February 21, 2019
Fjallraven Kånken Mini Backpack
Anyone remember this wishlist from 2015 where I mentioned wanting a Fjallraven Kånken Mini Backpack? Well, three years later I finally own one thanks to my bestie who got it for me for Christmas! It's so cute and perfect for casual weekends, like this one at Granville Island which I spent walking around with a coffee in hand. I also love that it's waterproof which is much-needed for our rainy Vancouver weather.
February 14, 2019
Wedding Invitations: Tips & Tricks
In honour of Valentine's Day, I thought it would be fitting to kick off my wedding recap series on the blog. We've been married for 4 months as of yesterday and it's been so wonderful looking at all our photos and reliving the day. Funny how a whole year of planning can be over in such a flash!
As part of this series, I'm planning on sharing some details from our special day and things I learned along the way. First up, invitations!
SAVE THE DATES
For our wedding, sending out Save the Dates was necessary as we had a lot of guests who would have to travel. This way, they were given a lot of advance notice to block off the time in their calendars if they planned on coming. We opted to send ours through e-mail via Paperless Post, which I highly recommend because it was free (tip: the default option requires you to buy coins for fancy "envelopes" but I did away with "envelopes" altogether since these weren't our actual invitations thus making the cost zero).
In addition to alerting people to the date and location of our wedding, we also used the Save The Dates as a way of gathering our guests' mailing addresses. Paperless Post lets you track who's opened your card, which is helpful so you know who to follow up with. They have a lot of wedding invitation designs as well so you could do everything through them for free/cheap and in an eco-friendly way.
INVITATIONS
We had initially planned on using Minted for our wedding invitations because that's the platform we were using for our wedding website and online RSVPs. Side note: I tried a number of different options for our wedding website before I settled on Minted; ultimately I liked that we could manage our RSVPs in one spot, keep certain details private to guests only, and I was easily able to purchase a custom domain name through them.
Our invitations, however, ended up being a last-minute design change once we got our engagement photos back. We both really loved this double exposure photo and thought it would look cool and more personal than the other invitation design which matched our website.
Since we were going to use our own photo, we decided to use Vistaprint instead. Not only is it considerably cheaper than Minted (tip: they have coupon codes all the time; I was able to get 60% off my order by tracking their deals), but we preferred this template for our "movie poster"-style invite. I'm not sharing a picture of the back here but it had some extra photos and details, including a link to our website for people to RSVP.
Vistaprint can be hit-or-miss sometimes but we were very happy with our experience. To avoid disappointment, I would recommend ordering their free wedding sample kit. It takes a while to arrive in the mail but you can see what the different paper stocks actually feel like. We ended up choosing the Linen which was a surprise since I had always thought I'd prefer matte.
The invitations also come with free envelopes but they're plain white and pretty thin. In order to elevate our wedding suite slightly, we opted to spend a little more money (but again, we got that discount!) and got custom envelopes with a grey/white marbled design.
To finish everything off, I ordered a custom address stamp from Etsy (there are tons of designs to choose from) and bought some calligraphy markers from Michael's. I have pretty nice handwriting so I hand-addressed everyone's invitations myself.
One last tip: when you're ordering invites, make sure you count properly! You don't need an invitation for every guest since a lot of people are couples or live in the same household. I ended up slightly over-ordering but I've found uses for the extras... mostly as bookmarks, haha. We also received this Kate Spade New York Take The Cake Double Invitation Frame as a wedding gift which has been a really nice way of displaying our invitation in our home.
Credit: Sara Rogers Photography
As part of this series, I'm planning on sharing some details from our special day and things I learned along the way. First up, invitations!
SAVE THE DATES
For our wedding, sending out Save the Dates was necessary as we had a lot of guests who would have to travel. This way, they were given a lot of advance notice to block off the time in their calendars if they planned on coming. We opted to send ours through e-mail via Paperless Post, which I highly recommend because it was free (tip: the default option requires you to buy coins for fancy "envelopes" but I did away with "envelopes" altogether since these weren't our actual invitations thus making the cost zero).
In addition to alerting people to the date and location of our wedding, we also used the Save The Dates as a way of gathering our guests' mailing addresses. Paperless Post lets you track who's opened your card, which is helpful so you know who to follow up with. They have a lot of wedding invitation designs as well so you could do everything through them for free/cheap and in an eco-friendly way.
INVITATIONS
We had initially planned on using Minted for our wedding invitations because that's the platform we were using for our wedding website and online RSVPs. Side note: I tried a number of different options for our wedding website before I settled on Minted; ultimately I liked that we could manage our RSVPs in one spot, keep certain details private to guests only, and I was easily able to purchase a custom domain name through them.
Our invitations, however, ended up being a last-minute design change once we got our engagement photos back. We both really loved this double exposure photo and thought it would look cool and more personal than the other invitation design which matched our website.
