Huge thank you to Artifact Uprising for sponsoring this post! While products were provided for this post, all opinions are my own.

If you do your wedding right, you have a blast surrounded by all of your loved ones – but it also goes by in a flash and some of it is bound to feel like a blur. Landon and I are coming up on our one-YEAR anniversary and are still hearing new stories from our wedding! 

Hopefully, like us, you had a great wedding photographer (shoutout to Jackie Cooper!) to capture those moments you inevitably missed.

We have LOVED going back through our wedding photos and seeing the special day from every angle. It’s heartwarming to see the joy on our faces and those of our family and friends, and so fun to look back at the nuances of that decor we obsessed about for months.

We were looking for a way to immortalize those cherished memories to one day share with our kids and grandkids. Our answer came in a lay-flat photo album from our friends at Artifact Uprising!

Let’s talk about how easy it is to commemorate your big day. Just select your ideal size, choose one of their 40 fabulous fabric and foil combinations for the cover, and then pick the finish you want for your paper (our Lustre pages look and feel amazing!).

Then you’re on to the most fun part – sifting through all your wedding photos!

Artifact Uprising’s user-friendly design interface includes a photo bank and dozens of layout options to easily mix and match. We are still swooning over the full-page layout showing one of our favorite photos from our mountain wedding!

Seriously guys, the hardest part of assembling this album is choosing which incredible photos to use to remember the best day of your life.

These beautiful lay-flat albums make the perfect gift for the parents and in-laws on any holiday. We made one for both of our sets of parents, easily tailored to feature each respective family. We loved them so much we made one for us too. Treat yo self!

Psst! The traditional one-year anniversary gift is paper, too, so this is a perfect anniversary gift as well!

So, obviously, you’ve landed the hubby or wife of your dreams… but with a gorgeous photo album, your wedding can quite literally be the gift that keeps on giving!

 Pro tip: Gift this with a pack of Kleenex, because there’s a good chance family members will tear up re-living the joy from your big day!

Happy Wedding Wednesday! If y’all checked out our wedding registry etiquette post for the bride and groom last week, you know how exciting, yet overwhelming registering for your own wedding can be!

But what about for the guest?! Buying the perfect gift and navigating the registry can be just as tricky! There are so many unwritten rules, so we are here to help break down some of those concerns. We are answering some of your biggest questions to help with the gift giving process for all your upcoming weddings. Enjoy!

How do I find their registry?

A link to the wedding registry should be included on the wedding website or their save-the-dates. Still can’t find it? Try Googling the full names of the couple and if they used a larger company for their site, it should pop up. Still can’t find it? Ask their parents or a close friend of theirs!

Should we send the gift in advance or bring it to the wedding?

Send the gift in advance. At the end of the wedding, the couple is usually whisked off and vendors are moving a million miles a second. To save any confusion or hassle moving gifts, just send your gift in the mail either before or after the wedding.

How much should I spend?

The traditional rule is to spend as much as the per-plate cost is. Nowadays, with wedding costs rising, this could be up to $300 a person, which is not always reasonable for every guest. Think about how good of friends you are with the couple. If you’re a distant friend or colleague, consider starting at about $50-$75 a person. If you’re family or really close, usually about $150 a person is nice.

Do we have to stick to the registry?

Yes, please do! The bride and groom put an unbelievable amount of time into crafting the perfect registry with what they would like included in their future home and life together. I know as a guest, it may not feel as personal buying off the registry, but I promise they will appreciate it.

If you’re really close to the bride and groom and know there is something they would absolutely love but didn’t include it in their registry, that’s fine. My best friend actually gave me the most incredible monogrammed napkins I have ever seen – not on our registry – but she knows me well and had them designed to match our china, so needless to say, I was obsessed. But don’t go off the registry simply for the sake of being more creative.

I was invited to a shower and the wedding. Do I bring two gifts?

Yes. It is still appreciated when the guests bring a gift to the shower and also send a wedding gift. The shower gift is usually a bit smaller than the wedding gift though!

 Shop some of our favorite registry items!

Creating your wedding registry can be one of the highlights of the wedding planning process. Especially for the groom, who often times has a little more of an opinion on this process than the rest of the planning!

