Being a wedding photographer, I feel that it is important that I believe in marriage, but more importantly that I believe in love. I have always been a hopeless romantic, and when I say, “I love, love”, I mean I LOVE, love! Since I was little, I always believed that fairy tales do exist and that I would eventually find my Prince Charming. Despite being told for many years, by a guy far from Prince Charming, that fairy tales do not exist and that there is no such thing as Prince Charming, I did find just that and more. My husband, Luke, came into my life and swept me off my feet just like they do in fairy tales (with a little more alcohol involved, I was just turning 21).

Our love story is by far my favorite. There is not another love story that I know of that is filled with more passion and is more meant to be than ours. Our story began the night that we met, June 24, 2009, but it was six years ago, September 19, 2012, that we vowed to spend the rest of forever together.

It is hard to believe that it has been six years since we said I do. The years have flown past and life is not the same as it once was. Not only have we changed individually, but our life is completely different. Over the years we have bought 3 homes, sold 2, had a beautiful baby boy, moved across country, changed careers, had fights, made up, and so much more. The one thing that has remained the same is that I have gone through all of these with my best friend, my love, my husband by my side.

My husband, Luke, is the sweetest most romantic fun loving person I have met, I am not just saying that. He is incredibly selfless, always thinking of other people, he is caring, funny, fun, smart, handsome, not a great father, but the best father, and these are just a few adjectives to describe him I could go on for a year about how perfect he is.

I remember when I first came across a paper my wonderful husband had written for school, on our computer. I remember reading it over and over again and balling my eyes out. I could tell you our love story, but I figured I would share what he wrote, with his permission of course, because I am not sure I can tell it more beautifully than he already has.

“Who Said You Can’t Meet in a Bar?”

She walked down the isle so gracefully, arms linked with her father who was not quite ready to let go of his little girl. There was a glow around her, smile on her face; she has never looked so beautiful. I try to fight back the tears of joy, my best man notices and puts an arm around me and says “I’m so happy for you”.  When she walked up to me I felt weak, my palms were sweaty and I had a shortness of breath; I was about to take one of the biggest steps forward in my life.

It was three and a half years ago when I met her, my best friend and I walked into a barto get some food. I noticed her almost immediately when I walked in; she was sitting with a friend on the other side of the room. Tall, beautiful blonde, with blue eyes and a golden tan. They were the topic of our conversation, daring one another to go talk to them, we had our eye on them the entire time but trying not to be too obvious. We went outside to have a cigarette and to our surprise both girls come out to join us, sitting a few tables away. “Well, are you going to talk to us or what?” she says looking right at me, I was speechless, trying to search for something to say that didn’t make me look too desperate. “What makes you think we were interested?” I say with a straight look on my face, “it is pretty obvious, every time I walked by you, both of your eyes are glued to my ass!” She was sassy, confident, and charismatic, she was perfect.

I was a 22-year-old bachelor living with my best friend in the ideal bachelor pad; I had a decent job and partied every night. Every Sunday we would have barbeques, friends would come over with stories from the weekend, and we would drink beer and eat till the buttons would pop off our pants. This Sunday was a little different, the girls we had met from the bar the weekend before had agreed to come over. I was excited to see her again, we kept bragging to our friend about these girls and they were eager to see as well. I had held off from texting or calling her all week because I wanted to take the “hard to get” approach. We got more than the usual Sunday friends over; we had to make these girls think we were really fun. She showed up looking even more beautiful than when I first saw her, we immediately started talking and I gave her the grand tour. Everyone stayed up all night telling jokes and playing beer pong, we all got along so well. The next morning she was flying out to Virginia to visit her old friends from College, “ you’re going to miss me and you don’t even know it yet”, she says to me as she left. She was right, I had moved past the “hard to get” strategy and was smitten. I talked to her everyday while she was gone; I even had flowers for her when she returned home.

The moments of when I first met her was all I could think about when I said “I do”, I fell for her so fast, everything until this moment has gone by so fast. When she came walking down that isle time slowed down. I took everything in; the joy of my new family around me, the beautiful words of the priest, the touch of her hand holding mine. These moments seemed to last forever, as we walked back down the isle hand in hand as husband and wife I realize my life has truly started to take its course. My steps in life have always been just that, my own. What started off as a single life as a bachelor, with not a care in the world, have now joined with another to start our journey together one step at a time.

Here is a collection of photos of us over the years, although many are not great or even good, but they are ours and I cherish the fact that I do have photos to look at to see who were were, where we were and what we have become.

Happy Anniversary Babe! Mi amore you are my world! I love you forever and ever and always!