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Like, really, you had all that time to make homemade boutonnieres out of buttons and twine? Or, really, who cans their own jam and prints labels and pastes them onto 150 jars as a wedding favor? Not that I’m hating on it, but it just… well… maybe I’m just too non-traditional when it comes to what I think of weddings. Or maybe I just don’t have a thoroughly cemented idea of what a wedding “must” have.

I ran across this article that sums up my feelings pretty well. “To the prospective bride, the wedding sites are a beautiful despair: always done on a shoe-string and filled with the contributions of equally talented and magical friends happy to whip out many-tiered shortcakes and evergreen bouttonieres and old-timey music.”

Certain things are important to me when getting married. I want our friends and family there. I want everyone to have a blast. And I am not going into debt to pay for it. That said, I had a hard time understanding why people pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for blah venues that you can’t really make your own. Or why people pay so much money for catering?! That was a big one. I want my guests to have a good time, but I can’t lie, I don’t really care to pay for everyone to have a filet for dinner. Frankly, they can go to Outback if they want steak. And on our budget, it was starting to look like if we were going to hire a caterer, we would have to stoop to the level of “Here’s a can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli, here’s a fork, enjoy your meal.” Luckily, we found a different, delicious, non-traditional solution. I also don’t really understand the whole “wedding favor” thing. Sure, I enjoy a random candy favor or a set of bamboo coasters, but would I have noticed if they weren’t there at the weddings I attended? No. I have a hard time understanding when and where people go so off the rails in spending for weddings. Then again, I guess it’s probably easier when someone else is shelling out the cash to pay for it all.

I am sure it will be an interesting ride as I plan this out with a ruthless budget spreadsheet in Google docs.

1.) Don’t apply for something that requires years more experience than you have. For example, if you’re still in grad school or have a degree in something unrelated to the position you’re applying for—don’t apply to a senior position thinking that’s how you’ll “break into” the field. You will look like a moron and you will waste the prospective employers’ time—something no one appreciates.

2.) Common sense: if you’re applying for a creative position, DO NOT SUBMIT A WORD RESUME. This really shouldn’t even have to be stated, but for obvious reasons, a Word resume makes you look inexperienced. Fonts change, line breaks are terrible, not to mention Word is aggravating. Design your resume so that it’s clean and readable. Don’t make looking at it any more work than it has to be. And if you’re worried that the employer can’t open a PDF, then they have yet to enter this century and you wouldn’t want to work for them anyway.

3.) Don’t write a book for your resume. Keep it short and simple. In the creative field, this is a bit different than others. Let your work speak for itself, and if the employer wants to know more about your responsibilities, they will ask. Nothing is more annoying than someone bragging in three paragraphs about their job at Big Hotshot Agency.

4.) Take the time to know who you are writing your cover letter or email to. Usually, this takes a full thirty second perusal of the employer’s site. You can also search for jsmith@blahblahblah.com if you think you might know the person’s email but can’t find it on the website. Sometimes people are wily with their contact information, but show that you care. Do the research. Certainly don’t address it “To whom it may concern” or “Dear J. Smith”—you’ll again look like a lazy idiot, especially if the information is readily available.

5.) Use proper punctuation in your email. Even though email is usually considered a less formal mode of communication, when you are applying to a job, err on the side of being grammatically proper. Just because you like to type in lowercase on Facebook does not mean you should do the same in your email. “i have a lot of experience in the creative field. please take a look at my work samples.” No.

6.) It’s good to have an attention-grabbing cover letter that isn’t what an employer might expect, but you can’t make it too weird. I know it’s a fine line to walk, but ask a friend to read over your cover letter if you’re going for the funny/unexpected angle, just to make sure other people are reading it in the way you intend it to be read. Also, make sure to tailor your cover letter to that particular employer as much as you can. It’s pretty easy to tell when people use a canned email to send out mass job applications, and it won’t do you any favors.

7.) Have a portfolio site. Whether that’s your own site or Coroflot/AIGA or Carbonmade, have samples of your work online. Also, if you have your own site, make sure that it works. Make sure that you have work on it, and not just a landing page. Otherwise, you’re again wasting your prospective employer’s time. If you don’t have an online presence, you won’t be taken seriously.

8.) Make sure you direct the recipient of your application to your portfolio site or at least send a PDF of examples. If you’re applying for a creative position without work to back it up, you’re automatically in the trash pile. An employer is not going to take the time to email you back and ask for samples when there are plenty of people who have already sent examples of their work in.

9.) If you do send a PDF of work samples, make sure the resolution doesn’t suck. Make sure it is well designed and organized and doesn’t make people want to stab their eyes out with forks.

There you have it. I can’t guarantee this will get anyone a job, but it should get you through the initial rounds of “This person is clearly a total idiot and has no chance at this job.” Hey, it’s a start, right? You can thank me later.

The morning started out at the ass-crack-o-dawn. I had to be on the Broad Street Line to the starting point by 6:30. Worried about traffic, Scott and I got up at 4:30 am to leave the house by 5. Of course, there was no traffic and we rolled into the Wachovia Center lot at 5:41 am. I hopped on the train, despite my fear of getting lost on public transportation, I assured myself that the herd method and the fact that the Broad Street Express made only two stops would idiot-proof my ride. I was right. I followed the rest of the runners to the starting line. The only problem then was that I was more than two hours early for the race. Which meant two things: 1) that I had plenty of time to sit around and get nervous and 2) that I had plenty of time to sit around and wonder if I should visit the porta potty again. (For the record, I made three visits…I blame having nothing else to do).

