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Taking down Christmas decorations sure makes a place seem a little sad, don’t you think? That’s why I’m taking lots of notes from today’s Southern Newlywed home tour–it’s one of the happiest houses I’ve ever seen! And no surprise, considering it belongs to one of the sweetest and cheeriest gals south of the Mason-Dixon, Maghon Taylor of All She Wrote Notes, and her childhood-sweetheart-turned-husband Chris. Maghon is a longtime friend of SW (you may remember her from her and Chris’ wedding post, or our launch party live streams, which she has graciously hosted for the past three years!), and we couldn’t be more delighted to take a virtual tour of the home she and Chris have lovingly renovated…and just in time for their baby boy, who will be joining the Taylor party soon!

Thanks so much to Anna Paschal (who also shot Maghon and Chris’ wedding!) for these lovely photos!

The couple: Maghon (30) and Chris (31) Taylor
Years married: One year and eight months
Children’s names and ages: Our baby boy (VCT) is due February 2017
Where you live: Elon, North Carolina
Tell us a little bit about yourselves. I am a sweet Carolina calligrapher on a mission to spread happiness through my handwriting through my business, All She Wrote Notes. My middle school sweetheart Chris is following a long-standing family tradition of working in the automotive industry. We have known each other all our lives, but finally found our way back to each other when we were 25, and knew right away that this was where we were supposed to be all along. We were born and raised in the same small town in North Carolina and are starting a family of our own this year! We love Carolina basketball, porch parties, playing golf, and banana pudding. We love traveling to watch live sporting events and Texas is our favorite state to visit. We eat breakfast together every day and we have a sweet and crazy goldendoodle named Teddy Confetti who keeps us on our toes.
Tell us your love story in one sentence. We met in first grade, fell in love in sixth grade, then crushed on each other for more than 20 years before promising to be on the same team forever.

What is your favorite part of being married? Oh goodness! All of it. Since I’ve had a crush on Chris Taylor since first grade, I used to doodle his name on my trapper keeper growing up. I LOVE that his last name is also mine. I still get all heart-eyed every time I get to say it or write it. Besides that, just knowing that I get to spend all of the holidays, all of the weekends, and all of life’s special moments with Chris by my side forever. He isn’t going away. I still pinch myself sometimes when I think about it.
What has been the most surprising thing about marriage? I love how fun marriage is for us. Even when things are crazy, there isn’t anyone else I’d rather be doing life with than Chris.
Do you rent or own? What are your hopes and plans for the future in this area? Tell us a little bit about where you live. We currently own two homes, but are in the process of selling my first home. We purchased this Elon property together in July and have been slowly renovating it room by room, and it has been awesome to see it all come together.

Tell us about the process of moving in together. Do you have any tips for blending your two styles? We moved in together a couple of weeks before our wedding. To be honest, it never truly felt like OUR home until we moved again a year later. Originally, Chris moved into my house that I had lived in for three years before we got married, and it was hard to find space for him to feel like he had ownership. Two of our spare bedrooms were filled with my business, All She Wrote Notes, and the house was at capacity with an additional person (and a new puppy). This past July, we purchased our new home in Elon together. NOW it feels like home. We have made every decision together and it totally and completely feels like a place that tells our story. As far as tips for blending styles, narrow down choices and let him pick between your two faves. If you leave the options endless, you may be disappointed. That way, if you love both, he gets to choose one of those and everybody is happy. Also, if there is a project that he is really passionate about, let him take the reins. It turned out, Chris is WAY better about choosing paint colors than I am. He chose every one in our house.
Where do you splurge and where do you save when decorating? What are some of your favorite sources for home things? We splurged right after we got married on a brand new (white) sofa! I just HAD to have it and it was our first married purchase. Even though Chris thought it was a bad, idea, he loves me and went along with it. I love it to pieces, but y’all, almost two years (and a puppy) later, it’s kind of a hot mess. Almost every other piece of furniture was either a consignment store treasure or a Home Goods/TJ Maxx score. I live for the thrill of the hunt, and at the end of the day, I love all of the items with a story SO much more than the ones that we ordered and waited months for. There’s just something so satisfying about walking into a store and there only being ONE of the item, and you were the lucky soul to find it. I get excited just thinking about it! I don’t believe something has to be expensive to have style, and I love sharing stories with people about how each piece came to join our family.

