A Blogger Turned Bride: Meet Mackenzie of Design Darling

Categorized | Beach Engagement, Beach Engagement Session, Blogger Bride, Couple Portrait Session, Couple Session, Engagement, Engagement Session, Engagements, The Blog, Wedding Resources

Posted on 22 October 2016.

To simply state that Mackenzie of Design Darling is ah-dorbs would be putting it mildly. For not only is she as sweet as a summer peach, but she’s got style for days and her love story? Well, it’s truly spellbinding. From their Tinder beginnings to their walk down the aisle, our newest blogger bride will be sharing every bit with us and we’ve got the engagement story waiting for you below!

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From Mackenzie of Design Darling… Hi, fellow brides! I’m so excited to get started as Style Me Pretty’s newest blogger bride. My name is Mackenzie and I own Design Darling, a lifestyle blog and online boutique. I launched my blog as a junior at Bucknell and my boutique a few months after graduation and recently moved from New York to Dallas, where my fiancé Will grew up. We are currently planning our Nantucket wedding for Labor Day weekend 2017 and can’t wait to share the process with all of you!

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Will and I met on Tinder of all places! For a while I begged him to come up with a different story to tell our family and friends but now we just own it! I wrote a whole post about it here if you’re interested in learning a little more about our relationship.

Will proposed on Christmas Eve while we were walking our dog during a trip to Maine with both of our families. It meant the world to me to walk back inside and be able to celebrate with our parents, my Grandy, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins — it truly couldn’t have been a more perfect or personal moment!

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I’ve known from the time I was a little girl that I wanted to be married on Nantucket. My family has owned a home there since the 1890s and my parents were married in the same chapel thirty years ago! It’s such a special place to me and my family and of course one that Will has come to love as much as I do since we started dating.

We decided on a longer engagement because many of our favorite spots on the island were already booked for the summer of 2016 so we decided we’d rather wait until 2017 and get everything on our wishlist! I know a twenty-month engagement isn’t right for everyone but honestly it’s been perfect for us — I have loved having a little extra time to make decisions and enjoy the planning process without feeling too stressed.

We hired Cameron & Kelly Studio as our photographer after hearing rave reviews from friends of ours who had hired her to shoot their wedding a couple years ago. Cameron has a knack for capturing happy candid moments which is a must as far as I’m concerned! I couldn’t wait to take her out to Nantucket for the first time to shoot our engagement pictures. She definitely did not disappoint!

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We wound up shooting three looks in four different locations. My favorite pictures feature this MDS Stripes skirt at Sankaty Lighthouse and on Broadway in ‘Sconset — I just love how graphic the navy stripes are against the red stripe on the lighthouse! We chose one of these shots for our save-the-dates (which we sent out this month — a little early but we wanted to give our guests plenty of time to plan their travel!). I live in stripes practically year-round so this outfit was an easy choice. We kept Will’s outfit blue and white to coordinate without being too thematic.

Then we chartered our favorite sailboat for a few more pictures. It’s one of our favorite activities on the island and something we’ve done together every summer since we started dating! I wore an off-the-shoulder sweater from Club Monaco and high-waisted navy sailor shorts by Finders Keepers. This was probably the most challenging of the three looks we shot because it was so windy on the boat (you can probably tell my hair was going crazy!) and we had to wait for the right lighting. I’m so glad we tried the sailboat pictures because they feel so “us” but I’m also really glad Cameron suggested shooting a couple outfits on land as well.

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We did both of those shoots on Saturday and then woke up Sunday and shot a more casual outfit on the beach with our dog Rory and a few in town just to show Cameron more of the island. I know most couples don’t spend a day and a half taking their engagement pictures but I really recommend taking as long as you need! It was such an amazing way to get to know our wedding photographer and help her get a better feel for Nantucket so that we’ll both be more comfortable next September.

I hope you enjoy our engagement pictures as we love the way they turned out and I’ve been so excited to share them! I can’t wait to have them turned into a hardcover book for our coffee table and hang a couple of them around our home in Dallas. I know my Grandy is already hounding me for a couple copies! :) I hope you’ll stay tuned over the next year as I share more of our Nantucket wedding planning process!