Ryan and I have been chatting about our 2013 wedding photography season and getting SUPER excited because our couples are pretty much AMAZING! ;) They all exude an incredible amount of love and huge excitement about the most important thing… their marriage! We are so excited and so honored to be the ones photographing this incredible time in their lives!
Looking at our rapidly filling calendar for 2013, we have decided to only take 5 more weddings for this year! Only 5 remaining wedding openings are available for 2013! CRAZY! ;) We are feeling so blessed and truly grateful!
Over the past 4 years, we have recognized that our talents and our passions stem WAY beyond “just” documenting this special day in a couple’s lives. We recognize the beauty in all of our couple’s love stories and we see it as our responsibility to capture that joyful happiness and unconditional love as a documentation for generations to come… as well as a constant reminder to that couple of the AMAZING love that they share!
After documenting quite a few weddings ;) that have all been quite unique (local, international, ballroom, waterfront, small, huge) there has been one similarity that we have noticed that has allowed us to truly recognize the talents and passion we have to offer. When a wedding is not just a 6 hour event, but is truly a weekend long celebration that we are able to be a part of, we feel like we have the opportunity to really dive in and capture a love story beyond just the wedding day! By being present on more than just the wedding day, we are definitely more able to capture the truly authentic emotions and moments that are unique to our couples and tell their love story!
With just 5 remaining openings for 2013, we would love to fill those spots with weekend celebrations that are full of joyful happiness and unconditional love and are ready to be documented in a special way! We are looking for couples, to join the rest of our 2013 couples, who recognize the beauty in this AMAZINGly special moment in their lives and have chosen to plan their celebration in a way that maximizes their time with their family and friends while not minimizing the true reason they are all together to celebrate in the first place!
We have put together a special weekend wedding photography collection for the 5 remaining wedding openings for 2013! (Contact us for more details) If you are in need of someone to document your special celebration, or you know someone who is getting married and is looking for someone to document their love story, please pass along our information! And tell them to let us know you sent them our way! ;) We would be truly honored! (By the way… they do not have to be located in the Baltimore area. We LOVE to travel and are happy to chat about the specifics of that with the couple!)
Thank you for helping us utilize the special gifts we have been given to make the greatest impact on the lives of others! We are so grateful!
Below is an example of a weekend wedding photography love story we captured last October for Molly and Adil’s weekend celebration at the Combsberry Inn on the Eastern Shore in MD. You can view more photos from their wedding weekend by clicking the links to follow: The Cake, The Adarni Ceremony, The Rehearsal Festivities, The Wedding Day.
Through life-changing conversations (on a bus, over dinner in Dallas, on a floor at 3:00 a.m. in the Dominican Republic, you name the crazy location…. we probably had an AMAZING life chat there), listening to Mary share her heart about fear (and so much more) 10 times with the What’s Next Tour, attending the What If Conference, reading, and a whole lot of self reflection… we have had an AMAZING amount of clarity over the past few weeks!
When we first started our photography business and photographed our first wedding, we thought we were doing it because we LOVED taking photos and we LOVED being with couples on that crazy beautiful day of their lives. That is definitely true, but we realized a few years into it that there was a deeper meaning. (What Justin and Mary Marantz call “The Why.”) We were first introduced to this during the Spread The Love tour in San Francisco in 2011. At the time, we may have had an idea of what that Why was… but we were definitely not in a place to realize it. Over the past 2 years, we have grown a lot. Through conversations between Ryan and I… and then eventually close friends… we realized and were able to finally vocalize the real reason we are so incredibly passionate about what we do. It wasn’t until we sat on that bus on the last day of the tour and then again on the floor at 3:00 a.m. in the DR that I realized it was time to share that why.
7 1/2 years ago…
It was a warmer than usual fall day on campus at Bucknell. I had just completed an exam… where I remember feeling distracted. My head was not in it and I could feel in my gut that something was wrong. As soon as I got out of class and began my walk across campus to work in the Dean of Students Office, I received a call from my dad. He was a wreck. He could barely get words out. Immediately the tears began to flow from my eyes when I realized what was going on. Eventually, the words came out… “Your mom left. There is a note on the table that she is leaving and not coming back.”
As much as I didn’t want to believe it… I knew it was true. In the weeks leading up to my parents 25th wedding anniversary (just a few weeks before this fall day), something was different. The normal “best friend” relationship I had with my mom was distant. I had this feeling that something was going on… but I was the only one in our family to see it. I confronted my mom about it and she assured me that everything was fine. Obviously, it wasn’t.
That morning, with a hand-written note on the table, and no further communication with anyone, she walked out.
I remember making my way over to the Rooke Chapel on campus. I obviously was not in a state to go to work… and I just needed a place that was safe. I sat on the steps of the Chapel and just sobbed. As Ryan rubbed my shoulders and held me tight, the pain, anger, and frustration came out with every tear (pretty much like a waterfall! ;) ). Everything that I knew of marriage was just gone. Deleted… eliminated… stomped on. Divorce was always something that “happened to other families”… not mine. I was crushed in more ways than one!
