one day a couple of weeks ago, i was perusing instagram and came upon a picture that caught my heart.  it was the picture of an older couple.  the man is the father of a friend from years past.  a widower.  he has a girlfriend and the picture was of the 2 of them.  it was precious.  and it caught my heart.  i asked her if she would be open to me doing a photo session with them.  she said yes, but not sure when because they were getting married the next week.  wha???  i asked if they had a photographer, and would she consider me taking pictures of the wedding. as is always the case, money could have been an issue.  so, when god told me what to ask-- she accepted the offer.  we began making plans to get to arkansas for the wedding.

it so happened that my high school homecoming was the same weekend.

we had a plan. i would go to the football game, and then go to a bed and breakfast i found online.

i must admit, that i have been known to get into some doozy of deals.  it was a little unsettling not knowing what i was getting  into as far as a place to stay and getting to the wedding.

well....

little did i know that god had a plan for me.  being able to shoot this precious couple at their wedding was the bonus.

here are a few of my favorite pictures from the wedding-and more to come on the other plans god had

this is the precious groom, being kissed by his daughter, on the left and his new daughter-in-law--but he calls her his mother-in-law....sooooo cute!

here is the beautiful bride getting all dolled up for her groom

i think this may be my favorite...ok, i have a few, but this one cracks me up.....the groom saw his bride walking around the corner and whispered to the pastor 'where'd she come from?  this isn't how i'm used to seeing her'

this is what all the kids did before and during and after the wedding.

i whisked the couple away for a few minutes--to get some portraits...he was ready to jump in the truck and leave the whole shin-dig....so i started messing with him...i told him to nuzzle her neck just a little...he told me he didn't know how to do that anymore...she was going to have to show him.....it was so precious to watch this young {but knowing} love.

i told you he was in a hurry to leave.  i told him they had to cut the cake before they could leave on their honeymoon.  he got tired of messing with feeding each other and decided to handle it on his own......

once things were ready to go ;) they hit the road.....

and were so happy to do so!

and here is 'honey' explaining what a honeymoon is after this sweetie asked all about it!

this will forever be such a special weekend for me.  not only being a small part of and watching this couple join two families together--two families that have known sadness and loss--into one big, giant family that now knows a new depth of love, but because of the other deep work god allowed me to go through while doing what he  put in my heart to do for them!!!!