reception

Dec022010

Hello Miami “Winter” – Please Stay A While

Days like today warm my little winter-starved heart. It will be in the 50s all day long in Miami and that just makes me ridiculously happy. The windier, the better because that drops the temp even more.

Sure, I knew what the weather was like down here before we moved. I was never moving here for the weather and was pretty damn depressed that I was leaving my cold weather and chances of snow for extreme heat year round. No, I’m not a freak, I LOVE cold weather! I also hate Miami. Yes, that does make me weird to the majority of the non-Miami residing population. We moved for family, cheaper rent (alas more expensive everything else), and a job. But mostly family.

Never in a million year did this Miami born and raised girl expect to be craving snow and weather in the 20s and 30s. It’s gotten to the point where I am seeking out jobs to apply for in states that HAVE an average snowfall listed. This 50* “winter” stuff doesn’t cut it for me anymore. I want to be able to wear my hats, scarves, and sweaters. Yesterday, it was over 80* all day and I went to work in shorts and a t-shirt. Also, I saw many Facebook postings of snow and freezing weather. Yeah, color me jealous. I’m sure they were jealous of the heat down here and, frankly, they can have it.

Yesterday I was searching through pictures from the last 11 months for our holiday newsletter and relished looking through the 2 folders of snow. It was depressing me. I do know that heavy and long winters can take a toll on people, but that’s what all this heat does to me. I don’t want to leave the house. Our a/c bill skyrockets the hotter it gets. It’s just so blah. Poor Phoenix doesn’t get why it’s so hot out as his winter coat keeps reappearing. There’s seriously enough fur for a whole new kitten every time I brush him.

In other news, I’m finally compiling what is needed for our January reception/ party. With the holidays coming up and mail likely being delayed, I should order it soon. Gotta pow-wow with our “party planners” soon to figure out what we need!

Nov162010

Party Invites are in the Mail!

Today was the first day I made actual progress towards the January wedding reception. Well, aside from Sunday evening when I sealed all the envelopes. But yes, today… today I dropped 70 thick envelopes into the mailbox at work. So by Wednesday, pretty much everyone should have received them. I still have about 30 more to address and mail.

The party is on January 15th, 60 days from today. I really do need to step it up about 12 notches and start delegating whatever needs to be done like booking food, finding table/chair and maybe tent rentals, making favors, and test-running desserts.

Yes, Greg Grunberg (@greggrunberg) and Zachary Quinto (@zacharyquinto) are getting invitations. Greg was my selection, Zachary was both of ours. Steve’s was Michael Keaton. I’m Batman! He asked me the other day what I’d do if any of them showed. I said that I would pass out. I’m about 150% sure that they won’t be showing, but a nice autograph would be wicked awesome!

Our other celebrity “guests” include the Obama’s (@barackobama) and, my personal favorite, Jon & Dorothea Bongiovi. Yeah, that’s my celeb hubby Jon Bon Jovi (@bonjovi). The only problem is that I can’t find any sort of fan address to send something to him.

iSpy a Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) book in the background along with Woman’s Day and a knitting yarn winder.

Oct262010

October 26 TMW Post

Hello hello! Did you miss me? I know, I know. 3 of us brides sorta dropped outta sight there for a few weeks between our weddings then honeymoons. Me? I have no excuse for last week. We were in Vegas until October 13^th, and I can’t wait to go back!

Tweet: Ok folks… Here we go! New twitter name time. It should automatically work, but i’ll be @rbfletcher in a few minutes. Bye bye @msrib

Tweet: it looks odd having a diff name! i’ve been Ms. RIB since i was born. on to bigger & better things as Mrs. Fletcher!

So yeah, I’m MARRIED! We had a truly truly amazing time in Vegas. I know it was one of the craziest, most hectic weekends of the year (and since 07-07-07) there, but it really wasn’t bad at ALL. Sure, there were tons of people and a crapload of brides, but isn’t there always? I mean, it’s Vegas Baybee!

Taken by my brother’s girlfriend

Hopefully by now, 2+ weeks later, you’ve seen my wedding day #OWT feed set up by @TweetMyWedding. Seriously, I can watch this over and over again and never tire of all the amazing folks I’ve met on Twitter over the years. So many well wishers!

Tweet: pro pics in hand, so it’s time to make my @inkubook that i won like a million years ago. saving 1 for our pics from @emericphoto

Our pictures are awesome! I look slightly pregnant, but well, I didn’t really do anything to lose weight before the wedding. I know, I’m a bad former bride. Watching all my friends struggle to lose weight and look even more gorgeous on their wedding days, I went the less stressful route and relaxed and spent time sitting on the couch instead of working out. Working out aggravates my horribly knee and ankle, so I decided not to do that. I swam a bit, but that’s about it.

