A long weekend

A Wedding in Maryland

We have had quite a few weddings to attend this year. This one was probably the most unique wedding I had been to, mainly because of the people involved. One of my good friends from college fell in love with a British boy, and they have dated transcontinentally for the past 3 years, to finally get married this past weekend. I was honored to be asked to do a reading in the wedding ceremony, so I got to participate in all of the weekend festivities. It was such a blast meeting all of the groom's British family members and friends! I think I pictured them being a bit stand-offish because everyone always says that Americans are so much nicer and friendlier than Europeans. But honestly, these people were some of the nicest people I've ever met. It was also a wonderful treat to hear them speak - loved their accents. They were so sweet and fun to get to know, and I'm so glad that my friend is so blessed to marry into such a wonderful family. She is moving to England after they sort through all of the legal red tape (which unfortunately may take a few months), and it is going to be weird not having her in the same country. As I've written about before, my college friends and I try to get together a couple times a year, and even though we are all spread out in different areas, we have been able to keep up that tradition for the past 3 years. It is going to be different not having Sarah be a part of those get togethers. But it is so nice knowing that she will be taken care of by her husband and his family. All I can say is I cannot wait to visit her in England!

Wedding weekend!

I have known Blythe since we were 10. We met on the summer swim team and our friendship took off from there. We used to go play at each other's house all the time, but probably most of my younger memories are with her at the pool. Blythe's dad was in the military, so she moved away to Pennsylvania for our middle school years, but then she thankfully moved back for our junior year of high school! We picked right back up where we left off. From there we had homecoming dances, high school football games, weekend hang outs, prom, birthday celebrations, weekend visits to each other's colleges, and of course many, many sleepovers! We even worked at a driving range together during our summer and winter breaks (which conveniently was where she met her now husband!).

Blythe was in my wedding two and a half years ago, and this past weekend I had the honor to be in hers. Their fairy tale wedding was at a gorgeous church in Georgetown and the reception was at the Omni Shoreham (where Frank Sinatra has sang and where they host the inaugural balls, NO BIG DEAL). The whole weekend was fantastic and I'm so happy for her and Joe! Sadly she is now halfway across the country with her husband in their new home, but I know there will be visits soon, I just know it! Congrats Blythe & Joe! I love you, friend!

Photos by Katelyn James Photography

Two Years

Today is our anniversary! That's right, 7/11. Go get yourself a free Slurpee to celebrate!

Tonight we'll be celebrating 2 years of marriage and over 5 years of being together. It seems so crazy that it's been that long already. But at the same time I feel like we've always been together, and I really couldn't imagine my life without my sweetie. We are seriously so blessed. Looking forward to a romantic dinner out and reminiscing on one of the most important days of our lives!

photography by Bella Pictures

Wedding weekend

I've been slightly busy lately so I thought I'd pop in and do a quick post about our weekend. We traveled to DC for Kyle and Kristy's wedding. It was so great to see them tie the knot and also spend time with my family while we were up there. Of course every time I go home I miss living in Virginia, but that's a different topic for a different day. This was our first wedding of the season and we only have one more, thank goodness. Last year we had several to attend, and Michael was a groomsman in 3 of them!

We had the rehearsal dinner at Maggiano's - always a winner!

The wedding was in a gorgeous Methodist church in Georgetown, and the reception was a ballroom nearby that was almost as beautiful. I would say most venues would have a hard time competing with this:

I wish I had a better picture of the bride's beautiful dress. She was truly stunning. Congrats Kyle and Kristy!

I thought this picture was silly while we were taking it but I actually kind of like it since it's different.
What do you think?

Gosh I love weddings. My sister and I were asking each other why girls are so obsessed with weddings and I think we figured it out. They combine all the things girls love into one pretty package:

flowers, fashion, food, decor, and romance.

Am I right?

And that wraps up another fun weekend! Can you believe it's already mid-May??

P.S. Since that last photo is showing a random sign in our yard, I thought I would explain. My sister got asked to prom on Saturday morning by her boyfriend with these adorable signs! What a sweet idea. Highschoolers can sometimes be cute I guess.

DIY Wedding Invitations

Wedding invitations are not cheap. After dropping thousands on deposits for your venue, caterer, flowers, photographer, dress, cake, etc., invitations are not something you want to splurge on. And it is so hard to find decently priced wedding invitations that are pretty and made of good quality. After searching for hours upon hours on various websites (from American Weddings to Wedding Paper Divas to Costco) and not finding anything that I liked that was less than $500 before postage, I resolved to try to design my own. I started playing around on Microsoft Publisher, found a website that allowed you to download free design graphics, and finally came out with invitations and RSVP postcards that my mom and I both liked. It was not an easy process. I probably spent 30+ hours working on the tedious details: the size of the invitation, the fonts, the colors. At times I wanted to pull my hair out! BUT they ended up looking exactly like I wanted and for SO much cheaper. I had a family member in Greenville, SC take them to be printed at Bob Jones University Press on nice cardstock paper (it was just a really good deal to get it printed there. I'm sure there are other printing presses that have great deals). I then borrowed a paper cutter to cut them to size and ordered envelopes to fit from an online paper company. The total cost before postage was less than $150!

If you are considering DIY-ing your wedding invitations (or any invitations for that matter), here are some tips I would give you:

1. Make sure you are willing to put time into it. What you're not paying in money, you will be paying in time, and if you are working a full-time job and only have a few months to plan, you will not get these done in time.
2. Browse online invitation websites and see if you can get an idea of what you want yours to look like. Not many people can just design something on the fly and come up with something eye pleasing. I am not a graphic design artist and I knew that, so I got ideas from other people who are before I started!
3. Look at envelope sizes FIRST, then you can know how to size your invitations on Publisher. I had designed my invitations, then got around to ordering envelopes, and found they only came in certain standard sizes and I had to resize my invitations. Ugh, it is never fun to redo work!
4. Find a good printing press that will do quality printing for a good deal. Send them a proof of your work, and have them print a free sample for you. That way you know how it will turn out.
5. Have patience. Like I said, this project will take time, and it can be stressful when it's not working out like you pictured in your mind.
6. Solicit help from others. Get a second opinion from your mom, your maid of honor, or anyone else who knows the theme and colors of your wedding and has a good eye. Sometimes others' ideas combined with yours will turn into the best results.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions, feel free to email me (lybritton@gmail.com) or leave me a comment on this page!

Picaboo Wedding Album

Ok so it's not the official one, I still have yet to narrow down the 40 pictures I want in that. But I decided to make an album that had more pictures of the guests that were at our wedding instead of just us, which is so fun to look back at! I used a site called Picaboo and I'm very impressed with the results compared to other photo printing sites. I chose the "lay-flat" pages, which cost a little more but were worth it because it literally lays flat on the table and looks very professional. My favorite part about it was the program they have to create the album - you download it to your computer and it pulls from the pictures in your memory. Once you have designed your album, it then uploads it to the web so you can order it. So you only have to upload the pictures you're actually using in the album. It is so much easier than working online with web pages. Check it out!

Let me know if you make one with them and what you think of it!