Of course, in keeping with our tradition of being a bit untraditional, we opted for a more fun and whimsical route.

First, I found this website: http://www.handfans-direct.com/index.htm

This vendor is pretty cool.  You can pay (a premium) and get custom fans designed and made.  Or, buy stock fans that come blank – allowing you to decorate as you like (what we did).

Look at all these cool shapes (there’s even more than what’s pictured below):

We went for the Bubble fan – the one that looks like a quote bubble.

I then turned to a wedding planners must-have site: Etsy!  I wanted a custom rubber stamp that we could use to decorate our fans.  And I found the best seller – she was awesome, and was able to hard carve my fan in a really quick amount of time.  She also sells other cool custom calligraphy items.

YAY for Etsy…and our cool stamp!

Now that we had blank fans and a custom stamp – we had to get to stampin’!

How cute is our little fan!?!

There are two links below – read them both if you plan on DIYing one.  And this photo booth can be used for any event – weddings, birthdays, regular ol’ parties.  Super easy to setup. 

Link 1: http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/08/23/build-your-own-photo-booth/

Link 2: http://www.weddingbee.com/2010/08/24/faux-to-booth-how-to-continued/

Helpful hint: If you have your measurements already known, you can just cut the PVC pipes to size (for free) using the cutter provided at Home Depot. 

And as for the backdrop, we just bought a fun print sheet set at Ross for less than $8.

And for the camera, we used a tripod with our own digital camera.  This setup does depend on someone always taking the picture for you, but that didn’t seem to be an issue.

Lastly, for a successful photo booth – you need PROPS!  The more the merrier.  Funny hats, glasses, wigs, costumes, white boards – it’s all good stuff to have.  Plus, it’s not bad to have a bit of the alcohol flowing to get people in the mood.

Here are some fun pics from our DIY photo booth:

Okay, this way might not give you “perfect” shots like a professional booth would give.  But we felt this option was best for our budget and still gave us fun pics and gave the guests something fun to do during the reception.

I’ve basically abandoned my actual Kindle device – and read all my books on either my smartphone or iPad.  It’s great! And one less thing to carry with me.

And even better…you can check out (for FREE) digital books from the Seattle Public Library.  I’m sure other libraries out there are doing the same thing.  It’s awesome!  You get 21 days to “check out” the book before it expires and disappears from your Kindle library.  The library won’t have every title out there – but I’ll be definitely checking the library first before buying from Amazon.

Micah used to have the original iPhone and I have an iPod touch – so we are already very used to the operating system and user interface.  Easy to use, WAY longer battery life, and an endless number of fun cases to accessorize your phone.

As a going away present, my awesome friend Kendra got us these adorable iPhone cases.  Love them!

You can pretty much find a case to fit ANY style and flavor out there.  Here are a few fun ones. 

Look how good that one looks!

Genius!!

The back looks just like an old school Nintendo controller.  Awesome!

I thought I’d share some fun stats about my blog thus far:

• 1 – My very first blog post was on September 22, 2008.
• 51,379 – As of 10pm on Dec 18, that is the total number of views of my blog.
• 1,787 – The most views for a single post.  It was on April 12, 2010.  I wrote about running a race in Korea.
• 52 – My current average per day views for 2011, down from an average of 67 in 2010, but significantly higher than my average of 8 in 2008 (for the 3 or so months I was up and running).
• 4,053 – The number of SPAM comments that the widget Akismet has filtered out for me.
• 0 – The number of people I know who I’ve successfully convinced to start their own blog!

WordPress makes it easy to keep stats on your site.  This histogram charts the number of views to my site from the beginning to current.  Aside from a few spikes, my site is pretty darn consistent.

They also make a pretty good chocolate mint flavor soy milk and a pumpkin spice (which I haven’t tried yet). Give it a whirl this holiday season!

We chose a three-tiered cake (where each tier was a different flavor, filling, and frosting combo).  And the decoration…well, it was super simple, but super awesome.

Our cake table.  Soooo sweet.  A shout out to my friend Regina for making that super cute banner.

Our cake.  Soooo cute.  And simple!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  The green perfectly matched the kelly green wedding colors.  FYI, the letters are decorated sugar cookies.

Our custom wooden cake toppers.  I’m holding a cupcake b/c I love cupcakes. (I even have a flower in my hair…just like the real me!)  Micah is in his college football uniform – right down to his actual number.  I found the seller on Etsy…she did such an awesome job.

The funny thing – I don’t really remember how the cake actually tasted.  And since we got married in Hawaii, we opted to NOT save the top tier.  Oh well!!

We especially wanted to make sure our wedding was still special, but didn’t fit the mold of other weddings we had been too.  In the months leading up to our wedding, I was reviewing my usual wedding blog sites (Wedding Bee is a great one) and saw something about a wine box ceremony.  It was really cool, different…and I knew I wanted to include it in our ceremony.

The premise is quite simple – let me break it down:

• Get a box that you can lock/nail/screw shut and can fit a wine bottle.
• My dad made a wine box, custom just for us.  It was quality craftmanship – this box was heavy! 
• Before the wedding, each person needs to write a letter addressed to the other person.  It’s supposed to be a love letter, that speaks to the reasons you love and are marrying the other person. Seal it…it’s not to be read at this time.
• Buy a bottle of wine.  Make sure it’s something you’ll want to drink years from now.
• At some point during the ceremony, you’ll take the wine and the sealed letters and put them in the box.  And then you lock it up.
• For our wedding, my dad’s hardcore box needed screws to secure the lid.  And we invited my parents and Micah’s parents up front to each screw in a corner.

Yes, yes…it’s upside down. But that’s because the lid was actually the base of the box.

I’ll include below the script we asked our friend/officiant to read.  Much of this came directly from the blog where I learned about the wine box – so feel free to use this too!

Micah and Lisa have both written love letters to each other.

These letters describe the good qualities they find in one another, the reasons they fell in love, and their reasons for choosing to marry. The letters are sealed in individual envelopes and they have not seen what the other has written.

Today, the letters will be placed inside this box, along with a bottle of wine and will be sealed shut. Five years from today, on their 5^th wedding anniversary, Micah and Lisa will open this box, read their letters to one another, and toast to the success of their marriage.

Micah and Lisa, even though this box is intended to be opened in celebration and as a reward for five years of marriage, should you ever find your marriage enduring insurmountable hardships before that time, you are to open this box, sit and drink the wine together, and read the letters that you wrote to one another. Doing so will remind you of this day that you were united as a couple in marriage. By reading these love letters, it is hoped that you will reflect upon the reasons that you fell in love, will be reminded of why you chose to marry each other, and find the strength to overcome whatever obstacles led you to open the box.

The hope is, however, that you will never have a reason to open this box. And if this is the case, you are to open this box to share and enjoy on your 5th year wedding anniversary!

We have 4 years and 2 months until we can open our wine box!