Hello, friends. Like y’all, even in the midst of all the cheer of the holiday season, our hearts are still very heavy in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Connecticut. It’s almost unimaginable to think about what those moms, dads, brothers, and sisters must be feeling right now. Our office wanted to do something, and so after tossing out a few ideas, we decided to donate $5 for every “Love Never Fails” print sold today. Because you know, of all the things that seem so uncertain right now, there’s one thing we know for sure: that love NEVER fails. It never does. And we hope this simple print, hung somewhere you’ll see it every day, might remind you of that.

The print is available here. We’ll ship out every order we get before 4pm today this afternoon by Priority Mail, so we HOPE they’ll arrive in time for Christmas!

If you’d prefer to donate directly, there are a number of ways to do so. The United Way has set up the Sandy Hook School Fund. The Red Cross is also providing aid, and donations can always be made to them through these channels.

We also wanted to call your attention to the #26ACTS movement started by Ann Curry that has been going around lately. We can’t think of a lovelier way to honor the victims than by doing an act of kindness in their honor, and we’d encourage y’all to try it out this week and weekend. If you need a few ideas, I wrote a little post on my blog here with some simple ways to pass along the love.

Howdy from the beautiful Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, where Emily (and Emily) and I have been engaging at the engage!12 Wedding Conference.

We’ve met so many new friends and had a wonderful time visiting with many of the remarkable vendors that have made our latest issue such a success. It has been a very inspiring week! I was happier as a pup with two tails to be invited to speak here and happy as a pup with three tails to share about how we do things ’round here at Southern Weddings.

Photo by Scott Clark and Chellise Michael with Elan Artists

Y’all know we do things a little differently. We’re small… and mighty… and Southern. We do all the layout, shipping, shoot creation, cleaning up after our messes and everything ourselves. We’re a tiny team with more passion than a hen has feathers. But, I didn’t talk about just us in my speech… I talked about YOU.

You are why we are here. You cheer us on and write us encouraging notes and share our magazine with dear friends and we sincerely wouldn’t be where we are without our very loyal readers. So, I wanted to just say a quick thank you. I wish I could jump through my screen to hug each of you, too. Thank you for believing in us and being our cheerleaders. Thank you, most of all though, for LOVING.

It’s because you love your fiancé’s and husbands and families and this magical place we call home so much that we are inspired every day to do what we do and we have so much goodness ahead! We love y’all! You sweeten our tea!

Y’all, we have seen and experienced our fair share of crazy things throughout five years of self-publishing this magazine. But let me tell you, not ONE has topped a photo that was sent to us by Miss Mary Ann in Jackson, Mississippi two weeks ago. The photo she sent was of a gorgeous copy of Southern Weddings on the shelf in her local grocery store — fairly standard, you might think — but this one (oh this one)… it didn’t have a title!! That’s right, not a speck of gold foil was to be seen, just five pretty ladies with nowhere to call home.

So, amidst our bewilderment, we (proudly?) introduce you to Southern Weddings V5: Collector Edition!

Yep, these are in very limited supply, folks! (Or, at least we hope so!!) We’re still trying to get to the bottom of how these semi-nekked gems made their way to newsstands, but we’ve surmised they missed a step somewhere in the printing process. Thanks to Mary Ann and Morgan, who also emailed us, we know Collector Editions have been spotted in Jackson as well as Houston.

But, since we’re still trying to get to the bottom of this mystery, could y’all do us a favor? If you’ve spotted some nekked SWs, could you shoot us an email letting us know where? We would be so grateful!

Until then, we hope those of you who’ve found the special copies enjoy their uniqueness! Who knows? Maybe they’ll show up on eBay someday! :)

P.S. We guarantee that any copies sent out through the SWPS will NOT be Collector Editions! Order yours here.

‘Round these parts, we look forward to a whole lot at Thanksgiving… fresh biscuits, mama’s pecan pie, grandma’s sweet potato pie (can you tell we love pie?), stuffin’, football, turkey, and most of all… family! We have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving and hope your holiday is filled to the brim with cranberries and a whole lotta LOVE!

