wedding favors – photo magnet

I am not exactly a fan to using wedding photos as wedding favors. However, if I am making one, I will be selecting photos that carry some significance to the the story/message I want to convey through the favors.

Using my own wedding photos, I have selected the black & white photos for this purpose.

Magnet/Insert card:
+ I chose the photo that was taken at the airport arrival hall – signifying that we have arrived at a new life stage – marriage
+ With a tiny tweak on the hue of the image, to spice in small interestingness to the entire presentation.
+ B/W photo has its limitation, and many people may even think that it can be too boring since it’s just grayscale tones. I have adjusted the image towards a purplish pink hue, while retaining the original color for the magnet. I hope to provide an improved visual effects in terms of toning.

Thank you note:
+ I chose the photo that was taken at the departure hall (we were really leaving the country though) – signifying that we have gracefully ‘depart’ from our bachelor status.
+ To maintain consistency, I use similar fonts and effect for the text
+ The photo was highlighted on the kissing scene (hah!), I don’t know, generally, people feel that it’s really sweet.
+ I dimmed down background just so that the thank you phrase can be highlighted without the noisy background.

I am definitely a story person, the wedding photographer we chose to engage heavily determines if the photos get to tell stories on their own.

I decided to create this mock up after many requests on photo magnets. You may have many other ideas on how to decorate and present your wedding photos and make them into wedding favors. Just drop me an email and we can explore the possibilities.

Wedding book printed with Blurb arrived!

My wedding book arrived earlier than I expected! I am definitely loving it!

Using imagewrap style, so it’s wrapped around.. sweet! I chose the wedding day footage for the front cover. This is one of my favorite! I don’t know why, but this photo seems to have many stories to tell, evoking imagination.

At the back cover, I merely included the vows (extracted from the marriage certificate cover). Simple is nice. 

Our wedding was pretty much a cartoony theme. This image (copyright to me) was used on our wedding invites; wedding favors; and direction signboard etc. I thought it would be nice to print this on the title page as an opening.

Inside the book: I have a full page of my parents and I; while the other page is divided into 2 images page.

Inside the book: The pages are arranged in such a way that it all started from getting ready; to the groom’s place; to venue; to airport. 

These were taken in Mike’s place. On the right, would be Joycez, Mike’s sister, who is also my buddy! Well, I have to give her a full page feature, so that she wouldn’t nag at me when she next sees me (I have gone MIA for a loooooooong time, I’ve been really busy) 

The opposite page shows a highlight of us paying our respects to the ancestors; while the smaller images on the side are photos in relevance to the highlight, but mainly to enhance the highlight photo.

Inside the book: I like the irregular mosaic layout. It gives the versatility to highlight one or two photos, while the rest gives a really nice touch to the entire layout.

On the right, would be standard mosaic layout which I super cropped the images. It’s really simple to do with Blurb application software. You know how some of the photos would show just the backs of the groom or bride, when the friends reached the venue etc. I decided that I had enough of our ‘backs’ and just zoom in the photo, just so that the faces of friends are more visible and cropped out the other stuffs.

For the left of the page, I wanted to show some ‘emotions’ here; perhaps anxiety? (top left, where Mike was playing with his finger) perhaps anticipation? (top bottom, where I was looking out) Both photos were candid takes. Nice work, Wayne.

On the left, I blow up the photo, which I took with my baby niece, Mindy. This, is really to please my parents. Mindy is their favorite pet!

This would be the page of love. We said our ‘I Dos’; and when rings were exchanged. The process was of course sealed with a kiss. 

I tried to layout the pages in such a way that, if I have a full bleed page (left) I would like to have a gapped page on the opposite page, so that the pages wouldn’t appear too cluttered. 

Oh, the page on the left, I actually cropped away our solemnizer. LOL.. Seriously, we didn’t have many photos with just the 2 of us, we were really busy entertaining our own friends, so we were always apart. 

Sure, Wayne followed me most of the time, (who wants to see the groom as much as they want to see the bride!) Don’t you just love the layout options? 

Our last page… We had our footage taken at the airport, not just for the sake of it you know. We really did had a flight to catch right after the photography session!

I am a half day gal, friends who know me, know this too. I can’t manage a full day event, so we had long planned the festivity to end latest by 3pm, and we took off to the airport. My parents and relatives were more than pleased to stick around at the venue, and helped with tying the loose ends. My mum is the greatest!!! 

It was really fun though, that day, was MY DAY, for once, I felt most special and didn’t feel a bit of shyness crept up to me while we walked around the airport while eyes were all over us. We were enjoying the moment completely! 

