Here's to love!

Photo by Dawn McKinstry

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Since this holiday is all about love, I figured now was as good a time as any to spill the beans about my big news.

I got married. Yup. That's right. Married!

You didn't hear me talking about planning a big wedding here on the blog, because we decided to have a teeny tiny wedding with just the two of us.

It's funny -- as someone who loves to make things, you'd think that I would've wanted to have a big handmade wedding, going to great lengths to make everything from scratch -- crafting each invitation from whimsical and unexpected materials, agonizing over exactly what DIY decorations to have, insisting on sewing my own dress, making memorable favors for the guests... the list goes on and on.

There are certainly plenty of publications out there to help feed the frenzy over planning the perfect wedding. Have you ever looked at the magazine section at your local bookstore? The wedding magazines have their own devoted shelf that's practically overflowing.

And let's not forget the Handmade Weddings that Etsy spotlights on a regular basis. This blog series is chock full of mouth-wateringly beautiful weddings. The more you read and the more blogs you look at, the more overwhelming it can all seen. And I've seen it firsthand -- several girlfriends of mine have planned their own weddings and it's a crazy amount of work.

The thing is, we just wanted to be married. And we wanted our wedding to feel like a reflection of us, which I believe is what most couples strive for in today's modern weddings--handmade or not.

We knew that having a just-us wedding would be just right. We feel like we found a lovely spot on the spectrum between a cliched elopement to Vegas and an expensive traditional wedding, much like this couple did.

I did decide that there were a few creative touches that were really important to me, and thankfully my groom was on board with them.

I had always swooned over letterpress wedding invitations, so I hired a local artist to design custom announcements that we could mail to our loved ones to help commemorate the momentous occasion. A big thanks to Ellen of  Crooked Letter Press for understanding my vision and making it happen!

The one thing that both my groom and I felt really strongly about was our rings. We wanted to have a matched set of wedding bands that would be ours and ours alone. We scoured Etsy and ended up deciding on a set of custom damascus steel rings from StonebrookJewelry, and we couldn't be happier with how they turned out. They almost look like they have a woodgrain pattern, and when you look at them from the top down they each look like they're marked with a fingerprint--truly one of a kind.

I had hoped to order a vintage pattern from my friend and fellow Etsy seller ProjectH and make a lovely dress. Ever since I learned to sew in middle school, I dreamed of making my own wedding dress. But our window of time ended up being too tight, so I opted to buy a lovely off-the-rack dress instead. The best part is that I tried it on at a local upscale boutique but then scored the exact dress on Overstock.com for less than half the price!

We also decided that it was really important to us to hire a photographer so that we would have lovely photos to mark our special day. Dawn McKinstry met us at a local state park and really worked with us to get a number of beautiful shots. We tucked a copy of the photo above in with the announcements when we sent them out to our friends and families.

After the wedding, we headed to Tybee Island off the coast of Savannah to celebrate. It was so lovely to be there at that time of year. We took a number of walks on the beach, including two sunrise walks.

It pretty much felt like we had the place to ourselves -- though we kept running into these cannonball jellyfish along the beach.

One day we wandered over to nearby Fort Pulaski, which was really cool to see. We both took oodles of photos of the fort. The crazy thing is that are still cannonballs in the walls!

It was an awesome trip and so much fun. And the best part is that we're still having fun, long after the official honeymoon ended. That's the amazing thing. We just feel like we're perfect for each other and that being together brings us so much joy, peace, and happiness.

I haven't felt this wonderful in years, though I must say that it hasn't been without a few side effects. I've found that I have these uncontrollable urges to do cartwheels. But hey, if that's the only downside to getting married then I think I can live with that!

Well I hope all of YOU have a wonderful Valentine's Day, whether you spend it having a nice dinner with your sweetie or just sitting on your couch in your comfies and watching your favorite movie for the umpteenth time. Do whatever brings joy, peace, and inner love, and it's sure to be a lovely day!