What most makes your house feel like home? Eating pizza on our wedding china every Friday night with Chris on the couch next to me and Teddy snuggled up with us. This is a tradition we started when we were engaged and it’s the highlight of my week. I love that our home is beautiful, but it’s also lived in. It makes me happy to see Chris’ shoes in the floor and his clothes in our laundry room. We lived apart for so many years that it’s such a great feeling to finally share a home and a life together.

What is your go-to weeknight meal? Weekend meal? Chris actually works third shift from 7 P.M. until 6 A.M. during the week, so we only have weekend meals together (besides breakfast). Since there’s no one else here to cook for, it just never made sense for us to cook during the week. Since our time is so limited on the weekends, we let someone else do the cooking (and the dishes!) and eat takeout pizza on Fridays and other local favorites like Mexican or Italian on Saturdays and Sundays. We don’t go anywhere super fancy and rarely spend a lot, but it’s nice to have that time together. We are welcoming our first child this February, so an effort to make more meals at home is in the works, since there will eventually be an extra mouth to feed!
What’s your favorite place to find recipes? I have an old-fashioned recipe book that I’ve written down my favorite meals from my mom, my friends, and most recently, Chris’ grandma, in. I use those (currently there are about 20) every time I cook. I love pen and paper, so this works great for me. Even if something is emailed to me, I transfer that onto a cute little card and file it away.

How do you remember your wedding in your home? (Pictures, mementos, etc.) Our wedding program was a five-foot chalkboard that listed all of our attendants. I calligraphed it myself and we actually have it in our dining room as part of the decor. Our theme was “Cheers Y’all” and we had a large wooden sign hanging over our bar at the reception, which is proudly displayed in our not-so-formal dining area. We gave out golf tees as favors that said “For Better or FORE worse” and I have those on the nightstand by my bed. We also have our invitation envelope framed (it was my favorite paper detail) after I saw the idea in Callie and Jamie’s newlywed interview, here on Southern Weddings! And of course, we have amazing photos from Anna Paschal Photography in as many places as we can put them.
Which items from your wedding registry do you use the most often? Our china! I am not a cook, so we actually order takeout quite often. However, I insist on eating on our wedding china. Life is a special occasion, and I fully support breaking out the fancy plates on a Friday.

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 20s and I already had a fully stocked home. We didn’t register for too many things, but I wish we had actually done a little more. Over the past year, in an effort to get excited about cooking, I have purchased a lot of stone bakeware, glass bowls, measuring sets, and lots of fun tools. In hindsight, these are all items I could have registered for; I just didn’t feel like we would use them. We also purchased a really nice vacuum cleaner with gift cards we got from our guests, which was a GREAT idea that I highly recommend. We use it all the time.
How does your family handle finances? Do you use a set budget? We created a budget when we first got married and based all of our spending off of the percentage that each of us makes. Our salaries don’t align up 50-50 (more like 70-30), so we divided all of our bills accordingly. One of us pays the mortgage payment, and the other one pays all of the utilities. We still have separate accounts for things we had prior to our marriage such as car insurance, car payments, and the like. We also have a joint savings account. We don’t go grocery shopping consistently (see above posts) but we take turns paying when we do. When we go out to dinner, we play what we call the card game and shuffle our two debit cards under the table. One of us draws a card, and that’s who pays! We laugh about it every time and the suspense and playfulness makes it feel like we are still on a date!

