Hey APW,
For me (and for the team) it’s been a downright crazy year. Wonderful, sad, and overwhelming, but truly a wild ride. Not only did I have a baby, but when we counted up the number of APW Team related folks that had babies or got pregnant, the number was seven. SEVEN. Down to and including our lawyer. Thankfully I was the only core staff member overworking my uterus, but that’s still a whole lot of babies for a tiny team. We also got an amazing new full-time staff member—Najva, our content manager—along with an equally excellent new part time staff member—Stephanie, our new staff writer. We launched a newsletter. I finished a super detailed and helpful wedding planning book (out January 5th but you can pre-order now, YAYYYY, EEEEEK).
And in between that, we produced a whole ton of content we were really damn proud of. I really enjoyed replaying the year in my head (with less miserable pregnancy symptoms, stress, and contractions), as I dug around on the site and found my favorite content of the year. So as we go on our annual holiday break, we’ll leave you with the best of the best. Dig around, read stuff you haven’t read… or just send this to your best girlfriend who just got engaged.
We’ll be back here Monday, January 4th, and in the meantime we wish you restful, peaceful holidays. We’ll raise a toast in your general direction, and also take a few naps.
Till then, everything calm everything bright.
WEDDING PLANNING
5 Common Wedding Planning Mistakes You DON’T Have to Make: In which it’s revealed that the sweet non-traditional venue you’re eyeing might not have all the answers to your problems.
I Called Off My Wedding When I Found Out My Fiancé Didn’t Want to Have Kids: Five tips for getting through it when you call off your own wedding, because you might need them.
A People Pleaser’s Guide to Planning a Wedding: Wedding planning can get tricky when you always want to make everyone happy.
How to Avoid the Wedding Budget Surprise: Complete with a bonus wedding budget spreadsheet!
10 New York City Wedding Ideas That Haven’t Been Done to Death: The location list for portraits will make your heart siiiiiing!
12 Secrets Your Wedding Coordinator Forgot to Tell You: If you’re looking for a lot of Real Talk, you’ll get it.
A Perfect Wedding Ceremony Script for the 21st Century: Because an awesome ceremony almost always precedes an awesome reception, and we know you want to have both.
Cheap (Cute) Decoration Ideas for Your Big Empty Space:
My Wedding Guests Were Terrible: How to deal when wedding guests aren’t on their best behavior (or aren’t trying at all).
MARRIAGE
7 Tips for a More Equal Household: Is it impossible to break gender molds no matter how hard you try?
What It Feels Like to Be Legally Married After Seven Years: It might surprise you that not all the feels are joyous ones.
The Day My Husband Came Clean About His Porn Blog: Fear and faith, courage and vulnerability can make a potent potion.
Would You Give Up Everything to Live More Simply?: When getting rid of everything you own is a relief, life opens up in new ways.
What Does It Mean to Be Partners?: Is partnership an ongoing process or an end goal?
First Time Wedding Night Sex: Having sex for the first time is kind of a big deal (and also isn’t), and we have advice from others who have waited until their wedding night.
The 5 Most Important Things I Learned When My Marriage Sucked: Surprise! Communication really is everything.
Five Hacks That Help Keep Our Marriage Sane: Remembering to get flowers, and who gets a bicycle when, is key.
The 12 Commandments of Marriage: Lessons learned from a second marriage.
Can We Change Our Childhood Perspectives on Money?: Will there probably always be money to go around, or do you need to save everything?
I Used to Think That Merging Finances Made Me a Bad Feminist: Does keeping your money separate keep you protected, or can you have your cake and eat it, too?
STYLE
40 White-Hot Cocktail Dresses for All Your Wedding Needs: If “the little white dress” isn’t already a thing, we’re making it one.
50 Beautiful Small Diamond Engagement Rings That Prove Size Doesn’t Matter: Seriously, they slay.
This Pantsuit Will Make You Re-Think the Wedding Dress: Saying “no” to the dress never looked so good.
How To: A Modern Take on the Classic Bun: Heavy on the hairspray and hairpins, zero donuts and socks required.
This Is How You Work a Tuxedo Like You Mean It: One of the best things about 2015 is that #BridesInPants is a thing, and we love it.
Our Wedding Was Not Our “Happily Ever After.” It’s the Start of an Adventure: Flower girl in a suit? Check. Bride in the puffiest of puffy skirts? Double check. Seattle being Seattle? Yep, yep, it’s all here.
DIY
How To Make a DIY Neon Sign with EL Wire: Neon signs are the new glitter and this version is… not a million dollars.
How To DIY a Floral Urn Centerpiece: Spoiler alert: the urn is plastic.
How To DIY Wedding Invitations: Happy printing, fewer tears.
Decorating with Ribbon? You Need to Know About Flagging Tape: It looks like ribbon, but it costs pennies a yard.
These Girl Gang Shirts Are the Best Thing to Happen to Bridesmaids Since Kristen Wiig: PLUS a how-to for making your own.
KIDS / NO KIDS
10 Tips For Staying Friends After Someone Has Kids: For parents, child-free adults, and everyone in between.
My Hypothetical Baby Is Ruining Everything: Ever feel like you’re racing a baby you don’t even have?
First Time Motherhood: My Identity Crisis That Wasn’t: Because people love to tell you how hard it will be, but forget to tell you about the magic.
Secrets of Gay Parenting: Learning to ask for help while you’re expected to fail.
How Do You Raise Your Son to Be a Feminist?: To paraphrase Steinem… we raise our daughters like sons, but what about raising our sons like daughters?
Giving Up My Career to Be a Mother Wasn’t an Option: What goes down when you raise a child and a business at the same time.
Don’t Assume I Didn’t Consider an Abortion: When both decisions you’ve made were the right one.
Why You Need to Stop Telling Me to Have Kids: Your dreams are not my dreams.
Is Stay-at-Home Motherhood a Choice When You Didn’t Get to Choose It?: What if it’s not the choice we pretend that it is?
What To Do When People Offer You Sperm at Dinner Parties: Because… that… happens.
SHIT WE’RE JUST PROUD OF
What Happened When I Gave Up Dating for a Year: No phone calls, hang outs, coffee dates, meet ups, or sex for 365 days.
How I Slayed My Secret Money Shame and Rescued Myself from Debt: You can figure your debt out… even if you really hate spreadsheets.
Pink Entrepreneurship, and Why I’m Happy to Work in a “Pink” Industry: What should you do when people underestimate you? Eat them for lunch.
Should We Be Upset That Millennial Women Are Sacrificing Careers More Easily?: Or is flexibility the way of the future?
When an Abuser Is at the Holiday Table: The dark side of family time.
What Happens When You Realize Your Office Is Racist?: Dark truths revealed by anonymous “performance” reviews.
15 Fictional Relationships That Give Us Hope: Zoe and Wash, Sandy and Kirsten, Jackson and Sookie… the list is good.
What Lean In Gets Wrong: How I Balance a Career, Marriage, and Parenthood: Don’t fuck someone who’s not a feminist. Certainly don’t marry someone who’s not a feminist. And for the love of unicorns, don’t coparent with someone who is not a feminist.
Millennials Aren’t Entitled, We’re Screwed: What does building a future look like for Gen Y?
How Cinderella Ruined My Love Life: The struggles of a feminist with a soft spot for fairytales.
Why Does Friendship Get So Much Harder When We’re Older?: And can we fix it?
On Confidence and the Kimye Effect: Do we expect less confidence from some people than from others?
Guide for Millennials with Grieving Friends: Illness and death is a painful part of being an adult, and learning to help grieving friends is invaluable.
