Our Wedding Invitations

I have been meaning to write this post for months, but just did not have time.  So I am making time tonight! 

Justin and I have been having so much fun planning our wedding.  Once we decided on our location, the theme of our wedding came together easily We decided we wanted to try and recreate the look and feel of vintage or retro travel.  Think the glamour days of air hostesses. 

We started our adventure with a retro travel postcard save-the-date (that we actually mailed from Hawaii with the help of our wedding coordinator). 

As a follow on, when it came time to create our wedding invitation, we expanded upon the travel idea by creating a travel brochure from our very own travel company… none other than The Detmar Travel Company. 

Here was our inspiration…

Working with iStock Photo, Adobe Illustrator, the friendly staff of Kinkos, and countless scrapbooking tools we created this…

The front cover has graphics from iStock photo, it reads:

“Hawaii… Island of Enchantment

See Hawaii

The Detmar Travel Co.

From Los Angeles to Honolulu Direct”

Inside the cover we listed the “Top 10 Sights” of Maui from everything to Ziplining to of Our Wedding  

The inside pocket included a quick message from The Detmar Travel Co. (A.K.A. Justin and I) inviting our guests to paradise and our wedding. 

The back of the invitation has a reference to our San Diego reception, so what better way to do that then to have The Detmar Travel Co.  do an advertisement to for our sunny city. 

Of course, every vintage travel company always mailed the boarding passes to their passengers… so of course we had to do the same.  Every wedding guest received their very own Detmar Airlines boarding pass.

We got creative with the sections of the boarding pass by using the “check in by” box for our RSVP deadline, “boarding time” is our ceremony time, and you can’t forget the “after flight entertainment” which is our reception   We even added a few more “boarding pass” items on the back of the pass to add to the authentic feel of the pass.  We tied Detmar Airlines to The Detmar Travel Co. by putting the following in really small print at the bottom on the back of the pass “Detmar Airlines is a subsidiary company of The Detmar Travel Company.”

To top it all off, we ordered retro airmail envelopes on Amazon and put the return address from The Detmar Travel Co.  Even my sister and Aunt mistook our invitation as either “junk mail” or an advertisement from a travel company…  I guess we got the authentic part down, thank goodness they didn’t throw it out!  

We are very happy with the final product and have received many compliments on our invitation.  Many people thought that we had them designed and professionally made.  Let me attest to the many hours of scoring the internet for ideas and designing them in adobe, three (yes three!) trips to kinkos for reprinting, and even more hours cutting, taping, and folding, that Justin and I definitely made these ourselves!  But hey, thanks for the compliment!  Authentic, not cheesy, was what we were going for, so mission accomplished!

Disneyland at Midnight

It’s no surprise, I love Disneyland.  I discovered this website, the viddler, that posts small video clips about behind the scenes at the park.  It is very cool.  Take a look at what happens when the doors close on the magical place. 

Disneyland Overnight

Time Perspective… How do you perceive time?

Justin found this video on BoingBoing.  I just loved it so much I had to share it with you all.  It is a wonderfully animated video from Professor Philip Zimbardo, a professor at Stanford Prison Experiment.  The video and lecture illustrates how our individual perspective of time can affect our work, health, and well-being.  It can also influence who we are as a person, our relationships and how we interact with the world.  

The old saying, “time is money” could be getting us in trouble.  You’ll be happy to know, Justin and I absolutely value the lazy Sundays and other days of quality time we get to spend with each other and those we love :) 

A lovely day for a picnic!

Summer is here and the sun is shinning!  How beautiful it was this weekend!  Justin and I had a great time at Andy and Amelia's wedding this weekend (Congrats you two!).  As we were sitting in the beautiful setting of the Prado at Balboa Park, it reminded, we’ve got to get on it for our own San Diego Celebration! 

Here is just a preview of ideas for what we are thinking.

Inspiration:  A fun date with friends and family at the local park :)

 

(Photo Credits)

Doesn’t this look fun!  I think the pies are my favorite :)  I love pie :)

(Photo Credits)

So here are the two contenders for our picnic celebration.

Coronado Tidelands Park

And then we found NTC park behind Liberty Station in Point Loma (our backyard). 

We are still looking for a park that might have electrical hook ups so we don't have to rent the AV equipment.  If you know of any nice parks with this, let us know!  We would love to check it out! :)

Justin and I hope to have this squared away soon.  As soon as we do, you will be hearing from us!  Be sure to check your email! ;)

Save-the-Date!

They’re here!  Finally here!  Yay!  You should have received your Save-the-Date from Justin and I this past weekend and we are so excited!  Justin and I worked very hard on them and could not be happier with the result :D  A huge shout out of thanks goes to the great friends of Justin at work: Brad (for his uber awesome illustrator skills), and everyone else for their valuable input.  Here are a little details about the save the date for those interested ;)

Inspiration:  Vintage postcards and travel posters

             

Tools used:  Adobe Illustrator and iStockPhoto

Some images that provided added inspiration but didn’t make the cut….

Overall goal of the final product:  Look and feel of a vintage postcard sent from Hawaii from us (Justin and Laura).  We did everything ourselves and created a completely custom postcard just for you! 

      

I would have to say mission accomplished!

Here are some special details that we included just for you, the ones we love :)