Michelle is a dear friend of mine. Her and Jay got married on July 19th and had a small intimate wedding. The ceremony was on her mother’s party boat in the middle of her lake and then we went back to her mom’s house for a backyard wedding reception where everyone ate, drank, swam and went jet-skiing. It was hot as anything that day but man, I’ve never seen Michelle happier since she’s been with Jay. Here are a few of my favorites from their wedding day:
A few months ago, I thought it would be a fun idea to “spice” things up a little bit in my business and do something I’ve never done before. Something a little creative…why not hold a contest for future brides & grooms for free photography?! After advertising for a couple of months for it, I received a decent amount of responses. What they had to do was send in a photo of themselves & a small essay describing “The moment they knew he was Mr. Right”. I narrowed it down to two deserving couples with the best & most romantic stories and posted their stories on my blog as well as a few other forums I am a part of to let others help decide who should win. Polls were counted, decisions were made and the winners were:
Tiffany & Dulf!! And you can read their story below….
I’ve been dating my fiancé since September of 2003. If you ask me, I will tell you that I’ve loved him since day one. In the last almost 5 years, I have thought he was Mr. Right minus a few not so great days we have had and there. But if I had to choose the moment/day when I knew he was my Mr. Right I would have to say on June 5, 2008 when he proposed to me.
June 5th was an average day for me. It was a Thursday and I went to work as usual. Thursdays are Dulf’s (my fiancé) day off. He called at about lunch time and said that he was driving around town listening to love songs as he was bored. I laughed when he said this as he isn’t the romantic type. Dulf wanted to stop by my job to say hello. I told him it would be fine. When he arrived at my job I went outside to talk to him and he was playing love songs on his phone – and then he said to me “I’m nervous”. I asked why would he be nervous and he said because when I’m around you, I get nervous. I let out a chuckle seeing that we had been together years already. Then he told me to feel his heart. I did and it was beating so hard that I thought it was going to leap out of his chest right then and there. And then a song came on that made me freeze. It was Etta James “At Last”. See, I had mentioned a couple of times during our relationship that whenever I got married I would like that to be my wedding song. I was amazed that he had remembered that song and downloaded it on his phone. He actually started to sing a few of the words.
He started to fidget for something in his pocket and then he pulled out my engagement ring. When he looked up he had tears in his eyes and he asked me to marry him. After we both cried for what seemed like eternity, I looked up and said yes and I motioned for him to put the ring on my finger. But instead of doing that he shook his head no and pulled another ring out of his pocket. I couldn’t believe my eyes, it was a ring that had belonged to my Father. Why did he have that ring with him? I was confused. You see my dad passed away 11 years ago when he was 36 and I was only 17. My dad wore that ring since my mother and I had purchased for him as a gift. I had explained this to my fiancé at some point during our relationship but didn’t think he would remember the story. Well my fiancé said that before I could put my engagement ring on, I would have to put my dad’s ring on first. He said since he never had an opportunity to meet my Dad, he wanted to try and find some way to ask him for my hand in marriage. He felt as if this was his way of connecting with my dad somehow and showing him the respect before asking me to marry him.
This is the moment I knew that he was Mr. Right. For all the times, I didn’t think he was listening to my stories or paying attention to what I said about my past with my Dad or my future wedding. He proved me wrong. There were no rose petals spread on the floor or a candle lit dinner but there he was in his truest form. I couldn’t ask for a better man suitable for me. He has always been himself from the moment I met him and I learned on June 5th, that’s all I could ever want.
Our wedding date is set for June 14, 2009. June 14th as this is my Dad’s birthday and we both felt this would be a great way to honor him. Thank you for taking the time to listen to my story as it makes me smile to share it.
Monique & Jay will be getting married in May 2009. Monique is the youngest sister of one of my best friends. It was awesome to watch all my friends grow up and basically we all experienced the same things along the same time…getting married, parenthood. But to now see siblings experience it?? WOW!! I’ll be honored to be the one to capture her wedding day but I’ll still always remember her as lil’ Niquey…
Here are just a few from their engagement session:
The following images are just for fun. A few fellow photographer friends (online), both professional and amateur, have “contests” on a weekly/daily basis. We are given a title/theme and we interpret it however we would like, in our own ways. I thought I’d share them with you……
Temptation….
Big vs. Little….
Crush….
Momism “Don’t sit too close to the television, it’ll ruin your eyes!”….
One Egg….
Color Theme: Silver….
Color Theme: Wild Watermelon….
Curves….
Let’s start with my best friend and the love of my life. My husband, Peter. We became best friends when we were 16…yet it took us 5 years to even THINK to take that step to start dating. We both worked at KFC, our first jobs in high school. lol Me, a band and photography “geek” (but a cool geek, I think. haha) And him….trying to a punk, but I knew he really wasn’t.We hit it off really well and became instant friends, hanging out mostly at work or after work goofing off in KFC.
Next is Justin Joseph. He is 4 yrs old and he is a spitting image of his daddy! A sweet & caring boy, fairly quiet but he’s slowly creeping out of his shell. He loves playing “pirates” and fighting off dragons. He’s your typical 4 yr old, could spend all day outside if he could, loves to bake cookies or cupcakes and sneak the batter when no ones looking and eat the goodies in a fort made out of blankets & chairs. He loves lemonade (Del’s) and will eat any kind of ice cream except mint chocolate chip (he thinks mint tastes kinda “soury”). Some of his favorite songs are “5 Little Monkeys”, “Sailing Sailing” and “Higgley Town Hero” theme song and his favorite tv show is “Tom & Jerry”, although he calls it the Cat Show. His favorite superheroes are Spiderman and Batman, although he’s never quite seen the actual cartoons. I think he likes the idea of them. =) I could go on and on about J.J., but that’s just to give you a tidbit of how much fun he is!
