(ALMOST) OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

It's official, the Lattes are getting married! Our Save the Dates were mailed out today which means that they should be in the hands (or refrigerator doors) of our guests in a couple of days. I can't wait to share them with you!!! But since snail mail takes some time, I'll tell you the tale of how they came to be.

Our STDs were months in the making. Actually, even longer if you count the months they were being created in my head. So even before the engagement, I knew that I wanted to do a photobooth style of STD. You know, the ones with the happy couple making silly, but cute faces while holding up signs that have the words "SAVE", "THE" and "DATE" on them. Very cute and SO very Latte.

Apparently, it's a pretty popular idea because I started seeing them everywhere. I knew it was a matter of time before someone in my circle of friends and acquaintances would snatch up my precious idea. Every time a STD would show up in my mailbox, I would hold my breath and will it to be anything but a photobooth style card.

So when the time came to make our own, I quickly set up my camera's automatic timer and forced Mr. Latte to smile...then laugh...then make funny faces as we took shot after shot holding up a large white sign. It did not work.

Exhibit A:

(Yikes, those forced smiles! And don't our fingers look like dinosaur claws? Rawr.)

Exhibit B:

(The Lattes "laughing"...unsuccessfully.)

After an hour of this forced "fun," we finally gave up and decided to go with the 3 best pictures we had, regardless of how horrible we looked in them. Mr. Latte went home and started working his Photoshop magic, but I just wasn't satisfied.

It was around that time that I discovered this. I know there's been a lot of buzz over this spread here before, but I will never get sick of drooling over these pictures. This couple met in elementary school and celebrated that with the cutest school-themed wedding. I love that they were so thoughtful with all their details, from the apples on the teacher's desk down to the personalized wooden utensils.

I think the aspect of the wedding that I love the most is the fact that everything is so perfectly cohesive. The theme is evident, yet not overdone. They didn't need extra props or special entertainment to do this; they were so successful in incorporating unique details into the "usual" wedding elements.

I decided that the Latte wedding also needed a theme. I racked my brain for weeks to come up with something that celebrated our relationship in a unique and creative way. The only potential theme that kept popping up was our long distance relationship. But, how to incorporate that in a cohesive, non-cheesy way?

I thought of boarding pass STDs to represent the many coast-to-coast flights we've taken over the years. Luggage tags could serve as place cards to highlight all the places we've traveled to during our relationship. A cell phone shaped groom's cake would be a fun way to represent all the texts and pings we've sent each other. Programs that look like passport books, representing all the coast-to-coast flights we've taken. Wait, did I already say that? And a cell phone shaped groom's cake??? Dangit, Latte, I said NOT CHEESY!

(This gorgeous invitation by Ceci NY was my inspiration. Check out the entire suite here.)

I decided that the "celebrating our long distance relationship" theme wasn't going to work so the idea was quickly dropped. And we were back to where we started, sans theme and unique STD idea. But this time, there was a looming deadline. We were ready to give up and go back to our original photobooth pictures when a quick surf on the good 'ol net revealed this:

(Pootiekins' super cute STD)

Pootiekins, aka Mrs. Penguin's fabulous photographer Sarah Chen, was featured here on Weddingbee a while back. What a unique twist on the photobooth idea! She created this adorable STD using her mac and gocco. I immediately got out my macbook and started to set up the scene, but Mr. Latte wasn't cool with blatantly copying someone else's idea. I tried to tell him that everyone does it...but he wasn't having it. So we changed it up a bit and came up with our own creative take on the photobooth STD.

It's killing me inside that I can't reveal them right now. But I promise that as soon as I get confirmation that they've been received, thine eyes will be feasting on the Latte STDs!

I haven't given up on incorporating some kind of theme for our wedding. Any suggestions??? Do you have a theme for your wedding, or a creative STD idea?