Inspiration: Minted.com

One of my favorite reasons to post on here (and largely why I started Almost There) was to help inspire. Whether you had your dream house/job/life or not I wanted to show people that you could still be happy with DIYs, inspiration boards, and spotlights on creative, awe-inspiring sites, products, and people. Going into our third year, I hope Almost There is still fitting that bill!

Today, I want to keep the streak alive and INSPIRE you with a wonderful site named Minted!

Minted is the world's premier marketplace for independent design. Our mission is to find exceptional artists and designers all over the world and bring their work to consumers who appreciate great design.

What does that mean?
It means you have a site filled with a plethora of eclectic and unique designs for all occasions (special or just because) that will delight the eyes and warm the hearts of designers and design lovers alike.

Now, let me show you three reasons I'm currently in love with Minted.

Birth Announcements

Maybe it's because Holli Anne is expecting that has me super excited about Minted's Birth Announcements but I think they are just adorable! With customization options galore, you can make your announcements as personal as if you had designed them from your laptop at home and, as Minted does best, the design selection is ample (and precious)!

Je T'aime bebe | Hatched Egg Shell | From the Nursery | Welcome with Love | Browse more...

Journals
I'm a writer so, of course, I'm going check out the journal section of Minted! Oh boy are they adorable! Each design has a customization option (again, a wonderful Minted feature) so making your journal uniquely you while keeping the design integrity intact opens up so many cute possibilities. No matter your tastes, the journal section has pages and pages of different styles whether you're more drawn to photography, illustration, or a combination of the two!

Hello Love | Chalkboard Dreams | To the Happy Family | Browse more in Journals for Women...

Art Prints

Dear goodness.
Be still my heart.
I can't help but love 85 percent of what's in the art prints section of Minted. Again, a lot of eclectic, bright fun pieces! AND you have the option of various sizes and framing! Always a bonus if you ask me!

Rainbow | Peony Bottle | St. Paul's Cathedral, London | Art wall board | Browse more...

There's plenty more to love about Minted so I'll make more posts about it, I'm sure. For now, these three sections of the site are my favorites, though, I spent a good amount of time browsing the others!

If you love design, pretty things, and affordable, customizable decor then I suggest you check out Minted.com now!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)
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Instagram Wedding

Holli got married on Saturday. It was beautiful. We'll have a post about the wedding and the reception soon, but this particular post is about Instagram + weddings.

I used to run a blog (Social Spaz) where I talked about social media and networking sites. I'm kind of addicted to online media so when Holli and I hatched the concept of "#hollicon" I was way excited. See, we wanted everyone as pumped as we were about the upcoming nuptials as well as an umbrella term for everyone attending to use. Starting on Friday, I started Instagraming with the tag #hollicon. The wedding party and Holli were on board too and it became an affectionate term that we would say while rehearsing and decorating. Holli even used the #hollicon logo in the reception's decoration. The MC made announcements to #hollicon! As of now, over 100 pictures were uploaded to Instagram using the #hollicon tag.

At first I thought it was just a fun idea but now I see the potential behind creating a term to tag on Instagram for your wedding and reception. Holli can now search #hollicon and see what her friends were doing and the different pictures her and her new hubby were caught in. She doesn't have to worry about being texted or emailed pictures--she can just use the search option on Instagram to get a category filled with her lovely day's pictures!

So if you're about to get married, considering coming up with an easy to remember and spell tag that represents your love! (Holli + part of her new last name.) Then make sure people know what to tag and then give them free reign to snap some pictures and upload to Instagram!

Also, if you haven't seen #hollicon on Instagram yet, go search it under Tags!

We hope you enjoyed the ride (and continue to enjoy it since Holli is honeymooning still)! We can't wait for the official pictures to show you how awesome the DIY decorations and vintage-style fashions that were rocking out at #hollicon!

Follow me @socialspaz & Holli @hkeaton!

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

Wedding Stationery: Thinking Outside the Box

This post comes from one of our #hollicon partners, Laurie at Wiregrass Weddings. Wiregrass Weddings is a wedding stationery business, making awesome things like wedding programs, invitations, table numbers, menus...you get the idea. They made my wedding programs, and they make cool stuff! Hope you enjoy! —Holli Anne

In the wedding paper business, I get to see a lot of creativity everyday.It's not only in the work we do, but many of our wonderful clients come up with some pretty fun designs.

