Don’t you love that New Year’s Eve is on Friday this year? I love the idea of starting a new year, new week and new outlook all at once. Today, we’re not only rounding up this week’s blog features, but we’re rounding out the year to welcome in 2011.

Katharine covered another wedding tradition this week: the choice to keep or change your last name in marriage. Katharine decided to keep her last name instead of taking her husband’s. What are your thoughts? Go to the post to weigh in on the war of names.

Emily reflected on the past year with a post full of her favorite experiences. Hot air balloons, two weddings, and Engage10 :: The Breakers. Yup, those sound like experiences I’d never forget either!

Katharine went from Harvard grad to SW editor and bride in one year! In between, there were weddings to plan, her brother’s graduation, bridal showers, and more!

To end the year, we all took a trip to see Santa! Here’s what we asked him for Christmas.

Happy Friday and happy New Year! Does anyone have a cool New Year’s Resolution or highlights from the past year?

P.S. Don’t forget…only a few more hours to submit your photos to our Mega Photo Contest!

That’s right, ladies + gents! It’s the last day of 2010!

Crazy how quickly the year has flown, isn’t it? To recap, Lara, Katharine, and I each took a look back at a few of our favorite moments, both personal and professional, from 2010. Click here to read Katharine’s post, here to read Lara’s (massively epic!) post, and here to read mine! And tune in on Monday for our 2011 resolutions!

P.S. We just couldn’t resist sticking a New Year’s hat on Paulina after we saw how cute we looked in her Santa hat :) Thanks, Nicole, for your graphic wizardry!

2010 was the best year ever. Read my entire Year in Review here on my personal blog. I traveled to Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles (7 times), Minneapolis (3 times), Chicago, Atlanta (33 times), New York (4 times), Nashville (2 times), Las Vegas, Denver, Irvine, Pensacola (7 times), Indianapolis, Grand Cayman, Miami (thrice), Washington DC, Boston, Salt Lake City, West Palm Beach, St Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad, Houston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Maui, and I’m currently in Vail with my family. Phew! I earned my SkyMiles this year.

In between all of that crazy travel, we launched an awesome magazine, a new blog, did a ton of gorgeous shoots and saw Katharine walk down the aisle.

I’ve watched Katharine and Emily grow and take the reins with this gorgeous blog and the print edition. I love spending my days with them. Seriously, every day is a highlight!

I’ve also had a lot of personal milestones. I got to know my half-sister for the first time ever. Our families reconnected this past Father’s day. That has been awesome. I love my family. So many blessings!

But, the biggest highlight for me is the very reason we even got to do all of this in the first place: marriage. Marriage rocks.

I’ll be celebrating my five year wedding anniversary in March, and I’ve never been more in love. Forget what you hear in the news – it is possible to grow in marriage and love each other more than when you first met. I’m living it. It was not at all easy to get here, but the work of marriage has been the best work I’ve ever done. Highlight = husband.

I’m grateful to God for filling my heart so much this year. I’m ready for whatever is next, but I am very happy right here.

photo credits top to bottom: A Bryan Photo, Millie Holloman, Paul Johnson, Gina Zeidler, A Bryan Photo, Gina Zeidler.

Happy New Year’s Eve, ladies + gents! I also wanted to take a minute to share my personal highlights from the world of weddings with you.

My first highlight would have to be the Asheville hot air balloon story we shot last May. It was the first shoot I organized pretty much solo (though with LOTS of design help from Joy Thigpen), and everything just came together perfectly — the weather, the balloons, the photography, the models, the crew. It was a magical morning, exactly the kind of magazine experience you (or at least I!) dream about. This despite the 3:30am wakeup call – you know it must have been a good day! Take a peek at the finished product in V3 and the editorial gallery.

My second highlight would have to be my sister’s wedding. Again, magical doesn’t really begin to cut it. Time with my family has become increasingly precious as I’ve gotten older, and we were so lucky to be able to spend 10 full days with each other getting ready for the wedding in our favorite place in the world. I wrote five posts on the SW blog about Kate and Cormac’s big day — check them out here, here, here, here, and here.

In the same vein, my third highlight is Katharine and Kyle’s wedding. She’s not one for over-the-top verbiage, but I think even she would admit it was — yes, again — magical. The vows, getting to be her bridesmaid, the speeches at the reception, dancing and singing in a big circle at the end of the night — I loved it all and felt so lucky to be a part of it.

