Because we’re wedding photographers, you all probably know that we love weddings. What you may or may not know is that we love marriage even more than we love weddings. Weddings, in fact, are simply a celebration of a lifelong commitment, a choice to persevere in a relationship with another human being through positive experiences & through negative experiences. We pray that all of the couples whose weddings we photograph will enjoy a lifetime of marriage- one that uplifts them, helps them to grow as individuals & together, allows them to cherish the simple & free things in life, and provides them with plenty of opportunities to serve one another selflessly.
I was thinking about marriage a bit Saturday night. On Saturday, we photographed Kelly & Mitch’s beautiful wedding & reception. After we said our goodbyes & left The Links at Firestone Farms, we hurriedly dashed to Avion on the Water, where my younger cousin Brian was having his wedding reception. You see, Brian & his now wife Jenna got engaged last August at Disneyworld. It was super exciting for our whole family! I am very close with my first cousins & have attended all of their weddings, if not been an attendant or Maid of Honor in them! I LOOOOOOOVE my cousins! We did get to take Jenna & Brian’s engagement photos. You can see those HERE.
Here are most of my cousins & me on vacation in Florida together (plus my dad & Uncle Dale) – Photo credit goes to my cousin Kristy!
Once Jenna & Brian got engaged, they got to planning and quickly realized that dates were already limited at venues for Summer 2014. The other thing that was limited- available Saturdays for Josh & me. Our schedule was basically booked every Saturday from the middle of April through the end of November and, for that, we’re VERY thankful! This is our full-time gig, after all, & we enjoy it and can’t really believe it’s our job sometimes because we love it so much.
Between the scarcity of dates available at venues and the non-existence of available Saturdays we had in our schedule, we predicted pretty early on in Jenna & Brian’s planning that we wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding day, let alone photograph it. It turns out that was true. . .
Except that Josh & I did make it to the last ten minutes of Brian & Jenna’s reception on Saturday. We got to see my grandparents dancing during the anniversary dance. We got to see our niece as flower girl. We got to hug the groom & bride and see our family members’ & friends’ faces for three whole amazing songs. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time as Josh & I danced to The Wobble & then slow danced as my beautiful cousin Amy sang Etta James’ “At Last.”
It might seem like I got off the topic of marriage, but I’m getting back to that. 🙂 My grandparents’ marriage has stood the test of time. They stayed married through richer or poorer- when they got married they “didn’t have a pot to piss in . . . literally” to quote my G-ma. They had to venture out to the outhouse in their early years of marriage. They worked hard & bought a home (with indoor plumbing! 🙂 ) where they raised their own three children and two children who weren’t their own, but whom they treated as their own. They still live in that home together today. They weathered storms like family members passing away, G-ma stubbornly fighting through cancer, and times they just wanted to give up. And now they’re seeing their kids’ kids get married and have kids. And all of us still get together & have picnics & play silly games & talk about nothing, and that means everything to me. During those ten minutes at my little cousin’s wedding reception, I took one photo:
It’s not a perfect photo by any means. I was rushing to get into the reception & didn’t bring my speedlight in with me. But this photo means a lot to me because these two wonderful people mean a lot to me. G-ma & Tata, I love you both so very much and I’m so thankful that you have stood by each other through all of these years!
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