Good Tidings We Bring

Good Tidings We Bring

November 30, 2019

There are few things I love more than opening my mailbox to beautiful Christmas cards from our loved ones during the holidays. Snail mail is a tradition long lost for the rest of the year, but around November and December, people take the time to send good tidings and create beautiful cards with pictures of their families and it just warms my heart, ya know? The tradition of sending Christmas cards dates back to 1843. The first card ever created and sent depicted scenes of caring for the needy and then enjoying a nice, large Christmas dinner. It even showed a child at the table drinking wine!

While the first Christmas cards were works of art, scenes of holiday cheer painted by artists and then “mass produced” and sold Hallmark-style for families to send, the first known personalized Christmas card appeared in 1891. The sender? None other than Annie Oakley. Nowadays, there are billions of Christmas cards sent around the world every year.

This year, we used an artist on Etsy, Burning Lake, to customize ours. If you follow me on Liketoknow.it, I’ve linked the exact card we ordered so that you can order the same ones if you so wish!

As for our holiday photo shoot, we had the pleasure of doing a mini session with Meredith Croak Photography (https://www.facebook.com/meredithcroakphotography/) – not only is Meredith an absolute sweetheart, but she is clearly very talented and produces great, quality work. She will even get your input on the type of editing you prefer – for us, we liked brighter, natural tones. We loved the photos we got back! Needless to say, we couldn’t recommend Meredith any higher to our Oklahoma folks!

We “killed two birds with one stone” with this photo shoot and took our holiday card photos at the same time that I took photos for my Masters graduation (which I will share soon)! Because we did both at the same time, our holiday photos were taken on the University of Oklahoma campus. Thankfully, the crimson and cream on campus worked well for a Christmas feel and the Autumn leaves and academic brick buildings and backgrounds made for gorgeous photos.

One of the tricks I keep up my sleeve for photo shoots I’ve done over the years (engagement, events, etc.) is Rent the Runway. The dress I wore for these photos was a ML Monique Lhuillier semi-formal maxi that I was able to snag on Rent the Runway. The dress retails for $500 so it was great renting it for $70 and having a fabulous designer dress to wear for photos! I’ve linked the dress on Liketoknow.it along with the jewelry I wore so you could recreate the same look!

Good tidings we bring
To you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas
And a happy New Year!