Credit: Sara Rogers Photography
Since we were going to use our own photo, we decided to use Vistaprint instead. Not only is it considerably cheaper than Minted (tip: they have coupon codes all the time; I was able to get 60% off my order by tracking their deals), but we preferred this template for our "movie poster"-style invite. I'm not sharing a picture of the back here but it had some extra photos and details, including a link to our website for people to RSVP.
Vistaprint can be hit-or-miss sometimes but we were very happy with our experience. To avoid disappointment, I would recommend ordering their free wedding sample kit. It takes a while to arrive in the mail but you can see what the different paper stocks actually feel like. We ended up choosing the Linen which was a surprise since I had always thought I'd prefer matte.
The invitations also come with free envelopes but they're plain white and pretty thin. In order to elevate our wedding suite slightly, we opted to spend a little more money (but again, we got that discount!) and got custom envelopes with a grey/white marbled design.
To finish everything off, I ordered a custom address stamp from Etsy (there are tons of designs to choose from) and bought some calligraphy markers from Michael's. I have pretty nice handwriting so I hand-addressed everyone's invitations myself.
One last tip: when you're ordering invites, make sure you count properly! You don't need an invitation for every guest since a lot of people are couples or live in the same household. I ended up slightly over-ordering but I've found uses for the extras... mostly as bookmarks, haha. We also received this Kate Spade New York Take The Cake Double Invitation Frame as a wedding gift which has been a really nice way of displaying our invitation in our home.
February 8, 2019
Drugstore Highlighters You Need Right Now
Brands like BECCA have made a name for themselves in the highlighter world but the truth is, you can find some real gems at more affordable prices from tried-and-true drugstore brands like Revlon and CoverGirl too. I received these two palettes from the London Drugs #LDBeauty event I attended a few months back and if you can't live without that glow, you need to check them out!
Once swatched, I was totally shocked to see these highlighters come to life. Despite looking chalky, they were surprisingly blendable. Plus, they are made with duo chrome pearls for a multi-faceted, prismatic glow. Each shade looks a little different depending on which way you're facing in the light... the effect is truly incredible. The green-toned one seems like it might be hard to use on the daily, but if you're into the whole mermaid/unicorn look, these highlighters will get you there fast.
Find both of these palettes at your local drugstore and online at London Drugs.
Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette | CoverGirl TruBlend Super Stunner Palette
The CoverGirl TruBlend Super Stunner Palette in "It's Lit" ($12.99 CAD) features three different highlighting powders that you can use alone or together for either a natural or dramatic look. This particular palette is targeted towards fair/light skin tones (there is another one called "Glowing Up" for medium/dark skin tones). My skin is more on the medium side so these shades are a little light for me but I can still make them work, especially during the Winter months when I don't have a tan.
Side note: is anyone else loving the CoverGirl rebrand? The logo and packaging are much more minimalist and I think they look great.
If you're a fan of texture like I am, you will probably love this CoverGirl palette. The powder feels buttery soft (is there anything more satisfying?), which makes for easy blending. The finishes also vary depending on the look you're going for; the far left is more of a subtle sheen whereas the far right one is for when you want that glitter bomb look without giant flecks of glitter all over the place. In my opinion, it's a nice and simple everyday palette.
For more experienced highlighter queens who want to go beyond your "basic" highlight, the Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette ($19.99 CAD) is the one for you. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I first opened the packaging because on its face, the shades look pretty flat and bland in the pan. Was I ever wrong...
Once swatched, I was totally shocked to see these highlighters come to life. Despite looking chalky, they were surprisingly blendable. Plus, they are made with duo chrome pearls for a multi-faceted, prismatic glow. Each shade looks a little different depending on which way you're facing in the light... the effect is truly incredible. The green-toned one seems like it might be hard to use on the daily, but if you're into the whole mermaid/unicorn look, these highlighters will get you there fast.
Find both of these palettes at your local drugstore and online at London Drugs.
February 2, 2019
Gucci White New Ace Elastic Band Sneakers
Anybody who's seen my shoe collection knows I own a massive amount of sneakers (I am, after all, almost exclusively in athleisure in my down time). However, I've never been too interested in designer sneakers... until I saw these. Gucci has been pumping out variations of these sneakers for some time now and while I've always liked the Stan Smith-eqsue silhouette, if I'm going to spend the $$ on casual shoes they need to have a unique element. This logo elastic band was it for me. Now if I can just figure out a way to keep these white kicks clean!
Sweater: Oak + Fort / Jeans: Frame (lighter wash) / Sneakers: Gucci (here)
Bag: Proenza Schouler (mini version) / Necklaces: Pyrrha (similar)
Sunglasses: Gucci
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