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Long before I joined the Southern Weddings team, I loved following the Southern Newlywed features on the blog. While the photos each week are beautiful, the newlywed interviews are unlike any I’ve seen elsewhere on the web, because it captures the story behind the images. The combination of Christine’s background in design with both their hearts for hospitality is evident in both the images and interview below, and I hope you find inspiration for both your home and marriages below!

Big thanks to Britt Latz Photography for these lovely images!

The Couple: Christine (32) and Drew (32)
Years Married: Three
Children: Ellie Kate, 12 months
Where They Live: Historic Fairmount in Fort Worth, TX

Tell us a little bit about yourselves. We have been married three years, and our life is a constant adventure. One minute we are planning a couples’ obscure competition party with friends and the next one of us has locked our keys in the car. Something just always seems to be going on. Drew works with high school and middle school students at Watermark Community Church, and I am the owner and lead designer of an interior design firm, Christine Zeiler Interiors, while also trying to spend as much time as possible at home with (our daughter) Ellie Kate. We love to try new restaurants, take our German shorthaired pointer to the park, and have family dance parties.
Tell us your love story in one sentence. After many failed attempts to be set up on a date by a mutual friend, Drew predicted we would get married after our first date; one year later we were married.

What is your favorite part of being married? We get to see each other at our very best and our very worst but in spite of our imperfections, we are radically committed to each other. That’s been remarkable.
What has been the most surprising thing about marriage? Although we only knew each other for one year before getting married, there have not been a lot of surprises when it comes to knowing the other person. We talked a lot during engagement about our lives, expectations, and experiences, so we knew fairly well what we were getting ourselves into ;)

Where do you splurge and where do you save when decorating? What are some of your favorite sources for home things? We splurged on a very beautiful vintage rug from NYC for our living room. We have been fortunate to be able to trade services like photography for our bigger upholstery pieces like our sofa and bed and other custom built pieces like our dining table and coffee table. Additionally, window treatments were gifted from the workroom in Nashville I worked with. A lot of smaller things such as lamps, side tables and dressers we have purchased from IKEA and upgraded by performing IKEA “hacks” or gotten from Target. Other pieces of furniture have been acquired at flea markets or are family heirlooms.

Do you rent or own? We own. We love our home. We moved to Fort Worth and were determined to find our house in two days, which was the window of time we had to visit before we would move one month later. Miraculously, we found what was relatively the home of our dreams by searching cool coffee shops in town and looking for houses in those neighborhoods. In the last 2.5 years the housing market in our area has exploded. We would love to either add on to our house or find a larger house in our neighborhood that we can renovate so we can raise our family here and host friends, family, and the students and families we serve.
Which room in your home is your favorite, and why? Does our front porch count? We love our porch! Also, to our surprise, we have really loved our daughter’s nursery. Before she was born we rarely went in that room but now It’s a place we often gather and hang out. It is the only room in our house we bought all new furniture for and got to make a complete design plan for. The room has great natural light and the daybed is super cozy. The wall sconces above it are the perfect lighting for reading stories at night too.

Our house feels most like home because our furniture pieces that have stories behind them and personal photos throughout our house. We try to decorate with items that can also be used or have meaning behind them and not just stuff we quickly find to fill up empty spaces. A lot of our lives are lived in our home and we are amassing a lot of life together in our home. It is our home because of game nights we have had, the family dinners we have hosted, the ministry we have done with our friends, and the children we are raising here.

Who cooks dinner? I cook, and Drew cleans up afterwards. Drew has occasionally cooked his go-to spaghetti or what he thinks is his award-winning chili, but in reality he got the recipe from me.
What is your go-to weeknight meal? Weekend meal? The Crunchy Kale Bowl from Joy the Baker is a staple and amazing. We add Trader Joe’s chicken sausage to it to add some meat. A regular weekend meal would be eating out at Torchies Tacos.
What’s your favorite place to find recipes? Joy the Baker and The Defined Dish are some of my favorite online places for new recipes. I also like asking my friends for their favorite go-to recipes. That’s actually how I have found all of my favorite recipes! They are rarely a flop.

