My husband and I had our anniversary session done last year. Ever since, I knew I wanted to offer these sessions. Your love story is so important. The foundation of your lives is the love you have for each other. It’s important to take the time to document that love over the years.
Are you celebrating an anniversary? Were you not thrilled with your wedding photos? Did you never have wedding photos (that was my case)? Maybe you never got married. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a love story to share. Whether you wear your wedding attire again or just get dressed up for the session, either way is great. Contact me to book your Love Story Session and have images your 70 year old self will thank you for having done.
Now I’d like you to meet Scott & Erin. Erin is a very dear friend of mine and Scott is pretty cool too. 😉 They are about to celebrate their 5 year wedding anniversary. Here is their Love Story in Erin’s words. <3
Our Love Story
A Bruce Springsteen Soundtrack
Chapter 1
“You can’t start a fire without a spark” – Dancing in the Dark
It’s true. You can’t start a fire without a spark. Just the same, you can’t start a journey in love without that one moment in time. That moment, those coincidences that put you at the same place at the same time, at the right time. Oddly (and unromantically) enough, that place for us was human anatomy lab in graduate school in the summer of 2005. Scott was the graduate assistant helping my class learn our gross anatomy that summer. He was tall and handsome, with eyelashes any girl would kill for. He was confident but quiet and so smart. He was quite the catch, but I was too focused on that intense seven week course to think much of it.
Chapter 2
“Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair. Well the night’s busting open these two lanes will take us anywhere” – Thunder Road
We coexisted on campus with not much interaction for the next 9 months. Then one day while I was stressing over finals Scott asked me (well, actually he told me) that I needed to take a break from my vigorous studying. He picked me up in his jeep and I was introduced to a Rock and Roll legend that would become a bigger part of my life than I would ever imagine. We drove to the restaurant where we had our first date with the lyrics of Springsteen serenading us along the way.
Chapter 3
“Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact. But maybe everything that dies someday comes back” – Atlantic City
Summer quickly came and we moved off campus back to our hometowns. Our very new relationship wasn’t strong enough or serious enough to survive the distance. We went our separate ways with just our memories. Scott even ended up a few states away for an entire semester the next school year for an internship, so the distance became an even bigger factor in our separation. We kept in touch intermittently that year but just as friends. Randomly a full year after our first date Scott called me and asked if I had any interest in going to a Bruce Springsteen cover-band concert with him. I told him I would think about it. Almost a full week later I let him know that I was in! I made the two hour drive to his hometown on June 16th, 2006 and we spent the night dancing, swaying and belting out the lyrics to Bruce’s finest songs. Later that night Scott told me that he loved me for the first time. He told me that he had the entire time we were apart over the past
Chapter 4
“Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a dodge, drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain” – Jungleland
That summer of 2006 was the quintessential summer romance. It involved lots of sun, fun, cruising in the Jeep with the top down, of course more Springsteen music and falling more in love all with a beautiful lake and mountains in the background. We had 100 miles between us that summer but we managed to spend nearly every weekend together. I had found my one and only.
Chapter 5
“I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul…” – Born to Run
Two years later, in 2008, Scott asked me to marry him. It wasn’t a grand proposal but it was sweet and thoughtful. He had been listening when previously in our relationship I told him a story about the meaning of an oval cut diamond. I had learned along the way that an oval ring represented the dining room table and the time you spend around it as a family. That had struck a chord with me and apparently it had with him too because on October 17th, 2008 our puppy came down the stairs with a beautiful oval cut diamond ring on her collar and a note from her asking me to marry her Daddy. Of course I said yes. We planned our wedding for a beautiful sunset ceremony on the beach in Cancun with 40 of our closest friends and family in attemdance on July 8th, 2009. We both wrote our own vows and appropriately enough, incorporated a Springsteen lyric into them. We both had ended them with the words “I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul.” To this day that is our sweet little phrase that we write in our cards to each other or jot down at the end of our notes to each other.
Chapter 6
“I’ve got somethin’ in my heart I been waitin’ to give. I got a life I wanna start, one I been waitin’ to live” – Leah
We were ready to start a family pretty soon after being married. We knew it was the life we wanted and were excited to begin our journey. We soon welcomed our first daughter, Adalyn Rose and within two years after her birth were bringing home our baby boy, Mason Scott. I thought I loved that man during our first summer of falling in love. I thought I loved that man during our wedding in paradise. I never knew I could love that man as much as I did the moment I saw him holding our babies, the moment I saw the tears in his eyes when our daughter was born and the pride in his face when he met his son. It was the life I was waiting to live with him.
Chapter 7
“At the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe”
Reason to Believe
The first five years have not been perfect. Or easy. But we are blessed. I am blessed. That man does so much for our family, and I’m sure he would say the same of me. It’s not easy to maintain that spark when you are exhausted and working and maintaining a home and have two little ones in the house. I love him in a way that is different from the way I first loved him. I love him deeper and more fully than before. And it’s true what they say… a melody does sound like a memory. All it takes is a few chords of a Springsteen song and I’m reminded of our story and why and how I came to love this man so much.
Chapter 8
“Precious memories, how they linger, How they live in my soul In the stillness of the midnight, Precious sacred scenes unfold” – Precious Memories
These photos are a celebration of our five years together as a married couple. They are priceless memories that we have now to share with our children and for them to share with their children. They alone tell a story that doesn’t need words. Look at the way he looks at me. Look at the way I lean into his kiss. That’s what I want my children to remember about their parents. That we loved each other endlessly. That we loved each other with all the madness in our soul.
Chapter 9
“Now everyone dreams of a love faithful and true, but you and I know what this world can do. So let’s make our steps clear so the other may see. And I’ll wait for you… should I fall behind wait for me.” – If I Should Fall Behind
Our journey isn’t over. It’s just beginning. I’m so thrilled and blessed to be able to spend many many more years on this journey with the love of my life. I know that there are highs and lows in the years ahead but I have confidence that I will have this man, this love and this music to carry us through.
Erin did an amazing job with her words as she told this love story. Her life with Scott and her children is a beautiful journey. We are truly honored to have this touching memento captured in our gardens. Thank you Crystal Satriano Photography- your work is an inspiration. <3 We appreciate you allowing us to share it and so look forward to your return to capture more love in our gardens!