A trip down memory lane with Scottie and Breanna (OUR wedding story).

Lo and behold, what all the grown-ups told me when I was a child is true… time really does fly. 5 years ago on this day, June 4, 2005, Scottie & Breanna got married (Radiant Photography wasn’t even a glimmer in our eyes at that point).

If you’ve been following our blog for very long now, you probably feel like you know us somewhat (FYI: if we ever actually get a chance to slow down, we plan on increasing that “somewhat” to a full fledged “very well”).  As it is now, you hear from us all the time, and yet you see other people’s faces alongside our words.  So I thought in honor of this momentous occasion, I’d share some of our own wedding pics…

…and beyond.

(Thanks to Chelsea Hudson Photography for all the AH-MAZING “beyond” pics. Check out the rest of the photos from this session with Chelsea HERE).

It feels weird writing a blog about my OWN wedding!  It’s kinda fun actually!

I’ll give you a little background (using some “beyond” photos to go along with it) before we jump into the wedding story. We met each other through mutual friends (thanks Jon!) but we really started hanging out when the ’66 Mustang I had (she was a beauty) started breaking down, leaving me stranded closer to Scottie’s house than mine.

He was the only guy I knew who could fix cars, so after a night of walking/crying down the sidewalk in complete rebellion against my stupid car that had left me stranded, I went to him and asked for help.

After that there was a series of “car breaking down, Scottie coming over to fix it, Breanna taking him out to dinner as a thanks, Scottie calling to ‘check on the car’, Scottie rigging the car to break down again, and the cycle repeating”.  Of course the last point is debatable because he thinks I was breaking the car on purpose and I think he was doing it (of course the fact that it was over 35 years old is beside the point).

At the time we met , I (Breanna) was working at Starbucks and going to ASU to get my bachelors degree in Family and Human Development when I met my soon to be one and only (Scottie).  During the same time, he was a pool table mechanic for a local company.  He was working about 80 hours a week, missing holidays, and falling asleep on our dates.

When we started talking about marriage, I told him I’d marry him if he quit his job because I was more interested in having a real live husband around than I was in having the security that his job provided. Read more about why I felt that way HERE.

So though many people laughed at us for having him quit his job right before he got married… it was the stepping stone that eventually led to the start of Radiant. You can read a little more about the journey of actually starting up Radiant in the interview we did for the Phototuts blog awhile back.

Back to the wedding part! We got married in Pinetop, AZ (since it was summer time and we refused to sweat it out in Phoenix) on the property of a lodge that my old church used to own.  Lucky us it was right on the lake, which fit well with the perfect weather that day, and with our excellent photographer and his mad skillz!

Shout out to Jefferson Todd Photography (I met him while working at Starbucks… thank you green siren).  Make sure you check out his work, he did an amazing job at our wedding and he’s come a long way in the 5 years since then!

(I love this one with the “yay we’re married” faces!)

People always ask us if we have regrets about our wedding since we go to so many now and see all the options out there that we could’ve/should’ve thought of.  The answer is that other than some styles that already feel out dated to me, no.  Our wedding was perfect! We were among the first of our friends to get married so everyone was still a bit enthralled with this idea of a mystical union, and such an awesome party to go with it.  All of our friends and family were SO psyched for us, not to mention they were all in party mode since they were on vacation.

(We asked our friend, Dave, to be the MC for the wedding… I’m not sure we knew what we were getting ourselves into! 😉 Ha ha!).

Apparently the party lasted into the night after we were long gone (off to our honeymoon starting in Greer, AZ and moving on to San Fransisco).

We felt like we picked the perfect location, the dream team for a bridal party, and the best vendors around.

5 years later, people still tell us it was one of their favorite weddings.  While I’m a little bit biased, I think I’d have to agree! 🙂

After getting back from our honeymoon we had a typical first year of marriage (i.e. fighting, playing, laughing, fighting, boycotting chores, power struggles, getting the giggles on midnight shopping trips, playing, laughing, slumber party conversations, fighting, going swimming at 2am in the winter just because we could, etc.).

Since that time we fight less, work more, and still have late night giggle infested shopping trips (thank you 24 hour stores!).

Every year on our anniversary, we write each other letters that reflect back on our past year.  I’m still going to write a real letter but I figured I’d write a public letter to Scottie as well, so that everyone knows how wonderful he truly is.

So here goes…

Dear Scottie,

Thank you for putting up with me. Ha!  As you know, I’m only sort of kidding because truly you are one of the most patient people I know.  When I married you I said that your humbleness and willingness to serve others (hence the Mustang story) were two things that attracted me to you… oh yeah and your super tall, hot body. 🙂  Those traits are still there and they have only gotten stronger over the years (hot body included).  Thank you so much for all the sacrifices you’ve made for me and for all the hard work you’ve put into Radiant.  I didn’t know how important hard work was at the time that I married you (though my mom tried to tell me that was one of your best qualities), but now I’m convinced.  You not only work hard on Radiant and our car, but you work hard on improving yourself and our marriage.  Thanks for putting in all the effort that you do for me, it doesn’t go unnoticed.  I love you.

Love,

Your (Beautiful) wife, Breanna 😉