Shadow Boxes: A Little Snapshot of Our Wedding

A long, long time ago, I put "make wedding shadow boxes" on my post-wedding to do list.

Well, better late than never I guess, because I finally got around to it!

Earlier this summer I had purchased some cheap shadow box frames, which I had a location for on a specific wall, but nothing to put in them. It was the perfect opportunity to find some mementos from our wedding that I had stashed away last year.

So I dug through my old boxes of wedding stuff, and printed out some photos to make a collage for the shadow boxes. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my husband's dried boutineer, but I'm sure it will turn up eventually. I distinctly remember hiding it in some kind of little box or something, somewhere "safe" where it wouldn't get damaged in our cross country move, but I guess it was such a good hiding place that now I can't remember where I put it!

Want to see the finished (but not yet hung) shadow boxes? :)

(Tip: After you figure out how you want to display your shadow box items, take a photo of the layout before you glue/tape everything into place. It makes a good reference, and is a lot easier than trying to remember the exact layout you liked after picking things up to apply the glue and tape.)

And how about some close ups?

Below shows one of my "something old" items, a little bear I gave my grandma when I was 3 years old, that she carried around with her in her purse for 20 years, until my grandpa gave it back to me after she passed away. Also, one of my Cola rehearsal bouquet flowers, as a nod to my time writing here. And in the far bottom right, some fabric from the napkin rings I made.

A close up of our laser-cut invitations. So much work, with all the cutting, folding (I even hand made the pocketfolds!), and gluing, but I'm still so proud of them.

I had to include a photo of our six foot tall cupcake tower that my husband and I built together, since that was another one of my favorite wedding projects. And also one of the rocks from our "wishing stone" guestbook, signed by my parents. My mom even drew a little flower on it, just like from our invitations.

And now for a closer look at the second shadow box.

Our programs, and a few leftover flowers that I had after I turned the cuffs from my DIY wedding shoes into a clutch.

One of the magnets from our save the dates, and of course, a photo of our first kiss as husband and wife!

And finally, the belly band from our invitations, and our LED luminary escort cards, another favorite wedding project of mine (partly because my husband did most of the work, haha!)

It's just too bad I can't leave the batteries turned on all the time, to glow like they did at our wedding.

(Above photo, and photos used in the shadow boxes by Shoot Me Now Photography)

I can't wait to get some Command picture hanging hooks so I can put these little snapshots of our wedding up in our hallway. Can you believe that these will be the first wedding photos we'll have put up on our walls, over a year later!

Will you be saving any mementos from your wedding, to showcase them later? And how long did it take you after getting married to hang or display your wedding photos?

More Photoshop Love: Wedding Photo Edits

I’m betting a lot of brides have looked at their wedding photos, and wished that something had been different in a few shots. Maybe a person was missing, or something was just off a bit. But in this day and age, where our photographers can manipulate just about anything with Photoshop, some of these “photo regrets” can be fixed. Mrs. Nachos even did a great tutorial on how she edited out the people in the background of her trash the dress photos, here.

Now, you may say that this isn’t right, it’s not showcasing your wedding day accurately if changes are made with Photoshop. Which is true (although I think the same could technically be said for standard edits, like adjusting the lighting). But I still thought it would be fun to have a try at manipulating some of our photos (don’t worry, we have full rights) while I watched trashy TV reruns.

Most of these likely won’t make it into our album, but I’m kind of glad I did them anyway! I think this exercise has helped a little with coming to terms with some of the things missing from our photos, like not having a photo of Mr. Cola with my immediate family. It was a bit therapeutic to be able to fix on my computer what I couldn’t fix in real life!

Additionally, I’m sort of picky person, so being able to tweak small things in photos that only I notice has been great. It’s one of the main reasons I wanted us to book a photographer who would give us the rights to our photos. And who knows, your photographer might even be fixing these little nit-picky things without you ever knowing it! Plus, I know lots of photogs do offer additional touch up services, if you too are bothered by little things out of place.

Take for example, I was hot and thirsty after our ceremony, but had to take family pictures right away. In this picture with my sister, my lipstick is starting to come off.

But with a little editing, I've put my lipstick back on.

There was also a stray strand of my bangs blowing up in the breeze in this photo that was bugging me.

But with a couple minutes in Photoshop, poof, it's gone!

Or there were the signs in the hall behind me in this photo that were detracting from the photograph, so away they went.

Even just cropping can do wonders to a photograph! Our first kiss was an important moment for us, but I wanted something a little closer, without our second photographer's hand and the portable speaker in the picture.

With some cropping and editing out the speaker, we now have this great photo.

