Hi friends! I typically do not share all of my newsletters on my blog. However, I know a few of you were wondering what I talk about in them. I get it, you don’t want another email junking up your inbox. Girl, me too. I am sharing with you my latest newsletter (came out January 2nd) so that you can see for yourself the hilarity, and even some real talk that goes out to everyone listed. If you were wanting to join up and stay in touch, please sign up for the newsletter HERE and scroll all the way to the bottom to enter in your info. Take care and happy new year! — Nikki

Hi Fancies!

Happy New Year! I hope you found yourself not hungover yesterday—thats the best thing I could ever wish for you. My husband and I were in bed when the clock struck midnight—we were watching the HBO show, Succession. By the time we remembered to check the clock—it was 12:08am. We missed it. This is marriage, and a happy one at that.

I kind of left my monthly newsletter hanging last month. Please forgive me. However, I promise that we were doing some very fun stuff at home! If you have known me for any amount of time, you are probably aware of the fact that my husband has been in nursing school for the past couple of years. Well, he graduated!!! YASSSSS!!! And, he has already secured a job in the Raleigh area. #praisebe We were thinking a move across state or even to another state would be in the cards. Thankfully, that is not the case as we love our little nook here in Durham.

The funniest and worst part about my husbands graduation? Well, his mom and I missed his graduation. Yep. You read that right. I had his mom in the car with me on the way to Raleigh. What wouldve been a 45 minute drive turned into 1.5 hour drive. By the time we arrived for his 3pm ceremony, he had already walked across the stage. Although this is an awful situation, I am atleast grateful that my husband and I can laugh at the occurrence. I am super type A and am always early to events—so, this was just laughable that I couldnt manage it on this one particular big day. Regardless, my hubby has his diploma and is now studying for his NCLEX test. No divorce necessary.

The big thing that I have seen from people leading up to the New Year has been coming up with a word that you would cater to for the year. Some people have said things along the lines of “cultivate,” & “calmness,” or some other hippie dippie thing that is the new IT thing for the year. To be honest, I couldnt come up with a word. Instead, I came up with a phrase that I hope to actually implement. That phrase, or rather a question, is “is it worth it?” CUE the Missy Elliott song

For instance, its totally worth the effort in taking care of myself (exercise, great food, self care). But, is it worth it to work on relationships that dont give back in the same way that I give to them? Is it worth it to bend over backwards to vendors who dont do the same in return? I think its a great phrase, but only this year will tell. Do you have a New Years resolution, word or phrase?

We ended our fall wedding season the weekend of Thanksgiving. Samantha, my Associate Photographer, photographed a beautiful and charming wedding at the Cloth Mill in Hillsborough. I photographed the sweetest couple at Rose Hill which is located in Nashville, NC. It was a wonderful ending to a great wedding season, and am excited it starts back up in February of 2020! See below for some of our favorites from those weddings.

If you were a past couple of ours—we wrote a blog post showcasing our absolute favorite images from your wedding day! We couldnt pick just one, so we picked our top 4 from each wedding. You can find that blog post HERE.

Good deeds?

I know the giving season is officially up, but, if you were hoping to do some good this year—think about some of the vendors that helped you for your wedding. As in, were there any vendors that stood out the most to you while planning your wedding or even on the day of? If so, have you written those companies an amazing review? This is such a small gesture, but helps out all of us and future couples. Just recently I wrote reviews for some vendors that I think have been topnotch this year. And, I still continue to do this as a “thank you.” Google is the best place in my opinion, but there are other websites like WeddingWire and TheKnot.

And lastly, I know a ton of us received clothing over the holidays. If you are a Marie Kondo connoisseur like I am, then I feel your pain in going through your closet to make room for the new stuff. However, if you plan on throwing away your clothes—is it possible for you to instead give to a womens shelter near you? There are a ton in this area, and although thrift stores are amazing in every way, if you donate to a womens shelter then these women (and children) will have more options to choose within their shelter in times of distress (think about when a woman leaves her home in a hurry—she would need clothing that she did not have time to pack). Some organizations to think about would be InterAct and Raleigh Rescue Mission.

Thank you again for your continued support in Fancy This! I cant wait to see what this year holds for us. Hope to see you soon!

XO,

Nikki

I have to admit, I had full intentions on sharing these images last year. However, life happened and I have to be honest—I just forgot, ha! This week I am heading back to Europe and this time we are adding Portugal to our list. My friend, Sophie, has offered up her place again for us to stay in Spain, then after a few days in Salamanca, we will travel north of Spain to see the mountains—and then right across the border to visit Portugal. I figured, now is the time to share these photos from the first time we went to visit her in Europe.

This was my first time in Europe. I was nervous, more so about the plane ride, then about the language barrier in Germany once we arrived. Thankfully, we stayed with good friends, Devon and Alex, for the first leg of the trip. My friend Jessie and I had a blast. Seriously, it was so nice to be in Germany and to actually WALK to the grocery store and village to pick up necessities. Oh, and they eat carbs there!! So much bread! And yet, they are all so skinny. It was delectable, and I enjoyed their morning rituals of actually having a sit down meal every morning because they know its the best one of the day. I left Germany feeling happy.

Later, we went and visited the lower portion of the Swiss Alps. Our original goal was to hike up the mountain and to stay overnight…but, we ended up walking only a little bit up when we realized we probably would not make it up to the top by the time the camp closed. Instead, we took a hike around the lake and was in for a real surprise. After feeling like a failure (me, I was the one that felt like a failure because I could not make it up the mountain), we came across this pier right on top of the glacier water. In the distance we could see not one—but, two castles. It was the most fairytale thing I may have ever seen. I couldnt stop laughing. It was the day before my 29th birthday, I was tired and embarrassed because of the mountain fiasco, and we find this gorgeous spot of land that gave you a spectacular view of CASTLES!

After this trip, Jessie and I headed south to Spain and met up with Sophie. From there, we visited all of the fun places in and around Salamanca. At the end of the trip, we went to Barcelona and oh my goodness yall I could lick the streets there. So much history, so much pretty, and the water was to die for. I wish I could go on about Barcelona, but honestly I dont even think I could do that city justice.

The images are from that trip and were all shot on a pentax 645 with portra 400 film. In case you were wondering, I only bring my film camera with me on big trips. It helps me to stay in the moment. And when the film comes back, it kind of feels like Christmas.