diff --git a/watchtower/__init__.py b/watchtower/__init__.py
index 7623357..76f458f 100644
--- a/watchtower/__init__.py
+++ b/watchtower/__init__.py
@@ -132,9 +132,10 @@ def emit(self, message):
                                logGroupName=self.log_group, logStreamName=stream_name)
             self.sequence_tokens[stream_name] = None
 
-        msg = dict(timestamp=int(message.created * 1000), message=self.format(message))
+        msg = dict(timestamp=int(message.created * 1000), message=message)
         if isinstance(msg["message"], collections.Mapping):
             msg["message"] = json.dumps(msg["message"])
+        msg["message"] = self.format(msg["message"])
         if self.use_queues:
             if stream_name not in self.queues:
                 self.queues[stream_name] = queue.Queue()