MARISSA: Heavens, y’all! I don¹t even know where to start! 2012 has been a year full of amazing blessings and incredible challenges – and I’m so grateful for them all! I am so thankful for the talented women I am not only blessed to work with everyday, but am able to call my friends. L, E, E, N + K, thank you! For our sweet readers, and talented clients. For my loving family – especially my mama, who is always there for me no matter what. For my handsome husband, BDK: you are the definition of a Southern gentleman, and my dream come true. Lastly, for God’s incredible grace. Without that, I am nothing.

This year, I’ll be spending Thanksgiving with the Kloess side of my family. Since I come from a small family, spending the holidays with this crowd is always a joy! Let’s just say we are one big ol’ Southern family – so big the dinner table has to be made of card tables and random chairs! Traditionally, my FIL deep fries a turkey in the backyard, and we celebrate with all the fixin’s, from homemade pecan pie to sweet potato casserole. I can’t wait! Even though I’ll miss my family and our traditions, I’m so thankful to have such wonderful in-laws to spend the holidays with.

NICOLE: This year, I am overwhelmed by how much there is to be thankful for! I’m so grateful for a loving family that gives me strength and some hilarious stories to tell and for terrific friends and a boyfriend who make me feel at home no matter where I am. I’m grateful for an amazing job that has filled my days with creativity and love and for a degree from the best University on the planet. Lastly, I’m grateful for my mom’s cooking, pug faces and Pantone. I’m heading to Charlotte today to bake pies and celebrate the holiday with my mom’s side of the family. Inevitably, there will be much debate over what to include in our Christmas lists and a lot of planning for my sister’s October 2013 wedding!

ALEXIA: I am thankful for my wonderful family, beautiful friends and unforgettable experiences at Southern Weddings this semester. I am also grateful for sweet tea, starry nights, cowboy boots and red velvet cupcakes. I am spending Thanksgiving at my grandparents’ house surrounded by family, laughter and of course a little pumpkin pie :)

EMILY: As usual, my gratitude cup overflows, which is something I’m grateful for in and of itself! I am so very thankful to call John my husband (after seven years of having a boyfriend – ha!) and for the person he is; for my parents, my siblings, and my parents and siblings in law (or, my parents and siblings in love, as one of my friends likes to say); for a God who in ALL things works for the good of those who love Him and for a church family that reminds me of that; for my sweet kitties and our warm house; for the health of those I love; for the blessing of living in this beautiful, amazing country; and for my job that I love so very much, and the amazing ladies with whom I get to work. Also, chocolate chunk pecan cookies. Yep, definitely thankful for those.

This year John and I are hosting Thanksgiving in North Carolina for my parents and one of my sisters. We’ll be a small group with entirely too much food, but I don’t really consider that a problem :)

KRISTIN: Thanksgiving 2012 marks my first married Thanksgiving, and I am looking forward to celebrating with my favorite husband and our amazing families. It is a well-known fact that I love ALL holidays and love to celebrate in BIG ways. On Thursday we will be crisscrossing the state of NC to celebrate, and I am responsible for bringing official ‘dishes’ to both meals as a reward for getting married (my late Grandma Jewell’s green bean-corn casserole — serious deliciousness and a family tradition — for my family and a sweet potato casserole for KPW’s). Thanksgiving day is sure to be overflowing with family, laughter, all my favorite foods*, and a nap, along with countless chances to reflect on all my many blessings.

During this sweet season of Thanksgiving I am reminded of the never ending listing of things that I am thankful for including, but not limited to, continued daily grace, my husband and our freshly-made marriage, our family, health, the SW family, the sunshine, and being able to find joy in each day. Hope y’all have a blessed Thanksgiving. Bring on the mashed potatoes!! PS: *Seriously. The food. We served Thanksgiving dinner at our wedding reception because it is our absolute favorite meal. I can’t wait.