What is one small way you love or serve your spouse? Chris brings me breakfast every day. I don’t ever have to place an order–after all these years, he knows what I would love to eat from any place he goes. My favorite is when he saves the last bite of his cinnamon roll for me. The middle bite (the best one) has always been mine. It’s so small, but I don’t take it for granted. He also leaves the lights on when he knows I will be coming home after dark. I can always count on the porch lights and garage lights beaming when I turn in and it makes me feel safe. I am half asleep when Chris comes in from work at 6 A.M., and this time of year, it’s still dark outside. Our house alarm wakes me up and I shout from our room, “Hey babe! Welcome home!” every morning. Once he comes to bed and before I actually get up for the day, I lay there with him for a few minutes and rub his hair while he falls asleep.
Do you have children? What are your hopes and plans for the future in this area? Almost! We found out we were expecting our little boy just a few weeks after one first wedding anniversary. He will join our team this February. We are so excited!
Before getting married, I wish someone had told me… it’s so much better than you even think it will be.
This year, our family is most excited about… welcoming our baby boy! It’s still so surreal to think we will have a little guy here with us in just a few weeks. We know that the first year with a newborn will certainly be a challenge, especially with our schedules, but we know we are so blessed that God chose us to be his parents, and we are so excited to take on this adventure together.

What’s your best tip for balancing your relationship and other life priorities (work, personal time, extended family, etc.)? You have to make the time and put each other first. Since we don’t have a traditional schedule, Chris and I don’t see each other during the week other than about 20 minutes in passing in the mornings or evenings. As hard as that may seem, it actually makes spending time and juggling other priorities like family and work a breeze, as long as I can get them done during the week. Then I fiercely protect our weekends. I almost never work on Friday-Sunday and neither does Chris. We also try not to make more than one weekend night of plans with other people like friends or family. When we are together, it’s easy to get caught up on our phones, so sometimes I will literally grab them both and put them in another room. Quality time is both of our love languages, so it has been huge for us to protect those moments together, since the quantity of our time is sometimes low.

Which room in your home is your favorite, and why? This is currently changing by the day, but my favorite room in our house is my All She Wrote Notes studio. I run my business from home and I LOVE that I have a dedicated space over the garage so that it is somewhat separate from the rest of our home. Chris and Teddy walk upstairs every day at the end of my work day, and that is seriously my happiest moment and what I most look forward to.

Is there anything else about your home or family life that you think our readers would be interested in? When we bought this home, there was literally floor to ceiling wallpaper in almost every room. It was built in the early 90s and was probably amazing at that time, but we channeled our inner Chip and Joanna and we were so excited to get to work. Little did we know, I was pregnant, so I was very sick throughout the whole renovation. All of it took much longer than expected (and it’s still ongoing), but with the help of both of our parents and friends, it all came together. We are so proud of it and are honored to share with all of you. Renovations are NOT like they look on TV, y’all. It can sometimes get SO crazy and overwhelming, but what I would recommend to anyone is to finish one room to completion if you can, and let that be your little oasis. We completed our living room, my office, and then our bedroom one at a time, and every time, I got a little bit of sanity back. It was a HUGE game changer to go to sleep and wake up in a room without saw dust, and allowed me to breathe and collect myself before starting the day.

Thank you so much for sharing your hearts and home with us, Maghon and Chris! Find Maghon’s business here (we highly recommend her super fun hand lettering classes if you’re in the Triangle!) and follow her on Instagram here.

P.S. We’d love to hear from you! Our hope is to feature REAL couples in the South – your inspiring friend, super talented cousin, or neighbor with the cutest house – the kind of person everyone would love to “e-meet.” If that sounds like you or someone you know, take a peek at our Southern Newlywed submission page and shoot us an email!

lisa Written with love by Lisa
3 Comments
  1. avatar Maghon Taylor reply

    Thank y’all SO much for featuring our home sweet home!! Southern’s Weddings has been with us every step of the way and we love all of your reminders of a beautiful life and marriage together.

  2. avatar Sarah reply

    This is the cutest home, but the fun is really in the details, love the pom, pom banner on the bar cart, like a party wherever it goes and the confetti chair!!

  3. avatar Lorin Fairweather reply

    That desk chair – so lovely!

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We’re finishing out our year of Southern Newlywed home tours with one of our most colorful couples yet! Lilly aficionados will find much to love in Erin and Ryan’s sweet home, but I love that Erin purposefully countered the pink and pattern with more neutral (and even downright manly) spaces. They also have a lot to teach us about cultivating the feeling of home wherever you are — can you believe they’ve only been in this space for a few months? Friends, please welcome these two (and the rest of their adorable family!) to the blog!

