Anticipation and excitement are two perfect ways to describe our emotions on the way to Molly and Joe’s wedding at The Oaks Waterfront Inn on Saturday. To be completely honest, I always feel the butterflies before a wedding… especially the first wedding of the year! It is as if I feel like I am going to forget how to photograph a wedding! haha. After 5 years, I am pretty sure we can be confident that is not going to happen! ;)
This is how it normally works… We walk into the bridal suite and all of the butterflies disappear. Sometimes it takes a few minutes longer than others… haha. But Saturday, it happened immediately. I am not kidding, we walked into the bridal suite and it was like walking into a place of zen. It was quiet, the girls all had their hair and makeup done and they had their feet propped up enjoying every single moment! Ohh my goodness, that is exactly how it should always be! ;) Just soaking it all in!
Starting our wedding season off with Molly and Joe’s wedding at the Oaks was like a dream come true! Molly and Joe are so laid back and so incredibly sweet! Molly and Joe… our hearts are so happy for you! We are honored to have been there to photograph your special day! Can’t wait to see you when you get back from Morocco! ;)
Huge huge huge thanks to the fabulous Caitlin for joining us on Saturday to lend a hand. She was my right hand girl and I could not have done it without her there by my side!… carrying my bag, surprising me with a starburst when I was craving a sweet, and sharing her beautiful smile with us and all of the guests the whole day! She is AMAZING and we are so grateful for her!!
Thank you to all who helped make Molly and Joe’s wedding so special!
We are so incredibly excited to be kicking off our wedding season on Saturday with Molly and Joe’s celebration at The Oaks! This time of year always warms our hearts… not just because of the sunshine and warm weather that is just around the corner, but because of the LOVE that is in the air that we get to capture!!! What an AMAZING blessing in our lives!
This year is gearing up to be quite special! We have a full wedding schedule… (with 1 exception that we are SUPER excited about!)!!!! And every single couple we are working with rocks our world! ;) They warm our hearts in special ways!
Okay, I can’t wait any longer… It is with extreme excitement that we are announcing that we are opening up our schedule to accept 1 more wedding for 2014 for a super special cause! We are going to accept 1 more wedding for 2014 and the proceeds, including $4,000 from our base collection fee will become a donation directly to BuildOn! That is right… the sweet couple that books this opening will donate $4,000 to this AMAZING organization and help us build a school in Malwai. (Added bonus… it is a tax deduction too! ;) )!!!
In December, we are joining with a group of about 15 people (Team Modzi Modzi) to make the journey to Africa and help build a school. We are more than excited to be a part of BuildOn’s efforts and even more excited that we have the opportunity to help you get involved in the efforts too!
If you are getting married, or know someone getting married in 2014 who is still looking for a photographer and would like to make a HUGE difference in the lives of Malawi children, please send them our way!!! Please help us spread the word by sharing these graphics & a link to this blog post on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.! (Huge thanks to our friend (and bride too!) Laura for being the leader of our group and sharing these AMAZING pictures with us from her treks she has led in the past! She is AMAZING! ;) )!
Happy Wedding Season! And YAY for taking steps together to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy!
I can’t even begin to describe how grateful I am to you all for your love, support, thoughts, prayers, texts, cards, flowers, cookies, visits, magazines, cozy PJs, a Birchbox, and so many other sweet treats that rocked my world over the past few weeks while recovering from surgery!! I could feel the prayers!… and every single time I would start to get in a rut or feel the anxiety, the mail would come and there would be the sweetest, most thoughtful card/gift or I would receive a text that just made my day.
The last few weeks have been hard. I am not going to sugarcoat that one. But God is good my friends. And I am feeling more and more like myself daily! I still have a few weeks of lifting restrictions and not overdoing it, but I am blow-drying my own hair again ;) and getting out and about warms my heart! ;) In fact, we have a wedding on Saturday and I am more than excited to get the camera in my hands! ;) Through the ups and downs post surgery, Ryan and I have learned SO MANY life lessons! Seriously, this down time has been so much more than just healing my body!