Wedding is most fun and enjoyable when we are able to do it the way we want. Do we really think that the guests who may wag their nasty tongues over the petty things such as dessert, chairs, location etc, would really remember this day for their lives? 

IMO, this day belongs to us, and will always be. It is important that we get to do it the way we have always wanted, Mike and I gets to grow old together to reminisce the good old moments. I couldn’t bring myself to thinking that we may end up complaining and regretting what we ‘could’ have done on our wedding. 

I sure hope all parents get to understand this though. I didn’t had it all that easy too, but I am very fortunate to have a crazy sister who happens to understands me very well. hahahaha. It’s easier when there is a ‘bridge of communication’ at home, so that my mum gets to hear another voice apart from mine which she had set to ‘filter off’. 

Going through the pages of my wedding book, brings back the desire of getting married all over again.. hahaha. We had so much fun, we never had enough of it. 

The book turns out so well, I am ready to print my annual travel book with blurb now. I may want to print my product catalogue too, after all, it’s so affordable to print, and the shipping is lightning fast!

Wedding book in print…

I have probably talked about this for ages! When I first bumped into Blurb website, it was newly launched. I had set my mind into using their printing service for my wedding book, in bookstore quality, how cool!

Back then, they were not shipping to Singapore yet, and I had sought for my friend’s help in advance, she is from USA, so I could arrange to have the book printed and shipped to her, and she will send it to me. 

I took ages to get this done, because I had been kept busy with work, and with the incident of PC crash wasn’t helpful either. 

Everything happened for a reason, and I am glad it’s a good one. In the hindsight, blurb has been growing rapid into a really fine class of their services; and taken the printing industry by storm! They now ship to many countries and the software is constantly upgrading with more features! 

I am ordering the book in imagewrap style. I never really like the dustcover, it’s just a personal preference, really. I am printing a smaller book, 10″ x 8″ landscape layout, I don’t want something too bulky. 

It’s a breeze to use the software, a no-brainer one, yet so sophisticated. There are tons of layouts, backgrounds, ornaments, borders etc to choose from, to assist user to design a professional looking book. 

I want to include many details in my wedding book, which in time time to come, helps me with remembering the small little things that happened on that special day. 

If I were to print with the standard studio, I would probably have to let some pictures go, due to pages constraint, layout restrictions, or price consideration. I need to have the small little nothings in my book, so this is probably the best option for me. 

Some silly takes using my cell phone camera while waiting for the photographer. These images are precious!

Being able to do my own layout, I can arrange the pictures anyway I like. It’s like being able to let the photos express a story on its own, and in my own. 

It doesn’t matter so much if they may turn out to be amateurish, it’s my wedding story I am telling here, and it feels great to be able to tell that story in my own way. I have nothing against professional photographers’ layout and presentation, but, being a terribly expressive person, I have my needs to meet, and my wedding is about Mike and I, I want to be able to keep a story that is uniquely mine, through my eyes.

I played around with various layout, I get to highlight what is important to me, and layout other photos in small mosaic layout. Oh well, to be honest, our immediate family members get the privilege to take a larger space, while other friends and relatives (especially the tea ceremony and group photos) take a smaller space..heee.. Yet, with blurb, I am able to include all the photos if I want to, it’s so affordable to print, I can print several copies to give out to our parents and relatives. 

For some special moments, I feature them in a full page bleed or just one image page format. Pretty nice. 

Apart from blurb, I love my photographer, Wayne too. He managed to capture the candidly strange expressions of me. Well, they may not be the most pretty pose, but they are priceless, for sure. Each has a story to tell you know. Like the one on the top left, Mike’s colleagues and boss was telling me something, and really, my mind was reaching out for the food! 

I don’t even have to crack my brain on which photo to ‘kill’, I just put them all in! I don’t really have to choose the best pictures, to me, they are all precious. 

Lastly, Mike asked why our plush pet, meow meow wasn’t in the book. Oh well, she is a very important creature in our home, you just have no idea. I bring her to our travel trips you know. Meow meow is a gift from Mike during our holiday in Genting. It was our first anniversary together. I gave her a full page feature, and on the left, is the copyright page. I use a photo of us taken when we were dating. 

I am so excited about the book. It will take about 2 weeks to arrive. Meanwhile, I am obsessed with it already, I am doing a travel books for the trips we had taken. It would be wonderful to be able to print our trips into book. 

I will give my 2-cents worth when the book finally arrive eh. I don’t know, I have a feeling I am going to love it.