Simistar

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Quote: Originally Posted by simplnsweet How are you liking the Olympics my fellow Canuck! Love it and hate it all at the same time:-) GREAT energy and excitement in the city...but it also means I'm working about 28 days straight and going bananas Quote: Originally Posted by Thomasjsgirl I'll make sure to write another post about my experience with her so that other brides don't fall into the same trap. But, I digress ... GREAT ALBUM!! Good lord! Absolutely, you should post something. I too had problems with our photographer, so I can sympathize...but it looks from your siggy pic anyway that you at least got some great photos?;-) In any case, your review could help future brides... And I'm SURE with the CD you have you can make a gorgeous book! Or have someone design it for you if you're not comfortable with that...but like I said, it was my first time, and if I can do it, so can you!:-) Honestly, if you need ANY help at all, I'm MORE than happy to help! Quote: Originally Posted by cait713 Beautiful! You really did a lovely job with your photobook. I've been looking into this site for creating a book as well. I'm wondering what level you downloaded to create yours-scrapbooking essentials, enhanced, or extreme? I'd love if you could get back to me! Thanks! I bought the extreme version...but ONLY because I wanted a 12x12 book with 12x24 panaromic layouts and you can only do them that large with Extreme. And b/c as far as I could tell, that's the only version where you can save multiple layouts to one project and be able to see them all at once while you're working on a project. (*I also like doing that kind of stuff and figure I'll do more projects with holiday pictures and help friends out, lol:-)) That said, I think you can buy just the Essentials version and have everything you need...for a LOT cheaper:-) If the largest you want to go is 10x10, you can do panoramic layouts with Essentials for 10x19 layouts. And you'll just have to save each page as a separate project...which is kind of inconvenient, but again, cheaper:-) Then again, if you like this kind of stuff, like I do, may be worth splurging for the Extreme:-) I'm certainly no expert with it, but if you need any help, just ask! I actually designed my whole album using the trial version, then bought it. You can use the trial for as long as you want, it's just that if you haven't bought it, it will print with a "Lumapix" watermark all over it:-)

Quote: Originally Posted by TLC4Rock Wow, really cute! Thanks for the link. Any ideas for BM dresses? haha! I did come across this cute BCBG dress for $70...but I guess only if "watermelon" is in your colours:-) Still quite a few sizes left though:-) Save on the BCBGMAXAZRIA Strapless Ruffle Trim Cocktail Dress at SmartBargains.com

Quote: Originally Posted by bikegirl Simistar, your album looks fantastic and just as good as any "professional" one. I love it! Aww...you're sweet... thank you VERY much:-)

Quote: Originally Posted by robynhood Thanks so much simistar! You have posted SOOO many things that have helped me in my planning. I am grateful!!! Awwwww! Thanks for making me smile on a crappy day!:-) Anything else I can help with, just ask:-)

Hi Ladies, In case anyone's looking for an inexpensive TTD, I came across this sale today... It's a BCBG dress for $84.97 USD and it looks like there's a number of sizes available in ivory. Save on the BCBGMAXAZRIA Canvas Poly Satin Woven Dress at SmartBargains.com Happy shopping!

Quote: Originally Posted by carly Wow, fantastic job!! I'll def have to bookmark that site for later since I can't afford $500 right now... Oh yes...that's partly why we didn't get our album til a year later:-) Though of course, if you have fewer pages than we had, it would be a bit cheaper...no much, but a bit!:-)

Quote: Originally Posted by carly Thanks for that company name! I had started to create my own a while ago, but hit a creative wall. Good to know about that company. Hey there! did you mean Black River Imaging...? If so, I posted a review of the book I ordered from them here: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ew-pics-55062/ Cheers!

Great story! Congrats! BUT please post some of those pictures! We want to see them:-)

Whoops -- sorry, forgot to mention the kind of album I ordered is called "Tuscany".. And the base price for the leather covers, including 20 pages, is $249 USD. Every page after that is an additional $7.50 USD. Quote: Originally Posted by liznsergio I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad it all worked out for you at the end! The album looks amazing and you would never guess that you had an assh&*@ for a photographer! I hope EVERY Cancun bride on this forum gets a chance to read your review on him! LOL -- thanks:-) And I think by now *almost* every RM bride on this forum has read that review :-)

Quote: Originally Posted by www.storybyphoto.com Always glad to help! Glad it worked out for you and you ended up with a final product you could enjoy. If you ever decide to renew your vows somewhere amazing give us a call and maybe we can get to be your actual photogs so we don't have to fix another photogs mess ups! LOL cheers, Gino and Heather storybyphoto.com LOL -- thank you! You're first on my speed dial if do anything like that:-) For anyone who's curious about the finished product, I just posted a thread with pictures of it: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...ew-pics-55062/ :-)

