Video

We’re almost done!  We finally submitted all of our info today so our videographers can get started.  I stayed up until 4 in the morning finishing up yet another Skippee folder.  Now it is all out of my hands~ no more worrying about video.

Except…there is this one song I’ve been searching for.  I’d be soo happy and thankful if someone out there knew what it was.     

Click here >> Screening Room >> Sweet 16mm >> song at the beginning of the clip

Pink Puppy & Off the Leash

On our way to Rome we sat next to Kitten Sera & Miss Kisses.  They are on Lifetime’s “Off the Leash“ which is a reality show about a pet talent agency called Le Paws.



Le Paws

One day Andy & I were at the dog park with Bella and we were approached by a scout for Le Paws.  They wanted to interview Bella.  We went just for fun…

Here’s a clip of part of the interview:
 

Bella actually did pretty well so they contacted us again to say that they’d like to represent her!  Funny, huh?  We’re still thinking about it because it would mean getting professional training and we’re not sure if we have time for that right now.

Sky Bark

Have you ever wanted to take your dog to a bar?  We actually have a place like that in LA (and more locations have opened up nationwide).  Sky Bark is a dog friendly bar!  They host great events that benefit animal rescues.  I really want to go!  Maybe my next project will be hosting a fundraising party there for Xanga buddies & their dogs & just people in general who love dogs. 



 

Bella’s Birthday!

It was Bella’s birthday recently so I wanted to share just how big our little fluffmeister has gotten.

 

Bella had a crazy birthday weekend.  My mom & I took her out to dinner and Pinkberry.  The next day I had Teresa & Katherine over for a slumber party.  We went out to dinner and came back to discover Bella had gone through Teresa’s bag and chewed up her lemon soap!  Later we found that she ate 2 pieces of cake Katherine had bought earlier that night.  Then the little pooch snooped through my purse and took a piece of gum out of the package, unwrapped it and chewed it up.  Can you believe it?  Usually she is such a good girl…maybe she knew it was her birthday weekend? 

 

Leaving Soon

We’re leaving in just a few more days to Koh Samui & HK!  I’m so excited!  I really want to take nice photos while I’m out there.  I have a Canon Rebel XT.  Can anyone recommend a good lens I could buy for taking travel photos?  I’m a beginner but LOVE taking photos.  Thanks!      

*EDIT* – my , Gina just sent me this…soo funny!  She doesn’t do Xanga so she always sends me comments via e-mail. 

Hi again!  This will be boring but necessary to answer all your qs!  I’ve received a ton of questions about our invitations and shrink wrapping process.  Here are the most frequently asked questions. 

Q:  Where did you get the boxes? 
A:  Paper Source, A7 Box Mailer ($2.00-$2.25 per box - click me!)

Q:  How much was postage?
A:  $1.35 in July 2006 (prices have increased so you should go take a sample box to the post office & it’ll also depend on what you put in the box)

Q:  Which stamps did you use?  Where did you put the stamps?
A:  It was easy~ we just went to one of those automated machines at the post office and printed out $1.35 stamps.  We didn’t care if they were pretty or not because it went on the outside of the shrink wrap. 

Q:  Can you give me directions on how to shrink wrap something?
A: 

1 – First step is to determine the size of shrink wrap you need.  The shrink film bags come in 2 dimensions, width x length.  Depending on your package size, you’ll need a width x length shrink film bag larger than your package by a certain number of inches.  For example, if your box is 4 x 6 x 0.5, then you’ll probably need at least a 6 x 8.5 or even 6 x 11.  If the bag is too long on one side, you can always trim it off but if the bag’s too small you’re out of luck.  If you have about half inch of excess bag sticking out each side, you should be good (not counting the open end).  We got our bags off Uline (great site).  If you live near their warehouse, you can actually visit and ask for samples of different bags to see what fits plus you don’t have to pay for shipping.

