Courtship is thrilling. Every day takes a back seat to romance, to the thrill you feel when you see each other. You plan trips to get away, to escape the ordinary and just be together. And then the newness wears off or schedules get in the way.
With our busy schedules, cubes and I aren't always able to get away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday. So this year, I'm surprising him with a romantic glamping retreat for two--no travel or babysitter required!
Valentine's Day is the perfect opportunity to cause your relationship's heartbeat to race a little. And a romantic glamping retreat is the perfect destination. Add a few customized pillows and photo art from Tiny Prints and you'll have a space that you can pull together throughout the year and add a little romance to the other 364 days.
Until the night of the mini-parties at Alt Summit I hadn't finalized what I wanted to do for Valentine's Day. I knew I wanted to do something special that was budget friendly, I just didn't have an idea that I really liked. Then, I saw the glamping party Alix of A Ruffled Life styled for Tiny Prints.
Visions of a cozy, welcoming tent tucked into the corner of our formal dining room came to mind. I started thinking yards of minky fabric, four pairs of IKEA sheer curtains that I hadn't gotten around to hanging up yet, and camp chairs.
What I loved about Camp Tiny Prints was the custom touches. I wanted to personalize my vision and selected three of the pillows Alix styled for the mini party: Love Lives Here; Let's Snuggle, and Affectionate Initials. (I was even more excited when I found out I could get the pillows customized, made, and in my hands in time for Valentine's Day! Perfect for a last minute surprise for an upcoming anniversary, proposal, or other special romantic occasion.)
Our colors, and those we had at our wedding, are purple, blue, and grey. And, I loved that the items from Tiny Prints come in colors complementary to our palette. The teal Let's Snuggle pillow adds just the right pop of color to the space.
To give our glamping retreat a sense of place, I added birch branches that I collected from my parents' yard this past Fall.
The lighting in our formal dining room is bright and harsh, so I opted for LED candles. (Because the danger of wildfire is always high where we camp during the summer, we have many LED candles available for mood lighting. Target has these available throughout the year in ivory, white, scented, and unscented.) With the abundance of fabrics and the potential to accidentally knock over a candle, LED candles are just a smart choice. I put the smaller LED votives into old yogurt jars to mimic the votives we had in mason jars at our wedding and placed them on top of the birch branches. I varied the height of the larger candles by placing them on birch-bark wrapped coasters from Overstock that I received at Alt Summit.
Because Valentine's Day is a special occasion, I chose La Crema Shell Ridge Pinot Noir over the Sonoma Coast and Monterey Pinot Noir we typically drink and that we served at our wedding. The Shell Ridge Pinot Noir was also special because we'd recently visited the La Crema tasting room in Healdsburg for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Serving a memento from a trip we took together with friends made the space more special and more of a retreat.
Other nods from our wedding were of course customized photo art, the acrylic block and the glossy easel art that I'd seen at the Holiday Bash styled and thrown by Best Friends for Frosting a group of us at Tiny Prints this past November. (I'd been waiting for an occasion to use these products and Valentine's Day was perfect for it!)
My favorite characteristic of the glossy easel art I chose is that it can be used with dry erase markers. Throughout the year, cubes and I will be able to leave each other little notes.
Credits: All layouts designed by and images taken by Eden Hensley Silverstein for The Road to the Good Life.
DISCLOSURE: I received the custom pillows from Tiny Prints, a value of $150, for purposes of my review. The coasters from Overstock were provided to Alt Summit attendees who visited their lounge during the conference. All other items, including the personalized wall art and from Tiny Prints and La Crema Shell Ridge Pinot Noir were purchased. All opinions presented are my own.
Get the Look for Yourself:
From Tiny Prints: Love Lives Here Pillow; Let's Snuggle Pillow, and Affectionate Initials Pillow. Golden Memory Acrylic Block; Loveable Reasons Glossy Easel Art; and Modern Kisses Canvas (not pictured). From Target: 2 sets of 3 Flameless Pillar Candles and 2 sets of Wax Dipped Votives.
