hs photo&design: 2015

So, I don't think I've ever taken this long to compose a post on a photo shoot that I absolutely adore (which is all of them!), but this time things are a little different. Life has gotten 1000% more busy and sometimes I find myself scrambling around trying to finish up the things that I should do. It's times like today, on this rainy Saturday, that I have to remind myself that more often than not, the things that I love to do need to take priority - like building a blanket fort with my daughter and sharing photos of people that I love with the world (well, the small part of my world that follows my little blog!).

I never intended this post to be about me - but sometimes you need a little back story, you know? There are very few people that I have kept close to me over the years...not because I don't like anyone or because I'm a flaky friend, but because my introverted personality makes me a minimalist in that I choose my friends, I choose them well, and I choose them for life. What I'm trying to say is that this post is about my best friend of 14 years. Melissa has been my friend for over half of my life - do you know what that means? It means that I don't really remember what life was like before her.

There is nothing better than seeing your friends exude true happiness. There's also nothing better than being able to tell your friend that you know when she and her fiancé are faking smiles so they better not do it in your photos or your'e gonna beat them with a stick - and then they smile for real, because, hey, I can sometimes be funny. Melissa and Eric are perfect for each other, and not just because they both have the same fake smile. I can honestly say that there is a lightness about Melissa that she didn't have before she was with Eric. He brings out the best in her and I can say that because I know what the best and the worst (but still not too bad) sides of my friends looks like. So thank you, Eric, for loving my best friend the way she should be loved and for sharing a life with her that she is so proud of. Thank you for bringing out that light in her eyes that can be seen in every single one of these photos. And thank you for farting during the photo shoot and subsequently producing one of my all-time favorite photos ever.