For those of you who don’t know, I am planning my wedding. Exciting, right?? Future Mr. GC asked in April on my first ever trip to the Outer Banks, NC. It was perfect – the perfect spot, the perfect man, and of course – the perfect ring!
Yep – that’s right. That’s my beauty. I actually took that picture, too. </bragging> Hehe. 🙂 I’d consider myself a crafty person, so I wanted to use my wedding as an opportunity to do 2 things: 1. show my guests a fantastic time that they won’t soon forget and 2. showcase our personal flair for a unique, one-of-a-kind, didn’t cost $1 million dollars day.
- “1 million dollars!”
That being said, we’ve been searching practically the entire world for the perfect everything. A lot of the perfect things though, we just haven’t stumbled on. So myself and my awesome BFOTB (I love anyone who gets that reference…) maid of honor have decided to make the wedding a DIY affair. It’s going to save us a bunch of money, and everything will be exactly how we want it. Hopefully, as the time gets closer and a lot of the DIY projects get finalized, I’ll be posting them to showcase their awesomeness (hopefully not because they suck, haha). We are doing pretty much everything aside from the catering and DJing ourselves, so we have a pretty big project ahead of us. My other bridesmaids are 100% behind this, and were crazy enough to volunteer to help. Little do they know what they are in for.. muahahaha :D.
As a way to thank them, I am doing what every bride should do for her fabulous five – getting an awesome assortment of bridesmaids gifts. I plan on getting each girl an item of jewelry, a Yankee candle jar, something personal to each girl, their bridesmaid bouquet (I am making each one myself – I’d like to take this time to thank my Mommy for letting me work in her floral shop for 3 years), and lastly – a cookbook. But not just any cookbook – it’s going to be one I make myself. Hopefully they find it awesome and not totally lame. That aside, I found this awesome website, Blurb, where you can basically put anything you want into a book. The book is going to include recipes of my own, my favorites, and family recipes. I hope to make it look like a fancy-schmancy cookbook with nice photos and everything.
- Much like this awesome photo, from Smitten Kitchen.
Here comes the point where I need you. I’m hoping to make the have somewhere around 20 recipes. What categories should I include? I’m a nut for organization, so simply placing the recipes all hodge-podge in the book is simply not an option. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Another point of advice I need is this – how the heck do I make food look so awesome in pictures? My Nikon D3000 and I haven’t had the best luck of getting delectably delicious photos. Thanks for the help, loves!
I would also like to apologize in advance for the ridiculous number of posts you will have to endure relating to my wedding. It’s safe to say that I am completely mildly obsessed. 🙂
The Graduate Chronicles 
I am all about the DIY. Too bad I don’t always get a chance to put my creativity to good use since most my attention is called to school. however, I was able to indulge in my makeup storage DIY (which I’ll post about soon). This wedding is going to be even more rewarding because you did it all yourself! The cookbook as a gift is so sweet. I think a really nice Beverage section would be cool too. I’m not familiar with cookbooks…but people love drinks at any gathering (summer or winter!) having your favorite drinks like slushies, fruit punches, or egg nog mix would be cool! As for camera settings..I’d definitely set it to “macro” (usually a little flower icon). it allows your photos to come out sharp and crisp when you’re taking photos. You can also toggle with the contrast/brightness too. If you’re not that handy you can down load this easy photo editing software I use called Photoscape (amazing! Its like a mini Paintshop pro!) I hope that helped a little (:
I completely know how you feel. I am planning a totally DIY wedding and it has been a blast. I have been throwing parties just so I can get a feel of what I want and like. So much fun! Good luck! Congrats!
Congratulations!! Sounds like you’re going to have a great time putting everything together. I love DIY things, though never really have any reason to do any of the cool tutorials I find. As for the cookbook, most of the ones I get have Appetizers, Entrees, Sides, Desserts. With photos I think Tamara was right, definitely set to macro. If you have a zoom lens stand back and zoom in on items so that you get the slightly blurred background. When I take pictures of items I try to do it when there’s natural light shining in through a window, nothing beats natural light. I wish you luck with all your projects! (And thank you for the comment on my blog 🙂 )
Oh golly I suck at DIY, but that recipe book idea sounds like something I could actually pull off! People are always asking me for recipes, it’d make such a great present!
Oh wow, good luck with the DIY wedding!!! I can’t wait to see it! 🙂 As for the recipe book, I’d just go with the standard categories, hehe. As for the pictures, like what Tamara said, macro’s the way to go. That’s the only setting I use when I take pictures of food, hehe. Good luck! 🙂