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!

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 :) 

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! ;)

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 :)

But I think my favorite was seeing Justin and his competitive streak come out in full force when he was put in with a line of guys.  Their task?  Easy, whomever could chug their beer the fastest wins!… only one drawback, your “cup” was a baby bottle… too funny!

Well one night, I was all set to try the pre-heating idea for our crust but I got a little distracted while putting the toppings on and completely forgot to pop the crust in the oven first.  Justin being the problem solver that he is just said “no problem, we’ll just try the other method of transferring the pizza to the oven rack…”  Seemed like a great idea!

… not so much, I rolled the crust a little too thin and it couldn’t handle not having a pan underneath… But it definitely was funny seeing our final product.  For your amusement and viewing pleasure, here is our pizza creation we made that night… And for the record, the pizza was still very, very tasty!

Lady Gaga's "Telephone" remake

Black Eyed Pea's "Pump It" remake (this is a good one)

Soldiers dancing "Out in the Street"

“Roger, the eagle has landed, do you copy, the eagle has landed...”  

This is what Justin sounds like when he is practicing for his Paint Ball excursions….  Add to the rehearsed dialog some jumping and rolling around on the floor in our 742 sq. foot condo (in full costume I might add), and you have one very happy (weird) Justin. 

Yes, for those that didn’t know, Justin is a huge fan of Paint Ball.  It’s right up there with Call of Duty.  They are both similar in strategy and tactical edge so it would make sense once you make the connection between the two past times. 

For your viewing pleasure, I give you Justin, the soldier of Paint Ball War. 

Have fun this weekend honey, I love you.