Wedding Invitation Sets with Basic Invite

This post was sponsored by Basic Invite. Thank you so much for your support of the brands that support this blog, which enables me to do what I love! 

My wedding clients frequently ask for my advice on plenty of things leading up to celebrating their wedding together, so I wanted to provide a resource of ideas to make something easier for brides...namely, wedding invitation sets! 

Your wedding invitations can really set the tone for the theme and story of your wedding day, so choosing a company you can trust is key, and it’s also good to have plenty of options so you can nail down the look you want.

Photographing all the details chosen for a wedding (like the invitation sets) is one of my favorite things to do because I get to play around with the styling and generally feel like it’s a time to play creatively.

While I was sitting by a frosted window looking outside at plenty of ice and snow on the ground, I happily lost myself to browsing Basic Invite’s beach wedding invitation options. The rocky beach stamp set immediately caught my eye with it’s whimsical, coastal feel.

If something more minimal or classic fits with the vision of your wedding, I’d consider floral heart, elegant vintage foil, scrolling monogram foil or traditional script foil (pictured above).

The clear invitations available (particularly ornate calligraphy clear wedding invitations) struck me as a beautiful option if you want to do something unique and unexpected.

If you’re drawn to watercolor designs and delicate illustrations, the fairytale leaves and soft morning, and classical gardens sets are perfect options.

If you’re just not sure, you can always order samples to see your favorite styles. I’m a very visual person, so I like the option to hold a sample in my hand and experience it myself.

Of course, I’m drawn to options that showcase images as part of the design (a great way to use your engagement or wedding photos). Like modern polaroid and timeless romance (part of a neat Seal & Sends collection that streamlines the invitation process so that envelopes aren’t even necessary!).

Aside from the design, choosing the wording of my invitations to fit my particular circumstance seemed like a daunting task when I was selecting my own invitations. If you’d like the help of some examples, Basic Invite has a great resource for you here. The page helps answer common questions like:

• Which name goes first on a wedding invitation?

• What if my mother kept her maiden name?

• Do I include professional titles?

And depending on the scope of what you need, you can freshen up on wedding etiquette, reference their wedding planner binder printable, or create a free wedding website.

Do you want some more happy news? There’s so much goodness waiting for you at Basic Invite after the wedding, like baby announcements, Christmas cards, and personal stationery (showcase that new monogram!).

I ordered personal stationery (℅ Basic Invite) and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. I decided to pair their velvet paper finish with a delicate floral design called soft petals (pictured above) because it just looked so special and unexpected. 

Because the text can be customized, you could order bridal shower thank you cards and then decide to change the text (and color!) of the same design and order them again. In my case, I changed “Thank You” to “Hi There” just so it’s a little more general for every day notes to send to friends and family.

Collecting stationery definitely counts as a hobby, right? I’m glad to have found Basic Invite so my clients can enjoy their products before and after the wedding.

Thank you again to Basic Invite for partnering with me for this post!

Work from Home Parenting: How to Work from Home with a Baby

My Best Tips for Working from Home with a Baby (what worked for me)

Shortly after our little one came home from the hospital after a long NICU journey, I started on the humbling path of figuring out how to work from home with a baby and be a “work from home mom”.

Back then, it was hard to find blog posts about how to do this. “Work from home parenting” wasn’t a big search term on Google, but now with so much of the workforce self-isolating and temporarily operating from home, information is everywhere!

Caring for a baby and working from home at the same time is a lot, so if you’re here because you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, know I’m cheering you on and sending a big virtual hug.

Molding our children is hard work but it’s the best work.

I could suggest you put on some makeup (this does help me feel more put together), slide into real pants (yoga pants count around here), or take breaks. These are good suggestions, but I’m taking a different approach.

This post is really going to be more descriptive than prescriptive.

I’m not here to tell you what you should do, but I’m happy to share what’s worked for me in hopes that there’s something you resonate with or at least helps you feel encouraged that you’re not the only one trying their best to figure this out.

Nursing

The single most effective thing that worked for me from the beginning was wearing a My Brest Friend nursing pillow and letting Baby nurse + sleep (closely monitored, of course) there with me while I worked at my desk. This also worked with a bottle.

After months spent in the NICU, all I wanted was to be curled up in the nursery in a baby bubble, but at least having Baby right there with me while I worked helped a lot.