I mean, what’s more fun than picking out all of the beautiful new things with your fiancé that your loved ones will gift you to start your new home and life together as a married couple? So dreamy and exciting to think about! But, in this day and age, with all of the different products and types of registries, the process can be a little overwhelming. And if not done correctly, you might find yourself after your wedding wondering why you once wanted that salad spinner or why you didn’t register for the Vitamix. The last thing you want to deal with after the honeymoon is figuring out how to exchange gifts or return them for what you really want. So, do your homework with your fiancé on the front end and make sure you really think through all those fun items that for which you are registering.

So where do we begin?! There are so many different types of registries: the big box stores, the unique china store in your home town, the universal registry, the online-only registries…the options seem endless. There is no one-size-fits-all, but there are definitely better options than others, so for this Wedding Wednesday, we are answering all your wedding registry questions!

Enjoy and happy shopping (and scanning)!

When should we set up our registry?

Set up your registry as soon as you can after you get engaged. If you’re having an engagement party or showers, definitely make sure your registry is set up in advance of the parties so your guests know where to buy your gifts.

How many registries should we have?

I would recommend having a maximum of three. Much more than three can start to look a little tacky (sorry, guys). If you use an online universal registry like Zola, you really only need one!  However, if you want your guests to be able to have the option of picking your gift out in stores, consider adding just one traditional retail registry with your Zola registry like a Williams-Sonoma or a Pottery Barn.

What’s your favorite registry you used?

Throughout the wedding planning adventure, we tried tons of different registries. We started with three basic ones (or so we thought): Amazon, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn. We thought between those three we could register for pretty much anything that we wanted. False – after a lot of broken china and crystal from Amazon, we removed this registry and added Neimans. We found the online portal and buying system tricky, so we removed this one and tried Bed Bath and Beyond. Still not totally satisfied, we finally tried Zola which I had heard a ton about but was not sure how I felt about the universal registry concept. GAME CHANGER. This was by far my favorite registry we used! We ended up removing all of our registries except for Zola and Williams-Sonoma (just so our guests had a box store option in case they wanted to see the product and buy in person). 

To all our future brides out there – this one is for you! We are thrilled to be partnering with Katherine from Bells and Barbells again for this edition of Wedding Wednesday! (PS- If you missed your last couple posts about the power house over at B&B, be sure to check out our posts here and here!)

Today we are talking all about the Top 5 Overall Full Body Exercises to help you crush your wedding day fitness goals! So if you have a wedding coming up or are looking for a little variety to your current workout, jump right in with us! So without further ado, take it away Katherine!

Bells and Barbells Top 5 Overall Full Body Exercises:

Couples showers are one of my favorite wedding trends these days! Traditionally, wedding showers are just for the bride; however, modern day weddings are now incorporating couples showers into the festivity mix!

Couples showers are more like a cocktail party and include both the bride and groom, and of course, their male and female friends! While the party may still incorporate the traditional games and presents, the themes are usually more co-ed friendly. There are numerous ways to celebrate the couple, but the theme should represent their personalities including stock the bar, the hunt is over, Mexican fiestas, outdoor BBQs, and of course, my personal favorite Colorado mountain theme!

Happy Wedding Wednesday! With the new year in full swing, many brides are kicking the planning process into high gear for their summer and fall weddings and making all those final big decisions. Besides the budget and guest list, one of the first decisions that needs to be made is the wedding venue!

The venue will determine the date based on their availability and then will help all those other wedding day details (style, formality, color, decor) fall into place! So what should you look at and think about as you are touring all those venues trying to pick the perfect place?! Here is the beginner’s guide to help you get started!

Location

Location, location, location. Consider the distance and the travel costs you and a majority of your guests will have to get to the venue. Is there a certain city that is meaningful to you and your fiance? What will the weather look like in that particular location in your desired wedding month?

Style

You should have a general idea of the style, theme, and tone of your wedding before your reserve your venue. If you know you want a modern glam wedding, you may want to look into a sleek contemporary hotel ballroom or museum rather than a renovated barn. If you want a nautical-themed wedding, a harbor will better match your style than a wedding mill. We personally are going for a mountain elegant theme, so we chose a lodge styled venue at a ski resort.

