Yep, a little bit early! (Some of) my family is arriving tonight, so I’ll be signed off for the rest of the week to enjoy their company. We’re having the traditional Thanksgiving menu on Thursday, then getting together with extended family on Friday. What do y’all have planned?

via Martha Stewart and Bon Appetit

On the menu for Thursday:
— Hot corn dip and deviled eggs
— Turkey and gravy (we forgo making an actual turkey and just buy a breast or two from the store! :)
— Stovetop stuffing (I’m sorry, but I have never tasted homemade stuffing that I liked better than Stovetop. Equally good, yes. Better, not that I can remember.)
— Real mashed potatoes
— Fresh green beans (just sauteed on the stovetop with a little red pepper and olive oil)
— Rosemary and sea salt rolls
— Two types of homemade cranberry sauce (John’s contribution)
— Pumpkin pie and apple pie (with cheddar cheese slices!) from our favorite local bakery
— Chocolate chunk pecan cookies (because my Mom doesn’t like pie — weird, I know!!)

Some people down here consider macaroni and cheese a traditional part of Thanksgiving dinner. (I love mac and cheese, but that will never seem normal to me!) Does your family include anything “unusual”?

Safe travels to all, whether you’re going down the stairs or across the country! I am very thankful for all of you!

Hello, friends! Happy Monday! I’m excited for the short week, and to be celebrating with my family soon! In the meantime, I wanted to take a minute and tell you a little bit about my outfit for the Southern Weddings V5 launch party, because I received lots of questions about it and a few compliments on it!

The directive was to wear something gold and/or glittery, which meant there was one obvious place to turn: Forever 21 (even though I hadn’t stepped foot inside in ages). I tried on several (very not work appropriate) options before coming across a little number with a pleated skirt. It didn’t fit perfectly in the dressing room, but I took it home anyway, and even after paying for alterations, the total was just $55!! Can’t beat that, especially when I had several people ask me if it was from Kate Spade. Score!

I love that its muted gold color and tank style top stretch its usefulness far beyond that of something more obviously glittery, and that I’ll be able to wear it for lots of holiday parties and church services in the future!

For this particular event, though, I did want to punch up the glitter quotient a bit, and thought a belt would be just the thing. I originally fell in love with this one, but there was NO way I was paying $98. In a totally serendipitous move, I stumbled across a very similar belt (sans bow) at a J. Crew outlet store for just $14 (with tax!). The catch? It was in the Crew Cuts section. The reason it worked — and, I think, would work for most of you — is that I was wearing it around my waist, not my hips. I don’t know about y’all, but usually when I try to wear a normal-sized belt around my waist, I always get this long tail past the buckle, and/or end up having to punch extra holes in the belt. The girls’ size one fit perfectly!

My Factory belt isn’t available on the website, but I did find this one and this one (with bow!!) for $22 and $28, respectively. SO much better that it’s worth a try, wouldn’t you say?

The sad part about this post is that if you happen to like my dress, it actually doesn’t seem to be available anymore — at least not on the F21 site. (Worth checking in stores, though!) If you do happen to visit the stores, here’s a tip I just learned: Look for the Love 21 label, which this dress was under. The prices are a tad higher (though still super reasonable!), but the construction is supposed to be better, the styles more sophisticated, and the cuts less suited for teeny boppers (basically, longer hems).

I didn’t get a great shot of the dress in action, but at least you can see the top half here, and a bit of the belt!

I have to say, this find makes me want to shop at Forever 21 more often! Have any of y’all had good luck there recently?

For the last part in our four-part series on the decisions we made for our ceremony, I wanted to talk about our choice to serve communion. (See previous posts here: readings, music, vows)

We made the decision to serve communion early on, and felt peaceful about it, but were a little… interested to see how our guests would react. Not all of our guests share our faith, and we didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable or imposed upon. Thankfully, the United Methodist Church offers communion freely to all who “want Christ in their life,” regardless of religion or denomination, while also recognizing that approaching this table is a personal decision and doesn’t question those who choose not to partake. Our pastor, Carl, introduced this part of our service beautifully, inviting those who chose not to come forward to offer a prayer or good wish for us from the pew.

Photo by the fab Tanja Lippert

We served communion directly following our vows. We chose to see the symbolism in our first act as a married couple being one of serving others while honoring our Lord, especially since we chose to serve our parents and grandparents first. We were pleasantly surprised to see all the beloved and familiar faces coming forward during communion, and it was really special to have a brief moment with each individual.

A few notes: For some reason, I chose to hold the juice, and John, the bread, but based on our sartorial choices, we probably should have switched. I’m happy to say that not a drop of red was spilled on my gown, but that’s probably because our guests were hilariously, over-enthusiastically (but kindly!) careful to avoid the possibility — in fact, I think many of them dunked only one corner crumb in the juice :)

One other thing we didn’t expect was that many of our Catholic (and maybe Episcopalian?) guests chose to sip from the cup instead of dipping, which jolted me the first time it happened. Had we thought to expect that (which we totally should have!), I would have had a handkerchief with me. Oh well!

The last neat thing was that we used a silver cup from the church where my grandmother was baptized for the juice — I loved having that extra family connection.

We had SO many positive reactions from our guests about the whole experience, even those who don’t regularly attend church, with many guests naming it as their favorite part of our wedding in our guestbook. John and I would say the same.

Did any of y’all serve communion at your wedding? Or have you been to a wedding that served communion?

We are so grateful to have our wedding featured in the new issue of Southern Weddings Magazine, which hits newsstands today. (Despite the fact that we had a northern wedding – minor details.) Don’t live in the South? You can pick up a copy here! I’m going to hold off on posting our photos until they’ve been shared on the SW site (likely in January), but I just couldn’t bear to wait that long to share our wedding film by Inkspot Crow.

(Make sure you watch it full screen to get the full effect!)

I have already said plenty about Inkspot, so I won’t wax on at length again. There are, however, a few things I would like to say at this time.

1) Inkspot not only met my expectations, but exceeded them. I have high standards, and unfortunately, not all of our carefully-selected vendors lived up to them. (Nothing major, and I’ll discuss more later, but it’s true.) MacKenzie and Philip, however, were a delight from beginning to end. They made our wedding day better in every way they could just by doing their thing, and we couldn’t be more pleased with our highlights film. It was a stretch to our budget to hire them (and they’ve only gotten more expensive since we booked), but I can confidently say that to us, they were worth every penny.

2. They are the real deal. They’re just so good at what they do. Philip is a music-finding savant; I’m kind of obsessed with our second song, and he admitted that he discovered it months before our wedding and squirreled it away because he thought it would be perfect for us. His editing skills are also, frankly, nuts — one of my favorite parts of the video is when the bells begin in Come, Thou Fount just as the guest bells are panning into view. Genius! And of course I can’t leave MacKenzie out. As I’ve said before, she is one of the kindest persons I’ve ever met, and I think her heart is a huge reason why their films tell such beautiful stories — they know how to find, and shape, the story that’s already there.

I hope you love our highlights film as much as we do! Can’t wait to share more soon :)