AFFIRMATION

We have been celebrating a lot of "first-as-marrieds" moments since our wedding in October: Our first Thanksgiving, first trip (to Istanbul, no less!) in which we also celebrated our first Christmas, and now we are ushering in our first-as-marrieds New Year! You could say that marriage has managed to make everything we do together feel new again.But with all these happy new experiences comes a sad new awareness too: there will be many things that we will never again get to do, see or feel. We will never again get to walk down the aisle, for instance, or to have our first wedding dance, or to have all of our friends and family in one place again. Yet sad as this realization is, we will cherish these memories all the more for it. And it is a great comfort to us that every time we look at your photos we remember vividly all the emotions we felt on our wedding day.Anyone can take a picture, but it takes an artist to capture the spirit of their subject. When we see your work, we see it with all our senses: touch, smell, sight, sound and taste. You have captured a moment in time that is so rich with feeling that when we look at it we experience it all again, just the first time.Thank you, Kristen, for letting is share ourselves with you. You are a true artist and friend, and we cherish you.

With love and affection, Kelsey & David

So we wanted to take a few days to look at our photos (oh....and we have. Over and over again) in order to generate a response that adequately represents our feelings towards them, and our wedding day- and the truth is, there is no perfect response.  The more we go through the bunch, the more we stare at the smiles, the tears and the tender moments, the more our words are overwhelmed and overshadowed by emotion.  The truth is that it was the most beautiful day we've shared. The truth is that you managed to capture every perfect moment of the day - and there were too many to count. After a year of planning and stressing over the little details that went into the wedding, wondering if anyone would care, or if what we were designing would even matter in the grand scheme, it all came together; it all came together and you captured it perfectly, and even better than we could have imagined. We still can't believe how perfect it all was.

I'm actually tearing up as I type this... of course ;)  We feel like we know you, but deeper than a photographer-client relationship.  I really fell in friend-love with you the first time I saw your photos on your blog and felt compelled to email you - long before Joe and I even had the marriage talk.  I knew that your love for photography and your love for LOVE was the most important thing to shine through your work, and it did - Oh, man, it did.  We are eternally grateful for you love, your compassion, your willingness and commitment to those you capture. Everything you do, every action you take, speaks volumes about who you are as a woman, a person, a photographer. We love that we get to be friends with you. We could only hope that other couples get to experience a fraction of what we did.

There aren't enough words to describe the emotions that roll up when we look at our wedding photos.  They are the most beautiful, vibrant, heartfelt images that describe our relationship - our wedding - in a nutshell, and we only have you to thank for that.  You are as beautiful as you are talented and we can only hope for many more years of love and friendship between us.  One of our favorite photos is of the three of us - I know you never do that, but it meant so much to have you in a photo at our wedding.  It's seriously going up in a frame on our wall :)

We wish there were more ways to say "Thank You" without bumbling on like idiots and talking in circles. We can't say the words "Love" and "Thank You" enough. You really are such a gift to us and we couldn't have imagined a better day and a  more trusted person to capture moments of our life together. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have made such a beautiful impact on us and we are forever grateful to know you and call you friend.

Forever and ever and ever yours, Ashli and Joe

How do we begin to thank you for the gifts you shared with us, for the beautiful meaning - making you capture in ceremony and community building, for your radiant spirit, your own sense of adventure and your inspiration of the same in others, for your mind reading and powerful sense of calm in chaos, and above all your friendship? Oh yeah, and how you were essentially an honorary bridal party member saving the day with my hair and dress.

Kristen, there is effortless beauty in what you create because it is your own love and light that is reflected back to us. Yes, it is kind of namaste hocus pocus hippie woo, but it is so true. You truly nurture your communities. We are so inspired by you.

Thank you for celebrating with us, for documenting this journey with us, and for the gift of knowing you.

With love, Hillary and Andy

Kristen,

There are few ways to express our gratitude and little I can say that won't be something you have heard before. Kristen, you are blessed with talent that we could only dream of. God has given you a gift and we feel so fortunate to have shared our day with you. I personally can't believe how many times we said "I love that photo" in the hour we spent together looking for the first time. You are so talented, so gracious and so generous with your work. Your eye is absolutely incredible, and as people who focus a lot of our attention on light, we're so thankful for your perspective. We LOVE the photos and we LOVE you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

Please take a moment to thank God for the gifts He has given you. We are already thanking Him now. 

With Love, respect, and gratitude,  Luke and Amber

Thank you for capturing the many beautiful moments of our wedding day with such sensitivity and skill. The photos are stunning and wonderfully expressive of the emotions we felt that day. We are so glad to have found you, and we can't imagine a better match for us. You were a joy to work with, and you were especially terrific company as we wandered the Botanic Garden before the wedding. Truly a blessing to have you with us.

Love, Mark and Melody

We cannot begin to thank you enough! We could not even imagine this wedding without you being a part of it. You have been absolutely amazing, sweet and generous. You are a beautiful and soulful woman which was so clear to us through your art before we ever spoke! After our first meeting, we were both so in awe of your gift to connect meaningfully and really listen in to the core of people and relationship. You are amazing and we're so thankful and excited you said "yes" to being with us on this special day!

XOXOXO, Geene and Alanna

Thank you so much for sharing your birthday weekend with us! You were amazing and we are so grateful for everything. We were so exited to have you on board as our photographer, but we never expected that you would also be our wedding planner, day-of-coordinator, on-site make up artist, medic, and pal throughout the process. You have such a wonderful personality to match your talent and we had so much fun hanging out with you on our big day.

Thanks also for your reassuring words at the beginning of the day. I was feeling overwhelmed, and having a stable voice from someone who went through the same emotional roller coaster was helpful. Your stamina and work ethic are incredible - thanks for being there the whole day. We appreciate you so much.

Warmly, Laura and Rich

We just wanted to thank you again for your talent, kindness, dedication and hard work. Choosing a photographer was a huge decision for us, but from our first conversation we knew you were the person we wanted to capture our once-in-a-lifetime memories. While of course we knew it was important to get along with our photographer and to be on the same page with her, we had no idea how close we would grow to you, or how much it would mean to us that we were sharing so much of our day with someone so wonderful. It is so readily apparent that photographer and forming and documenting connections with people is your love and passion - and so much more than just a job for you. We are sooo thrilled with our photographs, and again, we cannot tell you how lucky we feel to have such a wonderful gift to share with each other and our loved ones for a lifetime. Your photos are pure love, and we are so, so lucky to be the recipients of them.

Love, Cheryl and Fran