Minted.com Discount Code + Our Christmas Cards!

I'm sad to say that my laptop is toast. Merry Christmas to me, I'm getting a new laptop! :-P Not ideal timing, but I don't think there is ever a good time for your computer to go kaput. I'm waiting for my new laptop to arrive so I can transfer my files, so in the meantime, I'm using Dylan's laptop.

I did want to share with you two things:

1. Minted.com has a great sale going on right now, but you'd better jump on it ASAP, because it expires on December 6th! Use the code DEC20 to get 20% off of all holiday cards plus FREE upgrade to 3-day shipping!

2. Minted.com has a cool feature called Find It Fast Holiday Photo Cards that allow you to preview their holiday cards with your picture! It makes it so much easier to find the perfect card for your picture!

I was surprised by some of the cards that ended up being my favorites after I got to see them with our pictures. Here are some of our favorites:





So what do you think?

I'm ordering our Christmas cards from Minted.com!

Now that the wedding is over, I've started to look toward the future and I'm already getting excited about the upcoming holidays. I can't wait to send out Christmas cards with "our" last name -- preferably with a fun picture of Dylan and me together! Maybe we'll even use a picture of us with our dogs, since that's what we've come to think of as our little family.

Some of you may have noticed that I have an ad for Minted on the sidebar of my blog. I've been very choosy about putting any ads up, because I'm very big on only giving props to companies or products that I would actually use myself. The ladies at Minted are exactly that kind of company. Recently they sent me an assortment of samples of their holiday cards, and I can't tell you how impressed I was with them. Their stationery is lovely online, but it's even more impressive in person.

As anyone who has read my blog will know, I am a details girl. Minted does not disappoint. They have details that I love. Specifically, they have coordinated envelope liners and wrap-around labels available for most of their designs! Even the backs of most of the cards have coordinated patterns. They've thought of everything, and I love that. I also love that they give you different paper choices and color choices for so many of their designs, so you can customize them just to your liking. I'm personally a fan of the pearlescent paper for a lot of the holiday cards I've looked at, but it all depends on your style and preference.

I've spent hours admiring the samples they sent me, and looking at all of the designs on their website to try to narrow it down to some of my favorites. I don't think there's a single one that I didn't like, so narrowing it down has been more difficult than I expected.

These are just some of my favorites:

{clicking on the pictures will take you right to that card on Minted}

{Love and Peace Eternal -- whimsical, folksy, eclectic and unique}

{Celebration -- elegant, classic, and understated}

{Mittens -- festive, cute and cozy. I love both the font and the mittens!}

{Holiday Stripes -- traditional with flair, preppy, a nice balance of masculine and feminine}

{Octavia -- rustic, kitschy, vintage, and charming}

{Woodland Wonderland -- woodland critters with a faux bois birch bark monogram! Love it!}

{Mistletoe Wreath -- artsy, warm, and sweet}

{Reinpet -- what's not to love about your pets with reindeer antlers? And I love the liner!}

{Joyeux Noel + St Nick -- This is one of the samples I've seen in person, and it's a lovely charcoal gray. The liner and label that came with my sample are a pretty muted peach color. You know how I love gray and peach together! I think this one is especially adorable if you've got a cute little munchkin to show off!}

{Delicate Flourishes -- ornate and pretty without being bonk-you-over-the-head 'holiday'}

If you want to go all out, what about sending gorgeous mini-books as your Christmas cards?

My favorites include:

This Airmail Holiday Minibook would be perfect if you got to travel somewhere exotic this year. Maybe you could showcase some honeymoon pictures?

This Peppermint Ribbon Holiday Minibook is a little kitschy, and a lot adorable.

And this Snowflake Window Holiday Minibook is perfect if you want something rich and wintery, without being red and green.

For those brides-to-be who are still in the thick of wedding planning and aren't even thinking about the holidays yet, Minted also has gorgeous wedding stationery, from save-the-dates to invitations and thank you cards. On November 1st, they're launching an exciting new addition of photo calendars that would make perfect save-the-dates, or New Year's greetings for those of us who tend to get too busy during the actual holidays to get our holiday cards in the mail!

So what do you think? Which holiday cards should we send out this year?

Burnt Orange and Brown (by special request)

One of my readers wrote me a note asking for help and advice with her upcoming wedding.

Here are the things I know about Danika and her fiance:

They're planning for a wedding in late December using burnt orange and brown for their colors.

They want plenty of unconventional mixed with some traditional elements. For example, they want ice cream instead of wedding cake. She doesn't consider herself a girly girl, but she has decided that her bridesmaids will have brown dresses and she's planning to have a hippy style vintage wedding gown. They want budget-friendly and down to earth.