2 – Once you have the bags figured out, you’ll have to buy or borrow a sealer and a heat gun.  Uline used to sell these individually, but it looks like they’re selling it in a set now (click me!)…you don’t really need the film dispenser.

3 – Now that you have all the materials to start your shrink wrap project…here’s the easy part.  Place the item you intend to wrap into the shrink wrap bag.  It’s okay if there is room between the end of the bag and the end of your box…in fact, you’ll want some room for the bag to shrink.

4 – Once the item is set in the end of the bag, you’ll need to seal the open end.  Here’s where you plug in your sealer (directions may vary depending on the sealer you get).  Basically, you set the open end of the bag between the bottom base and the clamp of the sealer.  Leave about 1/2 to 1 inch of space between the apex point on the base of the sealer (that’s where the seal will form) and the end of the item in the bag.  Once the bag is in place, push down on the top clamp of the sealer and hold until either the light goes off or after 2 or 3 seconds (depending on the bag thickness).  It will vary but after you try a few you’ll get the hang of it.

5 – Depending on the sealer that you get, some will have a cutter to trim off the excess portion of the bag on the other side of the now sealed open end.  Or if your sealer isn’t that fancy, you can trim off the excess with either a paper cutter or good ol’ scissors.

6 – You should now have a fully sealed item inside the shrink film bag.  Here’s where you bust out the heat gun.  Usually, they need to warm up a bit…so plug it in and let it blow for until the heat is hot.  Be careful, because it can get really hot!  I shrunk all our invites on top of one of those trays I pulled out of our oven and used oven mitts to handle the tray if I had to move it around.

7 – The strategy for a nicely sealed and shrunk bag is an even and symmetric shrinking of the bag with your heat gun.  What I mean by this is…first start on the largest face and point the heat gun at the center of the item.  Keep the gun about 4 to 5 inches away and the heat will get to the bag eventually and shrink it.  As soon as the bag begins to shrink (it’ll be pretty fast)…shrink it until the plastic over the center of the face of the item that you’ve pointed at looks pretty much flat.  At that point, the edges will still be loose but don’t worry, we’ll clean that up later.  Once that face is partially shrunk, flip the item over and do the same to the other side so it has a symmetric shrink on the other side.  Flip the box back over and widen out that center circle a bit more, so it’s close to the edges, then flip and do the same until all you have left to shrink are the edges.

What we’re trying to do is to have the folded edges of the bag, once it’s shrunk end up in the middle of the side that they’re on.  You don’t want those edges sneaking over to the large flat side of the item and have them all uneven across the side.

8 – Once you reach the edges, you can just point and shrink away.  Careful here that you don’t point and shrink too long though, as sometimes you’ll melt right through the shrink wrap and it’s back to square one.  For any trouble areas or wrinkles, you can usually just repoint the gun at it a little longer and it will usually shrink down.  If it still does not shrink down, then you might have gotten a bag that’s too big and it had too much room to shrink.

I know, I know…this is super boring!  I don’t know how else to explain it though.  For those that asked…you’re getting what you asked for~ hehehehe! 

Q:  What size shrink bags did you use?
A:  6 x 8.5 from Uline.  It was like $20 for 500 bags!  The bags I got weren’t self-sealing but Uline might now offer some that are.

Q:  How did you decide to do shrink wrapping?
A:  I’m really happy to share because it took us soo long to figure this out ourselves.  All we started with was an idea that we wanted to send out these boxed invites but we didn’t want them to get dirty in the mail or put a bunch of stamps on them.  We spent an entire week going to so many different Office Depots, Staples, post offices, Party City’s, mailbox stores, etc.  We thought of mailing the box in another envelope, bubble mailers, ziploc bags, etc.  Nothing seemed like it would work.  Then a kind stranger who overheard our conversation told us about shrink wrapping. 

Anyways~ good luck!  I hope this answers all your questions! 

