Catching Up with Mrs. Barrettes

Greetings, Hive! I am Mrs. Barrettes and my husband and I were married in Napa, CA on 10/10/10. You may remember that I wore my mother's wedding dress (after a small re-design) and my Man of Honor gifted me my reception dress a few weeks before the wedding. We planned our winery wedding while living on the tiny island of Guam, and now we're building roots in Houston.

V. Sattui Winery, Napa, CA. October 10, 2010

Houston, TX. January 2013

The best thing that’s happened to us as a couple since we got married is:

It has been nearly three years since our winery wedding and the best thing that has happened since then has been the birth of our daughter! Eden was born in November 2012 and is a silly, smiley, awesome little nugget. We were also thrilled to purchase our first home and love being able to entertain our family and friends in it!

How blogging about my wedding shaped my wedding day:

I absolutely loved blogging during our wedding journey and am so thankful for the experience of being a Bee. One of my favorite parts of blogging was pushing myself to continue to write and share my story, and now I always have those posts and photos to look back on. The friends I made in the blogging community continue to be a daily presence in my life and I couldn't be more grateful for that sisterhood. Also, because of blogging we totally had a photobooth board because I couldn't live without it.

Why I chose my icon and how my icon has become a part of my identity (if it has):

I chose my icon, Barrettes, because I thought it was the cutest of the four I had to choose from! I came in at the end of the Accessories generation, but like taking a name, once you have it you can't imagine being anything else. I love those little orange flowers, and at the time I was still dancing professionally and always had barrettes, bobby pins, and wigs in my hair.

Your favorite post you ever published on Weddingbee, and why:

My favorite post I ever published on Weddingbee was the one about guests posting wedding photos on Facebook, because I received a lot of flack for it, and later ate my words because I loved guests' photos on Facebook! I also actually loved writing my recaps, especially about the moment I walked down the aisle.

Do you still blog/have you found another creative outlet for writing? 

I blogged for some time after the wedding and through pregnancy and birth, but have since wiped my blog. My writing started to feel inauthentic, so I'm taking a pause at the moment. With the advent of Instagram, I've found sharing photos and moments to be easier (and quicker, since the baby takes up much of my free time). I look forward to sharing my creative writing again in the future when the fancy strikes!

The best thing about being married is: being proud of what we accomplish together.
The worst thing about being married is: daily life throws water on the sizzle.
The best thing we registered for was: our cheese-cutter.
The worst thing we registered for was: linens.
When we fight, we make up by: trying to make each other laugh.
The biggest challenge we’ve faced since getting married has been: taking time for a vacation.
The way my SO and I reconnect when we both get busy is: nightly dinner at the table.
When I have a disagreement with my in laws, we resolve it by: letting go of my ego. Choosing peace over the need to be right.
If we could do our wedding all over again, the one thing we’d change is: I'd remember to wear my gorgeous heels at the end of the night instead of black flip-flops!
In 5 years, I hope that we: Have more time to travel.

Thoughts on Photography, Six Months Later

Hi Hive! You don't mind if I do drive-bys every now and again, right? Promise I'll drop by when I think I've got something good for ya. Today I'm thinking about wedding photography... six months after the wedding.

Photography quickly rose to the top of my list of important things when we began planning. I knew I wanted something special, but I didn't know exactly what. Unless you are used to working with photographers on a pretty regular basis, most of us just know what we like when we see it. When I stumbled upon Luke's work, I just knew he was the one. It was sort of like falling in love at first sight.

Then you find the price for your dream. And it's usually higher than you hoped for.

To fit the constraints of budget, the only way to make my make my 2-shooter, 8-hour fantasy happen was to cut out the album option. My high-quality images would land in my lap on 2 discs, about 8GB worth of our gorgeous day.  Luke also included web-ready images, which were much smaller and included his watermark. This made recaping our wedding pretty easy breezy, but now it's all up to me to figure out how to present my photos outside of the internet.

Uploading the high-res images to photobook sites became frustrating when I learned that most hosts don't allow images over 10 MB-- almost all of my images are over 20 MB. That's huge. Luckily I was able to resize in Adobe Fireworks, but silly me then resized almost 100 images a little too small. *facepalm* So frustrating!

I tried uploading my resized photos to Picasa to use them inside of Blurb, but then Picasa-- without rhyme or reason-- continued to act up and reject my photos, causing me to almost throw my computer across the room. So I did what any good Apple user does-- I turned to iPhoto to make my album.

(screen captures by me, photos by Luke Snyder Studio)

Omigod, ya'll, it was so easy! There was no uploading and crossing my fingers it would work. I just dragged and dropped and changed layouts at will and iPhoto let me know if the photo size was too small to print well. The full-page photos are the only ones I used the super high-res images for. The hardest part was choosing which photos to include and trying to restrain myself from hitting the "new page" button too many times. I will report back on the quality when I see the finished product.

Photography editing is no walk in the park, even if you do have appropriate software. It takes a lot of patience and time and if you are short on both, think about adding the album options to your photography package. While at the time you think you will be able to work that out yourself, sometimes it's best left to the professionals!

Have you made an Apple photobook? How did it turn out for you?

DIY I Couldn't Resist Sharing

I know I said 'bye, but sometimes things are just too cute not to share.

This pretty DIY cigar box from Cathe Holden caught my eye and my first thought was, "some bride, some where will totally run with this".

(via Just Something I Made)

So wish I would have found this in my planning days. Cigars aren't really my thing, but being showcased in a pretty box would win me over. Packed with Cubans-- this is a winner!