If these two aren't the cutest, I dunno what is...

It's almost the end of June now and over coffee the other day, Roxanne and I were reminiscing and I asked her when she and Keith actually met.  Get this...it was barely a year ago.  June-ish of last year.  They MET.  Ya'll, God can work miracles practically overnight, and you can find yourself blissfully catapulted into a whole new season JUST LIKE THAT.  In HIS time.  Seeing these two walking this fun and joy-filled season is so encouraging.  It's easy to feel like there's a lot of "not yets" in life, and I'm just reminded all over again that God doesn't take a vacation from being God.  He's always who He is, and whether we see it, believe it or are expectantly hoping for it or not, He is up to stuff, cleverly weaving our little life thread into His grand story.  That's great news on days when hope levels are low, and our perseverance feels like it's stretched a bit thin.

So back to Keith and Roxanne... They first met at church, and wound up in the same small group.  They connected immediately and talked often.  Four-five months in, their ability to NOT think about the other person was becoming increasingly challenging.  There's nothing quite like when you first start to figure out that you are falling in love to make you feel like you might be losing your formerly very rational mind. In the interest of full disclosure, they did have some hurdles to overcome to even start dating.  Not that you'd ever know it or even guess it, but there's a bit of an age gap between these two.  Before they started dating, they both needed to process a bit before realizing that their age difference simply didn't matter at all.  The most important things, like where they were at in their individual walks with the Lord, was scary awesome similar.  That's a bit rare, and they were wise enough to know that, so they jumped.  Because that's what you do when God puts someone utterly wonderful and completely surprising in your path.  You say 'yes' and things you thought mattered - they fade away so quickly that you wonder how you ever considered them a hurdle at all.

If you know Roxanne at all (she's a floral designer), then you know it's no surprise that she showed up at their engagement session with a gorgeous basket full of peonies, which of course delighted my little photographer heart to no end.

Have I mentioned that it makes me just so happy to see these two so happy?  

^ THIS ^

...this is the magic that happens when you have sunshine and rain at the same time.  In the words of William Paul Young, I think God is especially fond of these two.

Can we take a quick sec to talk about Roxanne's engagement ring?!  I love that it's a pearl!

So wanna know what was going on behind the scenes for these shots?  We were just sure (based on weather apps), that the sprinkling rain was going to be stopping anytime...but it just kept raining...and turned from sprinkling into POURING.  These two were SUCH champs about it too.  We'd wanted to get some shots inside the gazebo, so we decided to go get those while we waited for the rain to subside. ...and of course they rocked these too.

Every once in awhile, a photo will happen and it will evoke this feeling that reminds me of something true.  The photo above is one of those.  As soon as I saw it in post-processing, I was reminded of something Ann Voskamp says in The Broken Way.  She says that "love is a roof."  Truth is, Roxanne was fighting a cough that night, Keith was drenched, and sometimes life isn't anything like you expect it to be.  And when it isn't, sometimes, often times, most times, you just need someone to be a shelter for you.  "Love is a roof" and these two are that for one other in a hundred practical little ways already.   Coffee to the rescue, the evening came to a close on a warmer (and drier) note.     ^ another favorite ^    Love this custom engraved journal that Roxanne had given Keith when they were dating. Congrats guys!  So fun to have you in front of my lens and so very excited for August!