We’ll try not to get too sappy on this severely CLOSE TO HOME blog post. But some quick facts:
Bethany is my (Susannah’s) sister/best-friend-for-entire life, and has been living with us for the past few months--a veritable promised land of coffee, New Girl bingeing, getting the flu, and baby-snuggling. She’s everything you could ever hope for in a best friend, aunt to your babies, and maker of lattes and hearer of soul-feelings.
Brittain is a seminary student that Peter and I met a few years ago photographing a friend's wedding in Nashville, Tennessee. Between wedding festivities and him graciously driving us to the airport, we became quite attached to him and wanted to keep him around. The next summer, he and a friend came out to Oregon on a road trip and we “casually” introduced them to each other. Staying up til 4am talking about souls ensued, and eventually a long-distance relationship, with Oregon Christmas trips, North Carolina school break trips, and of course, lots of Facetime. We all got to go to Mississippi together last year for Brittain's identical twin brother's wedding!
Their love for bookstores and alarmingly long walks and theology and obscure movies and weird food and, especially, people and God is shared, and pretty much everything else is the opposite.
We always get to hear the stories of how people met & fell in love, but with Brittain & Bethany, we got to see most of it. They're some of our dearest and most important people, and their wedding was probably one of the most intense feelings-days ever. I got to be the (pregnant) matron-of-honor with 1.5-year-old Samson in tow, Peter was a groomsman, and we were able to photograph the wedding only with the invaluable Ben T. & Rebekah! Probably our most emotional + also tactically tricky day as photographers/humans. But mostly, we just had an incredible day getting to celebrate and help capture the joy between these two. (I even managed to delay my massive emotional breakdown). Long-distance is hardcore, and watching them finally get to start their lives together, surrounded by nearest and dearest from Japan, Ukraine, North Carolina, Tennesee, & more was beautiful to see.
Beautifully perfect venue for their wedding in Newberg at the Chehalem Cultural Center!
Samson, in true tradition of wedding babies, lost his mind for formal photos, but somehow stayed up approximately 100 hours past his bedtime hardly phased (but looked completely stoned--stay tuned for that photo). We were so thankful for friends (especially Jenna & Taylor!) who were basically his parents for the day so we could juggle the other stuff!
Bethany is the sixth and last one to get married in our family--here they are with all thirteen (so far) of the grandkids! Brittain & Bethany are major crowd favorites.
Special thanks to Brittain for being our first groom ever to (kindly) smash the cake plate directly to the face. Politeness is boring.
My brothers playing for the father-daughter dance. (Thanks for ruining my life).
Makeup by Rebekah Forster Makeup Artistry
Videography by Jenna Thompson
Cake by Sweet Masterpiece
Coordinating by Amy Hayes
And everything else by a truly awe-inspiring team of friends & family!
