Samantha and Tyler found me last year and after meeting with them, I couldn't wait to hear back about their wedding.  I'm a country girl at heart and I love rustic weddings.  I love all weddings (what's not to love?) but rustic, country weddings are my favorite. 

Tyler and Samantha will absolutely come through for me on this and I was so excited when they let me know they wanted to book me for their wedding in Creston, CA.  I can hardly wait for their wedding later this year.  Until then, I'll just be happy with their engagement session. 

Traveling is sometimes tough on kids.  They need to stay busy so you can keep focused and everyone can arrive safely.  Lego boxes are wonderful for entertaining little hands and are fairly easy to make.  There are tons of posts using a pencil box and those are so cute!  I wanted to make some of my own for an upcoming trip, but I didn't have 2 pencil boxes and I really didn't feel like spending $5 for one, so I went to the dollar store to see if they had any.  Well, after and exhaustive search, I found out that they don't have any, but they do have these cute little boxes with a locking lid.  So I went to work and made something similar to the pencil box one. 

First, you will need all of your supplies.  For the box, you will need the box (of course), a small amount of E6000 glue and a lego base.  I didn't have one lego base piece large enough to fit the lid, but I had several of the same color that I could piece together to make a larger base. 

I added a little bit of the glue to the bottom of the pieces and placed them on the box lid.  You don't need a lot of the glue, but enough to cover several spots.  I kind of did a zig-zag pattern across the Legos.  I tried to use super glue instead of the E6000, but it "crunched" when it dried, so I prefer the E6000. 

Wait for that to dry, then fill the box with Legos and you are ready for your next trip! 

Since I have a boy and a girl to entertain on this trip, I made one pink and one blue.  I had so much fun making them and I'm sure the kids will have TONS of fun using them on our next trip...especially if I take the Legos away for a few weeks before the trip. 

Creative minds are difficult to keep busy.  I love imaginative play and making up stories with my kids.  We all add a little to the story and before we know it, there's an underwater talking burrito with purple hair and 2 teeth.  You never know what kids will come up with.

While planning trips this year, I struggled to find things to entertain my daughter.  She loves to read and write, so I was looking online for things that would encourage more creative thinking while keeping her entertained during the long trips we take.  I came across some story starters and thought they were such a great idea, but I could only find a few.  So I decided to make my own!  My daughter absolutely loves these starter pages and can do them over and over again coming up with a new story every time.  She loves to get extra silly with it and it's a great way to keep your child's creative spirit alive.  I have a binder full of all her stories that I save (yes, I save every last one of them) and I hope she will be able to enjoy them when she grows up as much as I enjoy them now. 

I have a few free ones here, but if you would like to download the entire collection, here is the link.  It's just $1.50 for a pack 5 of them!  I will be working on more soon and I hope your child enjoys them as much as mine does. 

Be sure to follow my blog to see all the future story starters and other freebies I post! 

Weddings are pricey.  There's no way around it.  Depending on where you live, you are likely going to pay upwards of $5,000 just for the venue.  That cost typically doesn't include anything but the space.  You will also need to pay for the tables, chairs, linens, food, music, photographers, decorations, transportation,...the list goes on and on. 

So let's talk about the cost for the photographer.  I'm not going to try to tell you that it's not expensive...it is.  I am only going to try to give you something to relate it to.  So let's start with another area of your life...your hair!  Yes, your hair is very important and you can't trust just anyone with it.  It takes training and experience to be a good hairdresser.  The typical cut and highlights will run you about $160.  Some people pay this monthly and really keep up on it, while others may go 3 or 6 months between appointments.  Now I don't know about yours, but my hairdresser takes about two and a half hours to do highlights and a cut.  That's $64 per hour.  If she's able to book appointments to fill an 8 hour day, that's $512 for the day.  Not bad, if you ask me. 

Now, let's look at the time your wedding photographer is going to spend on your wedding.  This is assuming you spend $2,000 on your photographer and the package includes an engagement session and a photo book to share with friends and family after the wedding.

     2 hour – client contact (emails, phone calls, meetings, etc.)
     2 hours – engagement session (travel, session time)
     2 hours – editing engagement session
     2 hours – wedding prep (final forms, charging batteries, clearing memory cards, researching client preferences, etc.)
     10 hours – wedding day (including travel and last-minute prep)
     2 hours – culling (getting rid of unusable images)
     17 hours – editing (1,000 images with a 1 minute/image average)
     2 hours – book creation
     1 hour – final proof, upload and delivery

That’s 40 hours...$50.00 per hour.  That means that your photographer, who is providing you images that will last a lifetime and will be viewed by all of your family and friends and perfectly document the biggest day in your life is likely making less than your hairdresser.  None of these figures include the overhead costs either.  Your hairdresser has to rent out space and buy her equipment such as a blow dryer, curling irons and things like that.  Your photographer, however, will likely have a camera worth several thousand dollars as well as several high-quality lenses that all cost over $1,000 EACH, not to mention insurance costs and website maintenance costs. 

So when you do the math and really look at how much work your photographer is doing, it's one of the best (and cheapest) investments you will make for your wedding.