It was hard. That experience of heartbreak was like nothing we had ever experienced before… and hope to never experience again. The past 7 1/2 years have been full of learning to forgive, building trust, and loving like no other! Although things are not always “picture perfect,” we are confident now more than ever that this was all part of God’s plan. He certainly does work in mysterious ways, but the clarity we have received (especially recently) has made us more grateful than ever!
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At the What If conference, we received some really honest feedback… criticism out of love if you will… That feedback came from a few people who said they just didn’t think we were sharing an authentic story on our blog. They felt like we were putting out this AMAZINGly happy message, but we were not having the impact that we could because we were not able to connect with people on a deeper level. The reality is, it wasn’t like we were trying to hide anything, we just have not been ready to share our story. There was a heck of a lot of personal processing- not to mention, a hard, but incredibly heartfelt and needed, conversation with my mom- that had to happen before I was in a place to fully recognize and share that the horribly dark time in our lives was actually the reason behind our passion! Let’s just say, it took me awhile to finally get to the point of actually saying Thank You to my parents for what they went through. Although crazy hard and a lot of hurt involved, we are grateful. (Honestly, that is still kind of hard to actually realize… but ohh so AMAZING!) I am excited to say… my mom and I had that conversation last week! ;) And it was more freeing than I ever could have imagined! (I think for both of us!)
“Without suffering, we do not have the opportunity to cultivate compassion and understanding; and without understanding, there can be no true love…Happiness is a function of compassion. If you do not have compassion in your heart, you do not have any happiness.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
Going through my parent’s divorce is the reason Ryan and I don’t see ourselves as “just” photographers, but as a couple in love who has a mission to help people recognize the love that they have in their lives is something incredibly special… and even though there are going to be hard times, choosing to live with joyful happiness, unconditional love, and authentic gratitude is the only way to fully live! We have realized that the experiences we have gone through in our lives (especially the hardest ones) and the love that we share has become incredible motivation and has sparked an AMAZING passion in our hearts! We are confident it is all a part of God’s plan and it is now our responsibility to do something with it!Last week we created The AMAZING Marriage Project. (Does everything make even more sense now?!?! ;) ) By studying, documenting, and sharing what makes the most AMAZING marriages work, we want to touch the lives of all couples! We have this crazy goal in our hearts of taking the divorce rate from 50% to 0%. CRAZY and Stupid (as our friend Richie would say in his new AMAZING book –The Power of Starting Something Stupid– that you all have to read… comes out March 5th, but you can pre-order here!), but the reality is that we can try. By sharing love, we do believe we have the ability to touch the lives of others one at a time… and if we can inspire just one person/couple who inspires another person/couple who inspires another person/couple… to choose joyful happiness, unconditional love, and authentic gratitude as their way of life, we might be on to something! You never know until you try! ;)
Thank you for letting us pour our hearts out on this blog and being there to help us navigate this incredibly AMAZING journey through life. Most especially to my Mom, Dad, and Brother (as well as the rest of our family and friends who have been a part of these past 7 1/2 years+) THANK YOU for EVERYTHING! We are so grateful for your listening ears, positive hearts, and incredible love!
This morning I woke up a bit in a funk! (Well actually, I woke up feeling pretty darn good because we slept in a bit and woke up thinking It’s Valentine’s Day and I rolled over to the sweetest Valentine ever, Ryan, and gave him a kiss!)- but then I started watching the Today Show and my mood quickly changed! I had no idea at the time what was going on… but after Ryan pulled it out of me, I realized that I was letting society get to me! All of the roses and chocolate talk about Valentine’s day was making me feel guilty because I had not planned anything “special” for Ryan on this day! Seriously- I let society get to me! :( Ugh!
Anyway, after turning the TV off and taking some quiet time for myself, I realized that I had a choice. I could continue to throw myself a pitty party and feel bad for myself because I didn’t do anything “special” for Ryan for Valentine’s Day or I could listen to my heart and feel confident that the love Ryan and I share everyday doesn’t need to be recognized on this one day out of the year with roses and chocolates! We had already discussed that because our lives have been a bit crazy recently, a dinner date in is everything we wanted for today!
I realized today that I LOVE Valentine’s Day… there are a few reasons: 1. Because this is the day Ryan proposed to me 7 years ago! (Wow… 7?!? ;) ) And 2. Because Valentine’s Day is a day to Celebrate Love! (with or without chocolates and roses)
I have made a clear decision today to make today about LOVE! Whatever that may look like to you! Even though the TV and magazine’s tell you it should be about roses and chocolate, I hope you make today about LOVE! Celebrate the LOVE that you have. Take the time to recognize the LOVE that surrounds you… your friends, your family, your significant other, and/or even the random strangers that exude love that come into your life on days you need it most! Celebrate that!!!… because that is so much better than any chocolate I have ever had! (And that says a lot, because I love chocolate!)
