Wall Art

When Sam and I moved into our rental home, I knew that I wanted to work really hard to personalize the space, but I also recognized that we are on an extremely tight budget, and we didn't want to sink money into a rental. I hated the bland, boring white walls, popcorn ceilings, and icky beige carpet of my apartment in Athens, and I wanted our first "home" to feel as much like our own place as possible. One of the best decisions we've made is the investment in some beautiful "works of art".

Sam and I were blessed to meet two incredible people who photographed our wedding and engagement sessions. Chris and Allie Bartelski are amazing people and really, really talented photographers. (Plus they were recently blessed with one of the CUTEST baby boys in history) Together they form theReason (link directs to their interactive blog). Sam and I are so thankful to have these pictures to celebrate and remember these times in our life. But I didn't want to leave all the memories in digital form and look at them occasionally on the computer, so I searched for professional grade printers. After I found a fantastic site for high quality, professional prints, we decided to order some prints to hang on the wall.

First we composed an arrangement from our wedding pictures for the wall in our living room. I ordered when the site was having a pretty good sale, so I think total cost for the prints was about $40. We are really pleased with the way it turned out! And this is definitely an investment that we can utilize in every home for years to come! (Believe me, they look better in person... our house is just super dark)

Since our first experiment turned out so well, we decided to order another print to hang in our bedroom, this time from our engagement shoot. Again, we're really pleased! And the best part is that we got the frame for $31 and the photo for $16... Not a bad price for 24x36 art on the wall!

And lastly, it doesn't hang on the wall, but we got our wedding album in the mail several weeks ago, and as this blog has turned into an endorsement for Chris and Allie, I figured I'd include a couple of shots. As a designer myself, pretty much every wedding album I've ever seen has made me want to gag. There are some really talented photographers out there who get way too amped up when it comes to album design... yeesh! Let the pictures speak for themselves and for crying out loud... let them breathe!!! I was pleasantly surprised when I first met Chris and Allie. Their albums are well designed and timeless pieces to capture the story of the day. So as my last word on theReason... any brides scouring the earth for wedding photographers, Sam and I would highly recommend this husband and wife team!

As for Sam and I, we couldn't be more pleased to slowly make this rental house a home. Augusta may not be our dream locale, but we're making the best of our time here, and decorating on a BUDGET!