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 :)

It’s still Monday! :) I have a deep love for built-ins, so you can expect to see more Marvelous Mondays posts focused on them in the future. The kitchen is the heart of most homes, so to me it makes sense to incorporate a cozy spot for eating meals, doing homework, or just lounging while the chef does his thing (definitely a “he” in our house). These are all such beautiful examples!

Top to bottom: Better Homes & Gardens | BHG | Southern Living | Canadian House & Home | BHG

Plus, built-ins usually mean extra storage! Which one would you most like to have in your house?

From the beginning, I knew I wanted to recite both traditional and personal vows. John did not. He was EXTREMELY concerned that if forced to read personal vows out loud, he would dissolve into a soggy mess. Over time, he warmed to the idea, and I’m happy to report that we both made it through with only a few twinges of outward emotion. (Our guests, though, were another story — lots of sniffles.)

Once we had come to an agreement on the vows we would recite, we needed to craft them! We decided to set up some parameters so that they wouldn’t end up wildly different in tone — they would each be about a minute long, and they would generally take the form of promises. From there, we pretty much left each other alone to write.

Photo by Tanja Lippert. Spoiler alert: We had a beautiful day :)

I started jotting down lines, phrases, and ideas in a Google Doc about a year ago, either as things popped into my mind, or when I read a line in another couples’ vows that struck me. (I tend to get my best ideas while going to sleep at night, so I keep a notebook on my bedside table, and it came in handy for brainstorming!) I was also very inspired by some of the beautiful vows I’ve been lucky enough to witness, including those of my friends Amanda and Katharine, and this emotional Inkspot video! What brought things full circle, though, was a weekend afternoon a few weeks before our wedding day, when John and I sat down with a box of old letters we had written to each other. We were actually looking for reading inspiration, but I ended up coming across a line I had written to John that was a perfect opening to my vows. The rest fell into place from there.

I will say that one other thing that united us was our desire to only promise things that, with the grace of God, we could actually KEEP. We didn’t want to promise things like, “I’ll give you a foot massage every night,” or, “I will never be angry with you,” because we didn’t see these as just pretty words, we saw them as promises we were making to each other for the rest of our lives, with God as our witness.

So what did we promise each other? We’ve decided to not share the full text here because, unsurprisingly, our personal vows were very personal. However, when you see our highlights film from Inkspot Crow, you’ll hear about half of mine, and about a quarter of John’s :)

Our traditional vows, though, I don’t mind sharing! Of course, they’ll be pretty familiar to y’all, but we did make a few tweaks. We read our personal vows first (John went before I did), then our pastor lead us in the traditional vows and ring vows. These are the words we used:

I, Emily, take you, John, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, all the days of my life.

and

John, I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you in the name of God.

If you’re married, or are planning a wedding, what did you or have you planned for your vows? I would love to hear!

In addition to our photo Christmas cards, I think we’ll be sending a newsletter! Did your families send holiday newsletters when you were younger? Do they still send one? My family always did, and I loved it! In fact, once I was in about sixth grade, I was often recruited to write it — my Dad and I alternated years :) Even in the age of Facebook, I still LOVE reading all the letters we get from other families, families I’ve known my whole life, when I go home for Christmas. My Dad is in the military, so my parents have lots of far-flung friends that I remember from my childhood but haven’t seen in years. My sisters and parents and I have been known to sit at the kitchen table and pass the letters around the circle, discussing the neatly-encapsulated contents as we read!

Our newsletters were always fairly simple affairs, graphically speaking — printed on plain paper, or maybe holiday letterhead, if my Mom was feeling fancy. I’m hoping to step up the game a bit for my and John’s debut, and am taking inspiration from these beauties I found around the internet:

By Amanda Jane Jones. Go here to see more angles!

Also by Amanda. More here!

By Aprile Elcich.

I’ll update you once ours is complete!