Wedding Tips from this Creative Memories™ Momma

I have been selling Creative Memories™ scrapbooking products since both of my girls were BABIES. It is so bittersweet to say that my little girls have BOTH flown the coop and ONE is getting married in just a couple of weeks! I remember her engagement like yesterday since the groom-to-be proposed to her on one of the nights of my biggest weekend scrapbooking retreats of the year. I was in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and when Ricky asked for Reagan’s hand in marriage and shared his plan requesting our family be there to witness it. OF COURSE, I couldn’t say no. I left the retreat Saturday late afternoon and got to spend time with both of our families at his Nana and Papa’s beautiful riverfront home for dinner and celebrating. I returned to my retreat that night and my scrapbookers were all so eager to hear the news. I can’t believe that their big day is just around the corner now!

Since, like me, many of my loyal followers had babies when we all started scrapbooking, I decided today’s blog would be a different kind of blog for all of my clients that have babies or grandbabies that YOU may be helping to plan a wedding for! Make sure you watch the YouTube video above for more ideas. Of course, THESE ideas are for a wedding but they certainly could be used for ANY celebration.

The Wedding Invitations

There are so many options out there for wedding invitations. The shops that were around when I was getting married where you went in and sat with a consultant who helped you pick just the right paper and just the right font are not as popular anymore with competitors like Snapfish, Shutterfly, and even Walgreens offering just about anything you could possibly want. But, for me and my scrapbooking eye, I never really saw exactly what I wanted without spending a FORTUNE. That is when I ran across the LOOK (color and feel) on Etsy that I knew Reagan would love. However, on closer inspection, I wasn’t buying the invitations. I was buying the ARTWORK! What was super cool about that is, I could use that artwork not only for my invitations, but also for my menu and program, and seating place cards, and more for a whopping $8.95! If you don’t have any experience with graphics, this may not be for you but many scrapbookers DO have experience with this so I thought I would share. I PRINTED the invitations and had Office Depot cut them to size on 110# cardstock for that truly high-quality feel. (I’d like to give a big shout-out to Anthony at the Newport News location who had lots of patience with me and offered GREAT service!) I feel by doing it this way, I saved around $200 and got exactly what I wanted.

Next, I shopped for pretty foiled envelopes. Buying them in bulk from Amazon was inexpensive, too. Then, to make their invitations one of a kind, I added belly bands with vellum and bronze cardstock. We got so many compliments on them!

A word of warning about the deadline for RSVPs. In this day and age, young people do not understand how important an RSVP is, so make your deadline earlier than you need. Our caterer needed our count ONE WHOLE MONTH before the actual wedding. We ended up having to call about a quarter of the guests to find out if they were going to make it and in doing so, we sadly discovered that quite a few never even received their invitations! Others HAD sent their RSVP but we either received them weeks after or not at all. I was so glad that I DID call everyone since some had no idea that they were even invited.

The Cake

Don’t wait until the last minute on this one! We started cake shopping 60 days out and found that most of the places that everyone recommended were already booked! Most bakeries would do a tasting but if your daughter is like mine, she may want to taste more flavors than they allow in a tasting so it’s better to walk right in the bakery and try as many cupcakes as you want. They all promised the cupcake would be adequate to get the flavor that we could expect from the cake. Prices were all over the place, so ASK before you TASTE if the DATE is even available and if it IS available ask what their average price is per slice. If that price is more than you would ever pay, then don’t do the tasting at all. One place, highly recommended, didn’t return phone calls, was not available to talk when they told me to call, and ultimately, allowed us to do a tasting only to find out that they had no availability to even make our cake. I feel grateful that they weren’t available since the shop in Gloucester, The Mad Batter by Angela, we loved much better, received impeccable service and was almost half the price for really fun and different options!

