Over the past few weeks, we have had the opportunity to be able to introduce you to some AMAZING couples that have held a special place in our hearts for quite some time… These couples have been in our lives since before the days that they even started dating! I am feeling extra grateful this morning knowing that we are surrounded by some pretty AMAZING couples and love stories that we have been able to witness since the very beginning! ;) How special is that?!?
Katie and Travis are no different! ;) We have known Katie and Travis since the very first day they met each other at Bucknell University! I just happened to be lucky enough to be their RA on Smith 2C… the place they called home for their first year at Bucknell! Ahh! So much fun to think about! I am not sure they realized it at that point, but I am pretty sure everyone around them knew pretty quickly eventually they would get married!
Nine years later! And it is officially happening! ;) It is so much fun to see them together now… their love has grown stronger and their friendship exudes happiness in such a special way! (Even more so than those days on 2C… and I am not sure I thought that was possible!)
Katie and Travis, we could not be happier for you two! Seriously, our hearts are so happy seeing you together and being able to capture this AMAZING time in your lives!! Thank you for making us a part of it! It means the world to us!
Yes, that is a smiley face that just happened to appear after Travis finished his beer. If that isn’t a sign of happiness, I am not sure what is?!? ;) We had such a blast exploring some of Katie and Travis’s favorite spots for their Baltimore Engagement Session! Camden Yards, Fell’s Point and Max’s Taphouse! Pretty awesome, right?!
Last Thursday, Ryan and I sat at our table as a trusted business advisor guided us through the complicated details of business formalities! We had our huge pad of paper out and we used colorful markers to help us comprehend what she was saying! ;) Because colorful markers make everything more clear… that is one of the many lessons we have learned from our mentor, Dean Badal.
Anyway, we have been working hard to make sure we structure the AMAZING Life Together site and the documentary project in the way that makes the most sense and allows us the opportunity to make the biggest impact we can on couple’s lives. As the details became more and more complex and our minds were clearly jumbled with a million other things that we had to get done before we left town (this may or may not have inspired our post on AMAZING Life Together titled “Busyness doesn’t equal Happiness“)… our fabulous advisor looked at us and said, you two need a retreat! ;) She could not have been more correct! We have had a TON on our minds (personally and professionally) and we just needed some time to get away!
Thankfully, we had planned a weekend for us awhile ago! Apparently, we knew we would need it! ;) Although the weekend we planned involved 3 flights and two different cities to be at two different friend’s weddings as guests wasn’t exactly what we would call a retreat, it was definitely a fun adventure to help us clear our minds and focus!
We sat in a coffee shop in Salem, MA on Friday and talked about our dreams. As jumbled as they seemed just the day before during our meeting, everything seemed completely clear on Friday! We know in our hearts we want to use our gifts to make a difference in people’s lives. We want to be an AMAZING example of marriage and inspire other couples to make their lives more AMAZING together!
We launched http://www.amazinglifetogether.com last week and received such an overwhelming response. We need to share more stories of real couples and shine a light of happiness on marriage! As the priest shared at our friends Jameson and Stephanie’s wedding on Friday, there will be hard times! Marriage is not easy… and truthfully it is not easy for anyone! (If you know someone who says it is easy, please send them our way because we would love to share their secrets!! ;) ). Anyway… from the responses we have received from the site launch as well as from everyone that we chat about the documentary with, we know we all could use a little AMAZING Life Together inspiration in our lives!
As wedding photographers, we have the AMAZING opportunity to spend precious time with our couples! It is such a gift for us to be able to be apart of such an incredible time in our couple’s lives! Yes, we LOVE taking their photos, but we love even more being able to share our love with them and remind them of the special love that they share! What an incredible opportunity to show them through the photos we take just how in love they are! Ahhh! That is happy!! And now with the AMAZING Life Together site, we can continue to encourage them beyond their wedding day and inspire them throughout their lives to never lose sight of that special bond that they share with each other!
This post is a little bit of a ramble, but I really just needed to share where our hearts are! When things get complicated and jumbled, I want to be able to come back to this and remember the clarity!
We are so excited to continue this site (http://www.lizandryan.com) as the place we share the love stories we are blessed to be able to photograph for our couples, as well as the place where we share our own dreams and journey through this AMAZING life! ;) We will continue to share our photography sessions on Tuesday and/or Thursdays when we have them to post (and we have quite a few AMAZING engagement sessions coming up… not to mention our last wedding of the season!! WAHOO)! Additional posts from our hearts will come here and there on Monday, Wednesdays, and/or Fridays and we hope you will continue to come by! ;)
On the AMAZING Life Together site, we will definitely be photographing more married couples and sharing their love stories over there! If you are a fan of our photography (first of all, thanks!!!) and/or just like looking at couples in love… you will definitely want to join us over at http://www.amazinglifetogether.com on Tuesdays and Fridays too! However, even if looking at pretty pictures isn’t why you read our blog, we invite you all to come join us over there! We see the AMAZING Life Together site as an opportunity for everyone to open the lines of communication about marriages and love! We will be sharing REAL stories of married couples in hopes of inspiring people to live a more AMAZING Life Together. Even if you are not in a committed relationship at this time… you never know when you will be! ;) Plus, we are sure that you know someone who is. Please send them over to the AMAZING Life Together site and help us inspire this world to be a little more AMAZING together! ;)
Driving out Wallis Run Road in Montoursville, PA is something we have done many many times (as it is just miles from our homes where we grew up!). However, there was something different about the drive out Wallis Run on the day of Kellie and Matt’s wedding. As we drove the country road, it was as if we could see the leaves changing colors before our eyes. It was a crisp fall morning with low fog hanging around before the warm sun made its presence. I asked Ryan to slow down so that we could just take it all in!
