love letters
When Rama and I first met, he lived in Portland, I lived in Los Angeles, and writing letters was a big part of our friendship-turned-courtship. Once we were officially dating, I started writing what I called "love letters." They were one- or two-sentence notes scrawled on scraps of paper and post-its that said things like: "L is for laughter. We laugh so hard my cheeks hurt."
I wrote a lot of those notes in our first year or two of dating. I'd slip them under Rama's door and sneak them on the dashboard of his car. I always meant to get through the whole alphabet, and last year I finally did. I thought it would be sweet to present them to Rama for our 5th anniversary in some kind of wooden box (in line with the traditional wedding anniversary guidelines that we so nerdily follow).
I wanted the box to look like it had been sitting in the attic, so I bought a vintage recipe box from Etsy and a vintage label holder at an antique hardware store. I cut alphabet dividers, using index card dividers as a template, and hand stamped the letters onto each. I typed the "love letters" label on my trusty typewriter.
I made stationery by scanning my favorite security envelope liners that I've collected over the years. The notes were laid out in Illustrator and printed on the reverse side of these patterned pages. Each note fit into a kraft coin envelope that I labeled with my amateur calligraphy.
I was so happy with the way it turned out, and thankfully Rama was too.
12 Comments
Reader Comments (12)
I love, love, love, love, LOVE this...and I love you two :)
LOVE this!!
Wow! I absolutely love this. Definitely bookmarking it for future use, since it's probably too late for me too pull it off today. :)
Nice... we too follow the anniversary guidelines ;-)
Thanks, you guys! Happy day to you & yours.
What a lovely gift. So sweet and creative.
super duper cuteness !!!
What an awesome idea! I love it.
p.s. I'm a huge fan of your work....it's all beautiful, thoughtful and totally original. Love it!
Love this! Can you please share the Etsy seller's name?
Ohmigosh, this is adorable. We don't really "do" Valentine's Day, but seeing stuff like this makes me wish we did!
Jen & Lisa & Kajal: Thank you so much!
Beth: The Etsy seller was InWithTheOld, but you can just do a search on Etsy for vintage wooden recipe box.
Dana: We have made Valentine's Day our own, so I know what you mean.
I love this so much! Might have to totally steal this idea. I promise I will credit you. :)