The Main Event
Tomorrow Darin and I celebrate our first year of marriage. A year ago, we got married in my parent's backyard. It is the house I grew up in, and it is just a very special place. Everyone who goes back there kind of falls in love with it, there is just a peaceful and happy vibe back there and it meant the world to me to be able to get married to Darin back there. Because it was in the backyard, I got to have a lot of control (control is the best) over the wedding, but it really became a family affair, and brought both of our families together last summer as we prepped the backyard for a 125 person wedding. We all worked SO hard. I made lists & obsessed, drew diagrams, seating charts, place settings, a memorial for our loved ones who have passed, made our cake topper, went to Michael's with my Mother at least once a week, etc. My Mother grew herbs, and I made my famous seasoned salt with them as favors. Everyday there was something to do for months. Of course on the day of it was a complete blur, and I knew I had to relinquish all of my control and focus on me and Darin. In the end, it kind of felt as if all of that work never happened. I had the time of my life that day, but I can't really say I noticed any of that hard work. It was all about me and Darin getting married, all about our adoring friends and family surrounding us and having a great time. Which was really so surreal and amazing, but I did want to see how it all looked! When I got the pictures back, I was so happy to see all of the details in the images, proof that the hard work all panned out the way I had envisioned it to.
Spending the two days before the wedding cleaning and trimming flowers and making my own centerpieces may have been a little crazy, but I'm still happy I did it! We had a wonderful amazing happy day, and I'm so happy to have these pictures to enhance the memories. There was so much work, but more importantly there was so much happiness and laughter and love that day and those months leading up to that day and getting to bond with both mine and Darin's family.
Photographs By Justin McCallum Photography