I was also bothered by the writing on our photographer's bag that I was laying on in this photo. It was just distracting next to my shoulder, and you know how it is when you notice something out of place, and then that's all you can concentrate on when you see the photo!

But with a couple of clicks of the healing brush, it was gone.

So, those were some examples of quick fixes to nit-picky photo regrets. But what about if there was a small detail you wished you'd had, but didn't?

One of the details we didn't end up having was Mr. Cola wearing adorable argyle socks. I'm so in love with the photos of guys with their socks all over the blogs, but we compromised, and he agreed to do some of the equally adorable jumping photos with his groomsmen instead.

But with some editing work, I can still dream about this 'what if' of argyle socks....

I know, I know, that's pretty dang silly!

And I didn't even do a very good job of adding the socks, because I didn't want to spend too much time on a picture that I'll never actually use. But it's a good example of the possibilities with Photoshop that could be used on wedding photos these days.

The main thing I really wanted to try to tackle was something I mentioned at the beginning of this post, to try to get a photo of Mr. Cola with my immediate family, since we didn't take one on our wedding day. However, once you get past small touch ups and decor mock ups, my Photoshop skills are just not that strong.

I tried cutting Mr. Cola out of one picture, and sticking him into the photo with my parents, but the results were laughable. Then I remembered we did have a big group photo with all of my mom's family that I might be able to do something with.

So I cut us out of that photo, and attempted to insert us into another photo with a prettier background. Again, not good results. It looked just like what it was, an obviously a poor Photoshop job, and reminded me of that one Seinfeld episode where George tries to get taken out of his boss's beach picture, but ends up getting his boss added back in, in cartoon form.

{Love those rosy cheeks!}

See? Not cartoons, but obviously we don't belong in this picture, and I was too tired of messing with it to get it any better.

So my next attempt was just to use the big group photo we were already in, and modify the existing background to remove the other people in the original photo. This actually worked a lot better, although it's still nowhere near perfect.

What happened with my family picture, I found to be true for all photos where I tried to add something that wasn't there originally. It just didn't work very well, and I really don't have the skills to pull it off. Which is why I haven't attempted to add my SIL or my sister's long-time boyfriend to the pictures that they're missing from. It's just a lot easier to take objects or people out of photos than to add them.

Like in this photo from our rehearsal, it was quite easy to simply remove the distracting members of our wedding party, so I could have a cute picture with just my DOC and I.

(Two above photos are personal photos)

Anyway, there's a little look at some of the fun I've been having recently with Photoshop! I think it's really such a fun program, and there are so many possibilities for tweaking your wedding photos that it's worth a try if you have the time, photo rights and skills!

Are you a Photoshop fan? If so, do you plan on using it on any of your wedding photos if you find something amiss?

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by Shoot Me Now Photography, and edited by yours truly)

A Woodside Wedding: The One Where We Sneak Away Into The Night

The sun had long set.

We’d dined, danced, and enjoyed the evening, but it was over much too quickly.

At least for us it was.

Our guests, however, got to continue drinking and partying for another half hour. See, we didn’t actually do a send off. As much as I love the photos of guests waving flags, ribbon wands, or sparklers as the couple departs their wedding reception, we had a plan, and needed to stick to it.

Because we were having an after party in our hotel suite right after the reception, we needed to get a head start on our guests. So we snuck out of our reception a half hour before the charter bus was coming for everyone. We wanted the party to continue for everyone else, while we had time to change, get ice and set up everything for the after party.

But that didn’t mean we couldn’t still get a few cute departing photos!

Our DOC slyly gathered my bag, shoes and all the stuff we needed to take with us, and inconspicuously ushered us out the back of our venue and around to the front.

We hopped into the limo, the driver opened up the sunroof for us, and we were off!

It was about a half hour ride back to our hotel from our venue, and I must say, it was an amazing part of the night for both of us (I know, I know, I’ve said that about almost every part of our wedding!). We just cuddled in the back of the limo, and quietly recapped our wedding the whole way back to the hotel. Going over all the love we felt that night, how fun it was to see everyone, the highs (so many!) and the lows (so few), we just talked and reminisced, and it was wonderful. The drive felt like it was only a few minutes long, and we soaked up all the emotions from the day and just held on to them. It was a perfect end to our reception.

But that wasn’t the end of our night, we still had an after party to get ready for!

What are your plans for departing your wedding reception?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1 and part 2

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)

A Woodside Wedding: Details, Details, and More Pretty Details, Part 2

In my last post you saw part one of all our wedding day details (and if you missed it, go check out part one first). Now, here is the second half of one of my favorite posts I've put together, with lots of pretty picture overload!

