Luck O' The Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Though Irish, I don't really celebrate this holiday the usual way, but I thought it was a fun coincidence that our wedding invitations arrived last night filled with lucky clovers!

When we first became engaged, I was determined to select very stylized letter pressed invites only to discover that "very stylized letter pressed invites" = "uber-expensive".

I realized quickly that in this internet age I could come up with a reasonably priced alternative, I set out to find garden-themed save-the-dates and invitation packages that were more on point with what we wanted to spend.

Leave it to my hero Martha Stewart not to disappoint!

We selected Martha's "Clover Vine" collection (purchased through Exclusively Weddings) in 'spring green,' as the colors and casual feel of the illustration felt right for the setting of our wedding.

Take a look:

Ever the dork that I am, I was really into the font options for the invitation package. I selected the Berkeley Script and Futura combination, which offers a balanced look of old-meets-new.

All of the invitation options are highly customizable, but we were very smitten with the idea of purchasing a calligraphied address stamp that appeared in the Summer 2010 edition Martha Stewart Weddings. 

The return address stamp, created by Emilie Friday, is lovely. We selected the"Alexis" style. As it turns out, creating this personalized stamp cost less than printing our return address on our invitations. 

The best part? 

We can use this stamp for as long as we live at our current apartment!

 (via Emilie Friday)

Just to add a nice finishing touch to each invitation, I've been gathering vintage postage stamps from Ebay, all of which have a botanical theme. Did you notice I threw in Thoreau for good measure?! While not every invited guest will appreciate this little "extra", I'll smile knowing that I made the invitation just a bit more unique.