With the impending royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton just around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about my very own “royal wedding” that took place last summer (July 11th). I had no idea how fast time would fly in this first year of marriage. It’s gone by so fast, yet feels like it’s been a lifetime, you know?

Back before I was married, I never quite grasped the depth of marriage – even in the deepest depth of my soul (that’s deep, folks) I couldn’t help but think of marriage as one dimensional. Cute, fluffy, etc. I mean, I knew it was tough and that it wasn’t rainbows and butterflies, but it wasn’t until I actually entered into this mysterious and metaphorical bond that I realized how expansive marriage is. I couldn’t (and still can’t) quite explain it to my single friends in just a few words – “It’s good, but hard, but… deep, but satisfying, but revealing, but humiliating, but comforting, but joyful, but fun, but… life changing”. I thought long and hard, and the only word I could think of that could somewhat sufficiently express all those things without sounding dismissive or fluffy was…

Worthwhile.

Marriage is so, so, so worthwhile. When you hear that, don’t you just think of something weighty and amazing, but get the connotation that it didn’t come without effort? Despite the hardships, challenges, and soul-baring surgery that happens, it is so worth the wonderful influence it has on us as well as the great joy and companionship that comes from it. And God is ever-present, ready to help your union in times of trouble. Remind me of that next time I’m in a kerfuffle, okay? Also, remind my husband when he has to deal with me (teehee).

So, anyhoo, we have a very long-delayed wedding task that we need your help to complete. Our wonderful wedding photographers and friends, Candace and Vitaliy Prokopets of Prokopets Studio, gave us two free prints of any of our wedding or engagement photos and we STILL haven’t decided! I want to use and frame two of our engagement photos because our session was so fun and the photos have a lot of our personality in it. I want to remember how I felt when I was preparing to be Mrs. Southern Gentleman.

Below are the five we’ve narrowed it down to. Which ones do you like the best? Don’t be shy – leave your opinions in the “comments” section of this post. Male and female opinions are equally (cough) valued!

#1

#2

#3

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#5

Thanks for your superior aesthetic advice. Note – If you’d like to learn more about Prokopets Studio, check out their fab blog. You can also read about our love story in their post about our Engagement photo shoot or view some of our wedding photos in a different post.

P.S. – If you are my mother or mother-in-law and reading this post, I swear I am sending photo discs to you… tomorrow…or the next day… or… well, they’re coming, I promise!