annie & randy, and cherishing your story

a question i found in my brain these past few days as i thought about the people & the wedding day i wanted to share next with you was : why do i care so much about sharing stories?because i am starry eyed, and a dreamer. because i think the world & living life well is about the stories we tell each other, the stories we tell ourselves when we're alone and when we feel alone. i think that by sharing these stories in my little slice of the world stage which is this little humble blog on the vast & endless internet, i think that maybe it will help to spread a good story. i think that by being brought into contact with seemingly ordinary, wholly regular but actually magnificent people and sharing their truth-filled stories, it will help. it will bring to light good things. it will encourage someone that they are not alone, that they do not need to be made to feel that they aren't measuring up. it's a silly hope, sure. but as i said, i am starry eyed ;)so what you see below was none of our doing. we tell couples before the wedding day comes that we want the time when we're taking photos of just the two of them to ultimately be a time for them, where they can reconnect with each other, start to remember their day, and just spend some meaningful time together...  annie & randy totally agreed....i think it's safe to say that the notion of 'keeping up with the jones' is alive and well when you look around the wedding industry. i'm not saying your wedding shouldn't be beautiful -- it's the comparison thing, that feeling that you've got to pretend & try to keep up with what is deemed trendy or beautiful or the way things are done. i've got a deep respect for annie & randy. they got married at the church across from their old high school in the suburb where they grew up. and after the ceremony, we took some time wandering the hallways of their old high school, which is the place where they met & started dating (and won the best couple award in their yearbook if i'm remembering correctly!). randy led us through the hallways into the drafting room (the site of their first class together) where he had a surprise 'assignment' written on the board for them. they sat across from each other & drew portraits of one another, marked with their wedding date. randy also had a locker ready for annie to open, and inside had the first picture they have as a couple, the bus transfer from their first date, and scrapbooks they had made together as teens of their first couple of years together that they thumbed through & laughed as they remembered. taking time to intentionally remember their roots & revisit the places where it all began and that make up such important parts of their memories & their story... it was really special & meaningful & yes, i was misty eyed!and that's why we love sharing stories, and why we're excited to share a bit of this one with you today, through these words and the following images. be glad of your roots, of your story. it is yours & it brought you this far. ahhh we just loved this day. thank you, annie & randy, for opening my eyes more to this & seeing such incredible beauty in the simple things....and if you'd like to see more, you can watch the video below :

song : olsen olsen by sigur ros / see more of our recent weddings here :