Big hugs to Liz Fogarty for these wonderful photos!

The family: Erin and Ryan Phillips, both 27; daughter Sullivan, 7 months; and golden retriever mixes Cotton and Mallie
Years married: 4.5
Where they live: Arlington, Virginia

Tell us a little bit about yourselves. We’re Ryan and Erin Phillips, a fun-loving couple who recently welcomed our first little one, Sullivan Louise Phillips, to our family in April. We’re originally from South Carolina, but moved to Virginia in 2013!
Tell us your love story in one sentence. We met on a rainy day at the Carolina Cup, got engaged less than a year later on the Clemson football field, married the year after in Greenville, SC, and now have discovered an even deeper definition of love in our daughter, who was born in Richmond right before our four year anniversary.
What is your favorite part of being married? Feeling complete. We truly are each other’s better halves.

What has been the most surprising thing about marriage? We got engaged while still in college, which a lot of our friends found “so lame.” Ha! The most surprising thing to them and us is that, in fact, you actually get so much cooler after marriage. There’s a sense of comfort, confidence, and deep rooted love that comes along with marriage that is just like none other!

Tell us a little bit about where you live. We’ve owned homes in the prior two places we called home (Greenville, SC and Richmond, VA). We’ve found that a good recipe is to rent for a year while you scout out where you want to plant your roots. We just moved here this summer, so right now we’re renting a single-family home in a little neighborhood in Arlington, VA. We were so excited to find a home with space, a backyard, great parks and restaurants within walking distance, and less than ten minutes to DC!
Tell us about the process of moving in together. We had just graduated college and gotten married when we moved in together, so we really were starting from scratch. One thing we realized pretty quickly was that I should be in charge of interiors, and Ryan, exteriors. I do not have a green thumb and Ryan doesn’t understand why you would ever hang anything besides an American flag on the wall.

Where do you splurge and where do you save when decorating? Our white slipcovered couches were a splurge from Pottery Barn. I only own white slipcovered couches with dogs and kids because you can just grab the covers right off and bleach the heck out of them — even red wine has come out! While I believe in quality furniture pieces, I also think it’s important to have balance so you don’t go broke! :) For example, in the same room as our couches, there’s a $9 lighting fixture that I found at a secondhand store and restored. As far as sources, if you have a Home Emporium/Southeastern Salvage (called different things in different states) near you, this is your place! They have things like $89 cowhides, $250 wine cask chandeliers, and all the little knick knacks you need to spruce up a home. Craigslist is also my favorite. (The gold bamboo chairs in my living room were free off Craigslist, they just needed a little TLC!) I also love Furbish Studios, The Land of Nod, Etsy, Joss & Main, World Market, Home Goods, and, of course, Target.

What most makes your house feel like home? Cliche, I know, but our house feels most like a home when the ones I love are inside. Curtains, cozy blankets spread around, and lamp lighting helps, too!
What is your favorite memory from your wedding? Walking down the aisle! There was so much emotion and love at that moment, and not just from me. Our siblings were bawling as well as my maid of honor. Even Ryan had tears he had to wipe away.

Which items from your wedding registry do you use the most often? Our everyday place settings from Pottery Barn and our Le Creuset French oven!
What different decisions, if any, would you make for your registry if you knew then what you knew now? I would have added fewer “fun” options to ensure that we got the necessary items. We moved in together and had no silverware!
Who cooks dinner? Ryan is the chef in our house, but I’m the baker. This makes for some pretty epic meals!
What is your go-to weeknight meal? Weekend meal? We’re actually testing out Blue Apron right now, so this accounts for most of our weeknight meals. As for the weekend, we love to spend time making our own South Carolina shrimp ‘n grits recipe.

How does your family handle finances? We sit down a few times throughout the year to check in and make sure we’re on track with our savings, especially when Christmas is coming up and there are lots of gifts and travel to buy. Ryan works in finance, so he handles most of the accounts for our family.
What’s your best tip for balancing your relationship and other life priorities? This is so hard! Just acknowledging that it’s hard, first and foremost, has helped us a lot. We schedule date nights in advance to ensure we’re making time for each other and we try to keep the TV off most week nights, which we find opens the door for a lot more communication.