How does your family handle finances? We go back and forth with who manages the budget, and right now Drew is taking one for the team and updating it. We use every dollar which is great but pretty time-consuming. However, it works really well for us because we know where literally every dollar is going. :) There’s also a great feature where you can create funds for budgets that you may not make purchases for every month or occasionally overspend on monthly but it keeps track of what you have left for the year, which we really love.
What’s your best tip for balancing your relationship and other life priorities? We find that life priorities are like other things in life. When you put the biggest things in first and the then the next biggest thing in second and so forth, the rest sort of takes care itself. Matthew 6:33 states an important principle for our lives and our marriage: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things we be added unto you.” Practically, we try to go on a weekly date night. Drew gets off on Friday so we try to spend the day together as a family either Friday or Saturday. It is also very important to us to stay connected to our friends. We try to allow our marriage and our lives to be an open book so that the people who know us best can speak truth to us when we start to live selfishly and center our lives on ourselves rather than the other person.

We like to try and come up with creative date nights. One idea we really liked was we had to imagine that our first date was in Fort Worth. (It was actually in Nashville.) If our first date was in Fort Worth, where would we take the other person, what would we do, and what sort of questions would we ask each other? We thought for sure that conversation would seem redundant because we are married, but we were surprised how fun conversation was talking to each other like we were just meeting.

Which items from your wedding registry do you use the most often? Our Nespresso coffee machine, white plates and dishes from Williams Sonoma and our Vitamix.
What different decisions, if any, would you make for your registry if you knew then what you knew now? We got married in our late 20’s so we kind of knew what we wanted. And our friends and family were very generous so I don’t think we would change anything.

What is one small way you love or serve your spouse? Every Sunday we sit down with our weekly schedules and talk through the week- it really helps us set expectations for the week and communicate when we can get good time together, split up some of the chores that need to be done, as well as make sure we are resting well and planning fun activities with our family and friends.

Do you have children? We have the sweetest little 1-year-old! We know our family is not complete yet, but I am looking forward to taking some time to enjoy Ellie Kate before getting pregnant again.

Before getting married, I wish someone had told me… Every season of life has really sweet aspects, but there are new aspects of life in marriage that are amazing and you can’t experience as a single person.
This year, our family is most excited about… Enjoying our backyard! After the photos of our house were taken we took on the big project of re-landscaping our backyard, and we can’t wait to enjoy it now! We have a gas firepit, long farm table with string lights that go over our entire backyard, grass, and native Texas plants! Our dog tore up our yard before so we are now reclaiming it as our shared space with Cooper. We are also looking forward to family vacations this summer at the lake.

What is your favorite memory from your wedding? Our first dance at our wedding was really special to both of us. We danced to the song “All I Want is You” by Tristan Prettyman.
How do you remember your wedding in your home? Pictures mostly. Each year on our anniversary we watch our wedding slide show and reminisce on the beautiful evening from the comfort of our living room while drinking our wine from our wedding. The décor we had at our reception is also scattered around our house: cake plates, a box with photos, blue mason jars, etc. We have three of our favorite photos from our wedding hanging on the wall in our bedroom too.

Is there anything else about your home or family life that you think our readers would be interested in? When many people think of a home they think of the things that go in them, but we hope when people think of our home, people think about the memories that happened here, the stories shared, the lessons learned, the meals shared. Don’t get me wrong, as an interior designer, I definitely care about how our house looks, how we use our space intentionally, and that each room functions well, but if we had a beautiful house with no one to share it with, it wouldn’t feel like home to us, it would just feel like a pretty showroom. I loved the book Bread and Wine and often have to remind myself to have people over even if there is a big mess in the kitchen or even if I didn’t have the time to cook a gourmet meal. Just light a candle and turn on some music and enjoy the moment with the people around you.

Thanks so much for sharing your hearts and home with us, Christine and Drew! If you want to see more of Christine’s lovely design work, be sure to check out her website.

Written with love by Jess Metcalf
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There are some labels that I wear proudly, and being a bookworm is certainly one of them! One of my favorite questions to be asked is “what should I read?”, so you can imagine my delight when Emily assigned this post to me!
 

Whether you’re spending the part of the summer on your honeymoon on a tropical beach somewhere or hanging by the pool, these are some of my favorite summer reads! Enjoy!

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. This book might be five years old, but it’s still at the top of the list when I’m asked for summer reading suggestions. It’s delightfully funny while still speaking to greater narratives such as family dynamics. It will make you fall in love with the quirky characters and have you looking at flights to Antarctica.

