As our followers know, we have been going through a HUGE rebranding process, from creating a new website and blog, dozens of things that go along with those like blogging consistently, and plenty of other projects geared to improving our client experience (some of these goodies that we can’t share with you yet, but will soon!). Rebranding is a huge endeavor, forget adding on a 20 minute bike ride each way to teach a class of 8 year olds that barely understand English every day from 10 to 5. That was my wonderful wife’s life over the last 3 months in Kenya. We would come back from Happy Life Christian School and be exhausted, but she would just sit down, take a breath, maybe grab a cold one, and pull up her computer and start typing away. She wrote an incredible amount of blog posts, designed and typed away on every aspect of planning a wedding all the way through the wedding day in a new project we will be sharing with you guys soon, and even found time to work on other non profit organizations like Glory Of Africa and Tunajenga at the same time. I would just sit there, amazed at everything she was doing.

In my mind, all this amazingness started a long, looooong time ago, back in 2010 when we were still dating. I had been finishing up my degree in Photography at VCU, and a friend of mine that I knew through my part time job was getting married. She knew I was a photographer, and asked if I would photograph her wedding. I said yes, because it was a new experience for me, and hey, my first real gig as a professional! I told Laura, and she begged me to come along. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the start of the most amazing life experience I have been blessed to share in with my wife. That first wedding was wonderful, and getting to share in someone’s biggest decision of their life was awesome! I loved it, but had NO clue how to talk to brides, design a brand that represents who I was, know what a bride would be looking for in their images, or even know how a wedding day goes! I graduated with a degree that taught me how to take a photo how I wanted, but I had no idea how to take a photo for clients that I wanted to photograph. From that first wedding, Laura was there, and she made that dream that I thought was impossible, into something we get to do together.
The past 5 years have been amazing! I got to marry my best friend, start our photography business, travel the world together, and spend 9 months in Kenya volunteering. And I know that my life will continue to be amazing because I’m sharing my life with the most amazing person. I am so thankful for you Laura, thankful that you are WAAAAAY more motivated and driven than I am, thankful that you challenge me every day to be the best I can be, thankful that you are exactly the way you are because if you weren’t this amazing opportunity where we get to photograph people’s weddings would not exist, thankful that you can blog like a champ, and most of all thankful that God put you in my life. I am so excited to watch this amazing photography business I get to share in keep growing because of the work you put in it every single day. Happy Birthday to you, Laura! I am the luckiest man in the world!