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Happy late in the day on Tuesday, lovers. Thanks for being super troopers (← GREAT movie) and bearing with me as I fight (or lay moaning in submission of) this cold, you guys. I appreciate the concern everyone’s been showing me, it touches my heart so deeply. Seriously, so deeply, you have NFI. It’s actually kind of shocking how sick I am, really. I’ve been so fortunate not to have had a cold in I think a few years, so this is all new to me. I’m the kind of sick where you find yourself leaning your head on the bathroom mirror to hold yourself up while you brush your teeth, and sitting down in the tub because you realize that taking a shower is actually pretty hard work. It’s like, constant movement. I’m weirdly sicker than I was last week, with new symptoms which leads me to believe that I’ve contracted some sort of cold starfish and it’s just going to keep regenerating arms of cold, and essentially stay with me into eternity. I’m gonna have a cold in heaven, is what I’m working to accept right now.
Anyway, nuff about the cold. What I really want to tell you is that today’s sweet, vintage engagement session got to me in an emotionally deeper than usual way this time. So, of course, I have to share the somewhat personal story with you. Though I do feel you’re all gonna dig this shoot for lots of reasons; a lot of the same reasons I already love it to death, nevermind the story I’m about to share. Because it’s a session that’s so perfectly styled I can hardly take the beauty of it. And what’s more, this couple – their names are Jackie and Jesse – they naturally dress like this. It’s their style. Here’s a little somethin’ somethin’ that Rabiah, of Rabiah Khwaja Gohar Photographer, shared with me about the couple when she submitted this shoot:
Jackie and Jesse wanted to have their love documented in a similar way they are in real life! laid-back, inspired by the past, and very casual chic. The entire session was shot in their backyard, getting to know them while sipping on some golden lemonade. The weather encouraged Jackie to pull out some of her favorite vintage outfits! the lovely collectable bicycles are also owned by them. What a treat to photograph such an artistic couple.
I love that. Like, soooo much. Engagement sessions go crazy with little details and settings and what have you – details that often have no connection to our personal realities, but just look pretty – and I fully admit that I’ve come to fall in love with these little details, whether or not they’re relevant to our lives. But when those details are intrinsic to the life you try to lead every day, the time you spend in your backyard, the clothes you wear anyway, well that just makes the images that much sweeter and more meaningful to you. So that when you look back tens of years later at this album of images from this earliest time in your relationship, and flip through those pages, the images will really touch you and remind you of the couple you were, at the very beginning. The lifestyle you enjoyed, at the very beginning. The interests you shared, at the very beginning. What a beautiful thing! It’s easy to forget the things we once enjoyed, the styles we once loved representing, the pieces of life we once held so dear. Life keeps flowing, and we thoughtlessly move with it with little resistance. And suddenly it’s decades later, and you’ve forgotten what it was like when you first found one another.
That’s why I love this session. It’s as if someone scooped up a day in the life of these two, and poured it into a series of pictures. And when they stare at these images one day far into their future, it’ll rush their minds right back to that day; to that life they were leading, and loving. … How do I know this?
It has to do with that little story I mentioned I’d be sharing at the beginning of this post. It’s about my parents. See this image below? It could be my mother.
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Down to the top, the hair, the shape… the everything. (I bet I’m creeping Jackie out right now. Sorry, Jackie.)
It’s the vintage look and feel of this shoot, that reminded me of a certain handful of pictures of my Mom. Pictures that were taken by my Dad over a series of days when the mood just struck him to document the beauty he was so overwhelmed by, in their youth. My Dad has always found my Mom to be the most beautiful woman in the world – it’s the kind of sentiment you want your Dad to have for your Mom. The kind of sentiment a man is meant to have for his wife. I’ve always felt that my parents lucked out in finally finding one another; it took a handful of not-perfect-matches (I don’t wanna say they had to *kiss some frogs” before they found one another because I have an older sister and an older brother who I love who were born of one of those “frogs” my Dad met, and that doesn’t seem all that kind, so…). So yeah, the road to the best kind of love isn’t necessarily quick and easy (read: it is rarely if ever quick and easy), but the journey is worth it. The journey to find The Right Person For You.
