Oh my golly, Rachel & Nick, family is adorable! It was SO delightful to get to come up, see your home, meet your kiddos and get updated on your life! And I LOVED hearing your kids talk and chat... it was so absolutely precious!
31st page of the 12th chapter
Month twelve of year twenty-fourteen. I am sad to see the year near a close, but it's a different sort of close than that of a good book. There's an emptiness and almost a loneliness that I feel when I finish a good novel—I grow attached to the characters and become familiar with their world. When the remaining pages are few, I begin to read more and more slowly, putting off the ending as long as possible. At the close of a book, I'm not ready to say goodbye to it all; I wish for more.
I feel very differently about the close of a year. Yes, I have been breathlessly caught up in the adventure of it all, entwined with the characters and have become familiar with the rhythm, rises and routines. The cliffhangers of a year have me at the edge of my chair, but at the close of a year, I don't fear the dust that it will soon gather as the thirty-first page of the twelfth chapter conclude.
I simply wake up the next day. I kiss the neck of the man sleeping beside me, pull on a sweater and tiptoe across the chilly kitchen floor to put a kettle on for coffee.
This past year brought pleasure and pain, highlights and shadows, crags and chasms. Each have enriched the story in a unique way—after all, what is a story without contrast? 'Tis monotony. A succession of bland interactions; a drone, unvaried in pitch and tone. With heights and depths there are opportunities to respond and feel, to trust and hope, to wait and see.
Ah yes, I will wait and see, because the conductor has not laid his baton to rest. Whether major or minor the chord, the resolve does not occur without the final wave of his hand, and it has not yet waved. I have peeked ahead to see the final movement of the piece, and am reassured to know that the end is more epic than the interlude.
Nicole + Keynan Middleton | Married
Congratulations, Nicole & Keynan! Thank you for asking me to photograph your wedding! Nicole, you are seriously one of the most breathtakingly stunning women I've ever met! I love your spark and sparkle! I wish you both well as you continue your story as a married couple!
Estep + Reavely | Portland Wedding Photographer
Leslie and Aeric, what a perfect couple. You two are dynamite. I love you two, and am thrilled to be your sister-in-law! (Did we ever figure out whether or not sister-in-law's spouse counts as another brother-in-law of sorts?? meh. either way!) What a joy it is to be doing married life with such close friends! You two are amazing and I was so honored to get to shoot your portraits on your wedding day!
