Congratulations! You’re Engaged. ~ Your Wedding Budget ~ Part 3

Two major keys to having a wedding budget that works for you are making a realistic budget and sticking to it. At the end of this post you’ll find some sample budgets and worksheets.

Be sure to research wedding cost in your area and include those cost in your budget. Pricing in different regions can differ quite a bit. Recently married friends and family are a good source of information. They also know about budget busters that you wouldn’t think to plan for.

It is important that you do not exceed your total budget amount. You wouldn’t want to start life happily ever after in debt would you? However, if you need to, you can adjust or eliminate various components of the total budget. This is when deciding when to splurge and when not to splurge becomes important.

When making your budget, you and your fiancé should rank the various categories of your wedding budget based on importance. By doing this in the beginning, you know where to splurge and where not to splurge. Being a scrapbooker, I chose the splurge on photos. Photos last a lifetime and we were willing to pay more for quality products and service. We chose not to hire a videographer. A wedding video was not important to us. You have to decide what is important to you.

Be sure to refer to your wedding budget often. Post it to your bathroom mirror and refrigerator if you have to. Out of sight is out of mind. Remember don’t exceed your wedding budget.

Below you find other articles on wedding budgets:
--Your Wedding Budget - When to Save and When to Splurge by Bridget Mora
--5 Tips to Cut Down Your Wedding Guest List and Your Budget by Erica Tevis
--How to Calculate Your Wedding Cost Breakdown by Marcie Pearsons

Sample Budgets and Budget Worksheets from my Google search.
--The Knot’s Sample Budget
--Sample Budget from images.della.com
--RealSimple.com’s Wedding Budget Worksheet
--WeddingDetails.com’s Wedding Budget Worksheet

In the previous post of this serious the topics were Getting Started and Wedding Planning Checklists. I hope you got some good information from this series. Email us if you have any topics you would like to see discussed on our blog.

Congratulations! You’re Engaged. ~ Wedding Planning Checklists ~ Part 2

Previously in Part 1 ~ Getting Started I recommended that you get a wedding checklist as soon as possible. You can use one provided in a wedding planner or customized one to fit your specific needs. You can find several checklists online. At the end of this post you’ll find some samples.

It’s best to keep everything in one place. This will reduce your chance of forgetting something. I used a workbook, but you could use a spreadsheet, or an online site. I suggest using what is most familiar and comfortable for you. You want something that you will ACTUALLY use because this checklist will be the key to keeping you organized.

Below you find another article on wedding planning checklists:
--Why Do You Need A Wedding Planning Checklist? by Jake Springhurst

Sample Checklists and Wedding Planners from my Google search.
--Best-Wedding-Plan.com’s 12 Month Wedding Countdown Checklist
--The Pash FREE Wedding Planner
--WeddingWire a free wedding planning site.

Next week, look for Part 3 of this series Your Wedding Budget.

Sketches ~ Card

Starting today, we’ll post a sketch at least once a month on Fridays. We’ll post our designs created from the sketch a few weeks later. You’ll have a couple of weeks to create your design from the sketch. If you want your design posted on our blog, just email us a JPEG of your design.

So here we go!


Below is a sketch for a 5 ½ x 4 ¼ card.

The dimensions for the paper pieces are as follows:

A - 2 ¾ x 3 ¾
B - 5 ¼ x 2
C - 5 ¼ x 7/8
D - 2 ½ x 3 ½ w/ 4 embellishments

Don’t forget many of cards can be purchased in our Etsy Shop.

PD4U Etsy Promotion

Distinctive Moments belongs to Paper Designs for You (PD4U), an Etsy Team. Staring tomorrow, September 19, 2008 we are having a promotion bag giveaway.

There will be two FREE promotion bags available sometime between Septmber 19 - October 24, 2008 in Distinctive Moments Etsy Shop. Thirteen other PD4U shops are also participating. Click here for more information on the promotion.

We have included bookmarks in the promotional bags. Below you’ll find sneak peek of our bookmarks.

Congratulations! You’re Engaged. ~ Getting Started ~ Part 1

I’m sure your are happy and excited about your engagement and your upcoming wedding. If you haven’t started yet, you are probably starting to panic about planning the biggest event of you life up to this point. My first piece of advice is to STAY CALM. With proper planning, preparation, and a team love ones supporting you your day will be perfect.

I recommend that you read a wedding planning guide and get a wedding checklist as soon as possible. You’ll need to have a clear idea of what is in store for you until your wedding day.

When I planned my wedding I bought the Easy Wedding Workbook & Organizer. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something similar at your local bookstore. I liked this organizer because it had a checklist, budget worksheet, vender comparison charts and a host of other information. I also stored my wedding planning documents in the organizer. I liked having all of my wedding planning information in one accessible location.

