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Kyle and David’s Global Fiesta of Epic Proportions

You all may remember Kyle and David who shared their clever trick for creating a “things to do and see” wedding map a little while back. I’m so psyched to now share the Glösite they’ve created for their Global Fiesta of Epic Proportions. I want to attend based on the name alone!

The Glö-Couple:

Kyle, an ESL instructor, and David, a tech support guru

Celebration Date & Location:

May 2011 in Topsail Island, North Carolina (USA) at the Surfside Center

Tell us how you got engaged:

We were snorkeling in Okinawa when he randomly popped out of the water and said, “Alright, let’s do this. Let’s get married!”

What’s the overall ‘feeling’ you’re aiming for with your celebration:

We’re having guests coming from all over the world, the US, Austria, Japan, and Australia, so we’re really trying our best to make everyone feel at home. The wedding is going to be on the beach and the reception is going to be a casual fiesta of Mexican food, margaritas, and everyone getting to know each other. Since a lot of our guests do not speak English, we will be providing bilingual menus, programs, etc. It’s adding a lot of extra work for me to translate everything but it’s worth it!

Are you adding any fun twists on tradition:

Rather than doing a bouquet toss, we will be doing a bouquet pull. These are very popular in Japan and are cool because it combines the ideas of a bouquet toss and the US Southern tradition of a charm pull. Basically you have a bouquet with lots of ribbons coming out of its base. But only one ribbon is attached to the bouquet. Friends and family choose a ribbon and on the count of 3 everyone tugs on their ribbon. The person with the bouquet attached to their ribbon is the “winner” but each ribbon has a charm attached to it. I figure though that these days most people aren’t interested in charms so I’m planning on attaching things like Amazon and iTunes gift cards to the ribbons.

I love the idea of a boquet pull, so I looked all over for some more info on this Japanese tradition, and found this great photo below on flickr

What was the inspiration for you Glösite design?

I want something that is easy to navigate and provides all the information people need in one easy spot. It’s fun, casual, and easy to use!

Now show us your Glösite!

How on earth did you make the crazy-cool wedding party images?

For my wedding party section, I made the template in Adobe Photoshop. I took a picture of a folder as the base. Then I used this tutorial to make the poloroid photo. Next I put a white box for the “paper” and wrote in the information about each person in the wedding party. Voila!

Any good planning tips and tricks for the couples who are just getting started?

MS Onenote is my savior. It helps me keep all of my ideas organized in one place. I really recommend that anyone with the MS Office suite open it up and take it for a test drive. It saves me so much time when I’m going through my wedding notes.

25 Sep 2010

Snazzy “things to see and do” map widget

So Glöbies are incredibly resourceful. You guys find the absolute neatest zing and zang to add to your sites. A perfect example is the map that Kyle made with Google Maps for her site – it includes ALL the hotspots that her guests will need to know about (and get to) during her wedding celebration in Topsail Island. It even has nifty little icons to help guests differentiate a hotel from a restaurant.

View Topsail Island Guide in a larger map

Super cool, huh? I asked Kyle to write a ‘how to’ explanation so that others would be able to do the same. She’s such a good egg that soon after the below arrived in my inbox.

It’s super easy to do!

First thing you need is a Google account if you don’t have one already. Once you’re signed into your Google account, you go to http://maps.google.com/. On the lefthand side of the map, you’ll see two links: Get Directions and My Maps. Click on My Maps. If you’ve never made a Google Map before, a video will pop up that has a great tutorial on how to use the feature. From there you can either click on Learn More to get more details or just click on the Get Started button that’s below the video.

Once you click Get Started, you’ll have Title, Description, and Privacy Options. Give you map a title and description and then you can start dragging and dropping your icons all over the place! I find the easiest way to start is search in the map for the address that your map is going to be centralized around and then start dropping the icons for your points of interest.

Once, you’ve made your map, all you need to do is add it to your Glösite. In the top, right corner of your map, click on “link” – you can just grab the code under “Paste HTML to embed in website” or else you can choose to customize the map. Once you have the code – paste it into any of your Glösite pages by adding it in the widget box.

One of the neatest things about creating a Google Map is that you can share it with the world by making it “public.” Think of all the people in the world who you can help! Kyle told me:

I’ve already received emails from people who were going on vacation on Topsail and used my map during their holiday when they found it in a Google search so I’m glad it can help people beyond my circle.

That’s total Glö spirit. You rock Kyle!

9 Aug 2010