Thanks everyone! Glad you like it -- so do I:-) Quote: Originally Posted by Sarah Awesome job Michelle! Not many people can do a book that good on their first try So glad it turned out for you... fabulous pictures! Wow -- this means a LOT coming from you Sarah! Your books are gorgeous:-) Quote: Originally Posted by mlabbe It looks great! I'm glad that you were able to get this done with the photos that you got - and I noticed, not one arm in the air in the shots that you posted Haha -- yes, I think those were the first pics I weeded out:-) Quote: Originally Posted by babiexoxo fantastic job!! do you mind me askign how much was it? I don't mind at all! It's just that the price changes based on certain factors... i.e. if you want a cameo window, or a funkier cover like alligator etc, how many pages you want, the size of the album etc... So, I ordered a 12X12 black leather with 30 double-page spreads or 60 pages (or "sides" as they're sometimes called...) So my total order, with taxes and shipping was $560 USD. So, definitely not cheap, lol, BUT cheap-ER than ordering the same through a photographer... at least most photographers I checked with charged a design fee (which I think has a huge range, from $200 - $1000 ?) and then they charge for the actual book anywhere from $500 to a couple thousand... Though if you don't want to go through your photographer or design it yourself, there are some companies that do that, including Sarah Sproullie, who's a vendor on this site:-)

Here are some of the actual album: If anyone has questions, ask away:-)

Hi guys! I know a lot of girls on here have been wondering about DIY flushmount albums...but there hasn't really been a review done on where they finally ordered from... I know, because I was one of those girls looking! :-) I had been thinking about just having someone do them for me, but I really do enjoy doing this kind of thing, though I have no experience with it!:-) So I did it myself... May not be as great as if a pro did it, but I'm pretty happy with it:-) So, for anyone who wants to do it all themselves like I did...here's what I did: For starters, I designed my page layouts using Photo Editing Software - LumaPix :: FotoFusion Thanks to Morgan for letting me know about it:-) Fotofusion is REALLY easy to learn and easy to use. TOTALLY recommend it! Here are a few of the layouts to give you an idea.... If you want to see all the layouts, you can go to this link to my photobucket album: Lumapix pictures by msimick - Photobucket Once I had the layouts done, I needed a place to order an album from! I really wanted a flush-mount album... for those who aren't familiar with this style, the pages lay flat, there's a VERY small seam in the middle of the book so panoramic layouts look nicer and the pages are thick, almost like cardboard. Problem is, most places only sell to pro photographers... I used BlackRiverImaging.com - Professional Photo Albums BRI will sell to consumers as well as pros. Also, I wanted a SQUARE book... sites like Picaboo only offer the rectangular kind. I ordered a 12X12 square book with a leather cover. And honestly -- I have only good things to say about them! Customer service was AWESOME... I had been concerned about the resolution of some photos, and their head technical guy e-mailed me a few times until all the layouts were right. I got the album delivered about two weeks and I was super nervous because 1. this kind of album isn't cheap and 2. it was my first stab at doing layouts so wasn't sure how they'd look in the finished product But I didn't need to worry, b/c the album is AWESOME! I would totally recommend Black River Imaging if you're looking for a place to order a flush-mount album... I wouldn't suggest designing the pages with the BRI software though -- it's complicated and NOT user friendly at all! Once you've designed the pages though, you just save them as jpegs and upload to the BRI site... Again, this process could probably be made more user-friendly, but with some trial and error, you can figure it out:-) I'll post pics of the album below...

Before: After: Obviously, some of the changes are slight, but I think they make the pictures look waaay better:-) I actually decided to design my own page layouts, and have actually just recently received the flush-mount album I ordered… And I LOVE it – THANKS TO ALL THE HELP I GOT FROM YOU GUYS! I’ll post a thread soon on the finished product:-)

Hello ladies, As many of you know (I think that’s a slight understatement, lol) I had problems with my wedding photographer and the photos we got… (if, for some reason, you missed that thread, there’s a link to it in my siggy :-)) After I posted my review, I honestly was overwhelmed with how many offers of help I got from so many of you lovely ladies and vendors on this site! I actually had TOO many offers of help, from re-touching, cropping, editing the photos to actually designing album pages for me! I couldn’t have possibly taken everyone up, but I seriously appreciated every offer and want to thank EVERYONE who took the time to help me, or even offer to help… One member Jess H., whom I’m not sure if she’s on here much anymore, even offered to design all my album pages on Photoshop for me. But I really owe a HUGE thank you and thumbs up to both Story by Photo is the worlds Leading Destination Wedding Photographer, husband and wife team bringing over 15yrs of experience. and Sunbride! Sunbride offered to crop many of my photos that had been taken from so far away, it was like we were in a Where’s Waldo book! VERY kind of her to do, especially since she was super busy in her personal life. And Gino and Heather from Story By Photo kindly offered to edit some of the photos that CLEARLY needed editing to make them usable… Basically, they offered to “polish the turds†we we'd been given :-) They were extremely generous with their time and expertise. And while they didn’t have much to work with (i.e. the size of many of the pictures was too small to really do much with them) -- they did a great job & I wanted to share some examples... Before: After: Before: After: Before: After: notice how they lightened the background!...since our pro photographer made it look like we got married at midnight:-) Before: After: still going....

