Our Icelandic Elopement: It's Been An Entire Year

It's been a year since B and I stood on Vík's beautiful black beaches and said "I do," and whew, what a year it has been. So maybe it wasn't the easiest first year of marriage but I still wouldn't trade it for anything. 

If there's anything we've learned in this last year, it's that every facet of life is truly, tragically, and beautifully ephemeral. Pretty much everything has changed so it's good to have photographs to vividly recall moments like these that would otherwise become faded over time. Since I love them so much, I gotta dust off our wedding photos and share them once more. 

Photos by Violet Short.

ICELAND - Skógafoss

So sad! I'm sharing photos from the last day of our trip today. To make the trip back to the airport a little less somber (before we all went our separate ways to different homes, countries, and time zones) we stopped at Skógafoss. Of course my wedding dress came along as well.

Photos by Violet Short.

ICELAND: The Wedding Day

I've been sort of putting off posting all of the photos from our wedding day. It's not that I haven't wanted to share them with you-- I haven't had a moment to really pore over all of them myself. I just wanted some time to soak it all in and enjoy them before putting them up here. Some time to reflect, some time to cry, some time to repeat over and over "I JUST WANT TO GO BACK!"

*All images by Violet Short

ICELAND: The Video

I promise I'll post more photos but for now, take a look at some of the "highlights" from our trip. Violet did an amazing job. I love that we get to re-live our little trip every time we watch this! (I pretty much cry the whole time. Every time.)

xo,
e.m.

*video by Violet Short

ICELAND: Day One

Oh, Iceland. How I love thee. I've said it before but I'd move there in a heartbeat. Going through all these photos has got me wandering around expat forums, looking for jobs and pricing out apartments. (You know-- just educating myself!) Apologies for posting the photos out of order. I originally wasn't planning on sharing all of them but since they came out so utterly fantastic, I had to. These are pictures from our first day on the island. If we look a little dead around the eyes, it's because our red-eye flight got in around 7AM. We waited in line for our rental cars for about an hour then headed straight to Reykjavík. So yeah, we were pretty sleepy and very, very hangry. 

(All photos by Violet Short Photography.)

Coffee with Friends

Slowly but surely posting all of the photos from the wedding and trip, including these we took before even heading to the airport. Violet and I have been online friends since I was 16. Flickr and our love of Eisley and Blythe Dolls brought us together. She and her husband Grant only had a short time in Philly so we maximized their time with us by bringing them to our favorite coffee joint. We had breakfast, fancy lattes, and good conversation. Grant snapped some candids. (And some not-so-candids.)

First Look, Jökulsárlón

I like to reserve the term "magical" for only truly spectacular people, places, or things. Outside of my beloved Walt Disney World, I've probably only used the term a handful of times. Having said that, my wedding was pretty magical and our first look was no exception. Originally we were planning on getting married Thursday so I could carry my dress around and take photos in front of all the places we planned to visit. Mother Nature can be cruel sometimes though and we ended up having to push the wedding back, which meant I'd be heading to Jökulsárlón without a dress. After talking it over a bit with B, we decided to pack it along anyway-- you know-- just in case. I think we made the right decision. Photos by Violet Short.

Exploring South Iceland

Today was my first day back to work. It was-- well-- let's just say I've had a few strong alcoholic beverages since I got home. No worries though, having a bummer of a shift gave me the best reason so dive back into my Iceland pictures. I realized that I didn't take nearly as many photos as I thought but that goes to show how much fun I was having. Here are the few snapshots I have from the rest of our time in Iceland. 

Reykjavík

I'm getting a little weepy-eyed going through these photos from the trip. We just got back and we only left two weeks ago but I still miss it so much! Iceland is so stunning. We kinda want to move there. (Not kidding.) I didn't take a ton of photos on the trip because I was busy doing other things but I did manage to snap a few to share with you guys. We spent our first and some of our last day wandering around Reykjavík.

See Ya Soon!

Hey you guys! I won't be blogging over the next few days because I'm heading to ICELAND. Though I won't be around here too much, you can follow along on Instagram! Not just me, but Danielle, Brenden, Violet, Jenna, Douglas.

xo,

e.m.

Oh, My Love

The One Whom My Soul Loves

Marriage Musings: Single Lady Checklist

You probably thought that you could somehow escape my random thoughts on marriage and such this week. No dice, pal. I figured that after a few very heavy posts, I'd lighten it up a little bit. I'm getting married in November (YIKES!) which is less than 31 weeks away at this point. (I know, super short engagement. We're crazy. We get it. We're tired of hearing it.) Despite being only a few months away, I think I have time to cross off some items from my bachelorette bucket list. Since we're foregoing the "traditional" wedding and semi-eloping to another country, I don't have to spend as much time on trivial details and have more opportunities to live out my last days as a single lady.

Marriage Musings: No More Heartbreak

It takes a very special sort of person to fully captivate my heart. Like most 23-year-olds, I've experienced love-at-first-sight, fleeting crushes, failed long-term-relationships, and awkward first dates. I've been through the throes of unrequited love and tend to fall victim to overt romanticization. I once told a guy how I felt about him only to have him respond with, "you know what you should do? You should go to law school." It's only natural for one to approach certain non-platonic relationships with a sense of caution after being let down so many times. The truly tragic thing is that I have more stories like that up my sleeve. My love life hasn't been quite as pitiful as say, Bridget Jones's, but it's had some pretty pathetic moments.

Marriage Musings: The Dress

Can we stop saying things like "I SAID YES TO THE DRESS!!!!1 *bride emoji* *heart eyes emoji* #engaged?"* Maybe it's the predictability of it all or the perfunctory vibe that it gives off but it's all very cringe-worthy to me. I promise I'm not some curmudgeonly dark figure wishing ill upon those who have found happiness in the form of wedding dresses-- the phrase "I said yes to the dress!" itself just makes me ill, probably because it was was popularized by the TV show and every episode I've ever watched has been excruciatingly painful.  The very mention of it conjures up images of those girls fake-crying (complete with eye-fanning and mascara running down their faces) until their dads grudgingly write a check for their $20,000.00 wedding dresses while smarmy, attention-crazed stage moms menacingly cackle off-screen. Not exactly the kind of thing one should like to be associated with.

Small little rant aside, I went dress shopping this past weekend. In stark contrast to the "whimsical with a dash of angst" experience that's portrayed on TV, it was a somewhat awkward, very emotional, and overall hilarious outing.

Marriage Musings: Engaged for a Week (and Already Over It.)

So much happens in the first week after he pops the question. "Have you chosen a date yet?" "Wow that was fast, did you even think about it?" "Can I tell my boyfriend to put the pressure on him?" Why has nobody told me that being #Engaged™ would be so darn exhausting? Between the unsolicited opinions (which everybody seems to have), the agonizing over yet-to-be considered details, and the overload of spam email, I'm ready to just elope. Bridal magazines are full of ugly bridesmaid dresses, overpriced invitations, and impossibly intricate canapés. It seems that unless you have all of these things, your marriage will be a sham. Well you know what, Martha Stewart? None of it interests me in the slightest. Since when did weddings make the shift from "public commitments in front of loved ones" to "Pinterest-fueled creativity competitions?" It could be because being in the wedding industry has jaded me in many ways but I'm kind of "over" weddings.