First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage...

There are certain people who come in and make a stamp on your life, pretty much from the very beginning.  I feel like our friend and photographer, Lynn Michelle, is one of those people.

When Michael and I were planning our Texas wedding from the great city of Boston, MA, one of the things that was the most difficult to choose and book was the wedding photographer.  Originally, we booked a photographer and arranged for him to take our engagement photos while we were home visiting for a family wedding.  When the pictures arrived, I was disappointed.  Wait, that's an understatement.  I sobbed because I hated them and we'd already booked him for our wedding.

I was very active on The Knot back then, and Lynn always came highly recommended, but her price just seemed out of my range.  However, I decided to follow an instinct and call her anyway.

I immediately connected with Lynn. Our personalities are VERY similar, and she somehow managed to be both professional and a bit irreverent at the same time, which of course I loved, because it made me immediately comfortable with her.  We talked pricing, and she flat-out asked, "What's your budget and what do you want?" I told her and she said, "Don't worry, we can work something out that will make you happy.  Talk to your other photographer, then call me back."

Luckily our "other photographer" was incredibly gracious and only wanted us to be happy with our final product.  So, contacts were voided with him and our adventure with Lynn began!

Lynn has documented so many moments in our lives, always managing to capture stunning beauty as well as some crazy, hilarious and zany moments.  Everything from my bridal portraits...

...to our engagement photos, ONE WEEK before the wedding (also the first time she ever met Michael)...

...to the day we said "I do" in front of all of our friends and family...

After the wedding, Lynn apparently couldn't get enough of us, and we sure as hell loved spending time with her, too...So not only did we go to her for our holiday season portraits every year (and of course we had to include our first "baby,' Carmen, whenever we could!)....

....and if she wasn't sick of us by THEN?!  We also had to trash my wedding dress (along with some other fabulous brides) for national television (you know, like you do)...

...and because she loves me and supports my theatrical endeavors, she shot some of my FAVORITE productions that I've been a part of for the local theatre that means so much to me...

Lynn also was able to be a HUGE part of helping me and my amazing friend Anna in our fundraising efforts for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure by helping us put together a couple of fundraisers with some other local photographers!

Wow.

Even though I know Lynn has been a huge part of our lives in the past 5 years, just putting it all in one blog post like this amazes me! 

So of course, who is the first person we call when we're ready to take the next HUGE step in our life?  Surely you've been paying attention enough to know that nobody else would or could be trusted to take our maternity photos.

Lynn and I have had an agreement ever since wayyyyyyyy back when we did our engagement photos that she really doesn't do tiny baby pictures.  We even joked during the maternity session that I could "call when the baby starts walking!"  Also, Lynn is scaling back a bit so that her schedule isn't quite so full ALL the time.

So, this maternity photo session was incredibly special to me for so many reasons...not the least of which was that we may be taking a break (at least for photos) for a while from Lynn. 

We honestly cannot thank her or praise her enough for documenting our lives the way she has.  First came love, then came marriage, then came a bunch of theatre productions and a couple of fundraisers and random other crazy things...and then came the news of Baby R's impending arrival.  Lynn has been there for all of it, and it means everything to us!