Wedding Picture Slide Show!

I got this from my photographer today!  I am so glad to see some pictures at last!!!



http://video214.com/play/dxs7EJl3YjQGkA0v77BQnw/s/dark


This is merely around 10% of the 2000 images that were taken, more to follow!!

Photobooth Pictures!

The photobooth was a total slam dunk!  Everyone had a lot of fun with it, and the pictures are soooo awesome and hilarious!!

Hi Natalie,

All of your PhotoBooth images have been uploaded to our website. You can view these here:


http://thinkbooth.zenfolio.com/p968210493


password: bell25


Please feel free to pass this along and thank you for choosing Think Studio!!


df.

Just an update

Hi Everyone!  We are officially 17 days away from Aaron and I's big day!  After a few bridezilla episodes from last week, this week has gone pretty smoothly.  I am actually feeling quite zen, despite a still semi-lengthy to-do list.  I think I had a light bulb moment over the weekend or something.  I really want to look back at my engagement in a positive light.  The wedding is just a few hours of my life, but my engagement has been over a year of my life.  I don't want to think back and shudder over the amount of stress I went through, I want to remember being excited and happy.  I am of the opinion that all of these wedding TV shows feed into our minds that if we aren't over the top stressed, we aren't doing it right.  It is easy to get caught up in the hype.  I have basically surrendered to the idea that everything will be beautiful and fun, and I need to just trust the people I have hired or family and friends helping out and let it be.

Total Zen. 

Ok so I am in a happy mood for a change, so that is nice :)  I have a bunch of things coming up this week that I am looking forward to.

This afternoon (weather permitting) Aaron and I are taking professional engagement pics to display around the entry table at the reception.  (Better late that never, right!)  If these don't get done today, then Monday will be the back up day.  It rained a crazy amount in Houston two days ago and flooded much of the city.  It has since drained off, but it is still muddy in some nature places where our photographer usually shoots.

Tomorrow Aaron and I are going to go get our wedding license on my lunch break.  It is just getting me eager for the wedding, I want it to be here already!

On Friday, my Mom and I are going to meet with the wholesale florist to see what flowers we are going to need.  My cousin from Austin is the mastermind behind the floral elements of our centerpieces - a gift from my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Howard.  But since they are coming from Austin, and that is going to be tricky enough, my Mom and I are going to handle making the bouquets and corsages.  We also are going to make some really simple pew decorations for the church.  So our flower needs aren't huge, but we want to check out what we like, etc. 

Saturday morning I have an appointment for a badly needed haircut, and my hair-do trial for my wedding 'do!  I am excited to see how it turns out!

Over the weekend we will be assembling wedding programs and working on a seating chart because we have gotten all our RSVPs in.  I must say, I am really proud of my guests for responding.  I only had to call or email a handful of people out of the nearly 300 that were invited!  It looks like our guest count is going to be right at 200, and I am so glad that many of Aaron's family from all over the country are making the trip to Texas for the wedding.  I can't wait to meet them!!  I am also over the moon excited to see some old friends I haven't seen in a good while and having all my extended family together for a happy occasion.  Life is good :)

Everything is really falling into place just like everyone said it would :)

Cute!

I am coming to realize that I am a sucker for being nickeled and dimed to death by cute and relatively cheap wedding things.  It is just money, right? ;)

Long ago I read an article on theknot.com about little details that every bride forgets, and wouldn't you know, the very first one was to bring a cute hanger for your dress.  Because everyone gets that shot of your dress hanging in a window, ready for it's debut stroll down the aisle:

Source

But if you are forgetful or this miniscule detail never crossed your mind, you may wind up with a picture like:

Source

Isn't that just so sad?

Well the lovelies on http://www.etsy.com/ have capitalized on this phenomenon and have created very cute customizeable hangers for your dress.  So of course I bought one.  And I got a phonecall that my dress is in, and I need to pick it up this weekend!  So I will get to try out my new hanger right away, which is fun :)

Photography

www.ericamoncada.com

Today after church Aaron and I met with the lovely Erica Moncada, photographer.  She was referred to us by one of my co-workers who was a former classmate of hers, and we were excited to finally get to meet!  We got to look at lots of pictures of her work and went over different photo finishes and styles.  It was neat to learn about photography things, an area I know nothing about!  

