From Sweden With Love

I love holidays — all holidays really, my favorite in fact is Valentine’s Day (must be the romantic wedding planner in me). One holiday I am not a fan of is Thanksgiving — we should just extend Christmas celebrations (can I get an Amen?).

During this past Thanksgiving I hopped a flight to Sweden with 13 friends from my church and spent ten days in the beautiful country. We spent time exploring, feeding people and building community with international students. As I wandered around Sweden I had this moment of looking around and I thought, “this place gets me”. It’s cold, the architecture is compact and colorful, diverse and it’s so quiet. 

I thought about how I feel so different than anyone else in my life or that I encounter in my day to day. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest and Instagram looking at weddings, bridesmaids dresses, flowers etc. The amount of likes, comments and followers and the need to get peoples attention and love can be daunting and really easy to be sold into the idea of sameness. 

How do you stay true to yourself when we’re constantly bogged down with impressing other people? You find the place (and the people) that get you. 

Your wedding is a party, but you’re the ultimate guest. So while I was running around Sweden trying to figure out how to purposely miss my flight and start a new life there it hit me... I’ll have a winter wedding (in the snow if I can help it) and near a mountain, there will be rich Christmas time colors everywhere and the red wine and tequila will be a flowin. There will be toasts about ridiculousness I’ve ensued on my best friends lives and Waffle House will cater (all star breakfast y’all) while we dance to Taylor Swift. That will be my day and it will be exactly the right concoction of all the things I love to bring me ultimate joy. 

I’ll never be a bride who wants a summer wedding with bright bridesmaids dresses and to be married outside in August. I love those girls, but I’m not one of them. When my day comes I’ll embrace what makes me happy, just like I’ve embraced the barns and summer heat and big hair for the girls who feel so different than me. 

Brides, trends are fleeting and your memories and pictures and bank statements of the money you paid are for forever. Megan and I talk all the time about how we want our brides to do and pick the thing that brings them the most joy. Hosea House is the place where you believe that you were fearfully and wonderfully made, including all your weird quirks and unpopular opinions (hi sparklers). Step inside and let us create a day that was made for you, not for Instagram. 

xoxo, mallory