Towle + Symington= Snow?

Soon I'll be getting married and changing my name to Elise Annesley Towle Snow.

Some people who know Justin and I may be wondering "How does Elise Towle marrying Justin Symington equal Elise Towle Snow?" Well, it figures that the marriage of two tricky non-traditional types would result in a tricky non-traditional custom name changing solution. We both labored over the decision and have decided that Snow will be our married name and it will be added to our existing names. We both wanted to keep our names but we also wanted to share a last name. It was important for us that the name change reflected how we view our marriage.

I had always expected to get rid of the Towle name joyously when I got married. I thought it was clumsy sounding and people always invert the letters and think my last name is Towel. That was an aggravation that I was so keen on being rid of that I developed crushes on boys whose last names sounded nice with mine back in middle school. But, as our wedding plans congealed, I found myself unable to give up the name I had never really liked much. I became sentimental about the fact that I'm the last Towle in our family. My father's siblings had no children and my parents just had me. I suppose there is something about that which makes me feel special. Another consideration I had was more professional than sentimental regarding how I've been trying to "make a name for myself" and how impossible it is to send everyone who has ever seen my art a memo about the name change.

The main reasoning behind our decision to deviate from the traditional name changing format was more symbolic. We both felt like it didn't reflect our idea of the marriage. If I took the Symington name and got rid of my maiden name, I'd feel like I was being "given away" and that the marriage was about me becoming a Symington. Instead, we wanted to show that the marriage is a union of the Symington and Towle families. While each of us retain our family names, we also add another name that shows that we are a new family combinining two families. The name Snow was chosen first because it is simple and pleasant and also because it contains two letters from each of our family names.

It may seem convoluted but it feels like the right thing to do for us.

We're getting married (for real!)

Ok, Justin and I have been engaged for what seems like forever but now we're really going to whip up a wedding and make it official. We'll be having a tiny service on January eighth (our seven year anniversary of sweet love) in Connecticut with our family. That is only 49 days away!

We are so excited and a little stressed out too. I would have never expected that planning a wedding with less than twelve guests would be so challenging! I completely understand now why brides become bridezillas or plan their weddings for a year or more. We really sped up the process and gave ourselves three months to plan the wedding. The elements are starting to shape up though and I really love the treasures I've been gathering to make the day special. I've been buying quite a few pieces to add handmade touches to the event.

Allow me to share:

I'm delighted to have made a special order from Carrin of Rainsend for a pair of felted cake topper birds similar to the ones at the top of this post. Ours are going to have gray accents though.

Justin just got his wedding band in the mail today from Elizabeth of ES Designs and he is very anxious to start wearing it.

Justin also recieved his elegant gray satin necktie in the mail from Toybreaker


I bought some white flower hairpins from Betsy of Foundling and some earrings from Cassie of Clementine.