Southern Weddings

When Landon and Jordan sent over the photos for today’s tour, the first thing I said to Lisa was, “I want to move in!!” When I said the same thing to Jordan in an email, she kindly responded that I was welcome to, but that their house was a bit small. I haven’t packed my bags yet; instead, I’ve been inspired to make a few changes in my own home. Because the thing I love most about the space these two share isn’t their beautiful paint choices or white kitchen cabinets (though I do love those things), it’s that it clearly shows who they are, how they live, and what they love.

And, they have chickens!! So obviously they were a natural candidate for our Southern Newlywed At Home series :)

Years married: 7
Tell us your love story in one sentence. Hometown and college sweethearts fall madly in love and save the world.
Do you rent or own? We own a cute bungalow in a historic neighborhood in downtown Columbia, SC.

What is your favorite part of being married? Definitely our friendship! Don’t get me wrong, we are deeply in love with each other, but when life goes to the pits (and it does for everyone at some point), there’s nothing better than coming home to your best friend who loves you unconditionally. We are with each other a lot. I mean… A LOT. Not only do we live together (obviously), but we also work together full-time with our photography business. Thankfully, we really enjoy each other’s company. We make each other laugh almost constantly, which is another favorite part of our marriage.
Tell us about the process of moving in together. If two creative people move in together, there might be some disagreements on decor. Both of us enjoy the art of creating spaces, and we can both be pretty stubborn about it. It didn’t take us long to realize that one person needed to have the final say. So, after about a year of intense decorating battles, I, Landon, relinquished the veto power to Jordan (my wife). This doesn’t mean Jordan won’t ask for my opinion, or that I don’t often give it. It just means I’m okay with her final decision either way. After all, she is incredibly talented. We no longer argue about it, and I love the way our house looks and feels. Guys, if decorating is super important to your wife, there’s nothing wrong with giving in or learning to love and appreciate her taste.

What most makes your house feel like home? I would say the thought and time we’ve put into designing every space in our house. Everything is there for a reason, and was probably given much consideration. This has turned our house into a unique and personal home.
Where do you splurge and where do you save when decorating? It’s a little ironic given how much we love decorating, but we really don’t splurge on much. We’ve always wanted our house to look a certain way, even early on in our marriage, and of course, most newlyweds don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on decor. For our first several years together, almost everything we owned was either bought on clearance, at yard sales, Ikea, thrift stores, traded for, given to us, or built from scratch. It took a lot more time than simply picking out our favorite pieces from a boutique, but in the end, it enabled us to decorate every part of our house the way we wanted. Most inexpensive things don’t last forever (surprise!), so we’ve been in the process of replacing the pieces we use the most with items that will.

Which room in your home is your favorite, and why? Our favorite room would have be our dinning room–it’s where we gather and enjoy delicious meals with all our wonderful friends.
Which items from your wedding registry do you use the most often? None of it :( We were young and had no idea what to register for, so we didn’t register for much. A couple of years ago, I was super sad to see our salt shaker break, because it was one of the few gifts we had from our wedding. I wish we would have registered for heavy duty china and flatware. It’s fun setting up a fancy dinner for guests, so we’ve had to buy a good bit on our own.

Who cooks dinner? I’d say it’s about 50-50. We both love to cook, but also love when the other does as well :)
What is your go-to weeknight meal? Weekend meal? We are both pescetarian (vegetarians who eat fish). During the week, you’ll probably find us eating salmon with corn risotto or rice and beans with homemade tortillas. We travel a lot on the weekends, so Chipotle is our go-to.
What’s your favorite place to find recipes? A cookbook called Happy Herbivore has been super handy. We have a couple great recipes from Kinfolk as well.

What has been the most surprising thing about marriage? Probably that doing something as simple as communicating can be difficult at times. We were probably three years into marriage before we realized that a lot of our arguments only began because we didn’t understand what the other was trying to communicate. Thankfully, as noted above, spending lots of time together has made us much better at understanding each other, as well as (even more importantly) listening.
How does your family handle finances? We set a budget and use the cash system. It helps keep two very non-type-A people in check.
What’s your best tip for balancing your relationship and other life priorities? This can definitely be a tough area. There are lots of things you have to do and lots of things you want to do, and most of the time, they conflict with each other. Our tip is to bounce things off your spouse. They should know you pretty well and can help you balance the have-to’s with the want-to’s.

Do you have children? Does a dog and chickens count? Nope? That’s okay. We love kids and would love to have our own one day!
Do you have a favorite date night idea to share? Typically, we go out to our favorite restaurant, and then skip on over to a local coffee shop to play chess. Landon almost always wins.
What is one small way you love or serve your spouse? From Landon: It’s simple, but whenever Jordan makes a run to the grocery store or goes out to eat with a friend, she’ll often bring me back a little treat. It always makes me feel special. From Jordan: Anytime we are curled up on the sofa watching our favorite TV show, Landon scratches my back. I always think he’s the sweetest!

Before getting married, I wish someone had told me… that marriage is incredible, but it will expose almost all the areas in your life where you need to grow. And that’s ok, because you’re not a perfect person. Your spouse will know you more intimately than anyone else, and therefore, will notice your weaknesses more than anyone else, and visa versa. Two important things to remember: 1. Let’s just go ahead and assume that your imperfections are abundant, so give your spouse tons and tons of grace when their flaws pop up. 2. Don’t get upset when your spouse exposes a shortcoming of yours. Instead, be thankful. The alternative would be having tons of weaknesses you don’t know about.

Landon and Jordan (otherwise known as Landon Jacob) are great friends of the Southern Weddings family, and we’re so thankful they shared their thoughts and home with us! You can see more of their work on their site here and follow along with their married life on instagram. Until next week!

P.S. As if you needed any more reason to think these two are amazing, they’re traveling to Africa in July to volunteer with an organization called Clothed in Hope. To help fund their trip, they’re currently offering an insane deal ($130) on mini portrait sessions in Columbia, SC on May 18th, June 1st, and June 8th. If you’re interested, email them at hello at landonjacob.com to reserve a spot! Great opportunity for engagement photos, anniversary photos, or Christmas card photos :)

Written with love by Emily