Instagram vs. Reality

I recently came across Amanda's post on Instagram vs. Reality and I also thought it would be fun to do on my own account. I don't think that there's a single picture on my Instagram where I haven't tried to find decent lighting and no dog fur in the background.

1|| As you can probably tell, there's dog fur in the background of the body scrub/lotion/soak. There is forever dog fur on everything we have, and we really should brush Gunner more, but whatever. In reality, there was more fur there, haha!

2|| It always takes me a while to figure out the best pose to show off the nail polish bottle AND my nails. But not too close, or you'll see how terrible my cuticles are and the little air bubbles from painting my nails in an air conditioned room.

3|| Gunner is most definitely improving in the tricks department! He can usually hold the toy or treat on the top of his head or snout, but this picture took quite a few tries before he was still enough. These toys are fun though, because he really does pause when they're on his snout. It hooks on to him and ends up flinging his head around to get it off, haha!

4|| I really, truly, honestly could not just dump my lip gloss bag out and snap a picture. Oh goodness no. You bet I tried to place them so the labels were all facing up, and that there weren't any spare eyeliner pencil shavings, or lip gloss that had exploded.

I almost always use the photo editing app PicTapGo! to make my pictures brighter. It has so many filters, and it really does brighten up a lot. It helps me because our lighting is so dim in our place, and sometimes I find myself finally having time to take pictures when the sun is going down.

What are the secrets behind your Instagram pictures?

xo. Nicole

Wedding App Review

The day after Rob proposed, I went crazy and downloaded a bunch of apps on my iPhone that had to do with weddings. A bunch of them were the same thing, so I ended up deleting more than half. Out of all the wedding apps on my phone (6), only 2 of them are actually useful to me. 

I thought it might be helpful for all the brides and future brides (or grooms) to have a little review of the helpful apps instead of purchasing a ton of useless ones. (Mind you, I'm not very good at doing reviews)(Don't blame me if one turns out to be the greatest wedding app ever invented but I gave it a sucky review so you didn't download it and now your wedding is ruined) :D

Brides 3.0 - FREE

This app is quite helpful in the way that it has a LOT of dresses, options for jewelry, shoes, vendors, etc.. I found it nice (before I found my dress) to browse through all the pictures when I was bored. If you allow your location services, it's accurate in showing you which vendors and other wedding things are around. It's not a checklist-type app, it's more of a find-what's-around-and-book-it-all-for-your-wedding-type. I really like the design, too. 

Wedding Complete - FREE

I thought that this was my favorite one...until it started crashing on me whenever I tried to open anything past the countdown. Guest list? Nope. Checklist? Nope. RSVP? Nope. There really isn't any point of me having it anymore except for the cute design for the countdown. When I could open the parts of the app, the guest list and seating chart were really simple to use and were helpful.

Wedding DIY - FREE

I really like the notebook feature because you can take pictures of something and then label it as what it's for.  I feel as if I should be taking pictures of every list that I make. I keep losing them. If you click the checkmark on the bottom of the screen, it emails you a PDF of a checklist. Though, I've done this a few times and I have yet to receive my checklist.

Wedding 911 - FREE

The Knot is an awesome site and it's app isn't too far behind. My only issue with The Knot is that it doesn't offer anything for people living in Vancouver, Canada. The app, however, is basically just questions and answers so your location doesn't really matter. The answers to some of the questions are really traditional, so it's helpful that there's a basis to go off of for your own wedding (did that even make sense?). You can even ask your own questions! I've never asked, so I'm not actually sure how long it takes to get a reply or if it will even be answered. This is a really helpful app to have while you're planning your wedding.

WedHappy - FREE

This is (by far) my favorite app for planning a wedding! The task list is very, very helpful and it shows you the deadlines based on the date of your upcoming wedding. As you can see, I'm about 3 weeks behind (lol). I highly suggest this to anyone planning a wedding!

So there's my little review of a few of the apps I'm using to help me plan my wedding! I believe they were all free, but none of them (if any) cost more than $1.99. 

What apps are you using to help plan a wedding?

xo. Nicole