Trashing the Dress

We had a fun trash the dress session with our photographer, Rachel Robertson. She found a run down building covered in graffiti to get some grungy, urban shots. Next we headed over to the state park and got some cool shots in the forest. Finally, we headed to her friend's pool to do some underwater shots. Looking graceful underwater is definitely not easy. Most of my shots didn't turn out so well -- not because of the photographer, because of the "model". Here are some of my favorites from the day.

Photobook - Mixbook

I created a photobook of me and my maid of honor using mixbook. I hadn't heard of this photobook company until one of the nesties posted about it. It's a little different than the other digital photobooks because it allows you to make collaborative books, get pictures from various online sources, and creates a "scrapbook" feel. I decided to give it a try in my quest to find the best digital photobook. After signing up for mixbook, they e-mailed me a code for a buy-one-get-one-free book, so I thought this would be great since I could give her one and keep one for myself.

Mixbook is online editor, so there is no software to download (yay!). As I mentioned earlier, you can get pictures from various online sources, including Facebook. You can even grab pictures from your friend's album. I tried this, but the resolution on most of the pictures was not high enough. However, you can also get pictures from Picasa, SmugMug, etc., so those photos will most likely be higher resolution. I haven't tried the collaboration feature, but that could be fun if you're not a control freak like me.

The templates are pretty cool. I'm a scrapbooker, so I loved all the different layouts and embellishments. It's a little hard to scroll through all the available options since it isn't really organized, and it took me a while to understand how to use and place the items. I love the pre-made templates...I got a professional looking book without much work! If you are more creative, you can start from scratch...just like a real scrapbook!

They have both square and rectangle books. I went with a 8.5"x8.5" album for this one to match the Shutterfly album I made as my "Will You Be My Maid-of-Honor?" book. It cost $29.99 for 20 pages, then $1.00 for each additional page. The classic rectangular books are similar in price. There is also the option for a soft cover which is a great option at $12.99.

The only downside for me was the shipping (not sure if this is because it is to Hawaii or if it is the same for everyone). If I ship USPS Media Mail, I have to wait about a MONTH to get my book! The next option, 2-day air will cost me about $30 for one book. I opted for the $7 USPS Media Mail, so I won't be able to post a review about the actual quality of the book until then. For now, here is a link to the online version of the book:

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/wedding/me-and-my-maid-of-honor-4745648

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Photobook - Picaboo

A fellow knottie posted a coupon code for a free large album on Picaboo, so I decided to take advantage of it and create a photobook of our Seattle engagement pictures.

I downloaded the software to my computer and chose the pictures that I wanted to add to the album. The software was easy to use, but I little slow and clunky at times. There were a variety of pre-set layouts, and you are able to add/move/delete things around as you please. You aren't able to automatically create a panoramic spread, but it is possible with some outside manipulation. The fonts are a little limited, unlike MyPublisher, where I could use any font on my computer. I really liked the ability to change the brightness and contrast of pictures and easily turn them black-and-white or sepia. My favorite feature is that you can make your own pictures background images for your page. There is also a large number of background images that come with the software.

The product pricing is okay. I got my album for free (just paid $8.99 shipping), but the regular price of the album is $39.99. They have other album types, but they can get pricey. I am interested in trying the flush-mount album because it offers thick, lay-flat pages, but those start at $349.99. I'm not ready for that investment yet.

The quality of the book was okay. I thought MyPublisher was better, but that was also a much more expensive album. These pages were not as thick and didn't have a "rich" feeling to it. I also preferred the silky-matte finish of the MyPublisher cover to the high-gloss finish of the Picaboo album. I am interested to see how the $26.99 "classic" MyPublisher album compares to this one.

Here is a link to view the book I created in Picaboo:

http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=b77e7864-39d1-6936-2590-a6d53f7281fe

Photobook - MyPublisher

I am on a quest to try out all of the photobook companies out there. My photographer's package didn't come with an album, so I am planning on designing my own. Ideally I would like to find a flush-mount album with metallic pages, but it is difficult for brides to do this because many album companies will only work with professional photographers. In case I'm not able to do this, I'm planning on doing a "coffee-table" book, but I'm on the search for the best company to use. I've decided to do mini-albums at each of the various companies to test ease-of-use, layout options, price, and quality.

The first company I tried was MyPublisher. They offer a 20% discount if you go through the Costco website. When I went to their webpage, they had a buy-one-get-one-free offer for new customers (but it didn't work in conjunction with the 20% off). I decided to take advantage of this offer and made a parents' album for our parents.

SOFTWARE: I downloaded the software and decided to go with the "deluxe" book, which is 15" wide by 11.5' high. It is printed on premium 182-pound high-gloss archival-quality paper, which is 75% heavier and thicker than the best paper used by any competitor (according to their website). I would suggest narrowing down the pictures you want to use for your album before adding them to the software, as it can take a while. Once it is loaded, all of your pictures are shown at the top of the window and the book is shown below. You simply select the template you want to use then drag the pictures onto the page. The software is pretty intuitive and easy to use. It ran a little slow on my computer, though. It took me almost a full day to create my book.

LAYOUTS: The layouts are okay. There are nice, simple layouts organized by number of pictures per page and whether or not you want to add text. What it was missing is the ability to easily create panoramic spreads (where a picture spans two pages) and the option to adjust opacity and use your own pictures as background images. These are two options I really wanted. Of course I could always create the layout I wanted in Photoshop and simply upload the layout as a single image, but that's just a little more work and time than I wanted to spend on this project.

PRICE: I thought the album was a bit pricey. My deluxe album was 66 pages and came out to $104.49. I got another copy of the album for free using the offer provided on the MyPublisher webpage. Shipping via FedEx was $14.98. It came out to about $60 per album.

