Hubby and I promised our lives to each other under a couple of century-old gum trees on one of the hottest of summer days in Australia. It was a day and a night that I will never forget, and will always be grateful for because we simply could not have done it without all of the help of our parents on both sides of the family. We were young and broke, and short on time. But so many family and friends pitched in with the planning and it somehow just came off utterly perfect.
For a bride, it was a very different experience from that of many of my friends. My girlfriends, when they were engaged to be wed, spent hours planning and coordinating all of the details. I, however, was living in Canada … literally a million miles away from my finance and being able to hands-on plan the event. My mother-in-law and her husband hosted the event at their home, which was on a vineyard in Southern Australia. She also took the lead on organizing virtually everything. I owe her — big time! To coordinate the menu, she and I were faxing each other notes back and forth. Yes, FAXING. Remember that archaic method of communication?
Things sure have changed these days though. I sometimes wonder how different it would have been for Hubby and I if we could have had the technology advantages of being able to instantly see and speak with each other on skype, like long-distance couples can do these days. We, on the other hand, were one of the first people I knew who used email. My mom had lent me a laptop so that I could email Hubby from my apartment, late at night, when the rates were a little bit cheaper. Yes, that’s right, emailing was expensive — very expensive! — back then. But nowhere near as costly as the telephone.
Now, it’s almost unbelievable what a person can do from a handheld tablet. One of the coolest ones to hit the market recently is the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. To see it in action, you can watch the short video below in which a wedding planner shares how she uses it for techy things but also for the creative elements in her work as well.
And here are some of the features that help set it apart from other tablets:
- Large 8” screen that is still small enough to toss into a purse.
- Wifi capable for connecting at home or while out and about.
- Bluetooth
- 5.0 MP Rear-facing Camera and 1.3 MP Front-facing Camera with Flash. Capture those big and small moments that make each wedding unique.
- Light weight, at just 340 g it won’t weigh you down.
- Decent battery life will get you through an event without having to worry about recharging. (depending on which apps are in use).
- S Pen for precision sketching, quick navigation and easy handwriting. The S Pen is the perfect tool for taking notes, personalizing emails, making last minute changes to invitations, or just doodling. And with the convenience of Air View, you can preview content without actually having to open it. Save everything to Dropbox and/or Evernote and have access to everything in the cloud.
- Keep on track and on schedule with Awesome Note, calendar and even sync it with Google’s calendar to seamlessly track everything across devices. With Multi Window, you can use two apps on the same screen, at the same time.
- Take your notes with you wherever you go with preloaded Polaris Office. View, edit and create documents, spreadsheets and guest lists without having to download anything.
- Expandable memory to take your documents from your Note to your desktop and back again with ease.
- Meeting up with the girls for a last minute farewell to singledom? No worries. Coordinate your event through social media (Facebook, Twitter and more) with any one of the many apps available for free in the Google Play store.
- Share photos with a roomful of people with AllShare Play™. With a simple click your images are beamed wirelessly. It’s seriously cool.
- If you are more artistically inclined take your photos to the next level before sending them to family and friends with the Note 8.0‘s powerful and mobile photo editing option.
- Catch up with the latest novel or magazine while waiting to get your hair or nails done. The Note’s compact size makes it easy to bring your library with you wherever you go.
The Samsung Galaxy Note is available for purchase at major retailers including Staples, Futureshop, Best Buy, Visions and NCIX for around $430 CDN.
One lucky Canadian will get to take this beautiful tablet to events with them this summer thanks to the generous people at Samsung. To enter please fill out the form below. All entries will be verified.
Disclosure: I received no compensation for sharing this giveaway with you, my readers — I just thought it was a fabulous piece of technology and that you’d love a chance to win it.
