Welcome, Matt! Thanks for blogging about your experiences, it's really great to see, especially because it was through me you've been interested in it! I'd heavily recommend https://github.com/PlaidWeb/webmention.js/ by https://beesbuzz.biz/ as I currently use it on my site and love it because I don't need to rebuild my site to show new Webmentions, although it does mean that my viewers need client-side Javascript. If you get a chance, come and talk to us on the IndieWeb chat (more details on https://indieweb.org/discuss )