I am the QUEEN of deals!

In the last month I have been given the opportunity to review two websites that allow customers to personalize holiday cards with pictures and text. I just posted my thoughts about Shutterfly.com (love them, use them all the time!) and I will be doing a similar review for Urbanity Studios on The Budget Savvy Bride where I guess blog. Both sites were kind enough to give me 50 free holiday photo cards for doing a review of their website. Unfortunately, Matt and I had already decided NOT to do holiday cards this year. Our wedding invitations are going out this month and we couldn't rationalize spending the additional postage on holiday cards as well. I'm not sure if you've heard this before, but weddings are expensive!!! I know, tell me about it, right?

So when I was offered these free cards, my first thought was to go ahead and order them, and hang on to the cards for next Christmas. Then, as I was personalizing the holiday cards with our engagement pictures, I had the most brilliant idea: turn them into Thank You cards for the wedding!!!! I chose cards with customizable text, changed "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" to "Thank You" and VOILA! One hundred almost FREE Thank You cards. Yippee!!! Here's my Thank You card from Shutterfly. Their site has the ability to share your cards online in your blog, facebook page or twitter feed - how cool is that! Gah! I love them!

Classic Sky Blue 5x7 folded card

Unique party invitations and greeting cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

So, I'm sure you're thinking, 'Great, but how does this help me?' It's true, not everyone has a blog to lever for online freebies. The moral of the story is GET CREATIVE! Sign up for emails from your favorite vendors and watch for opportunities to turn the unexpected and inexpensive into something fabulous for your wedding.

Any other great deal stories from my fellow brides out there? I'd love to hear them!

Tired of Boxed Holiday Cards? I Have a Solution!

I am a huge fan of Shutterfly.com. In the past year I have used Shutterfly for tons of great gifts and projects. Last Christmas I used Shutterfly to make a calendar for my parents using pictures from my recent trip to Europe. I also made myself a small photo book out of pictures from the same trip. Both the calendar and photo book were easy ways to keep pictures I love on-hand to share with others or enjoy myself without taking up lots of picture frames and wall-space.

Last spring I used Shutterfly to make prints of our wonderful engagement photos. All the prints, from 6x4 to 11x14, were beautiful, quality prints. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Shutterfly did justice to my most important memories. 

All of these great experiences are why Shutterfly was my first stop for photo holiday cards. I am always looking for new ways to share our engagement pictures with family and friends and I will be featuring them photo cards like one of these:

Aren’t they cute!? So much better than boxed, bland holiday cards. I swear I see the same ones every year! We can personalize each of them with our own message, names and the date of our quickly approaching wedding. Perfect! It can be another reminder to those we love that we are looking forward to spending a very important day with them soon. 

So if you're a last-minute shopper (like me!) be sure to check out Shutterfly for you personalized holiday cards. 

This review is based on my own personal experiences with Shutterfly.com since 2009. Shutterfly is providing me with 50 free holiday cards for writing this review - yippee! But that did not change my opinion in any way about their fabulous products. Thank you Shutterfly!