CNC Wedding Plaque for My Daughter

This wedding plaque was created using Designer software from Carvewright CNC.  The photo was taken at her wedding reception by my wife.  I imported the photo and edited it using a combination of blur, quantize and sharpness to get the 3D carve to look like the original picture.  Once the photo was saved, I created a sign blank using various templates in Designer that I liked and outlined the pattern as a cutpath.  This allowed the CNC router to carve the design, then prompt me to change from the 1/16" carving bit to the 1/8" cutting bit to route the plaque out.  Once removed from the machine, I sanded it using a sanding mop 180 grit.  I then used Minwax Classic Oak for the light areas and Minwax Walnut for the dark areas.  The wood is actually pine.  I found that by buying pine stair treads, I get good wood with no knots.  I rip the bullnose off the front on my table saw.  This leaves about 14" x 4' piece of wood perfect for this type of caarving.  Just make sure to get all the fuzz off the wood before staining!  I will be giving this to my beautiful daughter Vanessa and my son-in-law Josh this Christmas.  They haven't seen it and don't know about it.  It will my surprise gift to them!  I wanted to buy a Shopbot CNC to continue making bigger and better projects, but I just can't afford it.  With all the medical bills I have encurred, it just won't be possible.  My wife has severe allergies and can't eat solid food.  And to top if all off, she is extremely allurgic to wood!  She wants to help but I usually wind up having to stop to either treat her or rush her to a hospital emergency room when her throat closes from the wood aroma.  I would like to have a Shopbot so when I retire in 10 years at 65, I already have set up a business to continue an income to help suport my wife and I.  I need the industrial quality of the Shopbot to handle the work load.  The hobby CNC machine is great, but it can't reliably keep up with the work I need to produce to make a profit.  Hopefully, someone will read this and give it some serious consideration.  I work hard and thank God, still have my health.  It would sure be reassuring to know the machine I have can do anything my mind creates!  Thank you, God bless and Merry Christmas.

Johnny