Porta potties galore!

The race started at 8:30, but I was in the yellow corral. Yellow corral = faster than the pink corral, but slower than everyone else. So I didn’t actually start running until just after 9 am. Also, did I mention that the high temperature for the day was 90 degrees? It was a bit steamy, but the city of Philadelphia made sure to have fire hydrants on to spray the runners. There was also a nice breeze and running in the shade of the buildings was a huge help.

Yellow Corral: Hell No We Ain't The Slowest!

I think the coolest thing was seeing the joe schmoes of Philadelphia come out and cheer us on. It really was an awesome feeling, and there was such a sense of camraderie and love (ok, maybe that was my running endorphins kicking in, but I don’t care). It helped me get through those tough miles (all ten of them—just kidding). I think the first five miles were probably the toughest, and then I just went into autopilot once I hit City Hall, which was a bit past the five mile mark.

City Hall, halfway to the finish!

Loving on the enthusiastic spectators

At some point, I began looking for my delinquent sister, who said she’d come cheer me on. I searched the crowd until I stepped in a pothole and narrowly avoided twisting my ankle. At that point, I decided to just concentrate on the road, avoiding potholes and leftover water cups that had been strewn about. Later on, I learned that my sister had, in fact, seen me—and she also chased me down Broad Street, screaming and yelling at me, to get my picture! I had no idea whatsoever.

"IN THE ZONE" (apparently)

Water cup cleanup crew

Towards the end of the race, there was a lady yelling through a megaphone that we only had 1.5 miles left. THANK GOD! I became a running machine and just kept going, a la Forrest Gump. We ran into the Navy Yard, where the finish was .25 miles inside the gate. A few days after the race, my coworker (who had also run the race) commented on how cool it was to see the ships in the Navy Yard. Ships? There were ships? Yes, apparently there were large war vessels looming over me, and I had no idea. I was just that focused on finishing (and not stepping in a pothole). Running across the finish line, waving like a tool at the photographers, was euphoric. It was so cool to accomplish something like a ten mile race, especially never having remotely done anything like that before in my life. I felt a bit like the Phanatic, but I was really glad to not be one of the poor people suffering from heat exhaustion.

Done!

Now I’m thinking about doing the Philly half marathon…. Hmmmm…. HMMMMM…. HMMMMMM????

(All photos, except the ones of me, are from Independence Blue Cross’ Flickr)

The website is up and running, and business cards have been printed (by Two Paperdolls). Not only has Brad, 23rd & 5th’s fearless leader, been passing out the business cards like crazy, he managed to get them featured on Business Card Observer! Hooray!

I might be a bit biased, but I’m pretty sure that 23rd & 5th is poised to take over the second smallest state, then the east coast, then the country, and then probably the world.

Not too shabby for designing, printing, and mailing them in a week. Luckily, my mom’s also cool and basically set a few parameters for what she wanted and otherwise let me run with it. I don’t feel it’s often that a client would let their designer play with gigantic italic uppercase type. But I did, and mixed it with some watercolor flower paintings I did, and voila! I have to get better pictures than these iPhone shots and also take some of the envelope labels as well, but for now these will do.

The other thing I had to do was clothe myself for said event, in which my sister and I are bridesmaids. Luckily again for the both of us, my mom had no requirements of taffeta and David’s bridal matching bridesmaids dresses, which is awesome. There’s nothing worse than dropping $160 on a perfectly nice dress that yes, you could wear again, and it’s pretty, but everyone can take one look at it and know it’s a bridesmaid dress. But then it takes up a huge chunk of your closet because you feel bad throwing out $160 worth of Alfred Angelo’s finest designs. So I took my debit card to Anthropologie and bought a gorgeous dress that I have no doubt I will wear for forever and ever. And I even splurged on a new bracelet. Damn, that Anthropologie’s hard to say no to.

More on the other life-changing events to come. Until then, I get to pack boxes and boxes of 27 years worth of accumulated crap. Oh fun!

From Core77

I’m a sucker for a good story concept (and cheap music in the vein of Death Cab) so I bought the album. I’ve been listening to it nonstop, though I have yet to really focus on the lyrics and story, I’m really liking the music. I tend to go for really calm, chill music because I find I can listen to it and work, enjoying the music without getting too distracted (god knows I already have enough of that going on already…I’m looking at you, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Gmail, Gchat, and Google Reader). I did some investigating on the band and it seems the story is party true and partly an analogy for an abusive relationship. In the words of the lead singer, Peter Silberman: “A hospice can be representative of what emotional and psychological abuse can do. Let’s say as a hospice worker, you’re taking a lot of verbal abuse from someone who is dying, cause they’re, absolutely and rightfully so, bitter about what’s happening and feeling like it’s completely unfair, which it most obviously is. And you’re in the position of feeling like you have no right to complain about your situation because it’s so much worse for them. So you think the least I can do is give them a punching bag.” (from an interview with Tripwire).