We blogged about a few of the lessons over at AMAZING Life Together (and we invite you to definitely check out the posts: The Perfectly Imperfect Valentine’s Day, You are right where you are suppose to be. I think?, We have the choice, It is hard being taken care of). But one big one that we have not yet shared is my realization that you can never tell someone you love them or are thinking about them too often! ;) Honestly, how many times have you thought of someone and said, I should send them a note… and then you never do because of a variety of reasons. Next time you think of someone… you should let them know! Even if it is just a text! Every single text, call, note, visit, email, FB message etc. MADE MY DAY! Even though I may not have responded immediately or sent a thank you note as quickly as I would have liked… I pray that you all know just how much every single touch meant to me… and us really!! ;) Ohh so lesson number 2 for this post… when you send that text or note, etc… if they don’t respond right away, don’t be discouraged. Just know in your heart that YOU made their day. For sure.
I hope I can make your day right now by saying you are AMAZING! And you helped me get through these last few weeks of recovery! THANK YOU!
Side note… I did receive the pathology reports and in the doctor’s words “it was a homerun.” They confirmed that it was a muscinous cyst that did not have any cancer within it, but certainly had a likelihood that it could have developed into cancer in the future. They feel incredibly strongly that they got the whole cyst and everything they needed to take along with the tail of my Pancreas, AND they were able to keep my spleen! ;) WAHOO!). Seriously, I can’t say this enough… God is good. There is a reason that everything happens in life and although it may be difficult at times, God is just preparing us for something greater. I feel incredibly blessed and we are so grateful!
Since I know you all are incredible prayers… please continue to pray for everyone who may be going through a hard time or are faced with health challenges! We all know someone or multiple people facing trials right now… please keep them close to your heart!
It feels a little crazy to be writing this because part of me feels like if I just pack up all of our stuff again and head out on the road for the next part of the AMAZING Life Together Road Trip, all of the scary things that are going through my head will go away and I will not have to have surgery tomorrow. Yes, I have to have surgery tomorrow. Yes, another surgery… this one just a little more intense than the one in September.
Two days after the surgery to remove the endometrial cyst on my ovary in September, I ran a high fever and went back to the hospital. They ran a CT scan along with a few other tests to make sure they didn’t make any mistakes that would be causing the fever. The doctor reading the test came out to the waiting room to share the news that I could have never even imagined to hear.
I have to paint this picture a little clearer because it is kind of funny looking back on it. I was a mess. I woke up with a 102 degree fever. My body ached and I had no idea if it was because I just had surgery or there was something else going on. I was wearing the same sweatpants and t-shirt I had on for over 24 hours and I was literally a hot mess! ;) I walked into the testing location and I was surrounded by a room full of old people! I definitely felt out of place (seriously, I am pretty sure Ryan and I were the only 2 people under 80 in the room). As I walked back to the testing room, the attendant said, “I am not even going to ask how you are doing… because you definitely don’t look like you are feeling good.” Awesome. Lol. Anyway, they ran the CT scan and the doctor came out to the waiting room to share the results because he didn’t want to ask me to get up to come to his office. Ohh gosh. Hot mess, for sure.
I remember his words as if it was yesterday. He said, I have two things to share with you. The first thing I am pretty sure has nothing to do with the fever you are experiencing right now, but you have a cyst on your Pancreas and that is definitely something you are going to have to get checked out. And number 2, your insides are a mess and you need to go back to the hospital right now. It took every ounce of strength left in my body not to burst into tears right there. In fact, I only made it out the door before the tears started flowing.
I went back to the hospital and after 2 nights of monitoring and medicine, they felt confident that the fever was likely caused by an abscess (the mess) that was present at the site of where the cyst was removed. Nothing major.
