why stop at paper goods? If I had one of these babies, I’d stamp it pretty much on every acceptable surface in my house.

Best of luck trying to resist buy one of these gorgeous, amazing and unique stamps from lilimandrill. We may or may not be getting out our credit cards to order our own right now… Stay tuned for our next irresistible Etsy find!

All images courtesy of lilimandrill.

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Giveaway: Win a free photo book from Artifact Uprising!

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Stephanie in Planning, Weddings | Leave a comment

Have you ever looked through a gorgeous, personal photo book and wished you had your very own for your special memories? There are so many options out there for getting your photos printed in a photo book that sometimes it’s hard to decide which product is best — especially when you’re looking to turn your gorgeous wedding photos into a book that you’ll keep and remember forever. As a wedding, photo, and tech company, we make it our job to know about the best products out there to help showcase your wedding photos — and we’re so excited to introduce one of our favorite photo book companies with you all today. Artifact Uprising is hands down one of the best services out there for showcasing your special photos in unique and beautifully designed photo books, calendars, and more. We’re so happy to be giving one lucky winner their own Artifact Uprising book for their wedding photos — read on to learn more!

Artifact Uprising places amazing emphasis on creating well-designed and environmentally responsible products that help to tell your personal story in the most beautiful way possible. They create gorgeous hard and softcover photo books, as well as photo books for your Instagram pictures, clipboard calendars, and regular ol’ square prints. We their Artifact Uprising books are especially perfect for telling the story of your wedding with your photographs, as their clean and immaculately designed books truly showcase the beauty of your photos.

Ready to learn more about how to win your very own Artifact Uprising photo book? We hope so, because we’re really excited to give away this amazing prize! Here’s how you can enter to win:

1. Find the Artifact Uprising giveaway post on our Facebook page.

2. Leave a comment on the giveaway post, and tell us what why you’d love to win an Artifact Uprising book.

3. For a bonus entry, share this post with your Facebook friends!

ENTER THE ARTIFACT UPRISING GIVEAWAY HERE!

We’ll announce the winner on Facebook on Friday, the 31st. Make sure you “Like” our page to get updates and see if you’ve won! And don’t forget to check out Artifact Uprising to see more of their gorgeous products. You can also “Like” them on Facebook or follow them on Pinterest for more inspiration, and get their latest updates by following them on Twitter. Good luck!

Photos courtesy of Artifact Uprising.

Giveaway terms here.

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The pros and cons of an instagram wedding. Is it right for you?

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Stephanie in Tech | 1 Comment

Using Instagram (and a particular Instagram hashtag) to help keep track of all the photos your guests take at your wedding is a fairly simple and increasingly popular way to keep tabs on your wedding photos after the big day is over. However, how do you know if an Instagram wedding is right for you? It varies from couple to couple, and there are a few pros and cons that each bride and groom need to weigh before sharing a designated hashtag with guests.

PROS:

1. Everyone already Instagrams. It’s fairly simple to explain to your guests that you’re using an Instagram hashtag for your wedding, since most of them are already on Instagram religiously.

2. You get to make one of those cute chalkboard signs telling your friends about your own special hashtag.

3. Filters. Always filters.

4. Let’s get it straight, everyone loves instagram. We’re totally insta-ddicted to it.

CONS:

1. You might not have ownership of your photos. If you’re worried about Instagram (or their parent company Facebook) taking your photos and claiming ownership over them, then think twice about asking guests to post them and read the Privacy Policy. This isn’t an issue for every couple– only for those who feel strongly about owning exclusive rights to their photos.

2. It’s public. While only your guests will be searching for your photos with the hashtag, when your friends post their photos that means their friends on Instagram can see the photos too. And anyone who’s a jerk and feels like crashing the party can start Instagramming with your hashtag too.

3. The photos are actually really small. Downloading photos from Instagram yield photos that are only about 600 pixels wide, which means they’ll be too small to print large copies in high quality.

4. Filters. Yes, this is a con too. You might be flipping through your wedding photos on Instagram the next day and realize that none of your photos are actually just plain photos of the way the day actually looked. And that might be annoying.

5. Older guests without smartphones or who aren’t Instagram savvy can’t participate. This means if they’re taking photos on their SLR, you’ll have to get photos from them separately after the wedding day.

6. It’s really hard to download your photos. You have to find the photos online and then save them one by one.

7. People might not upload all the photos they capture. If you’re an Instagram lover/user, you know not to flood your stream with a lot of the same photos because that might be annoying for your followers. So, your guests might upload a few photos here and there for your wedding but I bet they’ll take a lot more photos that will never end up on Instagram.

So what do you think? Writing from the perspective of someone at a wedding app company, some of you are going to think I missed some pros and/or cons in the list, but I’d love to hear your own thoughts! Did you go for an Instagram wedding, or did you opt for something different? If you did end up Instagramming your wedding, what helped you make that decision?

Photos via Kim A. Thomas Blog and UnJersey Bride

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Wedding Advice: How to deal with an uninvited plus one

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Stephanie in Advice | Leave a comment

QUESTION: How do you deal with guests that respond with more guest RSVPs than you offered?

Kaella’s Answer: Traditionally, only the names listed on the envelopes are those invited to the wedding. However, it seems less people are aware of this rule these days. If you have a very tight guest list, as I’m sure you do, call the guest directly and explain your situation. This may be a delicate subject and you don’t want to risk a miscommunication, so don’t tell you guest over email or text. Finalizing the wedding guest list can be one of the most difficult parts of planning your wedding, and your guest will hopefully understand that you cannot invite every person. Just explain that you are not having kids at the wedding and hope they can see it as an opportunity to have a date night. Or tell your friend, that while you’d love to meet the person he or she is dating, you have a very restricted guest list and would love to set it up another time. One way to deter unintended plus 1’s is to list the names of those invited on the RSVP card with a space to indicate whether or not that guest is coming. This makes it very clear who is invited.

Need more wedding advice? Read Kaella’s previous posts:

About our Kaella: Kaella Wilson is the founder of Kaella Lynn Events, a wedding planning and design boutique based in San Francisco. She believes the difference is in the details. Whether you’re planning a grand event or an intimate celebration, Kaella combines artistic design with meticulous planning and management to produce a memorable event that represents your style. Follow her on twitter @Kaellalynn.

Photo courtesy of onelove photography

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