Engaged 2016 Highlights

The five best things about our 2016 edition.

By Jennifer Steffy Swanson

Every night, as part of our tucking-in ritual, my daughters and I share our favorite part of the day. It’s a nice little exercise. It forces us each to pause and reflect about what we’ve done and to find something positive about even the hardest or busiest of days. Seeing as we’ve just put another issue of Engaged to bed (industry speak for “we’ve shipped it to the printers”), I think now is as appropriate a time as any to share my top five favorite things about our latest edition.

1. Dragonline Studios. This year we scored with the venue where we photographed our models. This little gem of a place in Jamestown is so unique, so unlike any place we’ve ever shot. Our goal this year was to find a single venue that was diverse enough to serve as a backdrop for several different style weddings. Dragonline Studios was that place. The owner is a super nice guy and, yes, you can actually rent it as a wedding venue.
2. The gowns in the “Silver Lining” fashion spread on pages eighty and eighty-one. Oh, my. I can’t pick just one. Can’t do it. The bridesmaid dresses and the bridal gowns on those two pages are my favorites in the whole magazine. Well, then again, I love the Anne Barge gown on the cover…and the James Clifford beaded gown on page sixty-nine. (Can I amend Favorite No. 2 to simply “the gowns?”)
3. “Then Comes Marriage.” In this article, intern Cissy Yu has interviewed three couples who have each been together for more than thirty years. Whoa, right? That’s longer than some of you may have been alive. This story is one of my favorites because, as dreamy and as magical as a wedding can be, it’s important to remember that it is just a day. It’s the marriage that really counts.
4. The last page. Every year we use the last page to revisit a couple who appeared in a previous edition of the magazine. The last page made my top five last year, too, but this year? It gives me goose bumps, the story and the pictures. Just wait till you see it.
5. The people that put it together. An awesome team of people — from the photographer to the writers to the stylists and the most talented/passionate creative director that ever was — put a whole lot of everything into this magazine year after year. Working on a bridal magazine is fun. These people make it stupid fun, and they also make a darn good product (if I do say so myself).

As always, we hope you love the 2016 edition as much as we do and find it to be a useful, functional (and pretty!) local resource. The magazine hits newsstands mid-January. Congratulations and happy planning.