Tweet: RT @emericphoto check out Becca & Steve’s Freemont St. Day-After Session on the blog! http://fb.me/A8MDnD3r

Tweet: We’re on the @LasVegasWed blog!! http://bit.ly/cEarxu #101010

My last few weeks have been filled with excitement over receiving our video, pictures, and putting together numerous photo books. I am also trying to get our pictures posted on as many blogs as I can. Seriously, how many people really take 6 months to hand knit their wedding veil?! I might not be gorgeous or skinny, but I still deserve to be posted other places, right? It’s been a great experience being on the TMW blog and I want to expand on that feeling before my fascination with our wedding fades and I switch into mommy blog mode. Hopefully that’ll be soon! Oh yes, I totally bought What to Expect Before You’re Expecting this weekend and we’ve been discussing kids quite a lot. Then again, we are 34 and 3 months shy of 40.

Tweet: This 2 part wedding thing is awesome! Last night our “party committee” started giving themselves assignments so we have to do nothing for it.

My aunt, brother’s girlfriend and her family have basically taken the reigns to plan our January reception. Hello dream come true! They started planning the desserts, meal, music, photography, and everything else. When I asked what they were talking about, they pretty much said don’t worry about it. I know there’s going to be a few surprises – though I did figure out the Mariachi band part already – and I can only say that I am thrilled about it! Sure sure, I’m sure they’ll ask me if there’s something really important and I do hope to find out anything major first. There’s definitely a handful of things that I’ve already started on for the party.

I’ll leave you with a few of our pro pictures… all below taken by Scenic Las Vegas Weddings

Aug222010

Busy Week in Review

Hello friends!

There is so much going on these days… and by so much, I mean wedding/ reception DIY projects, uploading listings to my etsy site, revamping my website, tweaking my business cards (and trying to find the money to pay for them), making jewelry, browsing online for jewelry findings, etc etc etc.

So yeah, DIY projects: I’m trying to make jewelry to wear for the wedding, but the beads I have at home are slightly lacking. I’ve been scouring several websites (Beadaholique, Fire Mountain Gems) for new beads, Swarovski pearls, and findings for both my personal jewelry and also for stuff to post to Etsy.

Personal Picture

Also, I’m now contemplating these adorable favors, alligator cookie cutters! Or rather, buying these and making them into favors for Vegas. I am currently obsessed with baking and, well, I am a Gator for life. Perfect, eh? After posting them on Twitter, my friend suggested mini alligator candy molds. That might make it as Miami favors: little chocolates. Although, the be fair, Steve has already said he wants to do M&M’s for the Miami favors.

Image source

I did a test run with the canvas boards I bought. Using BIC-MarkIt markers and drawing right on the untreated (by me) canvas was perfect. It looks like I’ll be taking an 8×10 canvas board with the bag of markers to Vegas. I feel so good knowing that at least this part has been resolved. And since it’s 8×10, it’s easy to frame.. yay!

Personal photo

Right now my Etsy site only has 2 items posted. It will, eventually, have a lot more. I’m kinda bummed that Etsy changed up their site design since now my profile, with a whole lot more information than before, only shows a few lines. Boo!

Wanna see my full profile? I thought so…

Hello and Welcome!

I am a graphic designer and recent bride.

As a designer, I thrive on unique and creative to market my business. I create custom business cards (both standard 3.5″x2″ and square 2″x2″ or 2.25″x2.25″), print and web logos, letterhead, and just about anything else you can dream up.

As a recent bride, I struggled to find the perfect paper products for our wedding and decided to create my own. Our package included announcement cards, reception invitations and RSVP cards, along with Photo upload cards. Check out all the sample images in this shop to get an idea of what I can make for you.

Also, I was never truly satisfied with the necklace, bracelet and earring sets I found online, and so I made my own. I have several individual pieces and sets available for purchase. I use all sorts of materials and can easily get whatever your vision requires.

Along with the paper products, I designed several stamps, cupcake flags, water bottle logos, favor bag logos for iron-on transfers, and much more.

Do you have a specific vision for your wedding or special event?
Does your business need branding or re-branding?
Custom orders are always welcome.

Cheers!
Becca

You’d be intrigued to buy from me, right? What other design products would you want to see posted?

Aug132010

Craigslist Makes Me Happy

I posted a few ads on Craigslist South Florida with a simple request and a decent pay range. I felt I would be fortunate to receive 2 or 3 responses to it. 9 hours after posting, I am up to 14 responses. Sure, not all of them are what I am looking for and some are way out of our price range, but they are all insanely talented. Sometimes I forget how talented people are. I think I take for granted that I live in (ok outside of) a bustling metropolis chock full of insanely talented and vibrant people.

Sure, I could have scoured CL for what I am looking for and taken a lot of time to muddle through it, contacting who I was interested in… but I took the easy way out and posted ads. And I couldn’t be happier with the outcome!

I’ll keep you posted on how these pan out.

Aug082010

IKEA as a Wedding Supplier

Today, Steve and I took a trip up to the IKEA in Sunrise, FL. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I adore IKEA and could walk around and enjoy all the pretties. Before we moved back to Miami, I would scour the catalog and envision how our home would look and our future children’s rooms and everything else. Naturally, I turned to their little accessories for reception ideas.