You good readers of Almost There seem like you are pretty good at thinking outside the box, so that's what my post is on today: What you can do when you don't see exactly what you are looking for.

Wedding programs are the products we sell the most of, but we like to surround ourselves with anything paper: wedding invitations, thank you notes, banners, place cards, table numbers, menus and anything else someone could dream up for their wedding day. 

Whether you are ordering your products from us or somewhere else, here are some ways you can get exactly what you are looking for that you may not see on the site. I'm using the "options" page on our Website as a reference. (Of course, I can't guarantee what other companies will be willing to do but you get the idea!)

1. Paper Colors

We advertise, natural linen, white linen, grey linen and natural astroparche, but have we definitely printed gold and kraft paper wedding programs? YES, we have! 

2. Fonts and Font Colors

Again, we have a certain selection of fonts we offer, but sometimes, you might need something a little different (this is especially true if you are a design nerd). We actually got a new font for Holli Anne's wedding programs so they would match her wedding invitations. The same holds true for font colors. 

3. Ribbon

Ribbon is always a fun way to spruce up and piece of stationery, especially wedding programs. While there are tons of solid-colored ribbons to choose from, there are many a way to put a twist on ribbon. Some of our more vintage brides choose lace or twine instead of ribbon. Others might seek out polka-dotted or other fun-patterned ribbon. 

4. Design

This is where some fun can really begin. Mix and match existing patterns or dividers or add your own twist. If you are a designer yourself, we can even use YOUR designs on your stationery. Imagine that, right? 

5. Wording

This is also where you can make your stationery really scream you, as a couple. While there are many places to search for traditional wedding stationery wording, including our site, there are no rules that say you have to word things a certain way.  How would you say it? Let's just put it THAT way, then!

If you have any other questions about wedding stationery, tweet us at #hollicon and we'll see what we can do! 

Online Shopping: Bridesmaid Dress

Three bridesmaid dress rules you can (and we did) break:

1. You have to have each bridesmaid in the same dress (make, color, etc.).

2. They should all be purchased from the same store.

3. Stay away from purchasing your dress online.

I'm not getting married but it's #hollicon time and that means time for me to buckle down with my bridesmaid getup. This is my first time as a bridesmaid so I'm nervous about wrecking THE ENTIRE WEDDING! But, surely I can't do that?

Luckily, it's Miss Holli Anne getting hitched. Therefore she's the outfit commander--the yay or nay sayer. Now, why would she say yay or nay if she was just picking out all of our dresses? Because Holli is creative and has decided to just give us her wedding colors and let US pick out our wedding swag.

She gave us a few guidelines to follow (for instance, no white in the dress) and left us to our own devices.

I found that there is such a thing as too many options. The world was my oyster but I didn't know what to do with it. Also, I'm on a budget which made things all the harder.

Until I remembered that I follow the blogs of some of the coolest online clothing stores that had the same "feel" as Holli's future wedding.

Here are four sites I completely recommend for shopping everything wedding on a budget:

ModCloth
ChicWish
Ruche
Sosie

I wanted to find a teal dress (one of my favorite colors) so I cracked down on these four sites. Finally I found and fell in love with this beauty.

This Lucky Star Pleated Dress is beautiful, fun, and can be used more than once. I am beating the stereotype of having an awful bridesmaid dress that I will throw in the back of my closet after the wedding. This dress is something I can and will definitely wear after the wedding. That was a very important aspect of Holli deciding to go the less traditional route in bridesmaid dresses--she didn't want us to spend a lot of money on something we'd only wear once! 

I must say I am beyond happy with Ruche's quickness in mailing the dress to me (it took four days and I didn't pay for fast shipping). Not to mention the packaging was too cute! (I would show you but it will be cropping up in a future DIY!)

I still am shopping for shoes (they get to be red!) and accessories. Where would you suggest I shop? Is there an online store that you just absolutely love?

-Tyler Anne (aka Chick Tyler)

#hollicon is an ongoing wedding series. If you have any questions on choosing color combos or any other wedding topic, Tweet them with #hollicon and we will address them on this blog series!