A major part of your wedding planning efforts will be making a realistic budget and sticking to it. That’s when the fun really begins. You’ll have to decide when to splurge and when not to splurge.

Below you find other articles on wedding planning:
--I'm Engaged! Now What? by Pamela Kazmierczak
--Wedding Planning Guide - Tips For Planning Weddings by Jen Carter


Stay tuned for more post about wedding checklist and your wedding budget.

Custom Etsy Shop Banners

I recently updated our Etsy shop with a new banner and avatar. Initially, I was going to make them myself, but after browsing our shop hearts I saw studio71design’s Etsy shop. I liked their work and decided to order their Custom Basic Banner Package. The package included three banners (shop, sale, vacation), five avatars, and a custom order graphic.

The owner contacted me within a day to start the design process. I gave her a general idea of what we wanted and let her work her magic. After a couple of iterations, the following product was produced in a few days.



A job well done I think.

I like the design so much; I also ordered the background graphic for our business cards. So you Etsy shop owners, who are looking for banners and avatars, be sure to see what studio71design has to offer.


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Periodically, when we make any purchases from Etsy Shops, we’ll review them on our blog. Email us if you have any Etsy Shops you want us to review.

Distinctive Moments is Moving to Columbus, OH

Yes, we are leaving the St. Louis area and moving to Ohio. St. Louis has been awesome to us, but we’re sure Columbus will be even better. The move is schedule to take place take place at the end of the September.

Below is a schedule for our move:
-Distinctive Moments will be closed the week of September 21, 2008. All emails and voicemails will be answered the following week. The phone number will be changed to a Columbus phone number. Mail sent to our mailing address will be forwarded to our Ohio address. Contact us if you need our new mailing address.
-Wedding invitation and accessory orders (Birchcraft and Carlson Craft) placed the week of September 21 will be processed the following week.
-Pre-made Distinctive Moments Etsy Shop orders placed between September 21 and October 4 will be shipped by October 10, 2008.
-Work on new custom scrapbook orders will not begin until October 12, 2008. You are more than welcome to contact us about placing an order prior to our design start date.
-The Columbus Scrapaholix Club will start in November. Stay tuned for more information on the club.

The website, blog, Etsy Shop, and all email addresses will remain the same. We are sure that the move will go smoothly and you will see very few changes if any.

Wish us luck!

Excel Spreadsheets for Etsy

For you Etsy shop owners who want to track what items are viewed in your shop, the Hearts and Views Manager from Simple Solutions for you. My search for this tool started when I read a few articles on Etsy and ran across an article on relating your shop hearts and views to sales. I’m a numbers person so I thought this would be great information to keep track of. But I wasn’t going to view our shop every day and keep track of the hearts and views. Nor did I have time to build a complex spreadsheet to perform this task for me. I searched Etsy’s forums and found a shop that offered this type of spreadsheet customized for your shop.

Simple Solutions offers many Etsy spreadsheets to for your Esty shop as well as personal needs. Custom spreadsheets can also be built to serve your particular need.

I received the spreadsheet within a day. Initially there was a glitch in the spreadsheet but it was quickly corrected by Simple Solutions. I liked the spreadsheet so much that I also ordered the Sales Tracker. The two were well worth the price of $5.00 each. I’ll be sure to purchase any other Esty spreadsheets we need from Simple Solutions.


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In the future, when we make any purchases from Etsy Shops, we’ll review them on our blog. Email us if you have any Etsy Shops you want us to review.

Scrapbook Kits… another way to scrap

If you are looking to save time and some gas money, you should definitely consider purchasing scrapbook kits. Most of the kits include numerous papers and embellishments to complete several projects and layouts (save time by not having to coordinate your supplies and save gas by not having to drive all over town to coordinating elements.) Many of the kits also include instructions sheets for various projects. You can buy the kits as you need them or sign up for a subscription.

Some kit clubs are technique based. Each month you will learn a new technique. This would be great for scrapers who want to learn more about scrapbooking. Distinctive Moments will be offering a technique based Scrapaholix Club this Fall in Columbus, OH. Stay tuned for more information.


Below are a few Kit Clubs:

Lickety Split Scrapbooks
Lickety Split Scrapbooks offers both page kits and board book kits.

Memory Workshop
These kits are designed to make 6+ 12x12 pages. Memeory Workshop is a Canadian based business.

Serendipity Scrapbooks
Each month Serendipity Scrapbooks offers at least 3 types of kits to choose from.


So if you haven’t tried scrapbooking with a kit, why not try it today. If you have used kits in the past, what are some of you favorites?