LARA: Thanksgiving is a double great day for us this year as today is Grace’s first birthday! It’s been a crazy and blessed year between motherhood, making a magazine and so much more. I am overwhelmingly grateful for you, sweet readers and friends. Thank you for making this holiday time so special for us with all the excitement and kind words about V5! The story of Southern Weddings makes my heart so FULL. I am grateful for my family, dear friends, the SW ladies, a job that I love and most of all for grace. Amazing grace. God is good, y’all! This year, I’ll be attempting to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner by myself, so wish me luck, y’all! Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite meal all year with the sweet potatoes and turnip puree topping my list of leftover highlights. Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo credits, top to bottom: Nancy Ray, Nicole’s iPhone, personal, Tanja Lippert, Martha Manning, the Cheesebooth from the SW Launch Party last week!

Oh me, oh my, y’all. We haven’t done an official count yet, but when all is said and done, I think we are going to have sent over 600 individual ORDERS out through the SWPS in this first week. And, of course, each of those orders could contain between 1 and 20 magazines. Allow us to give you a little glimspe into how the magic happen. Or, as I like to refer to the “magic,” the one week of the year when my desk job turns into a warehouse job…

The work of the Southern Weddings Postal Service fires up long before any magazines arrive. As soon as we opened pre-orders, our intern, Alexia, set up a system for managing them, and began to handwrite thank you notes and mailing labels. Here’s a peek at the stacks from a few weeks ago:

Because we knew our office supply of magazines was going to arrive later than usual due to Superstorm Sandy, we tried to do even more prep work than usual, including pre-stamping envelopes, folding and taping up boxes, and stocking up on packing tape. Whoo!

Before we knew it, magazine delivery day had arrived!! A massive truck pulled into our neighborhood, and the driver turned out to be the same guy that delivered our order last year. The first thing he said? “A year is not enough time in between these visits.” We know it was said with love, y’all.

I’m sure he appreciated how many photos we insisted on taking of the process.

Happily, we had Miss Grace to help us haul the 7.5 pallets of magazines (18,000 POUNDS, y’all. 18,000 POUNDS!!) up the driveway. Even more happily, Lara’s husband, Ari, arrived unexpectedly midway through the ordeal! I think the delivery guy almost cried when Ari rounded the corner, he was so happy to see him. What, mister, Nicole and I weren’t exactly the help you were looking for?

Those two photos of Grace pretty much kill me, by the way. Doesn’t she look like a little figurehead in the first one? Very helpful.

Once we’d huffed and puffed our way up the driveway and each pallet was tucked safely into our “shipping department”, we got to work moving magazines from one set of boxes and into another! All hands on deck! And by all hands on deck, I really mean it! All other non-essential activity stops in the office while the SW gals bust out those first several hundred orders. Susan, Grace’s nanny, even chipped in at naptime!

Once we had a good number of orders ready to go, we started loading cars! Luckily Lara and I both have small SUVs, so we were able to squeeze quite a few into our initial load.

Oh yes, the actual postal service is always delighted to see us coming. They graciously let us unload in the back (cool!).

That’s just a small portion of our haul!

The other gals then abandoned me at the front desk (just kidding — I sent them back to the office to pack up more mags!) while the cashiers processed our boxes upon boxes. Our total across three credit cards for this initial visit? Get ready for it — $2,500. Yep! I snapped this photo and texted it to Lara when we hit the first $1,000 :)

Once back at the office, I took what has to be one of my very favorite annual photos — second only to the photo I make John snap of me grinning next to the first copy of SW I find in the store. Why, it’s the world’s longest receipt!!

And that, my friends, is the story of the Southern Weddings Postal Service, V5 Style. I sincerely hope that we’ve succeeded in getting your order out to you in good time and great condition! If you haven’t had the pleasure of placing your order yet and can’t find a copy in stores, be sure to do so here!

P.S. SWPS V2 and SWPS V4!