Wedding Details: Website!

One of my favourite details to work on was our wedding website. I haven't done much web design at all in the last year, especially coding (at work we have a web guy for that...lol! He implements all my designs for me). Anyways, I really do love coding, especially the simple stuff (html and css) so I was excited to build our wedding website! I went cheap, because I'm dutch to the core, and hosted it under my own portfolio website (why buy a domain for a temporary website?!).

I had to do some "soul searching" to decide what to include on the site. In the end, I just had fun building it and found it a good way to share our engagement photos and our "love story." It also seemed like a good place to share last minute details in case the weather didn't turn out how we planned...but of course it was a lovely day!

My first draft of the site had "Wednesday, august 8 2011" on the top of it...um oops! I guess I was thinking more about html tags than the actual date of my wedding...lol! thanks to sisters for calling me out on it before I went live! 

Click on the photo to view the site:

Wedding Details - Bookmark Favours

Rather than spend money one a party favour that would be consumed in 3 minutes, forgotten on the table, or die in a cupboard (favour tree's anyone? I've killed a few...), we decided to  support the International Justice Mission in the name of our guests. I've seen this done before at weddings I've attended, and each time I've appreciated it a lot. Its a reminder to think beyond ourselves in the middle of all the blessings we have, which are so obvious at weddings! Our wedding verse was Philippians 2:1-4, which includes in part "...in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."

We both felt this was a good way to implement what we are committing to founding our marriage on - our faith, and the many ways Jesus calls us to live differently in this life.

I designed bookmarks with this information and put them at each place setting, so our guests still had something to take home. I think they turned out great :)

I printed them on a printer at work, so they were low-res but I keep getting told I'm the only one that can tell. lol!!

Sharalee got a few good photos of how we set them up, wrapped snuggly at each spot:

Wedding Details - Invitations

Finally! The wedding is over, I can breathe, and I can share with you my wedding invitations!

The invitation is a tri-fold accordian design based on the wedding design theme and some of our engagement photos. We got married outside on a farm, and had the reception in a barn, so I wanted the design to have a country feel to it. I didn't want to go all out "country western" though! The finished design was perfect, and I am so happy with how it expressed not only our wedding, but us as well.

Here is the finished piece:

and some more detailed studio shots without the ribbon and twine:

The design could have been done 2-colour on the press, but since I was only printing roughly 150, I printed them digitally at Globe Printers and took advantage of the four-colour process and added a full-colour photo and a creme tint in some of the light areas. Globe is awesome by the way, I work with them regularly at work and highly recommend them.

Hope you like them! As I've mentioned before, I really enjoyed designing the invites and look forward to working with brides in the future on wedding print pieces! Drop me a line if you're interested :)

CD sleeve designs

From time to time I get to design CD sleeves for single Chuck Swindoll sermon messages. Its different than your typical CD sleeve design...for one, its not music. Two, we package them in DVD cases so its not the typical size you'd expect. Lastly, as always, I am working within the design constraints and standards of our own and the US office and don't have as much creative freedom as when working with the Insights Magazine. 

But here are some of my favourite CD's I've designed in the past year! I haven't included any designs based mainly on stock photography (which most of them are unfortunately). But these are illustration-heavy, or my own photography! They are all amazing messages as well, but I think the last one is my favourite.

All are available for purchase at insightforliving.ca, or by clicking the photo.

 

(this photo was taken by me: those are my parents wedding clothes!)

D & L's Wedding Photos!!

The day has come! Our wonderful photographer, Sharalee Prang of Sharalee Prang Photography has finished editing our AMAZING wedding photos and posted them on her blog! Sharalee is fantastic... before the wedding, during the wedding, and after the wedding. The photos are better than I could have imagined, and I think they are going to bring me back to that day every time I look at them! She totally captured the excitement and the vibe of the day, which I think should be the purpose of wedding photos!! I am so grateful that wedding photography has evolved from the posed studio photos they used to be. And grateful beyond words to Sharalee for doing such an amazing job. I can't wait to get the photos and start creating our wedding album!

laura & dwayne: married:

 

laura & dwayne: the reception:  

 

Published Ad

Since its going to be a while before I get around to blogging about my wedding (which was everything I've ever dreamed of by the way!!) I thought I'd get back into blogging slowly with some photos of an Ad that was recently published. We submitted it over half a year ago and then I forgot all about it. Its nothing mind-blowing, but it did come out really nice! The only slightly weird part is that its a publication for funeral homes, full of ads of recipients worthy of donations and estates. We have a program called "Lifegifts" that allows those who support our ministry to name us in their Will.

Anticipation

You can't escape it on a day like today, and I know a few who are trying! No matter where you go, I have an inkling you'll be hearing the word: wedding. I can't really wrap my mind around why this particular wedding is so exciting to so many people, but for some reason even I am drawn in! I turned on the TV when I woke up, a teensy bit more than mildly curious what her dress would look like. And then I started seeing all those hats, and had to keep watching...and then those nutty crowds decked out in red, white, and blue...and all I can think about is, what does Kate think of her wedding? As a future bride, I'm seriously curious if her wedding is how she always imagined it. I wonder if she's honoured by all the fanfare, or a little bit disappointed that so many details had to be determined by tradition and ceremony. And that she has to share it all with so many people.

Anyways, all this talking and musing about weddings naturally has me thinking about my own! 3 months and 12 days people!!

And now...I've been contemplating whether or not to show these pictures for a few days. I have this thing where I want to keep all my wedding plans to myself...silly, but its just such a special day! Only happens once! (and i mean that) But I decided to show a few, because they just turned out SO AWESOME, and they don't give too much away. So here are some pics from my mom and I's visit to our wedding venue on tuesday, and around the area looking for good photo locations. (the sun came out and there were still storm clouds in the sky, it made for some gorgeous scenes.)

I also included one of my new car, looking super spiffy (it goes by the name of "Silver Surfer"), and one of my camera bag and my new car...because they just look so good together...I have a feeling the three of us will have some adventures. lol!!