Eleanor
&James
“The first draft taught us everything.
This one we mean.”
— Nashville, Tennessee
Saturday, the Fourteenth of June, Twenty Twenty-Six
The Preface
“We both knew, this time,
what we were saying yes to.”
A note from the authors
There are things you only learn by going through something. Not the kind of things people tell you at the start — you have to earn those. We each earned ours. We each came out of something real, something that mattered, and we both arrived at the same conclusion: that what we wanted, what we were actually capable of, was something we hadn't quite found yet.
When we found each other, neither of us was looking. We were just living — carefully, honestly, with our eyes open. And that's what made it different. We didn't fall. We chose. We looked at each other clearly, with all the knowledge of what a life together actually requires, and we said: yes. This one. This person. This is the one I want to build a life with.
We aren't celebrating a beginning. We're celebrating the understanding that made this beginning possible.
This wedding is for you — the people who were there through the hard parts, the in-between parts, the parts where we were figuring out who we were becoming. You know what this took. You know what we both brought to this. And we want you in the room when we say it out loud.
This is not a second chance. It's a first choice — made with full information, full hearts, and full gratitude that we found each other on the other side of everything that came before.
Eleanor & James
Nashville, Tennessee — Spring 2026
The Details
Publisher's note: all information pertaining to the gathering that marks the beginning of the new edition.
The Ceremony
Where words become binding
When
Saturday, June 14, 2026 — 4:00 PM
Where
The Aldridge Library & Garden
214 Meridian Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203
Seating opens at 3:30 PM. The ceremony is intimate — forty minutes of the most honest vows you have likely heard.
The Reception
Where the evening belongs to us
When
Same evening — 6:30 PM until close
Where
Garden Pavilion, Aldridge Estate
Connected to the ceremony grounds
Dinner, dancing, and the kind of conversation that only happens when everyone in the room actually knows each other.
Attire: Garden Formal · Dinner to follow · Open bar
*Parking available on Meridian Ave and the adjacent lot on Sycamore St.
What This Is
Small on purpose.
Forty people. Everyone in the room knows us — not our social media versions, our actual selves. No one is here to fill a seat.
No performance.
There will be vows that were written over months, not in a weekend. There will be a first dance to a song that actually means something. Nothing has been chosen for effect.
A real dinner.
Long tables, good wine, food worth eating. Speeches from the people who earned the right to give them. Dancing that starts late and goes later.
The ceremony is short.
Forty minutes. We will say what we mean. You will hear it. That is what matters — not the length of the ritual but the weight of the words.
This is for the forty people
who already know the story.
The Dedication Page
Every edition has a dedication. Add your name to ours.
Please respond by May 15, 2026.
Questions? Write to us at hello@secondedition.love