Usually I like to make a fun little graphic showing how the voting on potential Christmas card designs panned out, since y’all are so generous to give us your opinions! This year, however, there was a landslide winner, and it was the favorite in our household, too… We chose the Snowy Love and Joy card by Tuleppe from Minted. We don’t get too many flakes down South, and I just couldn’t resist adding a few flurries to our card! Thanks again to our dear friend Meredith Perdue for this lovely photo of us! And thanks to Natalie and Joe for having a wedding in 2014 and making us look good :) (By the way – stay tuned for a peek at their celebration in January!) I love creating our newsletter because it gives us a chance to look back on our year and share our favorite parts. Unsurprisingly, our California trip took pride of place in 2014! Thanks to Minted, however, I feel like the scene stealer this year was the envelope! I LOVED their new designed options. Though I didn’t take advantage of their free (!) addressing service this year, I can guarantee you I will in the future! Though I enjoy hand-addressing our envelopes at the moment, it’s not a deal breaker for me. There are two things, however, that are. First, it’s important to us that our Christmas cards are not all about us. We send them out at Christmas to share our joy at the birth of our Savior with the people we love the most, and we want to remind people of that in a personal way. That’s why we include a few thoughts on what Christmas means to us, and a favorite piece of scripture. Second, I refuse to send cards out without a

First and foremost: If you haven’t already, make sure you VOTE today!! It is an honor and an obligation! Believe it or not, I’m starting to think about Christmas cards! In the past we’ve sent out handmade cards (which I loved doing — see here, here, and here!), but I’m excited to send out our first photo card this year! Minted was the obvious choice, and today I’m rounding up a few of our favorites for y’all to give your thoughts on! Here are our top five choices: Yep, there’s another wedding photo peek, this time by Tanja Lippert! Above: 1. A Wonderful Life | 2. Big Joy | 3. Merriest | 4. Joyful Season | 5. Simple Joy Clearly, I have a prejudice towards typographic designs! I love that Minted’s “filter by style” tool is actually useful, with categories like hand drawn, monogram, modern, etc. – AND they’ve categorized the designs well, too! If you’re into such things, make sure you check out the new die-cut shapes available this year, as well. Minted is also running a Holiday Inspiration Board Challenge right now (fun!), and since I’ll take any excuse to make an inspiration board, I put this one together: Contest Board board by Emily. See more Minted.com Credits: Blue and green Christmas by Tobi Fairley, pretty ornaments + wrapping from Matchbook Magazine, Minted Rainbow Wish card, ornament wreath by Eddie Ross, sparkly party photo by Jill Thomas, coastal Christmas tree by Martha Stewart Living You can find details for entering your own inspiration board here! We’ve still got a bit of tweaking to do, but tell me: which Christmas card design is your favorite? I’d love to hear! Minted has graciously gifted us our Christmas cards, but I chose to write this post, and the opinions are my

I promise not every post will be titled “Em for ______,” but this one was just too good to resist! To celebrate my new blog home, Minted has kindly agreed to give away a gift certificate worth $75 to one lucky reader! I’ve chosen to highlight Minted’s holiday cards here, but the $75 can go towards anything on the Minted site, including save the dates, brand new personalized journals (so cute for gifts!), personal stationery, or business/calling cards. I’m sure the winner will be delighted with whatever he or she chooses; I can’t say enough about Minted’s designs, quality, or customer service. To enter: There are three ways to enter. 1. Visit the Minted site, then leave a comment telling me what you would spend the $75 on if you won. 2. Subscribe to the new Em for Marvelous feed, then leave a SEPARATE comment telling me you did so. 3. Post a link to this giveaway in your Facebook status and then leave a SEPARATE comment telling me you did so. This giveaway will close next Friday, December 16. I’ll draw a random winner and let you know who’s taking home the goods the following Monday! P.S. Previous Minted posts: Save the date options Favorite business cards Minted Christmas cards