This weekend I had the absolute pleasure of finishig up our fall wedding season with a kind, generous, creative, and most unassuming couple ever. I loved these two. They made me want to deliver five times more than what we’d agreed upon. It reminded me why I get into a service-based industry, and why I have always, truly, been a people person. I love connecting with them, helping them make something happen that they’d only imagined of. And the groom’s response upon walking into Mercury Hall while we were all busy setting up was “Wow, oh wow, this looks incredible. Better than I ever imagined!”.

But that wasn’t the statement that really got me. At the end of the night, as we were all loading our wares back into our car, and I was congratulating this low-key, and delightful couple on quite the dance-packed reception, the groom repeated:

“You know, I didn’t really think the details matter, but they did. They made this night so special because they were so meaningful.”

And so, in response to the public debate on Jonas’ Peterson’s Mason Jar Manifesto I say: the personal, appropriate, humble details do, truly matter. They do. Pick the things that are important and reflective of your relationship, history, heritage, and family— those are bound to merely enhance an already magical day. The marriage is most important, but there are a lot of people, experiences, places who were critical in making everything up until that happen. Honor them, in these small ways, and honor yourselves.

Authenticity, I suppose, is at the heart of it all.

[Above: the elusive white clematis that I searched each coast for, and finally finagled some. Photo by The Nouveau Romantics.]