Hi~!  First of all, thanks soo much for all your super sweet comments/messages/e-mails!  I’m so happy I get to share all these wedding details with you.  Finally~ my wedding folders got some love…hehehehe!  Anyways, so I’ve been trying to respond to everyone’s questions and realized that many of them were the same.  I thought I’d share info on the most commonly asked about items in case anyone else is interested.    Oh~ and to my subscribers who don’t give a hoot about wedding stuff…sorry~!

THE FOLDERS


I started off early on by subscribing to and buying  every single wedding I could get my hands on!  Martha Stewart, InStyle, Real Weddings, Los Angeles Weddings, Grace Ormonde, Brides, Bridal Guide, Modern Bride, etc.  Then I just started tearing out ideas and saving photos from the web - anything that sparked my interest.  This helped me sort out just the articles and photos I really liked minus the 10,000 ads.  I got a bunch of 3 ring binders and a ton of page protectors. 

 

Categories:
- Wedding Advice I (general advice)
- Wedding Advice II (health, budget, marriage)
- Wedding Attire (wedding gown, tux, bridesmaids, momma bear)
- Extras (accessories, makeup, hair)
- Reception I (general, favors, invites, music)
- Reception II (color schemes, cake, flowers, attendant gifts, websites, DJ/bank, misc.)
- Photography (picture poses/must takes, photography, videography)
- Honeymoon (articles, destinations)
- Checklists & Registries

THE SKETCHBOOK


When I started my vendor visits I realized that I needed to put all my ideas into one place.  I met my buddy Katherine one day and she had the neatest sketchbook filled with ideas.  The very next day I went over to the art store and got myself a sketchbook.  I filled the book with ribbon samples, decor photos, inspiration photos, “don’ts”, bridesmaid dress ideas, a photo of my gown, weddings I liked, and cool ideas.  The vendors loved it because they got to see exactly what I was looking for and what I wasn’t.  You don’t need to have an exact idea of what you want…just show them photos you love, things that inspire you, anything!  I think it’s also important to show them exactly what you don’t want.  I even included a photo of these random pillows I saw at Target…the colors were so pretty (pink & brown) that it inspired me to choose that color combo.  This stage of wedding organizing really helped me define and determine the theme and vision I had for the wedding.  Try it~ it really does help to get all your favorite ideas in one place. 





HAIR & MAKEUP FOLDER


After a bad hair & makeup trial I realized I needed to be able to really show a hair & makeup person what I was looking for.

Pages:
(1)  Recent photos of me
(2-3)  Photos I like from the past few years
(4-7)  My gown (with various photos of different veils & sashes)
(8-9)  Gorgeous people
(10-11)  Wedding hair & makeup
(12)  Wedding hair – other hair ideas
(13)  Wedding hair – bangs
(14-15)  Hair Don’ts
(16)  Make-up Don’ts
(17-18)  Me as a “don’t” – professional hair & makeup before & after (these photos were from my bad trial)
(19-20)  Engagement hair
(21-22)  Engagement hair – bangs
(23-25)  Hair & makeup trial
(26)  Photos comparing different trials
 




MAGAZINES & BOOKS!

I went through countless magazines trying to pull out the ideas I liked best.  After my wedding I ended up giving a few boxes worth of magazines to my friend.  I’ve been getting tons of new ones these days.  I felt too bad throwing out these brand new mags (~15) and thought maybe it would be helpful to someone.  They’re all very recent editions (Bridal Guide, Modern Bride, Brides).  I have tons of Martha Stewarts, InStyles & Real Weddings left but I still want to look through those!  Maybe one day I’ll be able to part with them.  Anyways, I also have a couple useful books - Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World, On Site Weddings (guide to So Cal vendors) and Here Comes the Guide (So Cal).  



First person to comment gets them if – they can pick them up in West LA/Century City (preferably before the weekend).  We’re having lots of guests over starting Thursday so I’d love to pass these along.  If no one wants them then I’ll just donate them!