You can see it written all over my website, tucked into nearly every one of my emails and peppered throughout all of the conversations I have with my clients (or anyone, for that matter) about my work…I love love stories. I love listening to them and I love photographing them and I love sharing them with the world. Sometimes though – I think it’s best to leave it up to the couple’s themselves to tell their own story. Jana and Bryan created a beautiful masterpiece of a website for their wedding day, so I borrowed their story from that. How they met in their own words:

HIS STORY

“Nevertheless, he persisted…” The battle cry for me in this coming marriage. After seeing the first sight of Jana, I decided to chat her up via the interwebs. Jana, who is busy even when you’re with her, was not really available at the time and I felt that without hearing no, why not wait. Finally, after texting back and forth for a few weeks, Jana had an opening in her schedule and I felt the need to fill that in a ridiculously quick manner. The experience was surreal and I felt so comfortable that I knew that this would be something. The moment where it all hit me was when Jana was in a car accident and the first thing that crossed my mind was her safety. This is where I truly realized that I didn’t want to comprehend what the world would be like if she wasn’t in it. Eventually, our lives started to meld into one and this is the world I live in today. I couldn’t be happier. I have found a person that values my pursuits as much as her own and without question would move the Earth at her expense to make my world spin a little faster.

HER STORY

I went to New York City and Boston last summer and when I returned from my trip, I got an email from a smoking hot guy asking about one of my pictures that featured the Hamilton marquee in the background. I was immediately intrigued, but I was in the midst of obtaining and then transitioning to my new job, transitioning out of my old job, teaching classes at the U of I and Loyola, and keeping up with a full-time PhD student course load. Bryan and I texted each other often and eventually, I had a free evening and immediately invited him to hang out with me. As soon as we met in person, I was filled with regret that I hadn’t been able to make time for him sooner. Bryan is a master storyteller and made me cry-laugh with some of his stories about his job and his college days. I knew I was all in after a bad early morning car accident where my car was totaled. I stepped out of the ambulance at the scene of the accident and saw him standing there, and that’s when I knew I’d found my person. Bryan supports me unconditionally, makes me laugh every day, is the smartest person I know, is the most patient person on the planet, and would do anything to make my life better.

 

To see photos from similar shoots click here and here!