A Proper Homecoming

Homecomings are by far one of the most romantic events in the military world and probably one of the most romantic events the civilian world is missing out on, unless viewed on YouTube clips. 
For those of you who don't know, homecoming is when a service member comes back from a deployment.  It is an epically fantastic time.  Photographers are hired, outfits are planned, nails are done, your hair is fabulous, etc. To say the least, it is quite a production. 
As you can imagine, signs are often made.  The sign posted here was for Ryan's pre-deployment leave.  I live in Wisconsin, he lives in California, so it was the sign I made for when he got off the plane to come visit.  These signs can be as simple or complex as you would like.  I chose to go with a theme from the Disney/Pixar movie, "Up." The romantic theme in that movie alone is so adorable and so I thought it was most fitting for the occasion.  I used simple poster board, sketched it out free hand and then my residents (I'm an R.A., here at UW we call them House Fellows) were ecstatic to help color it in. Pretty simple, pretty basic.  You can go to a local copy shop and have one printed on thick cardstock or posterboard.  The thing with homecoming is that you want to go through the least amount of stress possible. You can have an elaborate idea planned out and if something goes wrong, you could end up ruining your own homecoming.  So take a deep breath ahhhh, and realize that your significant other will love you no matter what.

  Now moving on to more elaborate signs, I know I'm going to end up making Ryan like 12 million signs, let's be real, I'm crazy in love with him.  A simple solution to make quick, cute sign is to make a digital image through Picnik.  Go to www.picnik.com and most of their services are free of charge.  I have the premium account.  It's completely worth paying that extra money, especially if you do not have photoshop, which I currently don't.  They have pre-made layouts so all I did was insert Ryan's picture into a patriotic layout, added text and covered it in lipstick kisses.  I can now take this image, save it to my computer and go to a website like www.vistaprint.com and have a banner made.  Obviously if you want a horizontal banner, use a horizontal layout or create your own.  Or skip all of it and bring a digital copy of the picture you would like to use into your local print shop and many of them provide services to design banners for you.  By using a couple of these tips, it'll make your life infinitely easier and your homecoming much more enjoyable.