Jess Lively

  Over the weekend our extended families came into town to celebrate our marriage and elopement over Thanksgiving, a cocktail party on Friday, and a dinner on Saturday. Though I never expected to have such an unusual wedding celebration three months after the ceremony, the weekend could not have been more perfect ending to our [...]

  During our wedding ceremony Mr. Lively and I took turns reading aloud our marriage vows. These joint vows were in addition to our personal vows and now serve as the foundation of our relationship. Similar to a constitution, we created these vows to last for a very, very long time unchanged. But as we evolve [...]

As requested, I have more photos from the trip. To capture a bit of our experience I thought I’d create a photo collage of the things we saw and did on the trip. And of course if anyone is considering a trip to Paris, I hope this also can act as a mini guide of [...]

I cannot being to tell you how much joy it has brought me to share our rather unconventional wedding with you. And as many have requested, I have a few more photos to share from the rest of our wedding day. These are purely the pretty shots that help depict how awe inspiring Paris’ Jardin du [...]

When we eloped in Paris, we decided to craft our own wedding ceremony. Mr. Lively is not partial to any religion and though I adore teachings from many religions, I identify as spiritual myself. But let’s be honest, since I was part of the equation I made sure there was a hefty dose of intention [...]

  To try to explain this trip will not be easy. It was delightful, relaxing, and will be forever sentimental for Mr. Lively and I. As I get back into the swing of things (due to a delightfully productive period of jet lag), I want to share a few photos from the trip. I’ll go [...]

  Now for the fun part, my outfit! Though our wedding isn’t traditional in many ways, I still wanted a white dress. However, since we are most likely holding the ceremony in a garden or someplace quiet, but public, I didn’t want to attract too much attention with a big gown. Anything that could draw [...]

Now that I’ve shared why we decided to elope, I’ll share what traditions we decided to keep, what we edited, and what we invented. As I’ve mentioned before, our decision to pass on a traditional wedding is saving us a substantial amount of money. Which has allowed us to intentionally splurge in some areas like [...]

When Mr. Lively proposed on May 30th, I was planning on a traditional wedding next fall. The following day his parents came into town and we talked about possible venues and catering for three whole days. But during their last night in town we finally broached the subject of our honeymoon. We decided we wanted to [...]

Yep, you read that right. Mr. Lively and I are on our way to Paris to get married!  I know many have wondered whether Mr. Lively’s name was a pseudonym or his actual last name. It’s his real last name. Which means my name is now going to be Jess. Jess Lively. I like my new name [...]

  When it comes to getting ready for marriage, I’ve had quite an interesting journey. After peacefully ending a long relationship, I was determined to find out “why” it happened. And the only answer that I could ever arrive was that there must be something out there that was a better fit for both of [...]

  I know that some may be wondering how on earth Mr. Lively popped the question. Though he scheduled a very sweet post here on MML that went live right as he was asking me to marry him, how he did it in real life is still a bit of a mystery for many. And [...]