Havenly, who I’ve worked with in the past to design my living room (see their feature here), offered me the idea to share one or two sentimental objects in our home. The most sentimental objects reside in my home office. Cody and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary at the end of May and I thought I’d share a special memory from that day with all of you. It all starts with my grandparents.
My grandma unexpectedly passed away a few years ago and we had to move my grandpa to assisted living across the state to be closer to family (he became blind about twelve years ago). When our family went back to get their house cleaned out and ready to sell, we stumbled across a box in their storage room. I swear my grandma was almost to the level of hoarding, but she and my grandpa grew up in the Great Depression and saved EVERYTHING. This box we found, however; is something my entire family is grateful she kept.
The box contained letters that they had written to one another in the 1940s, documenting their engagement and leading up to their engagement. They lived in separate towns at the time, so it was a long distance relationship. Every single letter was kept, her letters to him and his letters in response. Most were hand written with a mixture of typed letters. My cousin and aunt took on the task of putting them in chronologically order and then had them scanned so we could put all the letters into a book. There ended up being enough letters between the two to fill two volumes. For the record, my grandma’s letters were about two times longer than any of my grandpas. Not very surprising!
I love reading their conversations and thinking in today’s world, we would simply be sending texts back and forth.Nothing is more romantic than their love letters discussing the simplest things like what they are listening to on the radio, what they purchased at the store, to how much they miss one another, to what their day entailed.
So where does this fit into our wedding day?
Cody and I had decided not to do gifts, and just to write letters to open up the morning before the ceremony. My cousin brought in this box to the suite where I was getting ready and I sat down to open it. These photos may be some of my favorite of our special day. The first thing I saw when I opened the type writer, was my grandpa’s hand writing. I immediately burst into tears. It was a letter that he had written before their wedding day. His words were so moving, it was serious Notebook level romantic.
Behind my grandpa’s letter, Cody had written his own message to me. The words on both of those letters I won’t share, but I hold them near and dear to my heart. So today, I proudly display the type writer in my office to remind me of my grandparent’s 60 plus year love affair that grew with three children and onto 6 grandchildren and a lot of love in-between (our family is crazy close). The machine sits on a shelf beneath an old camera I snagged from their house and a 1930’s copy of Little Women that once belonged to my grandmother when she was a little girl.
Their love is so special to me, that I even got a tattoo of my grandmother’s signature sign off, “All My Love” and added a special touch from one of my grandpa’s letters, “xxxx”.
What beloved décor piece in your home do you covet the most? Leave a comment below, I love hearing the stories behind mementos in people’s homes.
This is not a sponsored post, just opening up to a little behind the scenes of our wedding day and what makes me happy inside. I loved working with Havenly and you will too – if you need a consultation or e-design – check out their site!
Office Photography by Cassandra Monroe | Wedding Photography by Aly Carroll
