What does it mean? Rachel & Simon

What does it mean?” is a continuing series where we ask a blogger how they brought meaning into their wedding. Today we are honored to hear from Rachel Shingleton and her husband, Simon.  Elizabeth is the blogger and designer of Pencil Shavings Studio and has an Etsy shop selling bright colored office supplies and cell phone cases (they are the cutest!). They live in Oklahoma.

Thanks to Brittany for having me today!

Not too long ago someone asked how long my husband Simon and I have been married and it somewhat shocked me to realize that we’ll celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary this upcoming July. That went by in a flash!  I remember hearing from numerous people that they didn’t even really remember their wedding day because it was such a blur of activity, but as I look at these photos I’m happy to think that I really do remember so many of the details.

We tried to bring meaning to our wedding in numerous ways, some with the more obvious ones like including all of our respective families (even the littlest ones!). But there were other things, too. Since I’m a graphic designer, I resisted the urge to outsource some of the designwork and ended up creating the invitations as well as the programs (my absolute favorite part of the wedding planning). Additionally, since Simon and I met in 1st grade, we had the headmaster of our school (who is also a close dear family friend) marry us. There were other little details, too, like serving Simon’s favorite flavor of cake (red velvet!) and his mother’s special punch recipe at the reception.

But beyond all that, we tried to bring meaning to the day overall by not stressing out about the details. Even if things didn’t go exactly as planned (and trust me – they most definitely did NOT!), we came away at the end of the day meeting our goal, and that was to be married! Now years later, all those crazy little snafus have ended up being funny stories, and the happy details are still at the forefront.

Thank you, Rachel and Simon, for being our guests today!

by Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House that Lars Built