The Photographer

I am a photographer SNOB. These days, professional photographers are a dime-a-dozen. Most of us, with new technology, can shoot EXCELLENT photos with our PHONES. If you are going to pay several thousand dollars for a photographer, you deserve to have someone GOOD. Ask for referrals. Good photographers should have great customer service. Look at their websites. I based my final decision on photos that our photographer had on his website. Photos on EVERY photographer’s website were great. Why? Because, they are using some great equipment and typically, photos have lovely landscapes behind them with great lighting. ANYONE can take a great photo with those things in place. (Not so good photographers do not even know that these things are important!) EXQUISITE photographers, however, can shoot when things are NOT optimal. For instance, what about if your bride is going to need to be photographed outdoors at night in the rain? Or coming out from a lighted place into the dark of the night to jump into a limo! Movement in the dark and when there is a light transition is not for just any photographer, but yet, most brides do have unusual lighting, especially in indoor venues. I loved the shots Will King shot of brides with grooms under clear umbrellas under the moon! He captured moon rays and raindrops AND the lovely couple beautifully. He was able to capture bubbles that guests were blowing in a difficult lighting situation as well as capture the bride and groom sharply while everyone else was waving colored streamers at them. When choosing YOUR photographer, ASK to see some of these advanced shots so you will not be disappointed.

The Guest Book

Where is YOUR guest book from your wedding? Is it something you really value? I was thinking back to our guest book and I honestly do not know where it is! I wanted Reagan and Ricky’s guest book to be a treasure so decided to make one for them! I included many shots from their engagement shoot in the guest book and put it in a Creative Memories™ Custom Album Cover that takes my breath away. Our photographer, owner of Will King Photography, is amazing and he allowed me to just buy all the photos to do what I wanted with them. Though I wanted to frame ALL of them, that would be a little crazy. Putting them in an album for everyone to enjoy was the perfect idea.

Though I am an avid paper-and-stickers scrapbooker, I chose digital scrapbooking for this project and I am so pleased that Creative Memories™ offers a unique version that is superior to other digital options for a great price. I love our custom cover options!

I am often asked if Creative Memories™ still prints digital books. When someone asks that, they are usually referring to the little, thin albums that Creative Memories™ printed YEARS ago. Though I loved the quality of those books, for what they were, they were not durable enough for me. I can’t imagine putting one of those books in a grandchild’s hands to look at unless that grandchild was all grown up! Creative Memories™ now has a digital option that is perfect for ANYONE’S hands! It is the same scrapbook-style album that you know and love from Creative Memories™ with the same 12×12 page with jeeping on the edges with the option of page protectors to keep your book, pages, and memories safe for your lifetime and beyond.

Another advantage of our digital option over the former digital option is when you print your scrapbook pages on actual scrapbook pages, what that means to you is, you can add any journaling later if you want to, in your own handwriting. You can add the actual ticket stub that you went to the trouble of saving, or even add that newspaper clipping. You could add more pages if you want, more digital ones or some traditional ones. You can add more embellishments or stickers once it arrives in the mail for more “pop”. I love this option. Oh, and did I mention how much our artwork costs? NOTHING! All of our papers, mats, embellishments, and even border maker punches that you can use in the program are ALL FREE. You can make your book in one sitting or multiple sittings! The reason I went this route was I knew I wanted the guest book for Reagan and Ricky but I also knew I wanted one for ME and for Reagan’s Nannie! Plus, I am a BIG SUCKER of blowing up great photos to 12×12 size. What a statement that makes and this is so easy with Creative Memories™ Digital Photo Albums. Last, I simply created ONE album and ordered THREE which, with only 13 more days before their big day, was a BIG TIME SAVER.

I hope that some of these tips will help you now or in the future. Feel free to pass this on to someone YOU love that is currently blessed by a wedding on the horizon.

I’d like to take this time to also thank MY SCRAPBOOKERS. You all have been so supportive of me and Reagan on this fun journey. Thanks for asking me how things were going, listening to me in my excitement, for supporting my business, as always, and for being so generous towards the Bride. We are so excited!

Thanks for reading. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for each one of you in my life.

Like my blogs and youtube videos? Follow me on Scrapbookwithbeckie.com and on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCunxG4o63egKL493ROa4J6w

Blessings to you,
Beckie Belote

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13