What is one small way you love or serve your spouse? We’re a big fan of surcees, or little surprise gifts. We do this by buying a favorite treat from the grocery store when we go, or if something little was left in the Amazon cart, we’ll purchase it as a surprise.

Before getting married, I wish someone had told me… that the wedding is just the beginning, not the whole story.

Is there anything else about your home or family life that you think our readers would be interested in? The move from Richmond to Northern Virginia was a hard one for us. We found out we had to move when I was about eight months pregnant and then made the actual move with a two month old. Our home and “family” in Richmond was so special to us and made it hard to leave. You never know how strong your marriage is until it’s put to the test, but man have we come out stronger! The biggest comfort we have found thus far is in making our little rental house feel like a home. Ryan and I often say to each other that, “home is wherever I am with you.”

Thank you so much for sharing your hearts and home with us, Erin and Ryan! Follow along with Erin on her blog, Attention to Darling, as well as on Instagram here.

P.S. Just as a reminder: we’d love to hear from you, too! If you’re interested, take a peek at our Southern Newlywed submission page and shoot us an email!

emily Written with love by Emily
13 Comments
  1. avatar Ally Allison reply

    I absolutely love their decor! The Lilly details in Sullivan’s room, the manly bar, and those sweet pups – swoon!

  2. avatar India H. reply

    I am in love with her bright office! Plus, their couch looks super comfy! :)

  3. avatar Erin Phillips reply

    Yay!!! We’re so excited and humbled to be featured here and to have worked with such a great team of people all around!

  4. avatar Valery Bach reply

    Would you mind sharing where the Kentucky Jockey print is from? I’m in love!

  5. avatar Denise reply

    What a sweet family! Sullivan is adorable. Thanks for featuring a family with a young child! A beautiful home.

  6. avatar Alexandra Bee Blog reply

    Having Erin and Ryan as best friends, I can attest to what an amazing job they do making a house into a home. My favorite space in their new home is hands down their fun dining room!

  7. avatar Our Apartment on Southern Newlywed! – Classic Catherine reply

    […] made us some of our sweetest friends in DC! One fateful Friday morning, I fell in love with this family on the column, went to Erin’s adorable blog, realized that they live right by us, and knew […]

  8. avatar Home Sourcing Guide: Living Room – Attention to Darling reply

    […] those questions and more. Enjoy! (All photos by Liz Fogarty Photography) As we talked about in the interview, our current home is a rental in Northern Virginia, so we’re limited in what we can truly […]

  9. avatar Feature on Southern Weddings! – Attention to Darling reply

    […] featured us this week on their blog as part of their Southern Newlywed at Home series. Check it out here! I had so much fun and it was such a pleasure working with Emily at Southern Weddings, Liz […]

  10. avatar Baby’s First Snow! – Attention to Darling reply

    […] So happy she did! See their GORGEOUS winter wedding here and our home feature here. Finally, just for perspective, here’s a before picture taken Friday night and an after […]

  11. avatar Taking the Risk to Make Friends in Adulthood – Classic Catherine reply

    […] avid Southern Weddings reader with a particular penchant for their Southern Newlywed column, I saw Ryan, Erin and sweet Sully’s newlywed home tour feature and noticed that they lived less than ten minutes away from us and were also new to the area! A […]

  12. avatar Baby Girl's Preppy Nursery Reveal – Classic Catherine reply

    […] Then, when we were in Charleston, Erin let us borrow these amazing Lilly curtains she had made for Sully’s nursery! Sully’s original nurseries (that little lady is on her third!) had two windows, but her room […]

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At the same time as I emailed Blue Ribbon Vendor Anna Routh to ask if she’d take the photos for my Southern Newlywed home tour, I asked if she’d be willing to be featured in our series, too! I had never stepped foot in her home or even seen photos, but I just knew it would be colorful and interesting, and I was correct. I found myself nodding along with so many things in her interview, too. Can’t wait for you to read this one, friends – enjoy!

