Photographs Matter – The Beginning

In the beginning, a girl married a boy.

But this wasn’t the real beginning of us. It was the official, or legal, beginning.

It was when my dad stopped sending me articles on the divorce rate being higher for couples who lived together before marriage.

It was the beginning of both of us wearing a wedding band.

The beginning of wearing the official title of wife for me and husband for him.

It was the start of a marriage, surrounded by our friends and family who loved us the most.

It was two years exactly from our first date.

It was the continuation of hopes and dreams already discussed.

It was a life set in motion. To pursue adventures of careers and career changes.

Adventures that would take us across an ocean on our honeymoon and across our own country each and every summer on a 2000+ mile road trip.

Adventures in parenting and adventures in deciding that spending time with family and friends far outweighs the need for clean floors first.

In the beginning, we hired a wedding photographer on the recommendation of friends. A photographer who shot in only film (it was 2000 and digital cameras weren’t yet the norm). A photographer who was also a DJ. A photographer who also had a full time job, so he was a jack of all trades, so he must be good, right?!

In the beginning, we received many photographs of us on our wedding day…squinting into the sun and feet chopped off that violate the official photography rules of what is and is not okay when allowing body parts to extend beyond the frame of the photograph.

In the beginning, we received this under exposed and out of focus photograph.

And I have loved it every day since. It is wrapped in the love and relief of having made it through the ceremony. Of having the official part of our relationship behind us. Of knowing that the rest of the day would be so easy and fun.

It is one of two photographs for which I would run back into our house in the middle of a fire to save. You know. After making sure the husband, kids, four hounds, and three cats were all safe, too.

I don’t have any other copies of this image and as I write this, I realize I need to back it up on an online server. So there can be another copy made, if ever necessary. Because it is one of my all time favorite photographs.

This photograph sits on my desk and I can see it every day while I work. It fills my heart and reminds me of exactly where my marriage started and why I love the man that I do. With all my heart. It reminds me that I’m not alone in this adventure. That I have a partner in crime and a best friend to hold my hand. That no matter how hard some days are, there is a hug waiting for me.

Photographs matter.

They are powerful.

They can bring up feelings buried just under the surface or pushed intentionally far down into the depths of our souls because of relationships or endings that were so incredibly hurtful.

This is the start of my Friday blog series: Photographs matter.

I hope you will join me each week as I share the stories of my people. Stories surrounding photographs that let us know we are more alike than different. That at the heart of the photographs that matter the most to us, it is love that brings us together. That restore our souls. And remind us of the good.