Wedding Party Monthly: A Newsletter

Extra extra! Read all about it! That's right, my first wedding newsletter is out in inboxes everywhere! Well, by "everywhere" I mean my wedding party members' inboxes! I designed the entire thing using my trusty MacBook Pro, Powerpoint, Picasa, Picnik.com, the ever-handy Google image search, some inspiration from Mrs. Eggplant's newsletter, and my own imagination and creativity. Check it out!

For the cover I used one of our engagement photos taken by our very talented photographer Lindsi Jones (she just got back from shooting back to back weddings in Mexico & Las Vegas!). Don't we look like models?!? :D I used a barcode generator to make it look like a real magazine cover and as a way to sneak in our wedding date! I set the page orientation to portrait in powerpoint and put the picture as the background so all the text would show up on top. There's really no tutorial to this, just a lot of trial and error with different fonts and sizes and positioning of the text. (All sources found on last page.)

This is where I really began to draw a lot of inspiration from Mrs. Eggplant. I included a little "On the Cover" section like they do in real magazines! The next page included a screenshot of our wedding website for a "Find Us on the Web" section.

Still drawing from Mrs. EP, I decided to credit all my wedding party members in the "Contributors" section. I found a little scroll-like flower using Google to lay in the background to add some interest. Sorry I had to write out all the names. I don't think my wedding party would be too pleased with their names plastered all over the web! lol

For the "Meet the Party" portion, I alternated between the guys and the girls instead of completely separating them. Aren't they a good-looking bunch? :)

Next up was information on the trip to Vegas we're planning for our bachelor/bachelorette parties. There was also a section on ways to save on the trip (I'm a huge cheapskate, so of course we're making the trip as affordable as possible!).

As part of the Vegas feature, I listed potential shows and events for the guys, girls, and everyone. We're planning separate parties for one night, so it's important to choose gender-specific things to do!

The next page in the newsletter was devoted to giving the wedding party a chance to leave their impression on our wedding. We're letting them choose songs to be introduced to at the reception!

We then had a "Groomsmen's & Bridesmaid's Corner" section. For the ladies I gave them a chance to vote on different bridesmaids dresses. If you remember, I already picked a dress but I'm having second thoughts and decided to open it up to a vote to seal the deal! For these slides I used a "texture" background.

The last feature was on the "After Party" which will be held on River Street less than a mile from our reception site. I once again used a picture as the background.

Lastly was the "Sources" page. I'm so used to crediting my work for Weddingbee, I decided I might as well give credit where credit's due for my newsletter as well! We included another e-pic and a note asking for the wedding party to send a confirmation that they received the newsletter.

It took me 4 days to finish as I struggled to find time around my internship and got exhausted with many trial & errors. But I finished by my "deadline" to send it out on the 150 day mark. I can't believe the wedding is only 5 months away! *eek* I like it so much that I may print it out for a wedding scrapbook memento. I'll probably hang on to this issue as a template for the next newsletter.

My Ring, The Model.

Once again I spent a boring day at home. I decided to break up the monotony by doing what so many bees before me have done: take some artistic shots of my e-ring. It's like a rite of passage! Besides, my last mention of my ring broke the first rule of Weddingbee PRO Anne Ruthmann's tutorial on amazing engagement ring shots. I couldn't leave you guys with those amateur shots to remember my ring by!

So with the help of some items laying around the house and editing on iPhoto and Picnik.com, I came up with these new photos using my Sony Cyber-shot!

*WARNING* My ring was being a camera whore, so you'll have to excuse the number of photos. I took over 100 photos of her and narrowed it down to the 12 you're about to see!

This is a picture holder with a champagne bucket base. I had to play around with the adjustable threshold in Picnik until I couldn't see the pole for attaching a photo sticking up out it.



Sitting in the faux flowers that hang in sconces in our living room.



Some scrapbooking supplies left over from my FSIL's album I made for her engagement (still haven't finished it! eek!).



Sitting on top of crafting rhinestones. Used a focal zoom in Picnik for the effect.



This was by far the hardest photo to get. I had to use some tacky stuff (the only color I had was yellow) to keep the ring upright. I used a focal soften to draw the eye to the ring. I'm guessing the yellow down the middle is from the tacky stuff after I hit auto fix?





For these two I used the holga-ish option on Picnik. Both of these were taken on the same picture frame.



My graduation tassle.



This one was done using the 1960's option. The ring is on a fake rose petal shaped like a heart.



Cinematic scope on Picnik. The ring is on a button I wore for New Year's.



Vibrance mode with rounded edges. These are the shoes I was wearing we I got engaged! Pink's my fave color. :)



I used gritty & holga-ish on this. My ring is sitting on top of a picture frame that houses the first picture we took as an engaged couple!

I love MAC. Created using orton-ish on Picnik.

I shouldn't have to tell you what this is!