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i met whitney her sophomore year of high school. she was in my english and publications class. i used to read her eloquent love poems on unrequited love, her essays on war brides and babies, and would eavesdrop on her conversations with her girlfriends about her dreams, her future, and even her wedding day. when we went to yearbook camp i listened in as they considered their futures. smiling with them at the thought of what would be and what was before them, engaged in their pending future as much as they. if whitney’s life were a piece of literature, and i know she likes to live it like it is, beautifully scripted and poetic, then i would tell my students that me ease dropping on her conversation in chapter 5 of her life and our conversations on weddings and love and marriage in the early portions of chapters 7,8, and 9 would be considered a foreshadowing of me attending and shooting her wedding in chapter 10 of the book of her life. it has been surreal for me to go through these images of whitney and drew’s day. i know that all of my students grow-up, they have to, but for some reason they say sophomores in my head. when they graduate from college, get married, write books and become famous stars it doesn’t seem real to me, because they are supposed to be in a classroom studying lord of the flies and writing a weekly essay. i love all my students so much, so much that when they leave my classroom many of them become my friends. whitney and i became close friends due to our interest in literature and photography, and our personalities mesh too; we are both quirky and just seem to get one another’s humor. she and i have shot several weddings together, i am smiling thinking about all of them and our time together, and we have enjoyed many conversations on the importance of living a good life filled with integrity, and loving the people who surround you! i have always had an affinity for her. she is so magnetic. i wish you could have been at her wedding to feel a portion of what i did. i wish you could have been there to experience a foreshadowing of an incredibly beautiful love and begining to a life classic literature bases itself on.

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i love thinking about the phone call whit and i had when she was going to first meet andrew:

“what will we talk about? help me brainstorm a list of things to say? give me some good topics.”

they will have forever to talk about things now…

i first met drew when we shot the boat pictures. i knew i was going to like him because he looked like hugh jackman! 😉 kidding. kind of. 😉 no, seriously. i knew i was going to like him because he was pensive, incredibly thoughtful in thought, word, and deed. i liked him immediately!!! he is a good person with a kind heart, a heart filled with so much love for whitney.

when whit and i were discussing her photographic dreams for the wedding she told me she wanted lots of pictures of andrew and that she wanted me to shoot him first. a foreshadowing for sure of whom she will put first, before the rest of the people in her life. we met at his boat to shoot his portraits, lots of them ;), and some group shots of his most important guys.

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the energy that surrounds a bride and her best girls on a wedding day is rich. it’s warm and giddy! i love walking in to the room where the bride is preparing and all of her little best bees are buzzing. it’s one of my favorite parts of the day. i love how excited they get and how the buzz intensifies. it’s always so good.

i got a little emotional when i first saw whit. i knew i would.

she was always a walking foreshadowed beautiful bride.

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petra, whit’s mom, used to call me when she was a student in my class, just to make sure she was keeping on track. i always reassured her she was doing well and was an exemplary student and person. petra, you are a good mom, filled with love, concern and honest interest. whitney has learned so much from you!! you are a foreshadowing of the mother she will be someday! 😉

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love this image. i want to publish it somewhere. cover of a yearbook, anyone? ha! 😉 seriously! it needs to be published or at least printed on canvas and hung above a mantel. i adore it!!

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whit’s dad passed away several years ago. we’ve had conversations about him too. 😉 she wanted him close to her on her wedding day. i have no doubt he was present on some level, walking his “darling” down the aisle, having their dance, and holding her tightly one last time before turning her to the arms of another loving man. she wore this locket on the inside of her dress, close to her heart.

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she was the sun, moon, stars, and every perfect sunset…

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some of whitney’s best girls where former students. felt like coming home seeing them! it was good.

i know whit felt incredibly supported and loved on her day too. everyone who was present was there to celebrate whit and drew and a new life together, a foreshadowing that friends, will always be an important and present part of their life experience.

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whit, being the genius photographer she is, knew the light would be gone after her ceremony, so she chose to have a first look and a few moments with just she and her man before making it official. i love it when couples do this. it is for sure one of the most intimate moments of an entire wedding day. it always makes me emotional; i love being a part of it.

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i’ll leave you with that one for now…let that be a foreshadowing of what’s to come…:)

big shout out here and another big, big one on the next post to my second shooter, an incredible photographer, and dear friend ashley west. smiling thinking about the day together. thank you for being there! i loved it and you so much!!!

also, while you are waiting for the second post with the rest of the coverage from their day you can check out their engagement pictures here. if you didn’t get to see them before, for sure take a look! 😉 be back soon with the rest of a day that foreshadowed so many bright and lovely things!! cheers, kj