With photography, I really think the pictures speak for themselves, and I really dig her style which is a mix of traditional shots along with the neat artsy ones, such as the one above.  Plus her prices are totally reasonable and we are getting a million things in our package, along with 2 photographers and an assistant for the big day, in what some photographers want for just 5 hours of shooting only.  

Our runner up was also recommended by very good friend Jenn and Morgane, Photographer Jojo Marion.  If only we could hire both!  He is a fashion photographer out of Austin who has taken the most incredible photos (on his website), especially of baby Lucy, who is my bbf (baby best friend).  I was told he'd give us a deal too because he is looking to break into the wedding scene.  I just was feeling bad that he' have to come all the way from Austin, and I gotta be honest, I am slightly intimidated by a fashion photographer.  It seems way fancy for our speed, and our ugly mugs.  Jk, we aren't that ugly...lol, but still.

I am pretty happy with our choice and I am confident that Erica will get some great shots for us that we will cherish for a lifetime :)

Neat Find!

This weekend my Mom and I and our neighbor hit up this big craft show in the area.  We had fun looking at all the booths and got some cute stuff!  There was one really neat booth where you could design your own custom sign out of neat pictures, which I did. :)  They had a little file thing separated by letters, so you grab the stack oh H's and find the H you want for the collage.  Best of all, they make it while you wait!  It spells Hinkley (if you can't tell) which is going to be our last name since Aaron vetoed Hinktinez, lol.  But my Mom had the best idea of hanging this by our photobooth at the wedding.  Cute city!

I couldn't find the card we got from these people otherwise I would totally give them a shout out.  If you want to know badly enough, leave me a comment and I'll look harder for it :)

Engagement Photos!

I was somewhat dreading these.  First of all, it is hotter than the surface of the sun in Houston these days.  Second of all, I had been meaning to lose 50 pounds before this photoshoot, and clearly that has yet to happen.  But we took our nice camera, our 3-4 different 'looks' and my little brother Jeff (our discount photographer, he only costs a McDonald's breakfast, lol) and hit the town at 8am on Saturday.  We sure were go getters!  I know a lot of real (no offense, Jeff) photographers have packages that include an engagement photo shoot and all of that, but I just wanted to get them done and over with because it isn't getting any cooler outside, and I wanted to get our Save the Dates ordered so we can get them out during the first part of July.  Plus, bonus, with real photographers you get maybe 2 locations max (or pay extra) but with Natalie in charge, we could have no less than 5.  I just like to be thorough, and we were already dressed up, and I didn't know which photos I was going to like...   But anyway.  We only needed two good photos for the photoshoot, and out of 500 or so we took, only about 30 were 'facebook worthy', lol.  It was kind of awkward at first, but it was pretty fun once we got over that. 
For anyone curious of some good engagement photo locales in Houston, we took pics at:
Discovery Green
Downtown on Preston St.
Bell Street Metro train stop (only because our reception venue is on Bell St.)
The phone booth in front of The Black Labrador on Montrose
Hermann Park

And now for the main event:

If you want to see all the 'facebook worthy' shots, they are on the Bells and Bows facebook page (you might need to 'like' it first) or you can click on the facebook page icon on the left sidebar and it'll get you there!

Engagement Photo Thoughts

It is a scam created by photographers!  Only kidding.

I think, back in the day, you only took an engagement photo (singular) for your announcement in the newspaper...
I really love looking at engagement photos of other people.  I think that they are far more interesting than wedding photos usually.  Like 'here's us with my grandparents' 'here's us with the wedding party'...  Totally special to you (the couple) sure, but for your average facebook stalker friend - yawn.  I guess engagement photos these days are much more fun and personalized, and you can wear whatever you want and take them whereever you want.  The only downside I see to these is that a lot of photographers get super mushy and have all these pics of you and your guy kissing and stuff.  I don't really want to look at that framed in my living room.  And I certainly don't want to send it to my Mom, or my Aunts and Uncles!  So aside from putting said photos on flickr and facebook for people to ooh and aah over, I don't much see a practical point for them.  And I don't know, the whole thing seems better suited for more attractive people than A and I.  We are total trolls.  (kidding.)
But yeah, the super deal I got on save the dates are ones that require a few pictures.  Ugh.  And since I decided a while back that I didn't want to carve out any of our budget for engagement photos, I am going to improvise. 
I have a digital camera, and a perfectly good little brother.
So at some point A and I may go buy a new outfit or two and take a few family friendly photos together.  Nothing too mushy though.  lol