I think (and I worry that) a lot of people marry other people because of some reason other than real love. I think there are a lot of people who marry because they feel they’re never going to find something better. I think a lot of people stay with people because they think it’s “enough to make them happy” or because “he’s a provider.” Or other reasons that dismiss people’s deepest desires to find their best, true love. But when you have an influence in your life, whether it be your parents, or maybe it’s your sister’s marriage, or your good friend’s relationship, and you can see with your own eyes what it means to have a good relationship, it’s kind of impossible to settle for anything less without losing some part of you in the process. I think my parents were lucky in finding one another, and I wish that kind of love for everyone reading this post, and everyone else not reading this post out there. I just want people to marry people they love. People they truly love, who support them emotionally, and build them up, and respect them and believe in them. That’s what a real relationship is. I know you guys know this and I’m being overly sappy and sentimental which I’ll have you know IS ENTIRELY BECAUSE OF THIS STUPID COLD THAT’S MAKING ME EMOTIONAL, but as I write it I don’t see a reason to delete it. It’s stuff that needs to be said and heard and done.
Anyway, so back to my parents…
After all those other relationships, they met one another. Ok when I say “all those other” it makes my Mom sound like a whore. My Mom wasn’t a whore. But yeah so when they met, that was it. They found the rest of their lives in one another. And their type of love – the devoted, understanding, affectionate-in-front-of-us-but-to-a-point-so-they-didn’t-gross-us-out kind of love – is something I had always strived to have for my own life, simply because it’s all I ever knew. And it always seemed “right.” It always seemed like it was something that probably felt really good and comforting to my parents, to have one another in their respective corners. And it’s because of them that I know when I’m being good or bad in my own relationship, and I correct myself quickly because I know better than to behave that way. Ok anyway, I’m sure you’re totally SICK of this, so I’ll stop talking about love. Yech, what is WRONG with me. The reason I got transported into that little self-indulgent realm is because those pictures my Dad took? It was back when they were probably around the same age as these two lovebirds in this lovely shoot. I love those pictures of my mother, and I know they’re some of my Dad’s favorites.
Dad, stop happy crying.
Mom, stop blushing.
So I pretty much could have summed all that mushy mush up by saying that it is images like these that bring beautiful, warm, nostalgic memories and feelings to my mind. And I hope you enjoy them around 50% as much as I’m clearly loving the godforsaken s**t out of them like a clinically insane person.
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A few words from the gorgeous and hyper-stylish Jackie:
Jesse and I met years ago when he was playing his blues guitar on the street at a Christmas festival. We kept in touch ever since and about two and half years ago we started dating. I think I was so drawn to him when I was younger because I was impressed by his vintage style. Over the years I have come to realize that he is just an old soul and his clothes are a reflection of his true gentleman spirit. i finally found someone who loves me for me and supports whatever I choose to do. Together we have both started our own businesses, his an antique car restoration, and mine a vintage clothing boutique. We are simply trying to make one another happy and having fun while doing it!
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And now… A Day in the Life of Bambino McPuppyPants:
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Facebook.
~fin~
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So, a few questions…
1. What do you think of this shoot?
2. Does it make you sad, too, that there are probably so many people out there who marry for some reason other than real love?
3. The “Joe Fresh” commercials with the three girls stand up cuddling, or it’s sometimes the two girls and two guys, but they’re always kind of stand up cuddling and swaying and just staring into a camera that keeps zooming in and out and around them, and they all kinda just look really ready to f**k. You know those commercials? I need those commercials to go away. They are the weirdest. thing.
4. When am I going to learn my lesson and stop watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. It is never what I want it to be. I’m always like “well that sucked.” Seriously, I’m asking, when will I learn?
5. This last one’s not a question. I just wanna mention that I promise I’ll shut up about this cold. Soon. And I really appreciate all the love, you guys. Means a lot to me.
xoxo! - Alison
Photography: Rabiah Khwaja Gohar Photographer / Submitted via Two Bright Lights
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