Before we left for Disney, I secretly letterpress printed + mailed these fun party invites for Kacey’s birthday.
I was inspired by these invites and the shower in a box party that my family + friends put together for my baby shower a couple of years ago. Since we were going to be returning from Disney on his birthday and his friends are scattered all across the US, I thought this was a great way to get everyone together for a virtual party.
I came up with a little poem asking everyone to use the balloons + confetti included in the package and take a picture of themselves. I put a little card inside with his email address so they could forward the pictures directly to him. I kept it all a secret, and so did everyone else [thank you!], and day by day pictures started sprinkling into his inbox. Finally, on his birthday, I gave Kacey his own party in a box to open. He was surprised + loved it!
Inside the party in a box, I included three balloons + handmade confetti. Instead of driving myself crazy looking for matching confetti, I used two different sized craft hole punches to create confetti from the letterpress invite prints that weren’t quite perfect. Great way to recycle + keep the look consistent!
The invites + email card were tied up with twine and placed inside a kraft box along with the balloons + confetti.
Mailing labels were also letterpress printed and adhered to the boxes for mailing.
These were so much fun to do. Everyone loved the idea and he received so many funny + memorable pics and even videos for his birthday. I plan to put all the pictures in a little album for him.
It’s been quite a whirlwind over here. After we got back from Napa, we repacked and headed to Disney World for a seven day family vacation with Kacey’s side of the family. It was so much fun but quite exhausting, too!
Then, when we returned [on Kacey's birthday], he got pretty sick with a wicked stomach flu and he ended up in the ER. That was Sunday night and he’s just now getting back to normal. Poor thing. I’m so thankful Em and I haven’t caught it yet. Crossing fingers we don’t!
That darn bug made us change our holiday plans since we don’t want to infect my family. So, we’ll be having a small + cozy Christmas at home – a first! I’m really looking forward to Christmas morning with Em and her seeing her presents from Santa. Oh, the magic of Christmas!
I blogged about these gorgeous sari tutus before and received several emails about where to purchase them. Good news! They are on sale on Zulily today.
The last time they were on Zulily, I actually bought a couple of them – one for em and one for my niece. I was really impressed with the quality. The waist tie is even silk dupioni. So pretty.
Our second day in wine country started out with a fantastic breakfast at our b & b and a relaxing message. Then, we headed out to St. Helena for lunch. Again, we took that crazy curvy road that we took the night before. Since the road had been pitch black with no street lights, we thought we should see what it looked like during the day. I’m glad we did. The views were spectacular. See the yellow patches all the way up in the hills? Those are crops of grapes!
On the curvy road, we also happened upon this beautiful vineyard. I’ve never seen such color! It was breathtaking. Definitely one of our favorite parts of the trip. And completely unplanned.
It was Google’s directions that led us to the curvy road. After driving on it once at night and once during the day, we decided to start taking another route even though it was longer. The alternate route was much less curvy + scary.
Once off the curvy road, we spotted the famous Napa sign.
Then we made a pitstop for lunch at Gott’s in St. Helena. Originally, it was called Taylor’s Refresher.
It’s a little roadside eatery where you can order wine or milkshakes with your burger. The ahi poke crispy tacos + sweet potato fries were SO GOOD! I’m still craving those fries.
Fun news! Today, I’m guest posting on Hellobee. It’s a new pregnancy, baby and parenting blog started by the founder of Weddingbee. I’m sharing a little bit of the design and printing process for these business cards we designed + letterpress printed for them. I hope you’ll join me over there!
We flew into a foggy San Francisco, grabbed a quick lunch, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge…
and headed to Sausalito for a cup of warm coffee.
Then, to kick off our wood + silverware anniversary, we drove a winding + foggy road to Muir Woods to do a little walking tour of the park.
The redwood trees were spectacular + so tall! It was nearly impossible for us to depict their lengthy size.
Afterwards, we drove to Glen Ellen to park our luggage and get settled in at the Gaige House - the bed and breakfast we stayed at for the first portion of our trip.
After getting freshened up, we took a very curvy + dark road through the hills to Yountville to dine at Bottega where we toasted to five years of marriage.