 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. This is one of my most beloved books, and if I ever see it at a used bookstore, I immediately purchase it to pass along to friends. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letter, this is a touching story about the power of community in a seemingly dark season. After finishing this novel, I searched high and low for one as endearing as this one to no avail.

 

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. If you’re a fan of thrillers, this is the book for you! This novel is intense and full of twists and turns that will leave you as the reader wondering what happens next. Not to pat myself on the back, but I’m normally pretty good at predicting plot lines, and this one caught me by surprise in the best possible way!

 

Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life by Lara Casey. Our wonderful founder’s second book release at the end this month, and our team had the privilege of reading the final draft a few months ago. If you’re looking for encouragement and practical ways to embrace the season you’re in, look no further than Lara’s heartfelt words.

 

A Bridge Across the Ocean by Susan Meissner. This is the only book on the list that I haven’t read, but Amber just finished it on her vacation couldn’t stop singing its praises. She’s dropped it in the mail for me, and I’m already anticipating its arrival!

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. If you’re looking for a testament to how enthralling Hannah’s novel is, look no further than the fact that I experienced a pretty intense sunburn last summer after spending an entire afternoon with my nose in this book by the pool. The Nightingale is a beautifully written account of two French sisters–one in Paris, one in the countryside–during WWII and their account of surviving the Nazi occupation in their own ways.

 

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I admittedly had a hard time getting into this novel because of its post-apocalyptic nature, but I’m so grateful I pushed through. The story shifts between a fragile post-apocalyptic world and decades earlier, before the virus hits. The description does the most justice to St. John Mandel’s work: “At once terrible and tender, dark and hopeful, Station Eleven is a tragically beautiful novel that both mourns and mocks the things we cherish.” Find a friend to read this alongside because you will want to discuss it with someone when you’re finished!

 

Counting by 7’s by Holly Goldberg Sloan. This novel might be categorized as young adult, but the storyline is about being an outsider, coping with loss in the midst of a horrible tragedy, and redefining what family looks like. It’s a quick read, even if you aren’t a fast reader, but even more importantly, it’s a powerful story about family, community and the power of love.

 

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett. This book is immediately engrossing, which is quite surprising given that it is driven by character development and not based on twists and turns in the plot. This novel reminded me that all families have their own stories–some that are worth sharing and others that are better left unsaid. It’s a powerful story about love and family, death and heartbreak.

If you’re more of a magazine reader in the summer (and no judgment if you are!), look no further than some of our past issues of Southern Weddings from the SW Shop. Use the code SUMMERREADING through Friday, June 9th for 40% off Volume 5, Volume 6, and Volume 7.

 

Call me biased but these are some of the best magazines around! They’ll have you ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the beautiful images and stories in these pages while soaking up the sunshine! :)

 

I’d love to hear from you! Have you read any of the books I mentioned above, or do you have other recommendations to add to this list?

Written with love by Jess Metcalf
4 Comments
  1. avatar Kelly reply

    Yay! I love book recommendations! I just finished Save the Date by Jenny Jones and its an adorable quick read, and the setting is Charleston. Doesn’t get much cuter than a love story in Charleston. Highly recommend!

    • avatar Jess Metcalf reply

      Oh! I’m headed to the beach later this summer, and that sounds like a great one to add to my list! Thanks for the recommendation, Kelly! Xx!

  2. avatar Gloria dabolt reply

    I read several of those listed above: The knightingale, the Woman in Cabin 10, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Liked all of them. Also enjoyed A Bridge Across the Ocean very much!
    The best book I have read in a long time is The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo. I could not put it down and it was all I could do not to read the end first! Please read it. Promise you won’t be disappointed. Check it out in Amazon and Barnes and Noble to get a quick overview So good. I may read it again! Also read A Man Called Ove but unlike most people I wasn’t very fond of it! I should give it another try! I really like southern authors and at this moment I can’t think of a single one!

    • avatar Jess Metcalf reply

      Gloria! What a joy to see your name here! :) I’ll have to add The Light We Lost to my list for the summer! Xx!

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I think it’s a bit dangerous to hold someone up as a “model wife” – after all, no one’s perfect. But for many people I know, that’s who Sarah Tucker is. Or, if we don’t want to use that term, let’s go with “beloved inspiration” :)

And for good reason – Sarah adores her husband and is not afraid to tell you about it. She’s smart, she’s stylish, she’s a great friend, a gracious hostess, and curates a welcoming home in Florida. It has been a joy to get to know her over the years, so if this is the first time you’ve made her introduction, I’m excited for you! Get ready to be inspired :)

Thanks to Shannon Kirsten for sharing these photos!

