JetBlue: PDX --> BOS

I think I'm more excited about this for myself than I am for our family and friends. JetBlue has added new flights to their schedule, and not just any flights. They will soon (beginning May 29) fly direct between Portland (OR) and Boston!

I love Alaska, but you have to bring your own entertainment.

Honorable mention

Last week I was interviewed by the Boston Herald. One of their journalist was doing a story about online save-the-dates or invites, more specifically, a video.

For those of you who are not trolling wedding blogs and websites on a daily business, one of the latest trends to take the wedding business by storm are video announcements. I've seen everything from real live movie to stop motion clips where a bunch of still photos are strung together.

I spent about 30 minutes talking to Carley, the journalist, about our save-the-dates, our reasons for sending them out via email, and what not. Now I bet you want to know why we emailed them. Here goes:

1. I'm going to be completely honest, I'm cheap. I probably saved us at $50 in raw materials cost (printing, paper, envelopes, postage). I don't even know how much it would have cost to have someone else design it, maybe in the $100 range for a graphic designers time?
2. I grew up during the big tech boom and I work in the tech industry. I embrace technology with open arms and will use it to my advantage.
3. Just about everyone we know has email. We only had to print and mail three physical save the dates and they were all for those in our grandparents generation. We had to print out 4 others and hand them out because I didn't have their email addresses.
4. It's green. Save a tree people. Yes, I'm a tree hugger. What? I'm from Oregon, it's only natural.
5. We don't know if EVERYONE wants to slap pictures of Jake and I up on their fridge for a better part of the year. If they want to, they have the option of printing it out and doing just that.

Carley and I talked about a lot of things. Including how they were received. Our guests (you!) fall into two categories:

1. Excited! Most people loved them. Many thought the pictures of us as youngen's were super adorable.
2. Confused. Haha, yea it never dawned on me that people wouldn't know what they were. But it happened. I blame cultural and generation gaps. Chinese people have zero clue when it comes to new fangled western traditions. Chinese weddings are all very cookie cutter. Similar invitation, similar decor, similar food, and etc. (I've been meaning to do a post on this stuff). So when I handed them out to my "extended" family (they aren't blood relatives, but I've known them all my life and call them aunty and uncle) they were all very confused and just assumed it was the invite. Let's talk about the generation gap. We also handed one to Grandma, to whom we had to explain that it was not the invitation. I can't blame her, STDs are a trend only from the last couple of years.

Anyways, back to the article. I thought that we'd get more of the spotlight in the article. I thought that our AWESOME save-the-dates would be published in the paper along with it. Such was not the case. We were only briefly mentioned, but it sure beats nothing at all.

Oh I bet you are wondering how she knew we sent them out via email...Paula told her! I haven't a slightest clue how she got in touch with Paula, but it's not important.

Now for the article: Boston Herald: Brides take a shot with video invites - Carley Thornell

Enclosure for printed and mailed STDs. You'll note that "Save our Date" and "August 20, 2011" are nice and big for those that may miss it in the smallish photos. I printed the STDs a tad smaller than I should have.

Contest fail!

We totally failed at attempting to win our planners' Facebook contest.

A very short lived contest in which the winners received $150 off their current planning package was kicked off on 3/1 and was open for submissions up until 12pm (EST) on March 5. In order to win, we were to try and get as many friends and family to "like" Marrero Weddings and Events on Facebook AND to post "Marrero Weddings and Events is Celia and Jake's wedding planner."

I'm not sure if it was just a lack of communication to our friends or what. I refrained from spamming peoples email with a request in hopes that folks would see it on Facebook, either on our pages or via a friends page. No such luck. When Thursday rolled around, I decided to beg for help via both my blogs. It helped some, but we were so far out of the running that any efforts, while valiant, were futile.

Oh well, it just was not meant to be. Maybe we will win a bigger prize somewhere else.

A big THANKS to all those that did try to help us. Your efforts were heroic and did not go unnoticed. Thank you! Thank you!

Please help us!

Please help us! Our wedding planner started a contest on Facebook. The couple with the most posts wins $150 off their planning package.

$150 may not seem like a lot on a wedding scale, but every little bit counts!

Like Marrero Weddings and Events on Facebook and then post the following on their wall:
"Marrero Weddings and Events is Celia and Jake's wedding planner"

Contest ends Friday, March 4 at 12pm (E.S.T.).

Now let's talk about some stats. You are might be thinking "naw, they don't need my help, they have plenty of friends." SOOOOO not true. In fact I'm begining to think that either our friends just don't like us, or you are all thinking the next person will help us.

There are 3 couples in the contest. We are dead LAST as of now (3/3 7:55am EST).
Amy and Sean - 28 posts
Kate and Doug - 17 posts
Celia and Jake - 15 posts (that's including the 2 posted by Jake and myself! I don't think the other couples made posts themselves.)

In any case, I'm bribing folks to help us out. It turns out that cupcakes are a great bargaining tool.

So please, help us out if you have Facbeook. (Don't tell Paula, but you can always hit the "unlike" button later). Oh and I'll give you a cupcake if you do this.

(airline) Discount!

We scored a discount for you guys, well some of you guys, on air travel!

For those of you who book Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air, you'll get 7% off for travel to (and from Boston) between August 17 and August 23, 2011.

It's not much, but it sure is beats nothing.

Use discount code: ECCMB2303 for Hung/Perkowski wedding. Not valid for Hawaii or Mexico and some cities may not be available. Let us know if you run into any trouble.

We know that not everyone can hitch a ride on Alaska, so we tried to negotiate for a similar discount through JetBlue. No dice. Sorry ya'll, we tried.