As instructed by the doctor, after healing from the first surgery, I followed up about the cyst on my Pancreas that I had no idea that I had until they ran that test. After a series of additional tests at Johns Hopkins, including another CT scan, MRI, and endoscopy with a biopsy, they determined that I have a mucinous cyst (sorry for the gross description & name) on my Pancreas. The cyst is significant in size and could be described as pre-cancerous. Super scary to say that out loud. It was recommended that they remove the cyst, which also means removing the tail end of my Pancreas and possibly removing my spleen as well (just because of the close proximity to each other.)
As scary as all of this is, I have this HUGE sense of gratitude. I feel like the doctor who requested the first CT Scan has saved my life. Seriously, if she did not take that effort to run that test, who knows when I would have found out about this cyst? It is so scary to think about.
I am definitely scared and nervous and …. more scared and more nervous. My emotions are all over the place. I am so thankful for the crazy adventure we just went on for the last 3 weeks because I didn’t have time to think about the surgery! I didn’t have time to let the scary thoughts pop into my brain. In fact, along the journey we met AMAZING couples who shared with us stories that reminded us that “everything is going to be ok.” When we sat in Jenny and Matt’s living room and they shared their story with us that included Jenny’s battle with cancer just 8 months after they got married… I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be. God placed them in our lives to remind us that everything is going to be ok. That meeting was just one of the many reminders that God is so good and He is going to take care of us.
Seriously, what a blessing to hear their perspective:
As I go into surgery tomorrow and the weeks ahead of recovery (they say I will be in the hospital for a few days)… it would mean the world to me if you take a moment to send prayers and positive vibes our way. Dr. Martin Makary will be doing the surgery at Johns Hopkins and it is scheduled for 8:45 a.m. on Thursday (yes, right in the middle of the snow storm). We are so grateful for you and your love and support always!
Thanks to the AMAZING reminder from Jenny and Matt, we are so confident that the obstacles and trials in our lives are meant to produce perseverance and ultimately make us stronger! Here’s to the stronger days ahead of us! ;)
Thanks, Dean Badal, for the visual reminder I am going to keep close to my heart over the next few weeks and for the AMAZING example that it’s going to be ok! ;)
On a business note… we have cleared our calendars for a few weeks in order to focus on recovery and be ready for the wedding season ahead of us! Thanks so much for your patience during this time! Ryan will be doing his best to stay up to date with everything, but he is also my caretaker! ;) So, if we take a little longer to respond to emails… picture Ryan making me Chicken Noodle soup or something and know that we will get back to you as soon as we can! ;)
We are back from our crazy adventures out west for the first part of the AMAZING Life Together Road Trip with hearts so incredibly full. We are still at a little bit of a loss for words to share how incredibly grateful we are for this journey, but thankfully we have tons of photos to help us bring our wordless thoughts to life! ;) Definitely check out the AMAZING Life Together website for more details of our adventure! We met so many incredibly AMAZING people over the past 3 weeks and we are so excited to share the love stories we documented with you all! Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter list to make sure you don’t miss anything!
As we continue to gather our thoughts from the trip, we are going to start by sharing this San Francisco Engagement Session AMAZINGness!!! We are so incredibly excited to introduce you to Samantha and Rameez! While we were out in San Francisco, we met up with our AMAZING couple to capture some images in their new hometown!
What an incredible opportunity for us… really a dream come true!… to be able to photograph Samantha and Rameez’s love with such a gorgeous backdrop! The day started with overcast skies and actually a little rain. Funny enough, they are currently in a drought, so rain was a little out of the norm. As everyone else welcomed the rain with open arms, we did our rain dances to keep the drops away! ;) Thankfully and AMAZINGly the rain stayed away for the afternoon and we even got a peek of sunshine! How gorgeous, right?!?
It was such a blessing to be in San Francisco and to have Samantha and Rameez make some of the most beautiful locations in the city look even more gorgeous!!! Thank you Samantha and Rameez for helping to make our stop in San Francisco so incredibly magical!