Lastly, my fourth highlight is attending Engage10 :: The Breakers. Not only did I get to vacation in Palm Beach for a few days (for work!), I had a chance to take a break and be inspired by everything from the food presentation to the amazing speakers and attendees. Some of the favorites I met or reconnected with? Rebecca Grinnals and Kathryn Arce, Shira Savada from Martha Stewart Weddings, Randy Fenoli (of course!), Tara Guerard, Annie Lee of Daughter of Design, Siri Eklund of Two Bright Lights, Carol Poon of The Bride and Bloom, photographer Gayle Brooker, Michelle Rago, and Abby Larson of Style Me Pretty. You can check out the posts I wrote about Engage here, here, and here.

What were your 2010 highlights?

Three cheers for 2010!

It feels like I was just writing my year-in-review post for 2009, and here I am recapping 2010. If I thought last year, what with graduating from college, taking my first job and relocating to a new state, was busy, 2010 knocked ’09′s socks off!

I can sum up my year in two pictures:

Yes, in the short time between 2009 and 2010, I went from new college grad to blushing bride in what felt like the blink of an eye. Of course, there was a lot of fun (and work!) in between. Here’s what I’ve been up to this year.

This time last year (December 28, to be exact), Kyle and I announced our engagement. After a quick celebration in Cambridge and then NYC over the New Year, we set the date for September 11, 2010, five years to the day after our first meeting on the first day of freshman year.

My father, sister and the entire SW team ventured to Kleinfeld’s for a dress shopping extravaganza. With Randy Fenoli’s help, we managed to find the perfect dress.

And the wedding planning frenzy ensued! With a short nine-month engagement egging me on, I jam-packed my winter and early spring with dress shopping (for me + my beautiful maids), flower picking, cake tasting, ceremony planning and bridal showering. (Be sure to revisit Emily’s and my weekly posts in my personal blog for all the fun.)

We like to have our picture taken, especially when there’s a SmileBooth involved.

At Sara’s North Carolina wedding, Kyle + I practiced dance moves for our own big day.

With the warmer months approaching, the SW team jumped into full wedding planning mode for two special brides. Somewhere and somehow over those two very busy weekends, I managed to have sneak in some fun with my co-workers and Kyle, who served as our special helper.

We didn’t have professional pictures taken before the wedding, but we like to consider these candids from Nancy Ray our engagement shots.

I’m not sure what’s more impressive: that we’re all in the same place at the same time, or that everyone is smiling and keeping their hands to themselves.

In June, little brother Christian graduated from high school and headed off to college at Virginia Tech. Go, Hokies! “Three down, one to go,” says a happy Dad.

Before we knew it, summer was upon us and we were less than three months from our big day. Kyle’s mom and sister threw me a proper Cincinnati bridal shower to welcome me into the Gibler family, and my best friend / co-Maid of Honor, Molly, arranged a Jane Austen-inspired tea in North Carolina.

Since we met at Harvard, it only seemed appropriate that Kyle and I return to our beloved campus for our September nuptials. Memorial Church was the perfect setting for our black-tie evening wedding!

Finally! On September 11, 2010, five years to the day after we first met in an awkward Never-Have-I-Ever icebreaker outside our freshman dorm, my college sweetheart and I said “I do,” replete with personal, handwritten vows, a string quartet and the biggest bridal party known to man. I’m from the South. Don’t judge.

On the steps of Widener Library at Harvard, surrounded by our eighteen-strong troupe of bridal attendants. Pictured: my two brothers, and little sister, Kyle’s brothers, sister and sister-in-law, and a handful of family, high school and college friends. Can you spot Miss Emily?

With Kyle’s family and friends in Cincinnati. Can you tell who’s related to whom? Hint: don’t let the red hair fool you!

We’d only been newlyweds for six weeks when we jetted off to Cincinnati for Kyle’s brother’s wedding to Wei. It was funny to hear to hear Kyle and his family refer to me as his wife. In fact, I’m still getting used to my new title.

2010 wasn’t all about weddings – though, between the two of us, Emily and I definitely kept the office hopping back and forth to the altar. In December, the SW team set off for our annual visit to Santa’s workshop. Here’s a list of what I asked for this year.

Kyle and I were excited to send our very first Christmas card. Black, white and totally me.

Which brings us to today, the last day of 2010. I said it last year, but this year was the craziest, most wonderful year of my life. With an engagement, wedding and all-around fabulous year on the books for 2010, 2011 has some pretty big shoes to fill. Maybe I’ll get lucky and have a quiet year as a newlywed.

Then again, I wished for a quiet year last year, and look what I got! Happy 2011, y’all!