Hometown Newspaper Engagement Announcement

I don’t know if it’s a tradition everywhere but in the south, when you get married, you announce it to EVERYONE. Even before internet stalking-er, social-networks like Facebook emerged, the news of an impending marriage spread like wildfire where I'm from. Soon after getting engaged, my mother mentioned putting an announcement in our hometown newspaper (as if a small town couldn’t spread the news by word of mouth efficiently enough).

I decided to entertain her and emailed the newspapers to see what it takes to publish an engagement announcement. Much to my surprise, it costs money to run them. Maybe I’m the only one who didn’t know this already, but I was just always under the impression that since you were providing them with “news” they wouldn’t have otherwise (especially for the small town papers), they would just put it in for free. It makes sense to make money off of them, especially in an era when newspapers are all on the rocks. But now we’ll be out $15 for my hometown paper and $30 for Mr. Lab’s.

What’s funny about this whole newspaper announcement thing is that I’m no stranger to being featured in my hometown’s paper. I used to be somewhat of a “hometown celebrity” if you will. My town is so small that the majority of the paper is designated for school news. Because I was so involved in academics, athletics, and extracurriculars, I regularly appeared in the paper. I still have all my clippings that my grandpa would bring me (he loved seeing me in the paper) and occasionally look back at them. Here’s some of my favorite blasts from the past:

Small town = small school. So it wasn't too hard to be at the top of the class. I missed Valedictorian by a smidgen because the guy who was #1 did work-study instead of academic classes our last semester. :(



My first pageant win (only my second time competing!). I was also voted Miss Congeniality. This sparked a love for pageants and I competed for the next 5 years to earn money for college.



Me & my BFF aka MOH! She and I were the captains of our varsity soccer team. We've been friends for nearly 12 years!

It’s been 6 years since I last appeared in our paper but every time I look at one of the clippings, I feel like I've been transported back in time. The more I think about it, the more I’m glad my mom suggested the announcements. They’ll be cute keepsakes to put in a wedding scrapbook to look back on one day. We’re submitting them this week to run the next week. I’ll be sure to post the clippings when we get them!

Is anyone else running an engagement or wedding announcement in your local paper? Were you surprised by the costs?

DIY "Through the Years" Photo Slideshow

To me, DIY projects are not just about having something extremely personalized and to your exact liking; it's about making something yourself that others charge out the butt for creating!

Enter my DIY "Through the Years" photo slideshow project! I did a quick google search for pricing on photo slideshows and found that professionals charge an average of a couple hundred bucks a pop for them. Insanity!

What's crazier is that most people have all the equipment necessary to make a slideshow already on their personal computers! From Windows Movie Maker to Final Cut Pro, there are several options for creating your own photo slideshow.

Source

I'm making mine using Final Cut Pro 6. As a broadcast news major and aspiring reporter, I invested in a Mac Book Pro and all the high end editing software because I knew I'd need it for my class projects and future career. I took advantage of the education discount and got my FCP Studio software for only $500 (compared to the regular price of $1299!). Who knew I'd be using it to create my wedding slideshow one day!

Our slideshow will be presented at both the rehearsal dinner (as a feature) and the cocktail hour (on a continuous loop for casual viewers). It will include four chapters:

1.) Mr. Lab growing up
2.) Me growing up
3.) Our "courtship"
4.) Our engagement from the proposal all the way up to the wedding!

This will be an on-going DIY project that I will probably wrap up right after our bachelor and bachelorette parties about 2 weeks before the wedding. I've already finished Chapter 3! Now I'm waiting on our moms to send our baby photos for Chapters 1 & 2. And of course we still have plenty of photos to be taken throughout the year to finish Chapter 4.

One thing I'm really trying to aim for with the slideshow is including at least one photo of every guest in it. I'm a photo fanatic (most likely to be toting a camera among my friends!) and am sure I will be able to complete my goal. It is my way of honoring our friends and family who have been their through our past, present, and hopefully, future, all while loving and supporting us along the way.

Then comes the songs the photos are set to in the slideshow. I've already chosen "Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop" by Landon Pigg for Chapter 3. For Chapter 4, I've set it to "Better Together" by Jack Johnson, which is also our first dance song (more on that later!).

Now I need some inspiration from the hive! Any suggestions for cute, preferably boy & girl themed, growing up songs for the first two chapters?

Btw, I'll post the finished product here when it's all done!

[Edit] We may use this amazing take on "Stand By Me" somewhere in the slideshow. Loves. Mr. Lab actually found it!

Some songs we've come up with so far:

Groom:

Kenny Chesney-I Go Back
Kenny Chesney-Young

Bride:

Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole- Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Flower girl song)
Van Morrison-Brown Eyed Girl (Mom & Daughter dance)

It's no secret...weddings are overwhelming!

It's 4:30 am. Why am I still up? Because I just got engaged (on New Year's Eve 2008) and I'm already falling into an abyss of browsing the internet for wedding ideas! I can't stop! I'm tired, a little hungry, and my eyes are starting to hurt from glaring at the computer screen. Yet, I keep going. I've even started my official wedding blog (hint hint: you're reading it) and set up my wedding website (found at http://www.mywedding.com/chrisandleilani).

This will be the place where I document every step of the wedding planning. I hope to entertain my friends and family while keeping them informed with all the decisions I make. I hope to inspire other brides-to-be out there on the world wide web the way I've been getting inspired tonight. I hope to keep my sanity by using this blog as a "catch all" wedding planning organizer (I'm a type A, ADD, perfectionist. No bridezilla, right?).

I hope you bookmark this blog and visit often, sharing your comments and suggestions along the way.

Here's to the official start of my wedding planning adventure! Oh, and Happy New Year's everyone!