Color

If you have a certain theme, style, or color palette in mind, make sure the coloring of the venue reflects or enhances your theme. They don’t have to match exactly, but you don’t want the walls, curtains, carpets, etc. to conflict with your style. For example, dated curtains can really clash with a modern and contemporary vibe.

Size

Create a general guest list before your venue search to ensure the room is large enough to accommodate the number of people on your guest list. You don’t want to book a venue that only holds 75 for a seated dinner when you have 200 on your guest list, and you also don’t want a venue that holds 400 when you only want to invite 75 because it will look empty!

Don’t forget to factor in space for the dance floor, bars, food stations, or buffet tables if these are elements you will be incorporating into your wedding. Often times, (and this is the situation in our case actually) if your guest list is close to the max capacity of the venue, you have to do a seated dinner because there is not enough space for buffet tables or stations. So just keep that in mind as well if the food service presentation is important to you.

Designated Areas

Ask the venue for a typical layout of the space for weddings. There should be logical places for the bars, tables, food, dancing, DJ/band etc. so the space doesn’t feel cluttered. Also, avoid venues with odd-shaped rooms so that it doesn’t mess with the flow of the wedding.

After getting your bridesmaid and groomsmen on board, one of my favorite parts of the engagement process is taking your engagement photos! This is the perfect opportunity to capture your love in some of your favorite hot spots and get some casual professional photos to display at your home or on your save the dates!

Since Landon and I can’t get married in the Fall (dang it football!), I was determined to take our engagement photos during the peak leaf color changing period this autumn no matter what it took! For us that meant, a red eye flight on Monday to Denver, a two hour drive to Vail on Tuesday AM, a 4 hour photo shoot, a 2 hour drive back to Denver that night, and then a 5am flight back to Dallas on Wednesday to get to work on time. All just so we could get the perfect yellows, orange, and red trees in our mountain engagement shoot! And my goodness it was worth it! 

Our photos absolutely exceeded my expectations. Jackie, of Jackie Cooper Photography, just killed it! It was such a pleasure to get to know her better before our big day, and her work is absolutely incredible!

In preparation for this session, Jackie provided me with some excellent tips and tricks below to prepare for our shoot. (After all, we were only there for 24 hours, so we had one shot!) All of her insight was extremely helpful, so I wanted to share it with you all as you prepare for your next couples session! Enjoy!

6 Tips on How to Take the Perfect Engagement Photos with Jackie Cooper!

Collaborate + Communicate

Your photographer wants to know if you have a particular vision for the shoot, so don’t hesitate to communicate what you want before and during the session.  That said, you’ve hired your photographer to create beautiful images for you, so be open to his/her ideas during the session as well.  Collaboration is a wonderful thing; work off of each other!

Location

Often couples will have a particular location in mind for their session, which is great!  It’s fun to have photos from a location that has meaning to the two of you.  If you don’t have any ideas, though, ask your photographer.  We often have ideas for places that we’d love to photograph and would be happy to make some recommendations according to what would suit your style!

Outfits

I suggest that couples choose up to three outfits for their engagement session.  Depending on your location choices, you may find that simply one or two will be a good number.  By limiting outfits, you allow yourself to relax into the groove of the shoot more quickly.

Pack a Beauty Bag

Often your photographer will have an “emergency kit” of some sort, but it doesn’t hurt to bring a bag of supplies that might come in handy with the particular outfit, hair style and makeup look you’ve chosen.  For example, static guard comes in handy in drier climates if you’ll be wearing lightweight, clingy fabrics. Hair products and pins are good to pack for uncooperative hair and chapstick/lipgloss keeps lips from looking dried out.  And don’t forget to pack any makeup that you think might need to be refreshed during outfit changes.

Hair & Makeup

If you aren’t sure you’ll be happy with doing your own hair and makeup, it’s never a bad idea to hire a hair and makeup artist for your engagement photos.  This is a great time, too, to work with some vendors you may be considering for your wedding.

Have fun!

Many couples haven’t had professional photos taken together (or even individually since their senior portraits!), so it’s natural to be a little unsure of what to expect.  Just relax and be yourselves as much as possible, and you’ll become more and more comfortable throughout the shoot.  Another way to make your engagement session more special is to plan a date night out afterward since you’ll be looking your best and will have just spent a good hour together being sweet and lovey!