My vision for the reception is very loosely based in Asian design. Our invitations have orange and blue bamboo trees and leaves. I am toying with ideas of lucky bamboo or fortune cookies as the favors. A recent idea was little bamboo steamers or baby take out boxes filled with candies. The party will be really low key, but for centerpieces, I’m picturing lots of vases with floating candles and submersible lights. Today, I took the following pictures for inspiration and potential future purchases:

White round paper lanterns can have lights inside or not

Blue vases, 3 different sizes, for centerpiece groupings

Plant pots for low centerpieces. Since they’re white, I’m not sure how to use them.

White pots that are just super cool looking, centerpieces maybe?

Clear vase, 1 per table for rocks or shells and floating candles or something.

all images taken by me inside IKEA

Jul202010

July 20 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – i totally want to do this for our guest “book” for Miami: http://bit.ly/bsnMGS #wedding (even if i had one for my bat mitzvah…)

Image from BridalBuds

Seriously, how adorable is this idea?! I showed it to Steve and I think he liked it. Seeing as he’s the one that’ll be drawing the tree or whatever design we decide on, I’d hope so. I can’t decide if I want a small one – like 8″ x 8″ – for the handful of Vegas folks and a larger one – 16″ x 20″ or bigger – for the reception. Either way, we have this great huge half wall over the pass through in our kitchen where they would reside perfectly next to our ketubah. We’re looking at over 100 guests in Miami, so either we’ll make 2 of them, or just have a really small design. Another option is a very large mat framing a relatively smallish photo of us. My friend Abby did that and it was too cute. It was maybe 12×16 with a 5×7 totally off-center picture.

And the bat mitzvah thing? Yeah, I totally had a 2′ x 3′ humongous picture for everyone to sign. Mhmm… it’s crammed in a closet somewhere and was never hung up. Hopefully this one will be different.

Tweet: @msrib – just sent a bunch of inquiries for Miami vendors on @weddingwire… now the waiting for replies begins 🙂

I know that we have a quote from a photog whose work makes my little heart pitter patter, but I decided to do my due diligence (use this word all the time at work) and look around a bit, right? So yes, today I emailed about 15 photog’s in the Miami – Ft Lauderdale area this afternoon. Sure, I sent the same email to them all using @WeddingWire‘s fabu contact form, but whatev, it worked. So far, I’ve received 1 email even remotely within our budget. Her images are totally amazing also, but, well… something is lacking. I think it’s the extra’s that K includes.

Photog K is $1100 for 3 hours of photos and a DVD filled with all our edited images. It also includes extra print credit of $150 towards any prints that we print through her.

“Images are usually processed within a 4 to 6 week time period depending on the current backlog and busy season. Once your images are ready, you will be presented with a link to your password-protected online viewing gallery.

High Resolution Files are include a personal printing license. These files are full resolution with no watermarks. Low-resolution, watermarked files are also included for personal perusal of your wedding collection or for sharing images online.”

Photog A is $900 for 3 hours of photos and a DVD filled with all our edited images.

“The above prices include my photography services, editing the photos for you, and putting them onto DVDs for you. I take about 100-200 photos each hour. All the photos I take on your wedding day will be edited for color/brightness/contrast/sharpness/etc, so they are ready to be printed. Then I will send you in the mail all the photos on a DVD (3 copies actually) about 4-6 weeks after your wedding.

Since you are receiving a DVD of very high quality digital negatives of all your wedding photos I do not offer any online viewing galleries, print ordering services, or wedding album design.”

I’m fairly sure if it’s just between these 2 overly talented photogs, it’s kinda a no-brainer. Which would you choose?

Jul062010

July 6 TMW Post

Tweet: @msrib – how many professional photographers do i have on my feed… debating if i want pro pics for our uber casual wedding reception

I’ve been seriously debating this issue. Our big DAY will have plenty of coverage as included in the package by Scenic Las Vegas Weddings. As will 2 days later thanks to the amazing photo shoot we won with the amazingly talented Emeric Photography

In a series of responses from photographer and non-photographer friends, I was convinced that yes, we DO need a pro photog at the reception. As one friend pointed out, the party, with all our family and friends, will look like drunken party pics especially compared to our pro pics for everything else. So now, I need to figure out a budget for the January shindig and see how much cash we have to spend on pictures. I have a friend that I would love so much to use, but I just don’t know if we can afford her. Luckily she said she has a friends and family discount. She is one of those truly amazing photog’s with crazy high ratings on WeddingWire. I am in love with her work. Le sigh.

Tweet: msrib – as open as i’ve been w/all my dress choices, i think i’m gonna keep the final selection a secret until the pics are posted. maybe #weddingwednesday

I did end up purchasing the gown last Monday. I was in and out of David’s Bridal in about 45 minutes with my newest dress in hand. They had the size and color I wanted to try on. To be fair, I did wander around to check on other floor length gowns and tried on one other. Little Miss Indecisive is no longer so! The dress is in my closet. My mom said she like it a lot better than the last all lace one. I don’t have any pictures of myself in it as I was having major undergarment issues. Plus the straps are a bit big so I need to have then fixed before I’ll post any pictures. I suppose in this case, third time really in a charm!

Tweet: msrib – Hello mini future Mr & Mrs Fletcher! #caketopper http://twitpic.com/21eohx

And I leave you with a bit of creativity… all I need to do is spray on the varnish and we’re done!

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