de Jong Dream House: "We Do" Gallery

Now that the holidays are over, I'm finally taking the time to post about some of our latest projects. Today I'm going to write about another gallery. Yes, I may have a slight addiction to photo galleries.

When Niels and I got married five years ago, we had white wood letters spelling out "We Do" on our cake table.

Since our honeymoon, we've used those letters as decor in our master bedroom. We liked "we do" better than "I do" because of course, we both chose to get married. When our son started noticing our wedding bands, he called them our "we do" rings. I knew that I wanted to make a "we do" wall, but it took a little time--made longer by lots of sentimental trips down memory lane--to decide on the photos.

A bit about our story. Niels and I met online in September 2006. He was sure pretty quickly that he wanted to marry. I was a little gun shy. I spent Christmas of 2006 in China visiting some of my best friends, who had just moved there a few months early. Niels spent that Christmas in the Netherlands with his family. The day after I arrived in China, a tsunami knocked out all the underwater network lines, which meant I couldn't access my email from home. However, I couldn't connect with the Netherlands. So Niels called my family to tell them I had arrived safely...and introduced himself as my boyfriend. I had also planned to pay my bills online, but since the internet was out for almost the full three weeks I was in China, I took the leap to trust Niels with my bank password so he could pay my bills. Over that time, not being able to communicate well or often, I realized how much I missed him. Talking to my friends, they helped me realize that Niels was exactly the kind of man I had been praying to find. On the first night I returned home, Niels came over and we talked long into the night about how we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. In March of 2007, we flew to the Netherlands, where my dad had a short layover on his way to Israel with my sisters and brother-in-law. I met Niels' family, and Niels was able to ask for my dad's blessing. A few days later, we went to Paris, and Niels proposed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Clearly travel was a big part of our courtship!

So, the challenge was to figure out how to put all those memories on our wall! I started by playing around with a layout, and then listed favorite memories of our life together.

I bought a variety of frames and shadow boxes with white and silver frames. Then I found photos and mementos that worked.

Once again, we used command strips to attach the frames to the wall. They are so easy to use.

It was a little confusing when all the frames were flipped, so I was glad to have my cheat sheet!

We used our level for spacing to make it easier on ourselves.

Niels liked the first row of photos so much, we were tempted to stop there.

Then we lined up the four 5x7's along the top.

From there, we started working down.

And then we completed the outer square.

Finally, we filled in the middle.

I'm so happy to have all these fun moments to look at when I wake up each day.

Here's a tour of some of the photos.

Engagement day!

We say Niels is beckoning me over to the Dutch side in this picture. I'm in Belgium and he's in the Netherlands.

I love this free printable from Sweet Rose Studio. It comes in several designs and colors so you can download your own.

We had our engagement photos taken at the Keukenhof in the Netherlands--the most amazing flower garden in the world.

This is the card I gave Niels just before he headed to the airport before Christmas. I made him wait awhile, but his Christmas gift was our first kiss.

After we lost our second baby, I was pretty down. We booked an Alaskan cruise for my due date so I would have something to look forward to experiencing. As it turned out, I got pregnant again and SO sick. It took some bartering, but my OB cleared me to go, and it was the one and only week of my pregnancy that I was feeling good.

One of my favorite wedding day photos was taken by Niels with our rings and the local paper.

I love this photo from our first trip to Europe. Clearly we were still in our silly courtship days. I have no idea what Niels was doing, but I love the look on my face. It's the same one my Grampa Leo made.

This photo was taken in Niels' hometown, at the castle where his parents were married.

When we planned our honeymoon, we did not think through the folly of needing to be at the airport at 4:30 the next morning. So I flew with my veil on and took out the 16,000 bobby pins when we arrived in Curacao.

More than a decade before I met Niels, I started praying for my future husband. This is the list of character qualities I prayed that my husband would possess. Nearly every day, I prayed these things for him, and I love seeing this evidence of God's answered prayers.

For our initials, we couldn't find a plus side or ampersand, so we decided to use a foam cross instead.

This shadow box includes mementos from our wedding day: our program, invitation, and name cards. We had an international theme. Each table had a destination and the name cards were tickets to that destination. Our table was Curacao, our honeymoon destination.

I love this picture of our late great Bailey.

Another photo from our wedding day. We used this photo for our first Christmas cards. The rhinestone Eiffel Tower was pinned to my bouquet.

This photo was taken a few weeks before D was born. We made a choice to not have pictures of our son on this gallery, but he did sneak in a little bit.

We had grand plans for a Vegas getaway this spring with just the two of us. D's dog allergy prevented the alone time we were hoping for, but we still had a great time with D and my mom.