Southern Weddings

The Southern Weddings Postal Service, or SWPS, as we’ve nicknamed our in-house shipping department, picks up pace around this time of the year, when over 15,000 pounds of magazines are delivered to our office. It’s definitely an exciting time, and one that I, as the “Head Elf” this year, was honestly a little nervous about! I was interning at SW this time last fall when V6 arrived, so although I was exposed to the happenings at SWPS, there was still a lot I didn’t know about the process.

A lot of prep work is done prior to the day the 18-wheeler packed with V7 pallets pulls into Lara’s driveway. We order all of the necessary shipping supplies, write thank you notes to slip into each order, print and sort packing slips, and get the garage cleared out to make room for all the new magazines. Thankfully, the rest of the SW gals were super encouraging guiding me through the preparation process, and Rhiannon, Grace’s nanny, helped me clean, organize, and rearrange the garage weeks earlier. We expected V7 to arrive on Halloween, but a shortage of delivery trucks at the shipping facility forced us to wait until Monday. Despite the delay, we were ready!

Since the holiday season is upon us (yippee!), I’ve found a few parallels in the SWPS to none other than Santa’s workshop! It starts with the five of us pushing and pulling pallets upon pallets of magazines up Lara’s slightly uphill driveway. I imagine we look a little like reindeers pulling a sleigh!

Simultaneously, our little Dymo label printer is working hard to print hundreds of mailing labels that we’ll stick onto envelopes and boxes filled with copies of V7.

We were grateful on Monday for the sunshine that made it possible for the SW gals and our sweet helpers to move our workspace outside. Like Santa sifting through the naughty and nice lists, we scan each mailing label and match it with the right personalized note before sealing the package and adding it to the pile. Our littlest elf, Gracie, even helped by sticking chicken stickers on several lucky boxes!

After hours of packing, with our arms feeling weak from lifting and our legs wobbly from standing, our kind postman pulled into the driveway to collect over 300 packages of V7. I have to admit, I doubted that we could fit everything in the back of his little mail truck! I should know by now that, like our team of seven gals, small can also be mighty!

Just like that, V7 was on its way to your homes! We love thinking about y’all receiving the magazines and pouring through the content we’ve joyfully worked hard to create and curate! We’re incredibly grateful to everyone for supporting our mission and we can’t wait for y’all to see V7!