Melanie emailed me this winter and after corresponding for a month or more, we finally decided to get off the computers and get into the real world and meet face to face. It was the first snow of the season, and we had wine and tator tots and talked about Bob Goff and Donald Miller and connected instantly. I left dinner unsure if Melanie was going to choose me to document her wedding day, but certain that I had made a new friend for life. So when she emailed me to let me know that she wanted me to tell her story, I was elated. Though I barely knew her, and had yet to meet her love, I knew her heart as if it were my own, and that her love story was one that I was destined to tell.

Melanie and Kevin’s story isn’t an easy one. They’ve sailed their share of rocky shores, waves crashing over them like boulders. Despite turbulent seas, they push ever onward with no destination but the horizon. These two aren’t trying to get anywhere. Instead, they’re merely trying to endure the storm as one, enjoying every breath of warm air and smooth seas that come their way. They are the living, breathing, being embodiment of a don’t give up story, and they committed to one another knowing that love isn’t a fairytale, it’s a fist fight, and it’s worth every single drop of blood, sweat, and tears.

Watching them together is otherworldly. They dance as if no one is there to watch them, and walk together, fingers always intertwined, bodies teetering ever closer, eyes alight. Their love is magic.

It was an incredible joy to document a day of it. Their best day of it. Here are a few of my favorite images from their wedding story: