Our Wedding Was Featured!

A few weeks ago, I received an email from Bellenza.com asking if I would grant permission for my wedding to be featured on their website.  I love our rustic wedding, so after checking out their neat website and seeing that they gave great credits to all involved in the content they use, I of course agreed!

Bellenza did a WONDERFUL job summarizing our wedding.  Even I felt in some ways like I was looking at our decorations for the first time, so I won't delay you anymore and you can check out their post for yourself HERE!

A Personalized Card for Mother's Day

Disclaimer:  I received compensation for this post in the form the personalized card shown in this post.  All views and opinions are mine.

About a month ago, I was introduced to this nifty little business called Cardstore.  Like many online photo and greeting card services, it allows you to personalize pictures in card presets and have printed on high quality paper.  Cardstore, unlike the other services I have used personally, will do several really awesome things.  Besides being able to just personalize the photo, many of  their card presets allow you to change the message inside the card, the fonts and font colors, and one of the coolest options is that they'll mail the card directly to the recipient if you'd like!  

Since Mother's Day is coming up soon, I decided to make a special card for my mom.  

(Hint hint, and since Mother's Day is less than a week away now, the direct mail service could be a great option for many of you who won't be seeing mom this weekend!)

You see, when we get together we often forget to take a picture, but knowing I was planning to make a personalized card I had my husband take a picture for us last time we were all together.

I used a flowery preset that allowed me to change the inside of the card - plus I thought the colors of the card and photo went well together.

The cardstore interface sets up a very creative environment!  

I love the natural background!  The editing options depend on the card - some are more or less lenient with how much of the card you can change.

To start my card, I chose the preset and uploaded my photo.

You can do some very basic edits to the photo in Cardstore, so I rotated the photo and was able to crop in closer to us.  

Then all you have to do is click the next page to start editing!

I always feel weird about using other people's phrases in a card, so I changed most 

This preset allowed us the option of adding a picture to the middle of the page on the left inside, so I used a wedding photo to get a picture of our whole family together!  This is the first time my mom will be a "mother" to more than just one!

I needed to have the card shipped to me so I could take photos for all you lovely readers, however I would love to try the "Mail to the Recipient" option one day!

After submitting my order, I got this fancy little package in the mail!

I always enjoy seeing how things are packaged, so I thought I would share!  The card comes in a nice protective plastic cover, which is great in case it encounters bad weather on the way being mailed.  

The paper quality is wonderful, and I couldn't be happier with the print quality either.  

I do believe when I chose this card it told me the size, however when it came it it was bigger than I expected as well, so that's always a nice surprise. 

Not only was the card beautiful, but the envelope for it was really nice with a gold lining inside, and they also sent several gold seals to use, which really gives the card a nice finished touch.  

The inside of the card looks great too!  You can choose several different font colors, but I decided to keep with black since I used a black and white photo inside.

Overall I was very pleased with the service and the quality of the cards!  

I definitely want to use Cardstore again and try out their direct shipment to the recipient service!

Have you used an online card personalizing service before?  What did you think?!

(P.S. Don't forget that Mothers Day is indeed this weekend!)

Guest Posting Today at Happily Ever Crafter!

Today I have a guest post lined up over at Happily Ever Crafter!  

If you've been missing my wedding posts, this will be one of the last (or maybe the very last) post about my wedding!  It is an informative one too, talking about how we catered the wedding ourselves!  You won't want to miss it, so check it out HERE!  :)

Catherine also has a great Wedding Wednesday series going on with tons of great advice from many different bloggers, so any ladies out there who are wedding planning should definitely check out her blog!

Snail Mail Collective - Autumn Adventures

I'm so excited to show you guys this!  I took part in the Snail Mail Collective with Lost in Travels and The Nectar Collective back in October!  The general idea is that you essentially get a pen pal for the designated month you sign up, and you buy or make them little presents that fit the month's theme.  The gifts cannot total more than $5 to keep things fair and affordable.

I was partnered with Anwesha from Peanuts on the Road.  We have emailed back and forth several times over the past few months, and I've enjoyed getting to read about her travels and food excursions on her blog.  We had a few delays in getting our packages out, including the fact that I didn't even know that the office at my apartment complex had it for who knows how long and they didn't tell me!  

Also, if you'd like to see Anwesha's Snail Mail post, you can see that and everything I sent her HERE!  Go say hi to her!

Never-the-less, I was so excited when I got the package that I ran from the office back to my apartment (they aren't close) so that I could open it.  The whole way back while I was running I heard jingles, so my curiosity was going crazy!

Here are all the contents of the package!

Anwesha is from Kolkata, India.  I learned that October (or just the Autumn season) has a lot of important religious festivals and celebrations.  

What was really awesome is she sent little notes to explain the meanings behind some of the items she sent me that I otherwise would have no clue about!  This represents the Supreme One.

This is what was making the jingle sounds on my way back - I really love this!  It is hanging above my coffee maker already and I routinely tap the bells so they'll jingle.  :)

Anwesha also sent me a card and a bookmark.
The card is of the three-eyed goddess Durga - who is worshiped in Bengal during Autumn.

Here is another beautiful paper banner.  I'm not sure what the proper term for these are, but they are really pretty!

She also sent me a cute shopping bag!  I've been needing one of these, so I'm sure it will come in handy!

The bag folds up into the pouch and makes a cute flower!  I love it!

I really enjoyed participating in the Snail Mail Collective and getting to know my new friend Anwesha!  I loved getting to know more about India and some specific traditions they practice during Autumn.  It was also really fun to have a way to get outside my typical network of blogs and get to read from Anwesha's perspective!

If you like making new friends, getting snail mail, and picking out little gifts for others then you would love Snail Mail Collective.  They do it every month, so head over and check it out and meet some new friends from around the world!