Sacramento

If you know me at all, you know that I love sending mail, specifically greetings cards. I send birthday cards, thank you cards, Valentine’s Day cards– you name it, I send it. In fact, I’m so on top of sending greeting cards that some of my friends refer to me as “The Queen of Cards.” So it should be no surprise to anyone who knows this about me that I started thinking about what I was going to do for our Christmas card around the end of October. I’m sure that sounds obnoxiously early, but that’s just how Christmas Card Crazies think.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do for our Christmas card, all I knew was that I wanted to use Minted this year instead of Shutterfly and I wanted to make sure we had a nice picture for the card as well. Last year, I put our cards together last minute and ended up using some crappy picture we had taken with my old Android phone. Even though I put our cards together last minute, I was still able to get them sent out before Christmas, but I wasn’t 100% happy with them.

This year, I started planning early and it paid off. I have a few photographer friends here in Sac and in the Bay Area, and I noticed via social media that they were all offering mini portrait sessions for couples/families in early November so said couples/families could have photos to use specifically for their holiday greeting cards. I price shopped and compared the photographers’ availability to our own, and I ended up choosing Lisa Bardot from The Goodness to take our holiday photos, and it was a great choice indeed! Not only do I love Lisa’s style of photography, but we have been acquantainces for a while because we have a lot of mutual friends. Scheduling a mini portrait session with her was a great way to get to know her better and finally call her a friend, while also walking away with some awesome portraits!

We got our portraits back yesterday and I am so happy with them! We got them taken on a Sunday afternoon at Capitol Park in Downtown Sacramento. I love all the greenery surrounding us in the photos and how the colors really pop. And of course, I love any photo of me with my husband (good or bad). In addition to using these photos for our Christmas card, I plan to print and frame a few for our apartment. I also plan to use the headshots taken of me for my blog and my social media sites.

Now that we have more than enough pictures to choose from to use for our Christmas card, I need to start working on choosing a design from Minted, buy some holiday stamps, and maybe even order a custom holiday return address label. Yes, I know I spend way too much time and money on our Christmas cards, but I told you I’m the Queen of Cards, and that’s just how I roll.