£24,000 Wedding

Every year Northern Ireland's Wedding Journal magazine has a competition to win a dream wedding - this year it is worth £24,000. Automatically I assume that a big fairytale story will win that is full of woe and love conquering all. Obviously Mr Marshall and I can't compete with that because we are just a normal couple but have decided to enter anyway and take the approach of letting them know we are just a normal couple but deserve to win just as much as the next couple.

I didn't think Mr Marshall would go for it at all but he says you have to be in it to win it and so our entry will be submitted over the next few days when I am sure that I have edited it to death! Entries close on 12 September 2009 so watch this space.

Shades of Summer

Something exciting arrived yesterday... This year I signed up to take part in the European leg of Shades of Summer 2009. Elizabeth Kartchner orchestrated the US version last summer and it was extended this year to Europe by Kristen Reinhard. Basically the shades (sunglasses to us Irish folk!) are passed around Europe to everyone who signed up, you take a photo of yourself in the shades and include it in the pack, then post it off to the next person.

I happened to be heading to the seaside at Kilkeel yesterday so took my sun specs along and had a little mini photoshoot right on the beach! They were too big for me and kept falling off but this is one of my faves.

Next stop for the shades is Finland.

Colour me pretty

I have been toying with colour schemes for the wedding for ages and searching through inspiration boards and lots have caught my eye but I just cant seem to make anything even resembling a decision yet.

I seen this today on decor8 from a creative mint and love, love, love it. I have been reluctant to choose pink because it is so popular and, well, weddingy, plus my chief bridesmaid hates pink. But it is pink that keeps on calling me...

Silhouettes

Ok, Ok! So I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with the class but seriously, it takes time and I'm much too busy devoting time to wedding research these days! The best thing I have learnt so far though is how to create my own brushes. This may just be revolutionary in the whole stationery designing thing. I have created brushes of our silhouettes which we both love and these will def be on our stationery and be a running theme. Check them out -

I've been scanning and creating brushes for all sorts of different things and have a few drafts of invitations so far. I'm enjoying this so much and loving my Photoshop Elements - best buy of the year. (Apart from the ring, though John bought it!)

My ring has now been resized and fits perfectly so I'm getting used to having it on all the time and knowing that its safe on my finger.

There are some wedding websites that I love to keep an eye on and there are some really inspirational ideas on, namely Style Me Pretty, Snippet and Ink, Southern Weddings Mag. I wish there were some good Northern Ireland sites though to see local venues and ideas.

Think I might go buy some more wedding magazines today.

catch wedding cinematography

I have made our first enquiry! I've been dying to make enquiries before but wasn't engaged then so knew it would look more than just a bit weird of me to get quotes when there was no wedding!
This was for catch wedding cinematography in Portadown. I have always hated the idea of videos at weddings because everyone clams up when they are around, looking really awkward and hating their voice when they hear it back but... now that I am planning my own wedding I have come across catch and am thinking I need them! And more importantly I may just be able to convince Mr Marshall that he needs them too. Their online samples are beautiful and look really non-intrusive. I have fallen hook, line and sinker (one even brought a tear to my eye but I didn't tell you that). But... after looking at the brochure I know I have sorely underestimated how much one of these babies would cost us and we may have to try to bargain a smaller package.
I still feel a bit dumb after making enquiries because we don't actually have a date/venue booked yet but at least I have a ring now.

Brush Abilities, Lesson 1

So, given the plan is that I'll design our wedding stationery I thought it might be useful to use this time in limbo to pick up some Photoshop skills and I signed up for Jessica Sprague's Brush Abilities class. I recently took her freebie Frame-Ups and Special Effects class and loved it so jumped at the chance to take another one. Of course, after following the lesson, I had to have another go myself with some changes... as you do. I'm toying with this colour scheme at the moment so thought it might be fun to try it out.




I'm already a day behind though and will miss a few days while I'm away in Disneyland Paris so must make a special effort not to get left behind. Lesson 2's effort coming up!