Author Archives: 365 days of marriage

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About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 1676 – Wedding Idea – Creative Place Cards

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I want to start giving y’all ideas for YOUR wedding! Today I wanted to share the place cards from the Schroen Wedding!

They took keys, took a card with each name (color coded by the meal they requested) and tied them with a ribbon. They hand wrote the names on each card, which made for easy changes if necessary.

If you had a theme of “key to my heart” this would be perfect!

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Day 1675 – Reconstructing A (Wedding, Family, Etc.) Album And Why You Might Be Interested – Or – Album Reconstruction FAQs

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I wanted to give a little more information about a new part of my business, reconstructing albums.

The idea is that you have pictures, whether in an album that’s falling apart or just scattered around your home that you would like to put in a nice, formal album.

Some examples would be:

  • You (or your parents) got married 30 years ago, and your album is falling apart, damaged, etc. I would take the pictures out of the album, potentially rearranging them, (I did this with an 8×10 album and an 4×6/3.5×5 album) and put them in a new formal album. The only thing that stays the same is the pictures.
  • You want to put together a generational album. You have pictures of your grandparents, parents, your marriage and your kids and you want them all preserved in a formal album. I would take all of those pictures, put them in order and design a formal album for you. We could also do a portrait session to include current pictures.

  • You were married recently and your album just didn’t turn out how you thought…or you never had it done. I would design one for you! Note: if your pictures are only in digital form, you would have to have the proper copyright release/usage for me to make the album.

  • You tell me!


What are the limitations?

  • I will need the printed pictures from the old albums. If they are difficult to remove and/or damaged, we may not be able to use them in the album.
  • The new album mats are limited to 48 mat layouts (for larger albums), including the following print sizes: 2×3, 3.5×5, 4×5, 4×6, 5×5, 5×7, 5×10, 7×10, 8×8, 8×10, 10×10

  • Those mats are further limited by orientation. i.e. For the 3.5×5 mats, there are only two options. One – all images are the same orientation (all horizontal or all portrait). Two – 3 images are portrait and 1 image is horizontal/3 images are horizontal and 1 image is portrait.

How does much does it cost?
It depends on the number of pictures, the size of the album and how many layouts (sides) we create.

A recent reconstruction was a 15 page (30 side album), with 48 pictures (24 8×10’s and 24 3.5×5/4×6’s), Madison Non-Leather in Pearl, two lines of imprinting – was just over $1,000.

Given that this album was received right before their 35 year anniversary, I’d say that’s a small price to pay. 🙂 I still get teary eyed thinking about that.

Any questions I didn’t answer?
Let me know and I’ll update the post!! (Comments below are good too!)

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Day 1673 – Late Night Date Night – At Where It All Began

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Since I’ve known Bret, he’s always been pretty frugal. Being married to this great guy has helped me to be pretty frugal too. I may have mentioned that we both went like 5 years without buying new jeans. This has helped us to pay off a huge amount of debt and live within our means. I am SO thankful for this side of us. I pray that when we do have more money, we’ll keep this frugal attitude (How To Be Rich has been VERY helpful in preparing me for that).

That being said, he does love to spoil me. Now that there is a bit more breathing room in our budget, we’ve been able to go out to eat a time or two more than normal. We’ve also had a few gift cards/coupons to help with that. (Sidenote: gift cards really are a GREAT gift! They have allowed us to get to the movies and dinners we would never have gone to!) Sometimes, if I’d like to go out, I make jokes/comments…really not expecting for him to say yes. Last night while driving home late, I made a comment about going to TGIFridays…since it is almost our 7 years knowing each other anniversary….and we met at TGIFridays…specifically the one I was suggesting.

Well, he said yes! 🙂 I mentioned that he wouldn’t have to do anything for our 7 year anniversary now….but….I think we’ll still do something. 🙂

We each had a drink and an entree (thanks to a coupon!) So much fun!

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