We’re constantly in a process of refining our apartment, but over the last few weeks this process took on a new sense of urgency. We’re just finishing up our third round of house guests in as many weeks. We wanted everything to look lovely and be comfy for them, especially since they live an airplane ride away and might not be back to visit for a while. We’re on a limited budget and so have been collecting meaningful things slowly over the last few months, which ultimately, I think, is the best way to decorate, but can be frustrating when you just want it all to look pretty right now, darn it!

That being said, one thing I definitely want in a future home but don’t realistically have a chance of getting anytime soon is a deep window seat, one where you can curl up and read. Or nap. A girl can dream, right? Some of my favorites:

{The Inspired Room}

{Better Homes & Gardens}

{BHG}

{BHG}

{House Beautiful}

Finally, we’re ready for the big reveal of the last few months’ labor of love! As with most DIY undertakings, we thought this would be a fairly simple process.

It wasn’t. (Surprise, surprise.)

But, after five months, about 23 proofs emailed back and forth, and a few emergency add-on info cards later, here are the save the dates for K + C’s wedding! Let me give you the tour…

The envelopes are the A6 navy version from Paper Presentation (love them!). The stamps were standard USPS fare. Our original plan was to write out the addresses in white ink, but we decided to save that for the actual invitations. Instead, I wrote each address in navy on an office-supply store white label. We stuck those labels on top of rectangles we cut from old nautical charts.

The return address stamp was from RubberStamps.net, and the service and price were great. It was a bit difficult to position the stamp since it came on a solid wood block, but other than that, no complaints.

The envelopes were also lined with nautical charts. Having a father who teaches at the Coast Guard Academy is a boon when planning a sea-worthy wedding! We chose charts from the Bay Area, as C grew up nearby.

The entire suite: chart lined envelope, save the date, wedding website card, and second reception card (which was only sent to some guests).

As you may remember, our design was inspired in part by one seen here. I designed the cards in Microsoft Publisher (often comes with the standard Microsoft Office suite and is very easy to use). We printed the cards at UPrinting, and though the quality was good, I was a bit disappointed when we got them back and saw there was less white space on the top and bottom than I expected. Oh well. It was likely my fault.

The rope heart was hand-drawn by my best friend, a multi-talented furniture designer at RISD. Thank you, Wanda! We plan to use it throughout the wedding. The cards were printed at Vista Print.

And that’s that! Here’s the cost breakdown, for those who are interested:

150 envelopes (plus s&h): $36*
White labels: $2
Return address stamp (plus s&h): $17.90 (we needed priority shipping)
Charts: $0 (Dad!)
Rope graphic: $0 (BFF!)
Printing of 100 save the date cards (plus s&h): $35.78
Printing of 250 reception cards: $13 (s&h)
Printing of 250 website cards: $4.99 (to upload custom design) + $13 (s&h)
Postage: $39.60

TOTAL: $162.27, or $1.80 per suite (We sent 90 envelopes to 184 guests)

Please let me know if you have any other questions!

*We could have saved here if we hadn’t over-estimated the quantity. But we’ll be using these in the future, so I don’t consider it a loss!

{Click to enlarge!}

After last week’s somewhat austere board, and this past weekend’s buckets of sunshine, I couldn’t resist a board that incorporated yellow. The super-saturated hue here (reminds me of a glass of orange juice!) plays nicely with cool garden green. A trim, blooming cake, over-sized bows, and a yellow wedding dress work well as accents for this summertime garden party.

The Details
First row, left to right: blooms from A. Hana Design; bow photo by Shawn Connell via Southern Weddings; cake by April Reed

Second row: yellow dress portrait from Brides; specialty cocktails from Martha Stewart Weddings; ring shot by Erin Hearts Court via Style Me Pretty

Third row: party-goers portrait by Meg Smith; utensil photo by Phyllis Asher; patterned aisle by La Partie Events (photo by Erin Hearts Court)

Has anyone else seen the buzz about L.L. Bean Signature and Lands End Canvas? Interesting that they seemed to surface at about the same time, no? I like the look and styling of both lines, as well as the price point. Here are a few of my favorites:

From Canvas:

And from L.L. Bean: