The marriage of Emily and Ryan was a precious time for them, their parents, family and friends, but it was mixed with sadness as well.
Emily’s brother Rick, an Army Ranger, suffered a serious injury during his second deployment and died of complications in
January of 2011.
Needless to say, this traumatic and horrific loss for the family pushed their wedding back into November.
As life moved forward a bit toward normalcy, they began the process of setting up the wedding again.
Phyllis, Emily’s mom helped her look for a wedding photographer and came across my site.
Just about that time, I had renewed my blog post about remembering and honoring out soldiers, and that touched her heart. This is the email I received from Emily’s mom:
“We have received so many quotes for photographers that it is hard to get through all of them. Yours, however, caught my attention with the photos of the flag. I scrolled down to see the idea of the place setting for the missing soldier.
As my daughter gets married this November, we will be setting a place for her brother, Rick, who died in January. He was just 22, an army Ranger. After his second deployment, he was injured in a training mission and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He died 7 months later.
We would be interested in your services.”
As a former Medic in the Army, and as one who has suffered loss, I wept for this family and the loss of their 22 year old son and brother.
Emily and I met down in the Sheboygan, WI area near Lake Michigan, and we worked out the details of the wedding day, and I was looking forward to that day with anticipation and with a bit of angst. Being one who cries just about every time the Daddy Daughter dances are played, I knew the tears would flow, and I’d be wiping as I shot wonderful and touching images for Emily and Ryan.
When their wedding day finally arrived, it was a beautifully crisp day. The rain and snow stayed away for the most part, and we were able to even get some outdoor shots!
The families celebrated, rejoiced over new beginnings and cried over deep loss, but it was a good time.
I am so thankful that Phyllis found my post because they made sure to set a table for Rick as the most welcomed-and the most missed-of all.
But they knew he was cheering his sister all day long.
Sasha and Demetrius were at the Panera Bread restaurant in Chesapeake, VA with Sasha’s mom one night when I was meeting with Diane Dunn and her twin sister about Diane’s wedding. They overheard us and saw some of the wedding albums I was showing to them from afar.
When I finished with our meeting, they called me over to compliment me on the albums and to inquire about my services for their wedding coming up in 2010.
Well, life happened, and I wasn’t able to cover their wedding…but, lo and behold, about four or five months after their wedding, they called me.
They decided to hire me to take post-wedding pics. They just weren’t too pleased with what they got from their hired photographer, so we re-created the event and some of the moments. It was a blast!
Fast forward to this moment: The wedding album is designed and almost in book form! Once I get the album, I will take some of them as well.
Without further ado, below is the designed album:
by theojohns
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