Here is what I came up with for their wedding:

{click to enlarge}

To me, one of the trickiest elements is using a burnt orange and brown color palette in December. For a wedding in the dead of winter, it's nice to add warmth to a palette, but you don't want it to come across as a stereotypical autumn wedding. I was tempted to add a third color, but I wanted to keep this inspiration board true to what Danika had requested. By adding another color, it would be easier to distance these colors from an autumn palette. Fun color options could be pale or navy blue, light or bright green, cranberry, magenta, plum, or teal. I haven't done those exact combinations yet, but I do have a pumpkin and aubergine palette and an aqua, orange and brown palette that might help to give more ideas.

Danika wants plenty of candlelight, so a pretty and fragrant centerpiece idea may be tealight or votive candles nestled into small dishes full of coffee beans. In the picture near the top right, the jars are even wrapped with orange raffia bows. For winter, I think I would even use a luxurious velvet ribbon!

I was thinking that a fun way to keep the bridesmaids (and even the bride) warm for a light-hearted winter wedding would be cute cardigan sweaters. If the bridesmaids are wearing brown dresses, they could have burnt orange or off-white sweaters. For the bride, she could have her choice of off-white (whatever version of white that goes best with her dress), burnt orange or rich brown. The key would be to have nicely fitted sweaters that are feminine and not too thick or bulky.

Here are some of my favorite examples:

I love the lace detailing on this white Just Ginger lace trim cardigan from Nordstrom.

This Elbow Length Sleeve Pleated Cardigan by Banana Republic is a lighter orange, but the pleated detail and feminine style are lovely.

This Caslon Swing Cardigan from Nordstrom isn't the cardigan style I imagined, but I like this sweater. I've always liked swing style sweaters and jackets. If nothing else, the bride would at least have a cute sweater to wear in and out of the venue!

Don't let the picture of this Merino 4 Pocket Cardigan from JCrew fool you. It looks a little frumpy here, but it's actually a streamlined and flattering style.

I'm also a big fan of interesting wedding shoes. This couple is young and wanting to mix things up a bit, so I thought the chocolate brown Converse sneakers and some funky shoes for the bride were a nice touch. (The Converse and orange bridal shoes pictured were featured on one of my favorite blogs, Snippet and Ink.) The peeptoes pictured aren't ideal for a winter wedding, but I think these burnt orange Pia Stitched Flat by Pink Studio would be perfect for a hippy chic bride! Plus, they're less than $40!
For winter flower choices, my first thought was calla lilies. Actually, there are quite a few lily varieties that come in various shades of orange. I recently had a florist admit to me that Costco sold their flowers for cost (sometimes even cheaper than the wholesale florists), and I know they have assorted mini calla lilies for a reasonable price.

Serving ice cream at a winter wedding seems like it could be a challenge, so I thought I'd include some simple and tasty looking cupcakes as another nostalgic dessert option for people who are craving something cake-like. The chocolate cupcake with orange sprinkles is from Martha Stewart. The Swiss orange chocolate chip cupcake is from Alpineberry blog -- she even gives her recipe! If you really want to stay with a theme, you could even serve Swiss orange sherbet (orange sherbet with dark chocolate chips) by Dreyer's / Edy's.

Some warm ideas that also incorporate the color palette would be serving hot cocoa and spiced cider!


The rest of the details on today's inspiration board are from a variety of weddings on The Knot.

Ooo, and on one last note:

I LOVE argyle socks! (These are from the GAP.)

Aqua / Tiffany Blue Inspiration Board

I was originally inspired by Martha Stewart's cute cappuccino and banana honey cupcakes. When I started searching for color coordinated wedding ideas, it was harder than I expected. There are so many variations on this color. Teal, aqua, Tiffany blue, robin's egg blue... It gets complicated to find good color matches!

{click to enlarge}

The I Do decorated shoes are Jimmy Choo's. They aren't exactly budget-friendly, but you could do that on any wedding high heels. The aqua sandals with the rosettes are by Nine West. At a fraction of the cost, that's much more budget-friendly!

The bridesmaid dresses are all by Watters.

I think the DIY sugar crystal chandlier from Once Wed is fantastic. (I wanted to call it sweet, but I caught myself.)

The other pictures were found at The Bride's Cafe.

I think this could be a really versatile theme. It'd be great for warm weather, but I actually think it could be a nice winter theme, too.

Dark Red and Mocha Brown

Today's inspiration board is all about classic romance. I'm helping a friend plan her wedding right now, and I made this board after asking her the way she imagined her wedding. She described red roses combined with rich fabrics and textures. I love the red floral kissing balls with the candles for an instantly romantic atmosphere.

Her fiance is the head chef at one of my favorite restaurants. His specialty is French cuisine, so I thought the wedding cake made by Florian Bellanger called "the charlotte" would be a perfect wedding cake for them. Besides being an impressive French pastry, it's gorgeous!

{click to enlarge}

The sexy red peep-toe shoes are from Ann Taylor. The red patent leather shoes are from BCBG. The bridesmaid dress on the lower left is by Jasmine Bridal. The other two dresses are by Thread.