our wedding: the invitations

Hi guys! I am so excited to finally share details from our wedding with you guys! You were there with us for the planning parts of it, from picking a venue to finding our photographer to buying my wedding dress to trying to decide what we wanted for decorations, so I'm pumped that we now can share all the pictures from the big day. In the next few weeks I'm going to share parts from the day and the days leading up, from bridesmaids dresses to what I did to prepare for our wedding to decorations to just sharing a few of our favorite pictures. Today to kick it off, I'm going to start with sharing our invitations!

One of the big things we spent a lot of time on was our invitations and everything that comes with that, from finalizing the final guest list to sending out the invites to chasing down those last RSVPs.  I spent sooooo much time thinking about what we wanted our invitations to look like (one of the first pinterest pictures I ever saved was a wedding invite from Minted!), but the actual process of finding the perfect card wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

You may remember that for our Save the Dates, we were really fortunate to work with Minted, and I was every more excited when we got to work together again on our wedding invitations. Minted has always been my go-to for invitations, Christmas cards, and personalized gifts, so the fact that we got to pick from their wide selection of beautiful wedding invitations was like a dream come true.

I spent several weeks poring over the options. Did we want the classic wedding invitation where there are lots of envelopes and sleeves and multiple things all together? Did I want the 3-in-1 option, where the RSVP is attached to the invitation (and most costing around $1.75 per card)? Did we want our pictures on the front? How were we going to have people respond to the invite, and how were we going to get their answers for what they wanted for dessert? I spent a lot of time playing around with all of the options!

In the end, I wanted something that represented us, to be similar to the style of the wedding, and have it be pretty. I really gravitated towards white backgrounds, lots of greenery, and simple font.

The design we finally decided on was "Paradise" - I love the simplicity of this design! Our florals for our actual wedding were a lot of greenery with pink and white flowers, so I thought this would be a perfect homage to that. I really love that so many details on the Minted designs can be customized when picking out invitations, and you can even request changes to be made! I asked that the Minted artist change the little white flowers to be blush pink flowers instead, which was a simple change that really made the whole invite more personalized and reflective of our wedding day flowers.

My favorite detail? The gold embossing for our names and the ceremony site - a bit of a throwback to our Save the Dates that also had a touch of gold on them. 

My second favorite detail? One of our engagement pictures on the back. I wanted the front to be simple and include all the details for the actually wedding, but loved using one of our engagement pictures on the back. I figured most people would have the front of the card on their fridge or wherever, but this was a way to keep a bit of "us" on the invites as well. We also used the free service of having a wedding webside on Minted so our guests could get a bit more information about the actual wedding day that we didn't include on the invites, like where to stay, the bridal party, and our registry, so that website address was included on the bottom of the backside of the card. 

The cards themselves were printed on a beautiful thick paperstock, and the envelopes were thick and sturdy. We, of course, used the (free!) addressing service through Minted, so we didn't have to hand address anything, and had our address printed on the back of the envelopes as well. I loved the cute little RSVP cards, and getting those back for three weeks was so much fun - I always looked forward to getting the mail! Our dinner was buffet-style, but we choose to do individual pies for the desserts, so we had our guests initial their dessert choice. Here's my mom's - I can't believe she chose berry over apple!

I am thrilled with how our invitations turned out, and am forever grateful to Minted for being such an important part of our wedding planning process. We have loved working with them over the past several years, and will continue to be paying customers of theirs. 

Next up - decorations (spoiler: these little candles were the perfect compromise for a no-flame-allowed venue), and then my gorgeous bridesmaids!

PS. Have you seen Minted's adorable monogram maker? You can download any style, and use it for wedding things (like decorations or print on napkins or whatever), or just as a cute background for your phone like I did ;)

wedding wednesday: save the dates, part one

Long ago, when I first discovered Pinterest, I also found a ton of wedding inspo, from fairytale dresses to venues to wedding invitations. I had a whole wedding pinboard even though I was 22 and years and years away from getting married. I remember I had this one pin of a wedding invitation that I was just in love with - it was white with curly gold foil font, and it was just the prettiest.

Like most gorgeous wedding invites on Pinterest, it was from Minted. I've been working with Minted on some of my favorite posts over the years (see here and here), so when they offered to collaborate on something for our wedding, you guys, I almost cried. I was so excited because I just love their stationery, and every Minted invite we have ever received has always been gorgeous.

Since we're about 14 months out from our wedding, since some of the big things are nailed down (we have our venue and our photographer), and since we have a lot more time right now than we will starting in July, I've been scouring the Minted website looking at their 1600+ options for Save the Dates. There are a couple of things I was looking for when picking out options:

• It had to match the overall vibe of our wedding. We are having a barn wedding, and therefore are all about a bit of a rustic, outdoor, pretty theme. Our wedding colors are probably blush and navy, and I hope to include a lot of greenery and whites into the wedding decor. Therefore our invites should convey a similar theme.
• I would love for it to include gold foil. Luckily a ton of cards have the options of customizing the colors to any color in the rainbow, or about five metal foil options, which I love!
• The main font has to be easily legible. I love the really swirly fonts, but also want it be clear to read. 
• Ideally, our names would not be the center point of the card. Both CR and I have longer names, but go by the shortened version in every day life, so I just didn't like the idea of our full names taking up the majority of the card. There were a couple of styles I loved so much that did have the names larger, but I just liked them so much I let it slide. 