There is something magical about PA in the fall… and something even more magical about photographing a PA Barn Wedding in the fall. However, photographing two AMAZING people whom we have known pretty much our whole lives (ok, at least since grade school!) as they promise forever to each other surrounded by a barn full of their closest family and friends (and many familiar faces for us!), is literally beyond magical.
Kellie and Matt are two people we have known separately growing up. Matt with his orange truck that is pretty much known by everyone in town! ;) The truck makes you smile as soon as you see it coming down the road… partly because the truck is just AMAZING (and recently completely beautifully restored by Matt and his dad!), and mostly because that means Matt is close by and he is one of those guys with a quiet personality that can light up any room! And Kellie… Kellie is the kind of girl who thinks about everyone else before she even begins to think about herself! She is so kindhearted and when faced with life’s challenges, she rolls through them with confidence and calmness. They are two incredibly beautiful individuals and together, they are one incredibly AMAZING couple!
It was such an honor for us to be back “home” in Montoursville, PA to capture Kellie and Matt’s incredibly special day! Kellie and Matt, thank you for sharing your love with us and filling our hearts with so much happiness! We wish you nothing but happiness and joy always!! Congratulations friends!
Huge thanks to everyone who helped make Kellie and Matt’s day so special:
WOWZA! ;) Tomorrow!!… tomorrow is the day we are launching http://www.amazinglifetogether.com. Ahh! You have no idea how excited we are to welcome you to the new site!
Just to be clear… http://www.lizandryan.com is not going anywhere! ;) We will still be here sharing our favorite photos with you right here!!!
The new AMAZING Life Together is a site that we have created to help inspire couples to live a more AMAZING life together! It is so full of love… and really, we seriously can’t wait to share it with you!!
Tomorrow… the site will be live at 12:00 p.m. EST. However, you can pop over today and sign up for updates! That way you will definitely not miss anything!!!
Thank you so so so much for all of your support! You all mean the world to us and we can feel your positive vibes coming our way!! We appreciate them so incredibly much!
Ahhhh! Here’s to a crazy day of making sure we are set for launch!! ;) Who am I kidding… ready or not, we can’t wait for you all to see it! See you tomorrow at 12:00 p.m.! ;)
I can’t even begin to describe the millions of emotions that came flooding into my heart over Tom and Laura’s NY Finger Lakes wedding weekend! Leading up to their wedding, I had this excitement that I could feel coming out of my smile! When we received their invitation, I seriously got a little giddy! ;) First of all, it was a super super fun invitation, but second of all (and most importantly!), it meant that it was one step closer to being official that 2 of our very best friends were getting married!!! After 9 years of dating… they were officially becoming Mr. and Mrs.!
Ahh! Seriously, so many AMAZING memories came flooding back. Tom, Laura, and I were pretty much like the 3 musketeers from day 1 at Bucknell! Living just doors away from each other and having shared passions of pretty much everything! (social justice, leadership, community service, crafting ;), anything related to school spirit!… Tom, remember when you dressed up as Bucky?!? ;) haha.) We did pretty much everything together! And I can honestly say- those memories continue to fill my heart with so much happiness! Always! ;) So many of the memories that we share with Tom and Laura are the kind of memories that leave us laughing so hard that our cheeks hurt! ;)
Tom and Laura’s relationship has developed right before our very eyes. And as many of their family and friends joke about how long it has taken them to get to this point… I think we can all agree that we could not imagine it any other way! As we were driving to the rehearsal dinner, I said to Ryan, “I am so incredibly proud of Tom and Laura.” Their wedding was exactly how they dreamed it to be. They poured their heart and souls into creating a celebration that was perfectly them! And with 9 years of being together, they definitely know exactly who they are… together! And that is magical!
We absolutely LOVED every single minute of capturing this incredibly perfect wedding celebration for Laura and Tom! Laura and Tom… our hearts are exploding with happiness as we write this and share your photos! Knowing you will always have these special memories documented to look back on and smile so big your cheeks hurt makes our hearts happy! ;) Thank you for bringing so much happiness to our lives and making this world a brighter place every single day! We LOVE you guys and could not be more excited for you!! Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Wagner!!! WAHOOO! You ARE married!! XOXO!! Can’t wait to hear all about Bali!
Ok, I just have to give a shout out to Tom and Laura’s bridal party and family and friends! Tom and Laura are a little crazy (that’s another thing we have in common! ;) ) and they decided to DIY pretty much everything for their wedding! Over the past year while Laura has been traveling to and from countries in Africa and other third-world countries building schools (that is what she does for her job (so fun, right!!!)- Honestly she would probably be doing that anyway, even if not for work! ;) ), Tom and Laura and their families/friends made beer tasting boards, beer, wine, cookies, pie plates, chalkboards, whiskey barrel coffee tables, AMAZING invitations, and so much more. One of their main priorities for their wedding was to create a celebration that reflected who they are as a couple. They went out of their way to make sure all of the food and drinks were local and everything they did was done with the environment in mind. We know it is not always easy (ok, sadly, it is actually really hard) to plan a day that is completely unique to you and 100% stands by what is important to you! However, Tom and Laura made it happen and capturing it was like a dream! Seriously, it was AMAZING!
Thanks so much to everyone who helped to make their vision a reality and make their wedding celebration 100% them and absolutely AMAZING!
