Hello again OSBP readers, this is Jen from the haystack needle!  Today I wanted to share a peek of our Save the Dates (which are now attached to the pages of my soon-to-finished wedding scrapbook):

Our Save the Dates were truly a labor of love.  I wanted to create fabric pouches for our announcements.  My amazing friend Chris offered to silkscreen our pouches, and designed a loon that she screen-printed on the fabric.  The loon feels so Maine to us, because Dan and I often see loons when we’re up at his family’s camp on a lake.  They make the most amazing sounds, too.

At the time, I didn’t even know how to thread a sewing machine.  Thankfully, a dear friend of mine mentored me through my first sewing adventure.  My cheap Singer machine broke, because I wanted to use a canvas fabric that was too heavy-duty for it to handle.  So we cranked out the pouches (sewn with a zigzag stitch) on her awesome vintage Elna sewing machine.  And miraculously, I got them out in time.  I used turquoise papers from Martha’s craft line for the announcement.  And I had a custom stamp made from Three Designing Women.

We also used the loon design on the welcome bags. My friend Chris silkscreened a larger version of the loon onto canvas bags. It makes me happy whenever I see our friends using our wedding totes.

All photographs by Charlotte Jenks Lewis.

Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing a peek at what we decided to do with guests the night before our wedding…