As you are celebrating, we hope you will take a minute to recognize the love that surrounds you by nominating an inspiring marriage for The AMAZING Marriage Project. This can definitely be your own marriage!!…. or anyone else’s too! (Please note: These couples may or may not be celebrating with roses and chocolate today! And that is totally OK! ;) )
This iPhone photo below is just a little glimpse of some love that we encountered while we were in the Dominican Republic last week and we are definitely celebrating that love today! (So much more on this trip to come soon! ;) )
Happy Valentine’s Day friends! With or without roses and chocolates… we pray you have a lot of love that you are celebrating today! ;)
You know when you walk down the street and you come across the sweetest couple walking hand in hand and giggling and laughing at each other? Sometimes they are an older couple helping each other step-by-step and other times they are younger and basically pulling each other across the street. Either way, they always seem to have a zest for life and most certainly exude love that adds an extra beat in our hearts! Those moments when we witness the love that these couples share always has a way of stopping us in our tracks and reminding us to slow down and soak in this life!
As we mentioned with our What If post on Monday, we have had this idea brewing for awhile, but we finally decided to take some action and start The AMAZING Marriage Project. We want to photograph married couples who love unconditionally. We want to hear their stories and learn about the good and the not so good moments that they have used to learn what unconditional love is all about! We want to take the knowledge that we gain from these AMAZING couples and share it with the world. To be honest, we are not quite sure what the end product will be… maybe a book, a documentary, or even just a blog series. But what we do know is that we are SO eager to learn, to document these AMAZING stories, and to share everything with you!!!
Here is where we need your help! We are looking for 15-25 married couples that would be willing to allow us to photograph them, interview them, and even shoot some video of them in an effort to document their love story in this moment in time! (We have asked our good friend Jeremy Mitchell of Jeremy Mitchell Cinema to help us out with the video portion! ;) Whoop Whoop!) We are looking for couples who have been married for 1 day up to 100 years (ok, we know the longest married couple has been married for about 80 years… but we can dream right?! ;) ). We are hoping to photograph couples that may have gone through some tough times in their lives (who hasn’t right?) but have chosen LOVE and HAPPINESS above all else. We would love to find couples who are so excited to share their stories in hopes to make a difference in the lives of others!
Hopefully at this point you are thinking…. YES, I know the perfect couple for this project. Now go nominate them! ;) Please. It is super easy! Click Here. Don’t worry, the couples will not be asked to pay anything. This is a personal passion project for us and this is just one way that we feel like we can touch the lives of others and learn more about what goes into an AMAZING marriage! After a short nomination period, a selection committee will help us decide which couples to choose for The AMAZING Marriage Project. More details can be found on The AMAZING Marriage Project Website.
What if? It’s often a question we ask ourselves but not one we normally take very seriously. That is until we attended the What If conference this past week in the Dominican Republic.
How often do you ask yourself what if on a daily basis? What if I didn’t have to go to work in this job I don’t like. What if we stopped worrying about what everyone else thinks of our idea? What if we had more time?
For just this moment, stop worrying about what could be done and actually go do it. Turn those What Ifs into action. Make all your dreams a reality.
We will be sharing a lot more about our experience during the What If conference throughout this week but for now we wanted to share just a few of our What Ifs. One of the biggest What Ifs and amazing life lessons we learned was What If we let ourselves be more vulnerable? So with that said, we are going to be a little vulnerable and share some of our What Ifs and not worry about if you think they are crazy or stupid. Because if they sound crazy and stupid, then we must be doing something right! :) And if any of our What Ifs resonate with you, be sure to let us know, we’d love your support!
What If we lived to give in every single thing that we do. In every single interaction we have. What if we shared ourselves with everyone with such amazing love everyday and not just in the hardest and darkest times of need?
What if we started an AMAZING marriage project to photograph 15 – 25 happily married couples. What if we did it for free? What if we had people nominate their favorite couples? What if we documented it in such a way that we could learn the secrets of an AMAZING marriage and then passed it along to world?
What if we woke up and chose happiness everyday? Not because it was easy, but because if was a better alternative to worry, fear, and anger? What if we saw the positive in every single moment, through divorce, addiction, cancer, and death? What if no matter what, at the end of the day, we still choose to eat cupcakes? What if we shared this idea, and inspired people to approach life with a similar mindset to the world?
What if we could help make a marriage that was ok… AMAZING, a marriage that was flat and stale… energetic and full of love? What if we could make our marriage more AMAZING by helping others? What if we created an escape for couples to let go of the everyday stresses of life, and work, to focus on what makes their marriage AMAZING? What if we created and hosted the escape this year? What if we didn’t worry about if people would sign up? What if we didn’t worry about if we would make a profit? What if this could keep just one marriage from ending in divorce? Wouldn’t it be worth it? Wouldn’t it be our responsibility?
What if we put it all out there the moment we got home? Oh wait, we just did. :)