So once I narrowed it down, the cards really started to fall into two categories - ones without pictures and ones with. Here are the final eight cards I settled on that didn't include a picture. I think if you made me choose right now, I would go with the diamante foil-pressed version. I love the greenery and the gold foil - isn't it gorgeous?!

one | two 

three | four

five | six

seven | eight

The other option is one with our picture on it. We have engagement picture session scheduled for mid May, and I think depending on how they turn out, I'd like to include them in the Save the Date. We keep all the Save the Dates we received on the fridge, and I just love looking at our friends and family every day. I also think it makes it a bit more personalized. For these ones, I'm having a really hard time picking out a favorite! I think my favorite is the XOXO card - they have a beautiful font, have the foil pressed option, and our names aren't the focus. I also love the whimsy of the We Do card, but it doesn't include a foil pressed option. But then I also really like the theme of the Vintage Love cards, although our names are the biggest part of the card!

Am I overthinking this? Maybe.

one | two

three | four

five | six

seven | eight

If nothing else works, we can always go with this very appropriate save the date for a couple who met in cadaver lab ;)

A couple of other things I wanted to mention about what I love about Minted. First of all, you can order a sample of any card for $1. Once we decide on our favorites, I'm going to order them in the style we want - I love that you can really get your hands on it before ordering 150 of them before you've even touched them. Also, and this is a big deal, is that they offer free recipient addressing on the envelopes. I sent out like 15 Christmas cards this year, and wrote the addresses by hand, and am not about to do that again x10, so this is definitely a huge perk. I'm thinking about getting a personalized stamp for the return address - we'll see what Pinterest finds for me! For now, I'll work on narrowing down our favorites, finding a dress for our pictures, and collecting addresses!

Please note that we are receiving credit for our Minted Save the Dates, but I was not paid to write this post, and of course as always, all opinions are my own!

gift guide for stationery lovers (+ a giveaway!)

one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight | nine | ten

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing at Anthropologie when I ended up in my favorite section, the stationery section! I fell in love with this adorable pencil case - my friends in college used to make fun of me mercilessly because I loved a good pencil case, and it's kind of funny that ten years later, I'm still just as in love with good stationery and accessories as I was then. I ended up not buying it because I no longer use as many paper goods as I once did, but it did get me thinking about how there are still a ton of stationery and accessories we can use now as adults.

A few of my favorite items in this gift guide are from one of my favorite online paper goods site, Minted. I've worked with them several times in the past, including on how to create a gallery wall on a budget, and how CR and I found a way to decorate our home in personalized and neutral themes. In this post specifically, the personalized stationery, gold map (you tell them the address, they make it for you!), and pin board, are all from Minted. They also have a ton of other cute gifts (check out their gift guide here). We also got our Christmas card from them this year! To help spread the holiday cheer, Minted is offering two readers a $125 giftcard each - go here to enter the giveaway. We are looking forward to working with Minted in the future, including sharing our Christmas card, and future wedding invitations!

decorating for two (+ a $250 Minted giveaway)

I've had plans to do a home tour for months now, but I was waiting for our carpet to be installed. Well, six months later, and no new carpet, so today instead of doing a full house tour, I'm going to show some of the smaller details.

When CR and I moved in together, we really were coming from a place of not having that much furniture, and really not that much to decorate with either. I had my bed, desk, and dresser, and so did he. When we moved in together, we took a little trip to the nearest Ikea to get a kitchen table, TV stand, and desk drawers. Since then, we've slowly added a headboard, art for the walls, and personal touches throughout our house. My goal when I was setting up our house was to not make it too girly, so I really tried to stick with neutrals throughout. There are probably a few too many gold or white items for his taste, but at least I tried ;)

Here are a few corners of our house, and where we got everything + there's a little giveaway at the end for you!

Bedroom: 

Headboard: Overstock.com

Bedding: Pottery Barn 

Nightstands & lamps: Ikea

Gallery wall: DIY [post on more of that here!]

Painting: c/o Minted

We trained the dogs to stay out of the bedroom - we needed at least one place Baer's hair wouldn't be all the time! It's also the only way we manage to keep our bedding clean...although I wouldn't mind switching to the buffalo plaid for Christmas, even if it doesn't go with anything else in our house ;)

As far as decorating goes, I wanted a headboard that would work in any of our future homes, so I went with a tufted grey version from Overstock. The gallery wall is bits and pieces from my previous gallery wall in my old bedroom (with a mix of a few of our favorite pictures and quote prints found on Etsy). The picture from Minted pulls out colors from the bedding, but also adds a bit more color to the room. 

Living Room:

Couch: Interior Define (from a Camp Patton giveaway)

Ottoman: Target

Pillows: Ikea + Target

Bookcase: Ikea

Globe: Target

Gold frame: Nordstrom

White Frame: Jonathan Adler for JCPenney

Shrub: Target

Dachshund book ends: Jonathan Adler for Barnes & Noble

Tray: Etsy

Our house is pretty small, so keeping everything neat and tidy is our number one priority. I love our tray for our remotes and drinks on top of our ottoman - it keeps it all in one place. Our bookcase holds books on the bottom shelves and personal items on the top shelves - our first picture together, the vintage Grey's Anatomy I got him for our first Christmas together, a globe that will eventually have a map drawn on it (with the state's we've visited colored in), and pictures of our pets (because we are those people). 

Bathroom: 

Art: c/o Minted [virgo + libra]

Our bathroom is tiiiiiiny - really only one of us can be in there at a time. We added a shelf above the toilet for a little extra storage for the shared items we use every day, and then added the frames from Minted above. I love that they are more personal to us, go with the limited decor in the bathroom, and can always be used in the future somewhere else. Plus they are just so pretty when the gold foil catches the light!

I have really loved working with Minted over the past few months to add a few personal touches to our rented home, and so am therefore excited to offer you the chance to do the same. Minted in generously offering one reader $250 to buy a piece of art (or two or three!) for yourself. All you have to do is enter the giveaway here - US residents only please!