Big hugs to our friend and Blue Ribbon Vendor Graham Terhune for these photos!

The couple: Anna (30) and Amir (30)
Years married: 4
Where you live: Chapel Hill, NC
Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Anna is a wedding and portrait photographer based in Chapel Hill, but available worldwide! Amir is a Family Medicine Physician at UNC Hospitals. We’re both Southerners (Anna grew up in North Carolina, and Amir in Texas) and Tar Heels (go Heels!). We have a dog named June who is our daily obsession. We may love her too much!

Tell us your love story in one sentence. We met in college at UNC and instantly knew we needed to be together.
Tell us a little bit about where you live. We own our house in downtown Chapel Hill, very near UNC’s campus. Amir works at the hospital and keeps odd hours as a physician, so we felt proximity to the hospital was key. Lucky for us, close to the hospital means close to the university, which makes our home a very good investment. We live near a lot of students, which can be interesting at times (but is mostly just fun!), and we are hoping that our home will be a long-term investment. Eventually, we’ll add children to our family and will need a bigger space, but for now, we love our little 1920’s home and hope we will be able to enjoy it for years to come.

Tell us about the process of moving in together. Amir and I did things a little differently. After college, we moved to Texas, where Amir was going to be spending many years earning his medical degree. We moved in together almost immediately after college so that we could really be there for each other as we were both going through so many life changes–moving across the country, starting medical school, entering the work force, etc. It was a big change! It worked for us, but I certainly think it’s not for everyone. We learned a lot about each other–daily habits, funny quirks, and mostly, how the other functions and the things that we both needed in order to be successful partners. Regarding the merging of the things and styles… I will say it took us a long time to really figure out what our style was. I think it’s an ever-evolving process, too. We filled our home with lots of hand-me-downs at first and have slowly been replacing them with our own pieces over the years. There were some items that I was much happier to see go than Amir was! We just try to make decisions together about what goes in the home, and I’ve learned that compromise is definitely important when it comes to your shared spaces.

What is your favorite part of being married? Doing everything together–especially the mundane stuff. Merging your lives and just existing together is a really beautiful thing. One of our favorite things to do is run errands together–so silly, right? We save items that need to be done so we can run around town doing them together and crossing things off our list.
Which room in your home is your favorite, and why? Anna: The dining room, hands down. It never gets dirty because we rarely use it, so it’s always clean, which I love! Amir: The living room–it’s where we relax and unwind.
What most makes your house feel like home? We love to collect items from our travels or from our families and life experiences. I can look around our house and see several things that carry wonderful memories, and that’s a very special thing!

Who cooks dinner? Anna: Amir! He’s a wonderful chef, and it’s something he really loves to do. Amir: It’s a relaxing pastime for me, and Anna doesn’t mind at all sitting back and reaping the benefits of that! She likes to bake, so it’s a bit of a trade-off.
What is your go-to weeknight meal? Weekend meal? We subscribe to a weekly meal delivery service, Blue Apron. We get ingredients dropped off for three meals a week, so we generally cook those and then enjoy the leftovers throughout the week. It’s super convenient for us, as Amir’s hours are crazy, and I’ve found myself busier and busier during the week these days. The ingredients come ready to be chopped and prepared. The recipes are generally quite quick, and we love it because we find we have less waste from unused ingredients. On the weekends, we love to get out around town and enjoy the amazing restaurants that are just a few blocks from us in downtown Chapel Hill (another plus to the location of our home!). On Sundays, we eat Asian food… always. We found ourselves always craving it at the end of a long weekend, so we’ve made it a regular thing!
What’s your favorite place to find recipes? Before we subscribed to Blue Apron, we cooked from the cookbook Pretty Delicious almost exclusively. Candace Kumai’s recipes are DELICIOUS, and healthy… what?! Crazy! She even has a recipe for healthy chicken and waffles and mac and cheese. It’s bananas! Additionally, we love Persian food, and we miss Amir’s mom’s cooking sorely, so we try to make some of our favorite Persian dishes from time to time.

