Another wonderful Christmas has come and gone. I hope you all enjoyed your time with loved ones. I am lucky to be able to celebrate my favorite holiday and my favorite day of my life all in one week!

3 years ago I got married.... To only THE most selfless, humble, kind, gentle, talented, giving, sexiest man out there. And whats better is we got married 3 days after CHRISTMAS!!! :)

I wrote about our wedding last year, so I think I will tell you all the story of how Brian and I came to be lovers and best friends. I know I truly enjoy hearing love stories from my clients, so maybe you would like to hear mine?

Here goes...

I came to Colorado Springs fall of '03 for school. I had NO idea what my life would look like, I was pursuing something completely other than photography and really hadn't found myself yet. I was only 19.

Before Colorado Springs I had only one boyfriend that lasted for the summer of my senior year of high school. He was nice, had a convertible and free tickets to rockies games,.. a recipe for classic senior year romance. But of course, that ended as most relationships do in high school.. I don't even remember what happened actually. 

After a few years living in Colorado Springs, working a couple jobs to pay the bills as I finished school, another guy came into the mix... a scruffy musician who could not figure out who I was, probably because I didn't even know yet either... and of course that ended too... he was a bit too analytical and I was a bit too naive.

After relationship #2 ended I sort of lost myself for a while. I was confused and a bit lonely living 100+ miles away from my family and most of my friends had moved away after school. It was then that I was forced to dig deep into who I was and who I wanted to be. I began to pour myself into art. My roommates would return home late at night to find me covered in chalk working tirelessly away at my newest pastel painting or writing a new song or watching a foreign film or you guessed it... messing around with my old canon a-1 camera. I began to tap into what made me come alive... and in that I found my confidence.

One afternoon I was visiting one of my roommates at the church she worked at and I attended (yup, New Life). We were chatting at her desk when up walked a tall, slender guy with a computer bag draped across his left shoulder and huge blue eyes that seemed to pop off his face. He was clean shaven, short haired, and a bit sunkissed from what I later learned was a month's stay in West Africa. He introduced himself and we exchanged maybe 3 or 4 words and then he walked away and disappeared from my life for 5 months. I wasn't knocked off my feet with love at first sight, as a matter of fact I didn't think of him once in those 5 months. It was just a quick introduction to a random stranger.

After my breakup with #2 I decided it best to move in with a couple of my friends and surround myself with people who I knew and loved during a time of loneliness and searching.. but without my dad or brothers around to help me move all my belongings, I needed a truck and some strong arms. My roommate enlisted the help of one of her friends who had a truck.... and none other than mr. blue eyes drove up in a white toyota with massive tires and a "mutemath" sticker on the window. We then introduced ourselves again and I thanked him for coming and helping me, a stranger, move all my stuff. Talk about destiny :)

I later found out from Brian that when he arrived to helped me move,  it was then he noticed me and developed a little crush on me. But I was no where near the thought of dating anyone.

I was heavily involved at my church and being there took up most of my free time between school, work and the occasional trip home to see my family. Brian worked in the media and college department at the church and our paths would cross from time to time but I never really saw him as more than an aquaintence even though he saw me as much more. He even said he used one of the church media room cameras to zoom in on me and watch me!! Creepy or romantic?? I say both ;)

So the cool part about this story is that the one device that brought us together is the device that is now a constant part of our lives... yes, the digital camera.

One night at church (people, church is a great place to meet your future mate... there are some good eggs at church).. anyway one night I saw him from a distance holding a huge black camera. Brian has always been into the cultured, artistic side of life... anything having to do with exercising your creativity, he had his hands on and succeeded in.

I had only known my A-1 and those silly 3 megapixel personal cameras so out of pure curiosity and love for photography I made my way up to him in the crowd. He was shocked as I came right on up to him and asked to see what he was holding. It had been a few months since he helped me move. He happily and nervously began giving me a quick lesson in digital photography.

He asked me on a date a month or two later and we talked for hours over brick oven pizza about his many adventures overseas, art, photography, style, God, friends, family.. you name it. There was such a strong connection between us... I had NEVER felt something like that before or met anyone with such an interesting life and mesmerizing stories. He walked me... I mean long-boarded me to my car and we said goodbye... but what we were really saying (as cheesy as it may sound) was hello... hello to the beginning of something incredible and I think... rare.

Over the next year leading up to our engagement we had our first kiss beneath a waterfall under the stars, putted around town on a vintage scooter, spent every waking hour we could together, traveled 1000s of miles, wrote songs for eachother, dined at expensive restaurants we couldn't afford, snuck in and out of eachother's windows to hopefully outwit the roommates (never could), cried together, prayed together, created together, fought together, laughed together but mainly just loved together....

and eventually on Dec 28th 2006, became one together.

What a ride.

First photo we ever took together- Brian beardless 

First time meeting his parents at Garden of the Gods Left - and First LSU game in Louisiana right

goofing around

my amazing husband- i love you