Grace and William

I wanted to share some of my personal favorites from Grace and William's celebration. It was such a unique experience for Drew and I because these are such good friends of ours. We had just been with them this summer in Tanzania and they were key players in our engagement! We got to enjoy this wedding as both photographers and guests.

While still in Tanzania, Grace collected different African inspired goodies to decorate with. At the end of the night, guests got to take home the fabric stars as a favor, and some of us were even lucky enough to snag one of those great wooden vases (which are made from retired fishing boats from TZ!).


Their ceremony was really sweet, since they had technically been married for a few months before they moved to the States. They walked down the aisle together and both wrote new vows based on what they had experienced together in their first few months of marriage. William wrote Grace a song, and Grace wrote William a poem.


The best part for me, as the photographer, was that since they were already married, there wasn't a ton of stress and nerves before the ceremony. This allowed us to drive all around town to find the perfect photo opportunities.


Thanks for visiting!

Collage

Remember that gorgeous couple that Drew and I photographed in December? The ones who met in Tanzania as expats and fell into an amazing love story? Well, I've just finished editing their photos and I'm jazzed about the outcome. I'm on my way to drop them off, so I can't show you too many, but here's a peek at some special edits that I did for them.


Photographing friends means that I can take creative liberties without really offending anyone. I'll try to post a few more images of their wedding soon.

Obsessed

It's a shame this is such a sad song, because wouldn't it be beautiful for a wedding? I think anyone could sing this song and I'd probably like it, but I especially like this rendition with Mr. Timberlake and Matt Morris. I may or may not have an embarrassing celebrity crush on Justin Timberlake, and maybe a new crush on Matt Morris after hearing this song. I mean, come on, that voice? the hat? and hello, he has a beard. Good thing everything I just described sounds like a carbon copy of my fiance, or I might be in trouble.

Our Save-the-Dates and Yudu Screenprinter Review

I have been so excited to share our save the dates, but I was waiting until all of them had been sent first! It is details like these that I love about party planning.


We're going for a "modern vintage" feel for our wedding, mixing vintage details with modern design. Now, I totally think that Save the Dates are unnecessary for a budget wedding such as ours, but I just love paper goods and I couldn't help myself! I'm hoping that these little gems get our guests excited about celebrating with us!


I wanted to print on both the paper and the hankie, that way if our guests found some clever way to use the hankie (oh trust me, my aunt made us a stuffed bunny out of one...), they still had the paper to hang on the fridge!


You know what the best part is for a bargain-hunter-diy girl like myself? These babies cost us a total of 65 cents a pop! We're trying to save on postage by handing them out in person to those who live close.

Yudu Review:
There are good things and bad things about this machine. The good... It is all self contained, which is super convenient and makes it so easy to print anywhere with a large flat surface (dining room, kitchen, garage, etc). My two favorite features include the light-tight dryer, which you stick your screen in after applying emulsion or washing or whatever, and the tacky printing surface. The tacky surface makes registration so great. I chose to purchase this machine because, since I've graduated, I no longer have access to a printmaking studio. I feel like at this point, it is meeting my screenprinting needs.

The bad... If you are not an experienced screen printer, this machine might seem amazing upon first glance. However, without experience, you may have a really hard time getting it to do what you want. I had to make many modifications to my machine in order to make myself not regret this purchase. If you are an experienced screen printer, this machine might seem a little chincy at first, but with some tweaks, it works pretty well. The screen isn't the best, and it's definitely not made for more than like 5 wash outs. Also the Yudu ink, which they say to only use (of course) is completely overpriced and really dry. I tried it and got really terrible prints, very spotty. After that, I didn't even bother with it, I just went ahead and used Speedball. Also, the emulsion remover works really well and really fast, but bleach works just as well. The emulsion sheets are very convenient, but they don't work as well as good old liquid emulsion. Plus they are super pricey. The squeegee is just terrible. Do yourself a favor and go buy a good squeegee at an art supply store.

I guess it might seem like I have more bad things to say... but I really had a lot of fun using the Yudu machine. If you're thinking of buying one, my advice to you is to make sure you do your research on how to modify it.

Free Clothing

Here is another awesome shirt benefiting relief efforts in Haiti. I'm proud to say that the guys who own this company, Joel and Tim, are really great friends of mine. So sweet to see so many talented friends using their gifts to help a cause.

Check It

Help Haiti Rise tshirts available here. 100% of the proceeds go to Partners in Health. What a small but great way to help contribute toward relief efforts in Haiti. They're only $15!

Six Ways You Can Help Haiti

Go here.