QUALITY: I thought the quality of the album was excellent. The pages felt nice and the print quality came out clear (make sure you use high-resolution images, especially with such a big book). The book is big! It is really nice, especially for the full-page spreads I created, but might be a bit big for my taste (disclaimer: I love cute, tiny things -- I'm still searching for a small 4"x4" album that I saw sampled at The Wedding Cafe).

Okay, enough talking. Click below to flip through the book I created!

Click to view

Eye Candy

I looooove detail shots.  They are a great way to remember all the little decisions you made throughout the planning process.  All of those months of choosing the theme colors, going to cake tastings, looking through tons of magazines, staying up all night searching the web for inspiration, and cursing myself for deciding to do my own invitations...this is what it is all about!  These are the things that your guests may overlook, but that you and other knotties drool over.  I admit that I was a bit worried that the results would not live up to those pictures in the magazines that I dreamt of, but they exceeded my expectations.  Mr. Pug and I were both stoked at the way everything turned out!

Invitation & Rings

 

Rings on Our Wedding Day Newspaper

  

My Bouquet

  

My Bouquet & Shoes #1

  

MOH Bouquet & Shoes #2

  

Obligatory Dress-in-Window Shot

  

Groom's Gift - Custom Jordans with Wedding Date

  

I Went With the Purple Shoes!

 

My Bouquet

Detail Shot of my Dress's Neckline & Bouquet  

 

Gazebo Florals

  

Orchid Aisle

  

Table Number, Centerpiece, and Table Tent

  

Table Setting, Favor Box, and Program/Menu Card

  

Chair Covers & Uplighting

 

Card Box & Guest Sign-In

 

 Wedding Cake

 

1001 Folded Origami Cranes

 

 Best Wishes from Micky & Minnie

 

Congratulatory Letter from President & Mrs. Obama

"i do" Letters and Mini-Pug

Photosharing Sites

When I first got engaged I had wanted to do the disposable cameras on each table to be sure that I got candids and other pictures that our photographer might miss. I'm a scrapbooker, so I looove photos and wanted to get as many different shots as I could. After some thought and discussions with past brides, I decided against this because:

1) The cost of the cameras and developing film
2) The quality of pictures you get with disposable cameras is not that great
3) People may not use the cameras or may leave half a roll unshot
4) Most people will have their own high-quality digital camera (and let's face it...digital is the way to go these days)

I saw some knottie bios where brides created "photosharing cards" and encouraged guests to upload the pictures from their cameras on a photosharing site.

I love this idea, but I am still not sure where to host the pictures.  Here is my wishlist for the site:

1) Allows easy download of all images at full-resolution
2) Large/unlimited capacity
3) Easy to use
4) Does not require users to create an account or download any software

I've done a bit of research, but I'm still not sure which photosharing site to go with. The front runners are Flikr, Picasa, Shutterfly, SmugMug, and MobileMe Gallery.

Flikr has a Pro service for $24.95/year which would allow unlimited uploads and the ability to download images at full-resolution.  Many people use and are familiar with flikr, but personally, I find it confusing and haven't quite figured out how to organize and manage my photos.  Collections, sets, groups, galleries...what's the difference???  I know I could easily learn, but I am too lazy.  I need something a little more intuitive, especially for my non-techie friends and family.

Picasa is a free option with a web interface as well as a program you can download onto your computer for more features.  I like it because it is a part of the Google suite of products and many of my friends and family already have Gmail accounts.  I know a few of my friends also regularly use the Picasa albums for their personal pictures.  One thing I don't like about the Picasa site is that in order to download a full album of pictures, you will need to install the Picasa software on your computer.  I have this software on my computer, but when I've tried downloading albums, it has been slow and often times I get errors and incomplete downloads.

Shutterfly has a share site feature that I really like because it will allow me to create a nice, personalized page for my guests to use.  I can add notes, stories, a blog, and photobooks to the page to make it more than just a repository for photos.  I also like it because I use shutterfly a lot whenever I want to print photos and create photobooks -- having the photos hosted on this site will save me the trouble of downloading from one site and uploading on another one to make prints.  The downside is that you will need a shutterfly account to download images and they will not be at full-resolution.  In addition, each photo will need to be downloaded individually -- there is no batch downloading feature available.

Smugmug is not a free service, but one that I've noticed a lot of professionals and serious photographers use.  There is a yearly fee ranging from $40-$150/year depending on the features you want.  Smugmug offers more options to view and share your pictures (like password-protected albums and the ability to disable downloads).  They also allow full-resolution downloads, but you will need to download each one individually.  There are third-party applications that allow you to do bulk downloads, but it looks a little confusing.

MobileMe Gallery is a program I just heard of while doing my research.  It is actually part of the MobileMe software package sold by Apple for their Macs.  We just bought a Mac a couple months ago with the intention of using it to create a slideshow for the wedding using the iPhoto software.  Well, now that we have the Mac, this is a new option that is open to me.  The software is actually quite expensive ($99/year) and it was really designed to wirelessly sync your computers and iPhone easily.  The Gallery feature seamlessly interacts with iPhoto and provides easy uploads from your computer.  Friends and family can easily access your albums on the web and can upload and download full-resolution pictures and albums without having to download any software.  They don't need to create a user account either.  You can password-protect your albums, but it is a little tricky because it must be done by creating the album in iPhoto.  This is a software I haven't heard a lot about or had a lot of experience with yet, so I'm still undecided on it.  I downloaded a trial version of the software and will try it out to see how it works.

Anyone have any suggestions or experience with any of these programs?

Seattle Engagement Pictures

I got our pictures from Rebecca today. I love the way they turned out! *Squeal*