Where do you splurge and where do you save when decorating? Anna: I am a big bargain hunter. My happy place is spending hours in an antique mall, searching for that one amazing find. I’m all about finding things that you love and making them your own, whether that’s with a coat of paint, new hardware, etc. Having said that, I think some things that are worth splurging on are bedding, textiles and rugs, and solid wood furniture. We’re slowly adding special pieces to our home, but it’s still a work in progress! The next thing I’d love to invest in is custom drapes. One day! One of my favorite spots to shop is Furbish Studio (online and at their flagship store in Raleigh). They always have a unique collection of home decor–custom pieces, original art, and fun items to fill your spaces with. It’s my favorite!
What is your favorite memory from your wedding? Dancing! Amir and I love to dance. Our wedding was on a HOT day in June on the coast, and we were drenched with sweat by the end of the reception from all the dancing, but we didn’t care!

How do you remember your wedding in your home? We have several framed photos from our wedding in our home. Additionally, as the collector and scavenger, I salvaged a few items from our wedding that we still have in the house–they’re a beautiful daily reminder of that day!
Which items from your wedding registry do you use the most often? Our bedding! Again, this is something I felt the need to splurge on, so we were lucky to receive our beautiful linen bedding from Restoration Hardware as a gift. I could never sleep in anything else now!
How does your family handle finances? Picking a financial system that works best for us is something we’re constantly playing around with. Instead of a set budget, one major thing we do is ALWAYS discuss big purchases together before we make them–anything from a new pair of shoes to bigger things, like items for our home. It’s good to have an open line of communication regarding finances. We also had to learn the things that were important to each other in regards to how we spend our money. We both enjoy different things and had to understand why those things were important for the other to spend money on!

What’s your best tip for balancing your relationship and other life priorities? We have made it a point to spend a lot of time together doing things we love–for us, that’s running errands, eating out, traveling, etc. Our schedules are both busy and difficult to manage at times, so when we’re home, we really make a point to be 100% at home and devoted to spending time together. Amir will stay at work an extra thirty minutes to finish his notes on patients if that means he doesn’t have to bring it home with him and finish it here. Additionally, eating time is important for us, so we always step away from what we’re doing to sit together and eat. As someone who works from home, it’s often hard for me to step away from work when I feel like it’s always there and nagging me. Meal times are our time together, so no matter what, we do that with no distractions. I think finding the things you love and really taking the time to do that together is so important. This could be as simple as walking to get ice cream once a week–if that’s what matters to you, then do it!

What is one small way you love or serve your spouse? Anna: Amir hates to drive. I don’t know why, but he hates it. So, I always drive, no matter where we’re going, no questions asked! Amir: Anna is not a morning person, so I will always be the one up letting the dog out or anything else that needs to happen in the early hours. It’s better for all of us when she gets her beauty sleep!

Big hugs to Anna and Amir for sharing! Keep up with Anna on her blog and Instagram!

emily Written with love by Emily
8 Comments
  1. avatar Katie reply

    I love all your green plants, Anna! I especially love the outdoor cactus in the pink pot :)

  2. avatar Kelly reply

    You know what I love most about this post? Knowing that there’s another woman out there who drives her husband around!!! I need to adopt Anna’s good attitude about this, as I tend to complain that my husband hates driving and fuss that I’m doing the “guys’s role.”

  3. avatar Lindy reply

    I LOVE these features! Love the colorful and personal details in this home!!! So fun!

  4. avatar Emily reply

    Asian every Sunday is DEFINITELY a tradition John would love to adopt. And I love that you do errands together – that’s one of our favorite things, too! It still makes me feel like a grown-up :)

  5. avatar Molly reply

    Yay/fist pump for downtown Chapel Hill living! Love your home Anna!!!

  6. avatar Ashton Dreyer reply

    This is my favorite segment on the blog! I love seeing each homes different vibe. This one is sunny and cheerful. I love it.

  7. avatar Graham reply

    It was SO much fun photographing this wonderful family and thank you ladies for sharing their beautiful home!

  8. avatar Erin Phillips reply

    I’m so in love with this home tour! I can’t get that little lion pillow out of my head, too stinkin’ cute.

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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