Just like in part one, feel free to click on any of these for a larger view, and I’ve included the links to the original tutorial or inspiration posts at the bottom. Enjoy!

Photo 1: over 6 foot tall cupcake tower, Photo 2: our first dance, Photo 3: carving at our buffet dinner, Photo 4: choose your favor table, Photo 5: short DIY centerpiece and pre-ceremony refreshments, Photo 6: our rings with one of my something old items, Photo 7: DIY bride and groom chair signs, Photo 8: ceremony details, Photo 9: cocktail hour cheese table and bridesmaid purse bouquet, Photo 10: LED luminary escort cards, Photo 11: pictures in the park, Photo 12: signed stones from our memory stone guestbook, Photo 13: DIY programs, Photo 14: DIY laser cut wedding invitations and our first look, Photo 15: groomsmen suits, Photo 16: a stolen moment, Photo 17: our ceremony site waiting for guests to arrive, Photo 18: my bouquet and dress details, Photo 19: tall DIY centerpiece, LED lanterns, and DIY programs, Photo 20: our DIY bridal suite sign, Photo 21: bridesmaid purse bouquets at our ceremony, Photo 22: close up of centerpieces, Photo 23: my DIY shoes and more dress details, Photo 24: our venue at night

Another detail that I didn't have anything to do with, but I thought was really a great touch, was all thanks to our photographers. They provided a digital photo frame, which they placed on our guestbook table about halfway though our cocktail hour, loaded with all the (unedited) photos from earlier in the day. So our guests got a little peek at us getting ready, having our first look, and got to see our ceremony though our photog's eyes.

Our DOC snapped a few photos from the digital photo frame for us (although it's sort of funny that we didn't receive either of these photos in the final set from our photogs!):

(Hee hee, I was so excited about drinking my rum and COLA after our formal pictures, I didn't even know I was being photographed!)

Sadly, there were a few of my DIY details that we didn't receive pro photos of, but I thought I would give them a brief shout out here. Our bathroom baskets:

(personal photo)

Bathroom signs, to cover the ugly ones at the venue:

(personal photos)

And my framed signs for the buffet:

(personal photo)

Of course, there were a few other details I would have liked to see captured, but like I already said, I know it's not possible for photographers to be everywhere at once. And I love the photos we do have!

What are your favorite details from your wedding?

Miss any wedding week details? Catch up here:

- I packed an emergency bag that saved my dress
- We had a crazy 4 days prepping for house guests and stuffing favors
- Shopping for a ton of wedding flowers to arrange ourselves
- Mr. Cola drinks a 40 and I have a night out on the town for our low-key bach parties
- A day of DIY'ing flower arrangements
- I kicked off our official recaps with my #1 wedding tip
- We began the weekend festivities with a sunset cruise for our wedding party
- We rehearsed our quick and easy ceremony
- I panicked, but we got our rehearsal dinner decorations set up just in time
- Our families met for the first time at our rehearsal dinner under the trees
- What went wrong on our wedding day, and my tips for future brides
- My bridesmaids and I got our hair and makeup done in the hotel suite
- I put on my wedding dress and became a bride
- The guys watched the World Cup, then got ready in 10 minutes
- Traffic delayed our decorations getting to the venue, and I almost ruined our first look
- We got to see each other for the first time on our wedding day at our first look
- We took some time for bride and groom pictures in the park
- I gave you a behind the scenes look at our family, friends and DOC setting up our venue
- Arriving at our venue and getting ready for the ceremony to start
- Everyone walked down the aisle
- Excerpts from our ceremony, and reading the vows we wrote for each other
- I interrupted our officiant, we exchanged rings, and with a kiss we were officially married!
- Wedding party and family portraits, and my thoughts on missing pictures
- Our guests enjoyed cocktail hour while we took a few more photos
- Everyone ate a delicious dinner, and our siblings gave beautiful toasts
- We didn't practice, but we had a very special and wonderful first dance as husband and wife
- I showed you some disposable camera pictures, which were totally worth it to include on our tables!
- I found a target and tossed my bouquet at her
- Mr. Cola finally managed to find my garter under my dress and tossed it
- We fed each other cupcakes, and our guests swarmed our 6ft tall cupcake tower
- We stole some private moments together that our photographers documented
- All our guests had some fun taking pictures in our DIY fauxtobooth
- We enjoyed the rest of the evening with our guests
- I showcased all the pretty details from our wedding, part 1

(Unless otherwise noted, all photos in this post were taken by the very talented photographers of Shoot Me Now Photography)