Photo booths vs Polaroids

I mentioned before that Whitney and I went to a bridal show a few weekends ago. The photos above are souvenirs from the day, the show had two photo booths and they were allowing people to try them out in hopes of booking weddings...for a hefty price of course. These photo booths are available for a rental fee of $1000-$1500. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fun activity for the guests and a great way to get photos of all your guests but that's a big hunk of money. I believe using Polaroid instant cameras is a great alternative.

It can be even more fun and personal for your guests if you throw in fun props such as hats, glasses, and mustaches:

Or hang up some patterned fabric as a backdrop that matched your wedding colors.

This wedding had a school theme so a blackboard was used for the background at the Polaroid station. Guests could write messages for the bride and groom and a photo album was set out to house the instant photos.So here's the breakdown; you can purchase an instant Polaroid camera off Ebay for $5-$15. As for film, $200 will buy you enough for 100 shots and considering people usually pose in groups that'll give a guest list of 100 at least two times in front of the camera. Throw in miscellaneous props and a photo album and you still have savings of at least $700!!!

Here's a link to a wedding with some horribly fun photos from their own DIY photo booth.

Tea leaves, sushi and green tea ice cream

Thank the Lord for friends coming over to help assemble our Save the Date cards.I designed postcards and magnets to be uploaded to vistaprint.com where I also ordered a return address stamp all for $40. I found leaf stamps at Mejier on clearance for $2 and purchased a green ink stamp pad (the color was called "Tea Leaves") from JoAnns using a gift card I received at Christmas from Josh's cousin.

Sarah attached the magnets to each postcard, Aja and Kayla did all the stamping, and Whitney hand-addressed all the envelopes.I'm surprised we didnt get Carpal Tunnel syndrome from all the assembling, especially since took a break to make homemade sushi and crab rangoons...yumm! We finished off the day by watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding and treating ourselves to green tea ice cream. Good work ladies!(Maid of Honor-Sarah, bridesmaid-Whitney, crafty lady-Kayla, photographer-Aja)

Dont step on my blue suede shoes!

I had a wonderful weekend with Whitney. On Sunday we attended a Bridal Show at the Kellogg Center, went shoe shopping and saw Bride Wars. The movie was cute, the bridal show had lots of great cake samples (too much probably, Whitney and I overdid it) and shoe shopping was hugely successful-Whitney bought shoes for the wedding! We found an adorable pair of blue patent leather flats and it got me thinking that I need to find some show options for myself and the other bridesmaids.

So here they are:
Payless ShoeSource
Payless ShoeSource
Amazon.com
Zappos.com

The two pictured above I am considering for myself. I love wearing heels since Josh is 6'2" but heels will sink into the earth so I will happily wear wedges. For my bridesmaids I'm asking them to wear either wedges or flats like the one pictured below from Amazon.com (all guests - please avoid heels as well)