The couple: Sarah (33) and JB (35)
Years married: 7
The kiddos: John (4) and Wesley (2)

Tell us a little bit about yourselves. We live in an old colonial home in Palmetto. JB is a financial advisor for Edward Jones, and I’m currently a stay at home mom and blogger. We have two of the sweetest boys in the world and one Boston terrier puppy named Lola.
Tell us your love story in one sentence. I was five and he was seven when we first met, and we’ve pretty much been crushing on each other ever since.

Tell us a little bit about where you live. We bought our house in 2015. I honestly think this is our forever home. I love what our area has to offer, our family is close by, and our neighbors are the sweetest.
Tell us about the process of moving in together. Do you have any tips for blending your two styles? We had a long distance relationship until we were married, so we had no idea what living with one another entailed in the day-to-day sense. We lived abroad for the first two years of our marriage, in tiny apartments with zero style. When we moved back, I was excited to start collecting and decorating. JB is definitely the muscles behind anything I want to do, and he is a good sport about it all. He doesn’t care too much about style, but he does care about function. He has helped me make more practical decisions when it comes to design.

What is your favorite part of being married? Having someone to make the coffee ;) Just kidding…but that is nice! I just love JB. I love sharing my life with him, seeing things through his eyes, and sharing our joy and sorrows TOGETHER.

Which room in your home is your favorite, and why? I love our sleeping porch. We have a sleeping porch swing bed, and I love sitting out there on cool nights with JB and watching the boys be silly.
What most makes your house feel like home? It’s imperfect, just like us. And that is part of what gives it its charm. Our house is a home people can love in, toddlers can be toddlers, and people can spill a glass of wine and no one is going to cry.

Where do you splurge and where do you save when decorating? Our leather couches are the priciest pieces we’ve purchased. Everything else I save on. I love things with a bit of a history, and I prefer shopping at thrift/consignment stores and Goodwill for unique pieces. I also, of course, love Target! I get a ton of inspiration looking through Serena & Lily and Ballard Designs magazines, but rarely buy too much from either.

What is your favorite memory from your wedding? I loved walking down the aisle with my father, and seeing the smiliest JB at the end.
How do you remember your wedding in your home? (Pictures, mementos, etc.) We have pictures of our wedding on the walls and on our bedside table. We also have an oil painting that an artist did of one of Jessica Lorren’s photos.

Which item from your wedding registry do you use the most often? Our cast iron skillet.
Who cooks dinner? We often share in that. I’ll do the salad and sides, and he’ll grill the meat.

What’s your favorite place to find recipes? Real Simple’s Great Food Fast is my all-time favorite.
How does your family handle finances? Do you use a set budget? Finance is in JB’s wheelhouse, so he works the budget. We do talk about finances freely in our home, which I think is important.

What is one small way you love or serve your spouse? I pretty much force anyone within earshot to know what an amazing person he is.
Do you have children? What are your hopes and plans for the future in this area? Yes! We have two darling boys. We do hope to expand our family, but we shall see.
This year, our family is most excited about… Adding a new brother in-law AND a new sister in-law! They are the perfect additions to our family.

If you aren’t already a fan of Sarah’s blog, you’re in for a treat! You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook. Have a wonderful weekend friends!

emily Written with love by Emily
4 Comments
  1. avatar Stephanie Shaul reply

    This is such a beautiful, beautiful: curated but lived in! And I am all for gushing openly about how wonderful your husband is!!

  2. avatar Sarah Tucker – Exterior Paint Colors on a Colonial – Sarah Tucker reply

    […]  More of our home on Southern Weddings […]

  3. avatar Britt | Southern Mama Guide reply

    love love love sarah tucker!! her home is just gorgeous and i loved getting another peek! such a sweet family!!

    xo. britt

  4. avatar Rebecca Wilson reply

    Ahhhh…. the welcoming Red front door. Just the beginning that opens up to such great taste. Sarah’s style is a statement of warmth both personally and in design

Southern Weddings reserves the right to delete comments which contain profanity or personal attacks or seek to promote a business unrelated to the post.  And remember: a good attitude is like kudzu – it spreads.  We love hearing your kind thoughts!

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