A Love Letter to the Journey, Not Just the Day
Slow Down and Savour It
There’s this beautiful, fleeting window of time between yes and I do — and it’s so easy to miss. Engagements can feel like a checklist: pick a date, find a location, book the vendors, tell the family, make the decisions. It becomes a project to manage instead of a season to feel.
But the truth is, this chapter of your story is rich with emotion — the nervous excitement, the little glances when you realize you’re really doing this, the cozy late-night chats about the kind of ceremony that feels like you. It deserves to be lived fully, not just rushed through.
Personally, my husband and I used to find ourselves saying “I can’t wait to marry you” in place of our I love you’s through out our engagement and 6 years into marriage we find ourselves missing that saying. The little excited phrase that we would say in moments of love and excitement and realization.
I wish I would have documented that time more.
Journaling is a way to pause and be present with all of it. To sit for a moment and ask yourself:
✨ How do I feel today, knowing I get to marry this person?
✨ What does this season of life feel like in my body, my heart, my spirit?
✨ What do I want to remember about this chapter years from now?
When you take the time to write, even just a few sentences now and then, you begin to slow down. You start to notice the moments that might otherwise pass you by — the way your partner lights up when they talk about your elopement location, or how planning your vows makes you unexpectedly teary.
This isn’t just about planning a wedding. It’s about deepening your connection — to your partner, to yourself, and to the experience of becoming a married couple and choosing each other. And that’s worth leaning into.
The Magic of Being Present Through Journaling
Journalling can be so grounding in the moment. Not only will you be able to feel your feelings more deeply and sit with your love for your partner, but you will find yourself accidentally writing your vows.
Sometimes when we think about our vows, I think we end up putting it on the list of To-do’s for the wedding and then it becomes a task to profess your love to your partner. It should not feel like work to write your vows.
But back to the journalling, this can be a great way to start opening yourself up to writing about your feelings, your love, your excitement and visions for your wedding day etc. And then when it comes time to write your vows looking back on the entire engagement and being able to look through the journey and feel those feelings that you wrote down again, its a great practice to have handy!
Emotional Benefits of Journaling During Planning
- Helps process emotions and manage stress
- Keeps you connected as a couple (maybe even journal together sometimes!)
- Builds anticipation and appreciation
- Can be a healing space when family or friend dynamics are tough
- Records growth in your relationship
Journal Prompts for Couples Planning an Elopement or Intimate Wedding
What does this engagement mean to me?
Why did we choose to elope?
A memory from this week that made me fall in love all over again…
A challenge we’re facing and how we’re working through it together
What I’m dreaming about for our elopement day
What emotions have surprised me so far during this planning process?
What fears or insecurities are coming up, and how can I hold space for them with love?
What moments lately have made me feel most connected to my partner?A memory from today that made me feel loved.
What do I hope our vows will capture about our love story?
One simple joy I experienced today in the middle of it all.
Make It a Keepsake
There’s something incredibly powerful about holding your own words in your hands — the ones you wrote in quiet moments, the ones scribbled after a joyful planning session, or maybe even a tough day. Your engagement journal becomes a time capsule of this wildly beautiful chapter: your thoughts, your dreams, your growth, and your love as it deepens leading up to the day you say I do.
When you tuck your journal into a keepsake box, it becomes more than just a notebook — it becomes part of your legacy. One day, you might flip back through the pages on an anniversary. Maybe you’ll revisit those early “what if we eloped to…” daydreams or reread your thoughts the night before your ceremony. And maybe, years down the road, your children will be able to look back and read of the days that their parents planned their wedding and started the road to becoming a family.
It’s the kind of keepsake that doesn’t just remind you of your wedding day — it reminds you of who you were becoming on the way there.
If you’ve booked one of my higher packages, your keepsake box is an awesome place to keep your journal, alongside your printed images, vow books, or other mementos (added by both me and you) — a tangible love letter to your journey.
As the Millennial Pop Queen (Miley Cyrus) said, “IT”S THE CLIMB!!”.
We are always pushing through life to get to the next milestone, and the world is moving so quickly around us. I think its time that we start being intentional with our love stories. Document the climb to the top. That excitement of wedding day bliss is just that, one day, document the journey.
It is that deep, and you should never feel ashamed of investing yourself in your relationship.
If you want a photographer that knows how to capture that emotion, and allows you to be present and savour those precious short wedding day moments. I might be the girl for youuuuu.
