It started with a little girl and a dress.

It’s interesting how the memories we make when we’re younger shape how we look at things as an adult. I walked by a picture of my grandparents on their wedding day countless times as a child, each time believing I’d never seen anything more beautiful. To this day, my grandmother’s wedding dress holds some kind of old magic for me. Not just because it’s timeless and beautiful, but because of the stories it must have. My Grandmom wore it on her wedding day in 1949 and my Aunt Eileen (who left this earth far too early) wore it 30 years later for hers. Different eras, different women, same magic. If I could have squeezed into it, I would have worn it on my wedding as well. Instead, I breathed life back into it in the only way I know how.

I put a lot of thought into this shoot, it won’t be perfect or exactly like some of my other posts. Nothing ever seems as perfect when your memories and your imagination collide. Thankfully Chloe and Stephen were willing to be my most amazing models. I have bits and pieces of fact that I know of their wedding and fleeting memories of them together that I knew I wanted to incorporate into the images . I remember my grandmother telling me to marry a man who could dance, because they loved to dance. I have the invitation she hand painted (she’s a fabulous artist) so I designed the flowers to match the palette she she created all those years ago.  My Grandmom is strong and steady with a quick wit and a quick tongue. My Grandpop was who taught me the importance of documenting life.  I remember him always having a video camera when I was a kid, and I would spend hours looking through albums they made of their travels around the world. He was a scholar at heart and some of my most prized possessions are his old books, some of which have his notes scribbled in the margins.  I have both of them in me, and I’m so proud of that.