Michelle and Mitchell held their wedding in St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane. Their Catholic ceremony included many personal touches such as a friend singing “Amazing Grace” during the signing of the register. Their service did begin with a bit of a twist, though, when the priest was nowhere to be found! Michelle and her bridesmaids circled the block in their  limousine for about 40 minutes while Mitchell and his groomsmen scrambled to find their priest. It turned out that the priest had accidentally fallen asleep in his chair at home and the boys woke him up with their calls!  Michelle looked amazing as she walked down the isle and the entire day was fantastic. The reception was held at Custom’s House and the dancing at the end of the night was the perfect way to end to their day.

Michelle & Mitchell spent their honeymoon in Mauritius and have since been traveling around Europe for a few months. They have just settled down in the UK for about 6 months before they will then set off again to explore Africa, Egypt and Jordon,  USA , and Canada. I’m not jealous at all!…………………

I do not typically use this blog as a space for personal posts. However, I am making an exception for this post because today is my grandmother’s birthday and I would like honor her because I miss her so much. My grandmother was one of the most amazing  people I have ever known. She was selfless beyond imagination. She made everything magical. She provided my cousins and I with more amazing memories than I could ever retell in a blog post. I loved her cooking so much. She was so smart and so creative. She made beautiful quilts and paintings and she made them for the people she loved. She was incredibly active and she loved to garden. She drove a Toyota Tacoma because it was “fun to drive” and she also drove a mini van because she liked to shop for antiques. I loved it when she’d say, “Oh foot!”.  I loved everything about her.

A year ago, in August, I was flown home to West Virginia to photograph the wedding of Winter & Evan. Their wedding was the day before my grandmother’s birthday. My grandmother had no idea that I was coming home for this wedding because I wanted to surprise her for her birthday celebration. The wedding was in Ohio, about 2 hours from my grandparent’s farm. So, the morning of her birthday, as my sister and I drove to the farm from Ohio, the rest of my family started arriving for the party. We planned it so that all the people she expected to arrive were  there first. Then, my cousin Laura, who lives a few hours away and wasn’t expected that day, arrived and surprised grandmother. She was so happy and having Laura there made the day even better. When my sister and I finally reached our destination, I got out of the car and waited on the road out of sight of the house. Grandmother was not expecting Julie either, because she lives in New York City. So, Julie drove up the driveway without me and gave grandmother another special surprise. I was too excited to wait very long, so it was only a few minutes later that I walked into the busy kitchen and tried to blend in with the family unnoticed. When grandmother spotted me we were both pretty much speechless and just kept hugging. It was a pretty special day and one that I will never forget.

The next day grandmother was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer and very sadly she died just a few days before I arrived home for Christmas that same year. This is the family photo that I took on her birthday:

I miss her so much. Grandmother just had a way of making everything better.