personalized wedding gift

Do you love to go to weddings as much as I do?
I love to photograph them.
But I love to just attend a wedding too
without the photographic pressure.

I LOVE to attend family weddings.
So much fun to get the whole gang together again,
add a new person to the mix, dance all night,
and just have a great time.

I don't love the pressure of getting the "perfect" gift.
These days you don't even have to leave your house.
Just go to one of the major bridal registry retailers online,
a few mouse clicks later and the product is shipped directly
to the newlyweds door...you don't even have to wrap it.

I'd much rather do my shopping in person.
Now, while I love the idea of gift registries and I think
that most people should follow them so the couple doesn't
end up with random strange gifts or ten spice racks,
I do think it's INCREDIBLE to get a really awesome,
"perfect" personal gift.

My cousin got married in September.
I was great with child.
I had ideas of what I wanted to get for them.
The ideas were failing me.
And were just taking more time to implement than I had.

We left San Antonio with no gift...
but then the idea hit me.
Personalized name art is VERY popular right now.
So I figured why not take it ONE step further
and create personalized name art out of
images FROM the wedding and/or reception.
BRILLIANT! At least I thought so.

So I took photos from around the wedding/reception venue
used a little photoshop magic and created this 10x20 storyboard.
Then I had it printed at my lab and mounted on 2mm styrene.
Instant, personalized, good memorial of the day!!!

So, just in case you care here's where the letters came from.
They got married on the roof of this awesome warehousey
type of building and the reception was in the building...all one location.
G - They had white erase boards there so people could write a message and take their photo with the message...I just wrote G!
R - Rolls of silverware
I - A tree/bush outside at the ceremony site.
F - there were some advertisements painted on the wall in the building
F - the chairs
I - the brick wall
N - the ads on the wall
And the date...I went around and took photos of the table numbers that were part of their wedding date!

So, if you go to a wedding and don't have a gift for the couple
take some photos AT the wedding and reception
and create a unique personalized gift AFTER the wedding.
They'll have so many presents to open the next day
that they probably won't even notice that you didn't bring something.
This way your gift may stand out in more than one way!