Jess & Steven - Portland, Oregon

Such glorious rainy day drizzle & soft muted tones from this Portland wedding day. I have known Jess for a long time now. I stayed with her at her parents home one spring, as the cherry blossoms fell like confetti, at a time when I really needed to blossom a bit myself. She is a special, treasured friend and to help tell her wedding story was a gift to me.

Something you have to know: Jess is deep & light, all at once. She can weep with you in one moment, and make the most ridiculous joke in the next. She can feel and exist at any spectrum of emotion -- she is fully alive. And I always wondered who she would marry, given Jess' amazing capacity to giggle and cry all at once.

When I met Steven the weekend of their wedding, he made a joke (which I forget now but all that matters is that it was hysterically weird and funny) and then immediately, almost unnoticed, reached for her hand in the most tender way. I knew in that moment: she was in the right place.

I was there that day photographing their promises with my own husband beside me, a man I knew for so many years before I truly saw him. But once I did, I realized (and even more every day do I realize) that he is a wonderful complement to my own heart. I could ramble forever about God's grace and goodness, giving us what we don't yet know we need...

I'll just say this, I am beyond myself with God's weaving of these stories together. He does this everyday, you guys. Every day God is busy writing pages to a story that one day, from the lens of grace, will make perfect sense. Because God is love, I am convinced love stories are His favorite thing to write.