Naps

The number one tip I would give myself if I could have a do-over would be to go through a Taking Cara Babies class earlier (we took Taking Cara Babies The ABC’s of Sleep). The time between the newborn days of lots and lots of sleep (for Baby, not me, lol) and more awake time when we didn’t have as much guidance around naps was hard.

After we got in the groove of a flexible nap routine that worked well for us, that changed everything!

Counting on somewhat consistent naps has helped me view my days more in terms of tasks + projects I’ve accomplished rather than the amount of time spent working.

If work tends to expand to fill the time available (Parkinson’s Law), then having less time definitely helped force me to get more done in that timeframe. I don’t really think of a workday as one long continuous amount of time. Even in a traditional office setting, time is usually broken up, just in different ways. I tend to view my day in flexible, moving blocks of time to sprint and get as much done as I can, apart from things I tend to monitor more frequently.

New Mom Morning Routine

Early on when sleep was more sporadic, I basically tried to sleep until the minute I planned to start working that day. I’m all for getting sleep when you can in the newborn days, but for me, shuffling over to my computer feeling groggy didn’t put me in a great mindset.

When we went from the wild west of no sleep to something a little more predictable (thank you Taking Cara Babies!), my day with Baby started earlier in the morning, before I usually started working.

Getting up earlier meant I was able to have more focused time with my baby, which was good for this mama’s heart.

I felt less rushed and like I had filled some of the love tank I had that craved time with my baby.

Now when I sit at my desk at the beginning of each workday, I make a short to-do list of the most important things I want to accomplish aside from recurring tasks that don’t really need to be listed every day.

This isn’t revolutionary, but I definitely had some brain fog so moving from one task to another and back again made simple things feel overwhelming.

If there’s something that doesn’t get done that day, I’ll write it out so I see it the next morning and don’t have it flying around my brain while I try to remember not to forget (does this happen to you too?).

What to do with Baby During Calls

The pinnacle moment of being a stay at home mom/work from home mom was when I covertly nursed my baby while on a video call (with “colleagues”, not technically a client). Yep. I tilted the camera up so only my neck was showing, then did what I needed to do, and you know what? It was kind of awesome. That only happened once, but it felt like a big moment of “mom-ing”.

I try to schedule calls on certain days of the week when I know I’ll have help with Baby.

In our situation, the person helping is my husband Derrik. For some, it might mean inviting a friend over to help for an hour or hiring a babysitter.

Thankfully, I’ve never had to hire a babysitter for calls because I can usually schedule them when Derrik is available to help.

And depending on the call, many of the people I interact with understand the whole reason I’m working from home is to be with my baby so it’s not much of a shock that there’s cute babbling in the background now and then.

Boundaries

Trying to set a mental boundary around dwelling or worrying about how I’ll adapt and figure this out as Baby grows and develops has helped. Ultimately, only the Lord knows the future and that’s where I choose to place my trust. Taking it one day at a time is one of the best approaches so that I don’t start feeling overwhelmed.

I also try my best not to work or be on my phone when I’m in our nursery. I generally only reply to work emails from a computer instead of my phone because it creates a boundary that feels healthy for me. This helps me separate work from play, and gives me more feelings of freedom and less feelings of dread or restriction from constantly being in work mode. I’m grateful for my situation, and I try to be quick to analyze how to make it work best for our family.

Need the bullet point version?

My 7 Best Tips for Working from Home with a Baby

1. Wearing a My Brest Friend nursing pillow and letting Baby nurse + sleep (closely monitored, of course) there with me while I work at my desk. 

2. Taking Cara Babies The ABC’s of Sleep so we could implement a flexible nap routine + schedule.

3. Viewing my day in flexible, moving blocks of time to sprint and get as much done as I can, apart from things I monitor more frequently.

4. Getting up earlier so I can have focused time with my baby before I start work for the day.

5. Making a short to-do list of the most important things I want to accomplish aside from recurring tasks that don’t really need to be listed every day.

6. Focusing on my baby when we’re together by reserving email time to a computer instead of my phone. 

7. Trusting the Lord with figuring this out one day and one season at a time.

Are you working from home with a baby? I hope there was something in this post that helped you or encouraged you. You can do this!