Celebrating TEN Years | My Own Wedding Portraits

It seems just like yesterday.  It’s so cliche’ to even say that…but it’s true!  It was ten years ago…on a day much like today….cold, with a touch of snow on the ground, that Nick and I got married.We’ve had the joy of welcoming two little ones into our family…and the pain of losing loved ones.  We’ve had career changes, and house changes, and every other change that life can throw you.What I originally had planned for this post went by the wayside as I started going through pictures from our own wedding day.  I had originally thought of doing the my ten favorite images from our own wedding day.  But, I couldn’t limit it down.  Even though they were from ten years ago, some of the images that weren’t my ‘favorites’  and didn’t make it into my final wedding album have come to mean so much more to me than they did that day.Because that’s how life is…there is an ebb and a flow…an up and a down…a fore and an aft.  Life is ever-changing, and what is not important to you one moment, is THE most important thing the next.In this business I am in, I get the honor of sitting through so many weddings.  And one thing I try to do at every single one is listen to the sermon.So many times it has been a blessing to me...sharing a message that strikes a chord with me, but one sermon from two years ago made me get my phone out and take notes as soon as I got in my car to head home that evening.  I wanted to remember the main messages of that sermon…it was THAT good.The pastor’s message was so simple, and yet so true.  He said that on that day, your wedding day, you should love your spouse the LEAST that you ever will in your life.  That you should get up every day asking yourself what you can do to make your spouse healthy, happy, and whole.  And that when you don’t want to do any of these things, you should look to the cross and sacrifice as Christ sacrificed for you….that God put us on this earth to be disciples of all nations, and that discipleship begins in your home.We all fail at all of these daily.  Nick and I are the same way.  We fail at this just like everyone else, but we know that about ourselves and each other.  We forgive.  We get up the next day more determined to remember these principles and to raise our children in the same way.  To sacrifice and hope that on our last day together on this earth that we left the other person better than they were the day before...some days failing, but always the next day trying and trying again.Nick, I love you more today than I did the day we married ten years ago, and there is no one else I would want to be on this journey with.  Thank you for allowing me my failings and knowing that we'll always pick ourselves the next day and begin again better than we were the day before.  -KellyIf you’ll allow me a bit of a walk down memory lane, here are a few of my favorite images from my own wedding day.Please note, all images are courtesy of the uber-talented Jeffrey and Julia Woods.

I always wanted a winter wedding.  Christmas is my favorite time of year, and maybe it’s being a farmer’s daughter, but life just seems a bit more peaceful and joyful to me vs the summer months!

This little chickadee is in high school now!!!

I’m not a shopper.  I bought these shoes the day before…along with my veil.  :)  Ironically, the beaded pattern on the shoes almost matched that of my dress.

Nick bought me this pearl necklace as a wedding gift.  You can’t tell it from this picture, but the smaller pearls are all odd shapes and ‘imperfect’…I love that this necklace is classic and yet imperfect all at the same time.

I have it saved back to give to Colby some day.

Since we got married in the winter months, Nick and I did a ‘first look’…as our wedding was at 4:00 and there would be no light afterwards.  So glad we did!

I love this picture of Nick…so handsome.

The ever-beautiful Emma James.

Nick and I met through our mutual friend Brea.  Brea was my intern at my former employer, and her husband Ryan was one of Nick’s fraternity brothers.  I went to a homecoming party at Brea and Ryan’s one year when Nick was there.  Here, Brea was pregnant with her first-born, but came to help out the day of the wedding with some behind-the-scenes pictures for us!

My sisters….I equally love to LOVE them and BICKER with them…as only sisterhoods can do!

Kim, finding a convenient place to store her bouquet.

So glad for this picture of my mom and I…although I don’t remember what was so funny!!!  Why do I always laugh with my mouth WIDE open?  Geesh.

My two best friends from high school, Erin and Angie.  We don’t see each other often, but when we do, it’s for a long weekend, and our rule is that we never apologize for not being in recent touch with each other.  I know that if I needed them they would be here for me in a heartbeat, and that’s what matters to me the most and defines true friendship….not a daily phone call but the knowledge that they’re there and will hold me up should I ever be flailing in life.

True story: my sister Kim had just gotten married the year before, and I liked her bridesmaids dresses that we wore; so, my sisters wore the same dresses from Kim’s wedding at mine!

Nick and his groomsmen were all standing for a formal portrait when Nick took his elbows and elbowed the guys behind him in the gut.  This is the image that resulted.  I love it.  I felt sorry for the guys, though, that got nailed in the gut.

I bought each of my sisters and my best friends diamond cross necklaces that we all still have.

I’m going to be honest.  I didn’t want flower girls!!!  Horrible of me, right?  But Emma wanted to be a flower girl and her mom, my sister Karen, PROMISED me that they’d do a good job, not run, not cry, etc!  I wasn’t here for this image, but Julia Woods, our photographer, told me at our album design session that this was the moment before they walked down the aisle and Emma was lecturing her sister Anna not to run, cry, or use all of her flower petals at once!

My cousin Patrick and my great friend Eric have beautiful singing voices.  They sang Christmas hymns and The Lord’s Prayer.  Eric also played the trumpet with more of my friends during the Processional.  It was beautiful.

Thank you so much for checking in!  Blessings to you all!  - Kelly