Our Editor Talks Her Recent Engagement and Wedding Planning

As I sit down to write this, my fingers hover over the keyboard with a new weight on my left hand. On August 6, 2019, my boyfriend of three years sang, “Amazed” by Lonestar in a crowded Nashville bar before calling me on stage, getting down on one knee and asking me to spend my life with him. I still get teary-eyed thinking about how it was the ideal proposal. At times, it doesn’t even seem real. That’s until I look down at the ring I had no part in picking but is still somehow perfect for me.

Where the past few weeks of my life has seemed like a dream, I’m about to share with you a dose of reality. As a little girl I did not fixate on planning out my wedding. I have never had a Pinterest board with potential wedding details. I’ve never truly thought about my own wedding. Before you become outraged as to how I’m even an editor of a weddings magazine, let me explain.

I adore love. I think marriage is the most sacred and special promise two people can make. My parents have been married for over 30 years and my grandparents have been married for over 60 years. I do not take the unwavering commitment of marriage lightly.

I feel that we as a culture so easily get caught up in the fairytale of the wedding day when the true essence of marriage is commitment and union. I have long known that I could not plan my wedding without knowing who would be on the other end of that aisle. About a year ago, I secretly began idealizing myself in wedding dresses and hearing certain songs only to think how beautiful they would be at a wedding. This happened because I finally knew the man I wanted to marry.

After the initial ogling at the ring and the proposal story, the conversation usually progresses to the assumption that I have my wedding all planned out. This assumption makes sense. I write about weddings on a weekly basis, and I get to swoon over all of the absolutely stunning photos of weddings that are sent in to the magazine. But, when it comes to my own wedding, I hadn’t given it much thought.

But there’s one aspect I know for certain.

Over the past four years I have been deeply immersed in the culture of weddings. From the tip of Pensacola to the central heartbeat of Tallahassee, I can give you detailed information about vendors and venues throughout this region. I have fallen in love with hundreds of weddings in this remarkable region. There is nowhere else I could imagine my wedding taking place except Northwest Florida.

Now that I have the promise of forever with the man that supports my dreams, encourages my passions, calms my worries, makes me laugh endlessly and very literally makes each day an adventure, I’m almost overwhelmingly excited to begin planning with him.

Maybe you’re like me and you never planned your wedding until you were engaged. Maybe, you’ve known for years exactly what you want. Or you’re somewhere in between. No matter where you align on this spectrum, enjoy the process! It’s not a race when you are in it for forever.

What I think we can all agree on is being thankful for the abundance of resources available for wedding planning. I know my No. 1 resource for planning will be the magazine I have the absolute honor of being the editor of. I am sincerely grateful for all of the vendors and venues I have worked with and written about and for all of the couples whose stories in the magazine’s pages have inspired me.

I look forward to planning, learning and loving alongside all of the other couples creating their love stories in Northwest Florida.

All my best,

Rebecca