Among the asters and goldenrod // Parry & Brian are Married

The end of January has arrived, ushered in by grey skies and drifts of snow deeper than our baby daughter is tall. The temperatures hover around zero degrees, and as I look out my window to the garden below, I'm daydreaming of the wildflowers and grasses that will make a very welcome appearance in just a few short months.

For now, we cuddle indoors reading books, baking bread and enjoying these winter days and their beautiful snowfalls.I love these quieter winter months, when I have time to reflect back on the work I've done the year before, and as I thought back to 2021 and the months of sunshine I spent traveling to photograph wedding celebrations and welcome new babies with old friends, I was reminded of this beautiful fall day I shared with Parry and Brian and their closest family and friends.

In every way, at every turn, they had surrounded themselves with not only the ones that loved them best, but had made space and time too to share their love with their friends and family in return. From the quiet morning Parry spent with her bridesmaids, steaming gowns, sipping champagne, arranging details in the reception space and (with one or two tissues on hand for happy tears) making notes for her vows to Brian, to the celebrations later in the evening where nothing and no one could keep them from the dance floor, Parry and Brian were able to spend their day taking in each moment together.

They included moments of silence in their ceremony, and opened the celebration with a meditation led by their friend and yoga teacher. They never rushed a hug or hurried through a conversation, and after they had enjoyed and actually eaten their dinner (a rarity as many brides and grooms know!), slipped quietly out the door to enjoy the setting sun together.

As a gardener myself, they were a couple after my own heart--saying their vows surrounded by wildflowers and fall grasses, and Parry's sister Emily put their relationship so beautifully into words when she quoted Robin Wall Kimmerer from Braiding Sweetgrass during the speech she delivered that evening."Why do asters and goldenrod stand beside each other when they could grow alone? Alone, each is a botanical superlative, but together they are stunning. The beauty of one is illuminated by the radiance of the other."

She finished saying, "Parry and Brian, you do not complete each other, you enhance each other like asters and goldenrod. You do not need each other to grow but you choose each other in reciprocity, and flourish together."

I often turn to my garden in the long summer evenings after returning home from the bustle of a wedding day. I've found hours of beauty and quiet among the sunshine and the bees, tending my flowers and being far too lenient with weeds. Now remembering Emily's words and the beautiful day spent with Parry and Brian as they said their I do's, next summer in the garden I know I'll see love too.

Wishing these dear hearts the most magical year as they look forward to their first anniversary as newlyweds, and many more years of choosing each other and flourishing. xx