Quote: Originally Posted by ssleenyc Hello. I have the original photo files (and permission to use) from my photographer. I'm looking for someone to design my album. Mostly interested in a magazine style book. Any recommendations for some steller work? Looking for a high end look and finish. Hi there, I *just* went through all this too:-) I did research some album designers, and got some recommendations from pro photographers I know.... Also, as mentioned above, Sarah Sproullie, who's a vendor on this site, gets great reviews on here! Here's a link to a thread reviewing one of her books: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-review-48712/ Also, here are two of the sites/companies that came recommended to me: Albumesque - menu Wedding Album Design - In the end I decided to design our album myself, just b/c I like doing that kind of stuff... If you're the same way, you might consider purchasing Lumapix Fotofusion software to design the pages, which is what I did. (*Thanks for the recommendation and help Morgan!) Then I ordered our album through Black River Imaging, which is one of the FEW places (actually it was the ONLY one I could find!) that will sell flush-mount albums to NON pro phtotographers:-) Anywaaaaay, hope this helps, good luck!

Quote: Originally Posted by doblauvelt So what's the word on these companies? Has anyone ordered their books, I would love to hear the reviews. Hi there! I designed my album pages using Lumapix Fotofusion and ordered a flush-mount album from Black River Imaging and just got it about a week ago... And it's AMAZING! Seriously, it's REALLY gorgeous! I plan on posting a new thread soon with pictures...hopefully this weekend:-) Any questions -- please ask:-)

Hey girl! Honestly, I really don't know much about these things, but am wondering, can't you just use the original Spanish-English one...? Doesn't it being an "original" make it as good as certified..? Or maybe you can just get the original one notarized...? (though I think you'd need to be present for that, and show ID etc to the notary...maybe your MIL can send it to you in Africa and you can get it notarized there...?) Good luck -- and send me an e-mail soon!:-) (Or is it my turn?:-))

Quote: Originally Posted by Dayla911 Hey ladies! Has anyone had any problems with the beach chairs being gone or having to reserve them at 6am? When we were there December '08, it wasn't a HUGE problem (finding chairs at the beach or by the pool)...however my DH's cousin would get up early and go save a bunch and sit there until we all got there:-) That said, she did that by the pool, and I think the beach chairs don't actually fill up til the afternoon... Again, though, that was December...hotter months may be different:-) But even after all the guests left (we stayed an extra week)...we didn't have problems finding pool chairs...may not be the exact location you wanted, but shouldn't be too bad... Quote: Originally Posted by LeslieJohn2010 Hi girls, I'm thinking about having my wedding here, but noticed that packages are for hotel guests only. Does anyone know thee fee for non-guests? Also, what is the fee if I go over the 20 guests to go to the ceremony and reception? Thanks! As far as I know, a day pass costs about $90 USD... (unless they've increased it to $150? that seems REALLY high...maybe double check with Cecilia...) We went over the 20 guests as well, and basically you are charged per person for the food and drinks (assuming you're having a "private" reception and not just at one of the restaurants?)... The charge per person depends on what menu items etc you choose and what "level" of package you bought...i.e. gold, silver or platinum... HTH :-)

GORGIOSO! Both you AND the pictures:-) So happy for you!

Congrats and welcome to the forum! I'm a former SMb bride -- there are actually a few of us around:-) There are already a couple threads with TONS of info -- here are the links: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...a-beach-26707/ http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...-brides-32238/ http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...verview-34406/ Check these out and of course, if you have questions, there are lots of us to help out:-)

Stunning pictures! Congrats!!

I absolutely heart your dress!

Quote: Originally Posted by mlynnea P.S. In the first pic, I think they normally tie the cocktail tables with white ribbon, so I think this must've been someone's cocktail reception since the tie-downs are either brown or black. They didn't actually do tie-downs for ours... but it's a great idea... Maybe double check that Cecilia will have this done for you...sounds like one of thoe "small" details she may forget:-)