Five and a half years ago, Jarrett and Leanna were planning their wedding. Five and a half years ago, I was planning my wedding and preparing to move across the continent. Five and a half years ago, I met with Jarrett and Leanna over a cup of Starbucks and loved every minute of dreaming wedding dreams together.
My cross-country move meant it didn’t work out for me to photograph their backyard wedding awesomeness, but in the power of modern day social media we stayed in touch and I have watched from afar as they’ve walked life (the ups, the downs, the good, the bad) and navigated with such strength and grace five years of marriage.
When Leanna asked if I would be able to photograph anniversary photos during my trip home to North Carolina earlier this month, I almost had to say no — I had been fully booked for several months, so the only option available meant meeting at 7am. Talk about dedication: they were willing to meet me just before sunrise for a glorious, moody, dewy, brilliantly magical anniversary session.
Some of my all-time favorite images are from my last sunrise session (note to self: take more sunrise photos!) AND it rained the whole session! So does that even count as sunrise? (P.S. Just before I scheduled Leanna’s sunrise session, I put one on the books for November — ready or not, here comes more magical mornings!).
Leanna and Jarrett are exactly my kind of people: happy to sacrifice a little sleep for sake of the art, very willing to laugh and have fun even though I’m asking for them to canoodle in the wet grass at sunrise, and ridiculously hilarious as they love each other.
I wish I could remember all the lessons they’ve learned in five years (they kept me laughing while packing good truths in between locations!), but there was one that sounded something like “When [my wonderful, caring, supportive spouse] says ‘you’re right,’ I know [my wonderful, caring, supportive spouse] is lying.” (Name removed to protect the innocent. :-P)
Happy official fifth wedding anniversary, you guys! (A couple days late. :-P) May the next fifty be just as marvelous as the fifth as been.
P.S. We photographed in the same place where they held their backyard wedding five years ago. How’s that for perfect symmetry??
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![Engaged: Kelsey and Sean [Stanley Park Engagement]](https://jennimarie.com/wp-content/uploads/i-RxQ9XwJ-L-768x513.jpg)
