decorating our home

This weekend we set up the tree while watching "Home Alone," which I sadly/amazingly mouthed along to all of the dialogue. I tried to only say some of my favorite lines out loud ("Fuller, go easy on the Pepsi" or "Santy Clause doesn't visit funeral homes little buddy") in order to make our marriage last the weekend ;)

To my surprise, Julia over at Hooked On Houses revisits the "Home Alone" House on today's post.
Enjoy!

wtfotos

our wedding photos didn't arrive today as promised.
since my grandma doesn't have the internet, she'll have to wait until christmas to see our wedding proofs.
:(
sometimes you don't get what you pay for.

Happy Black(out) Wednesday!

Normally, I spend the Wednesday before Thanksgiving experiencing a mini high school reunion back home. Years of experience have taught me to know my limits because there's nothing worse than a table filled with aromatic Thanksgiving Day fare when all you want to do is sleep.

Last year we hosted our first Thanksgiving, which was wonderful. We joined our families together and watched the Macy's Day parade Rickroll unsuspecting viewers. More importantly, it was the first time I saw Planes, Trains, and Automobiles - a true Turkey Day movie.

If you haven't seen it - it's a MUST - you should probably just buy the entire John Candy collection.


This year we'll be putting 300 miles on the car in about 14 hours... Hope you all have a wonderful and thankful day tomorrow.

Midnight Sun

Have you read it or heard about the scandal? It’s Edward's version of Twilight. I’ve gotten through the first 5 pages and stopped. I think I’ll be saving it for a while…

from here
I’m still coming off of the post-wedding depression and knowing there’s still some unread, yet unfinished version of Twilight out there makes me happy. It’s like the day after Christmas when you’re incredibly happy and grateful for everything, but there’s that feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know it’s over.

I know I need to stay in the moment more, and I’m working on it. Designing our wedding albums will be a great way to remember and reflect on the events – don’t be shocked when the photos begin popping up everywhere!

If you’ve finished reading Midnight Sun, let me know what you think!

Destination wedding photos received!

Last night we received our official login for the wedding photos! Yay!

Here's I rated each section:
Web show - A+ these are the photos included in the slideshow from our wedding celebration
Getting Ready - B
Portraits1 - B +
First Sight - A
Ceremony - C This has nothing to do with the "change of venue" but it seems as though many of the important photos are missing from the photo roll, but I'm impressed based on how poor the lighting was...
Portraits2 - B+ the photos on the beach make up for the poor lighting and ties/hair akimbo
Reception - B my *new* aunt and uncle took some spectacular detail shots, I plan on including them in the album we design

Without further ado, the moment you've all been waiting for... drum roll please!


There's no easy way for me to tally the final number of photos, but I'd say 85% are great.
It's the other 15% that are spoiling bunch... for me.

Let me just say how happy I am to be getting the physical photo files and online album after 44 days - I am THRILLED!!

That being said (Curb reference, anyone?), I'm a little disappointed in the final results. It seems like they could have used an extra week to wrap up the job, but I'm not sure that's something I should have offered in my follow-up email last week... "How's it going with our wedding photos? Do you need a deadline extension?"

Okay, I know everyone's their toughest critic, but I'm kind of surprise at the stuff that was overlooked in the finishing of the photos... lack of cropping, glistening beads of sweat cascading down the side of my love's face during our close-up, the "why the heck is this photo included" photos, the absent "presentation of the couple" (maybe the only other photo they have was worse than what's there - IMG_3374, if you're following along), I'll let the slight the farmer's tan lines on my arms go, but the wings of hair and our ring bearer's tie could easily be corrected with the Cloning tool, right?

I'm just going to cherry pick the best photos and make my own album, obvs, but is it within my rights to ask them to clean up the images we want to get printed?

I mean, surely you'll notice these things in the the wall-sized canvases we plan on hang thoughout our entire house and give as gifts to all of our friends and family (just wait until that awkward gift exchange ;) ). But in all seriousness, I will be asking that the photos we want printed be cleaned up. They could really go from good to amazing, that and my free photoshop trial has expired.

Hey, did I tell you that we did a lap around the room since there was no aisle? I thought it was pretty funny/fitting, but those photos aren't really there either... Oh, and thanks for listening!

More photography updates

This whole wedding-photo-thing is becoming quite irritating. I realize we're not anyone's only clients, but we had a tiny-ass wedding. C'mon! I've already sacrificed having personalized thank you's made, but with Thanksgiving next week we're going to have more family together than at Christmas so I NEED the photos in hand!
Tim Brown Photography - Days since event: 40 (6 weeks come Saturday)
They will try to send the photos out Monday so they're received by Wednesday... TOTAL breach of contract btw. I realize they spent time on our slideshow needed within two week of the wedding, but that was in the contract. Plus, there goes my Blurb discount! I just hope the photos arrive in time for Thanksgiving!

Erin Lenore Photography - Days since event: 25
Should be done by the end of next week... Cutting it close if I want to show any family members photos over the holiday. I've gotta give the girl some credit since she's in the middle of midterms.

I'm pretty sure I don't want to play the "beach of contract card" with them, but it's just so frustrating!

What do you think I should do? A request to have the photos guaranteed to arrive Wednesday seems like the nicest option. Thoughts?

love it!

One of my funny girlfriends sent me a hilarious someecard (aren't they all? both girlfriends and someecards):

Here are the other New Moon cards:



Not sure why they had to specify, "from Twilight"...


Looking forward to seeing it this weekend!!

Still No Pro Photos...

37 days
907 hours
54,443 minutes
3,266,625 seconds
Since we were officially married!
We were promised photos in 4-6 weeks and it's been 5 weeks. Call me Bridezilla, but I'm calling the photographers if I don't get anything by Saturday.

I feel like I need to justify my bitching:
My memory is horrible, in general, but my memory of our wedding day is spotty - at best. Neither Grandmother has seen more than a few random shots that family members were able to take throughout the day. Come on, not even a few "teaser" photos on your blog or website? And the video slideshow they sent as expired...
Even more importantly, I was hoping to get Blurb wedding photo albums made in time to qualify for their holiday sale (through 11/24). I'm taking a Blurb webinar tonight, so hopefully I can learn some amazing shortcuts to cranking out 4 albums asap to get that discount (assuming I have photos to place in said albums!).

Has anyone used Blurb to design a photo album? How'd it go? Worth the price?

Sick + New Moon

Sorry, I've been a real bum about blogging lately, but you should see the house. So organized and clean! I was worried we'd never find a place for our wedding gifts... Remind me to post some "before & afters" soon.

Anyway, I've been sick since Saturday night, but I nothing's stopping me from this coming weekend:

The hubby's Entrainment Weekly subscription started today
and this beauty arrived last week:

Isn't it so nice to have something to look forward to?
Plus, the much needed motivation to clean up all the post-wedding stuff covering the guest bedroom?

My mind grapes are more like raisins...

It's a Blurgh kind of day, so here's a funny article on The Language of 30 Rock. Enjoy!