Gage and Jordyn are about to celebrate their 3rd wedding anniversary next month! When Jordyn contacted me about an anniversary shoot, I was absolutely thrilled! I was even more excited when she said she wanted to be in her wedding dress and to have photos captured that truly represented her style and her marriage. Not everyone has the opportunity or funds to have the wedding photographer of their dreams when they are getting married… but that does not mean that you can never have the photos you have dreamed about! Or maybe you LOVED your wedding photos 3 years ago, but now your style has changed… why not have photos captured that represent your new style? I know that you may be thinking “that sounds great, but why get back into my wedding dress… or better yet, why buy a new wedding dress for this session??” This is a topic I am VERY passionate about and I am excited now just writing this blog post. Here are a few reasons why I think every married couple should invest in an anniversary session:

1. GET DOLLED UP! Usually after the wedding day is over and life moves on, women feel as if they “had their day” and they don’t “deserve” to get dressed up again. They feel silly for thinking they want to get back into their dress and that their peers would judge them for trying to relive their wedding day. What was once the most incredible day of your life and you never felt more beautiful turns into a distant memory and you look back and think that you could never be more beautiful than you were on your wedding day. WHY NOT? You can absolutely be JUST AS BEAUTIFUL and we are sure your husband would LOVE to see you all dolled up again… reminding him of how you took his breath away in your gown that day. That doesn’t mean you do not take his breath away when you are barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen with your hair in a messy bun… 🙂 I am sure you captivate him constantly, but do YOU feel captivating? Take his breath away again and KNOW that you are doing it. 😉 FEEL beautiful!

2. CELEBRATE YOUR MARRIAGE! Marriage is such an incredible thing and should be celebrated! You should not celebrate your marriage only on the day you get married, you should continue to celebrate your marriage your entire lives! Constantly! Every moment you can. Sure, you may celebrate with a nice dinner out or maybe a cruise to a gorgeous beach… Those things are fun and wonderful and SHOULD BE invested in, but are you still as passionate with each other as you were on your wedding day? Is that spark still alive? Do you want to be with each other as much as you did that day so long ago? Having an anniversary session makes time stand still. It reminds you that you CAN have that again. As you do your shoot, you are completely focused on each other. Remembering what it feels like to have him stare into your eyes like you are the only one in the world. Remembering what it feels like when he kisses your shoulder, or pulls your hair back out of your face. You never stop interacting during your shoot and it helps to ignite that passion once again.

3. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR YOUR KIDS! It may seem silly to get into wedding attire… ESPECIALLY after you have had kids! “Moms” are not supposed to be captivating… so we think. We are not supposed to have the young, lively feeling. Our husbands view us differently now that we have a bunch of kids and cannot even manage to take a shower daily. Our bodies are worn, our hair is a mess, and there is little left about us that is sexy, right? Believe me, I feel the same way you do… BUT… we could never be more wrong. Just because you have had kids… and just because you may have extra weight you are carrying around these days DOES NOT mean that you cannot be captivating. It really doesn’t. Seeing your beauty through a photographer’s lens is exciting. It’s HEALING. You CAN feel beautiful again… and you should celebrate your beauty! If you do this, your kids will never thank you enough. Getting to witness their parents back in their wedding attire FOCUSING on their marriage is the best thing you could ever do for your kids. It teaches them that your marriage is a priority. That you still love each other. That you are going out of your way to do something for YOU. Kids need the security of parents that love each other and seeing photos of you two in a romantic embrace even after being married for years is such a witness to them. It teaches them what marriage is supposed to be.

4. BUY A NEW DRESS! After reading the above content, you may be thinking “theres no way I fit in my wedding dress anymore!”… PERFECT! Invest in a new one! Unless you still absolutely adore your wedding dress and still fit into it, get something different. Chances are, your style has changed or your body has changed over the years… invest in a dress that you feel drop dead gorgeous in! I still fit into my wedding dress (well, at least I did after baby #2 :)) but I always hated my dress. I didn’t feel beautiful in it and it is so outdated that I CANNOT WAIT to buy a dress that is ME and a dress that I am in love with. I have my eye on one and I get butterflies every time I look at it!

5. LET GO + BE FREE. CELEBRATE! Look at your photos and think back on everything it has taken to get to where you are now. All the trials, all the tears, all the fights, all the victories, all the joys. Remind yourself that your marriage is worth the fight and worth every minute that you have put into it… your anniversary photos are tangible proof that you are still on this crazy ride called marriage… and you are not letting go.

Andrew and I hit 5 years of marriage this past November. We look back on the last five years and think… WOAH!!! What the heck just happened! 3 kids, building a business from the ground up, 5 different houses, lots of trials, and during that entire time, we NEVER thought to celebrate our own marriage. We just moved on with life… barely hanging on! We had a realization after our third baby was born 2 months ago that IT WAS TIME. It is time to remember why we fell in love. Time is celebrate US aside from the kiddos and messy house. We are going to be renewing our vows on the beach this summer and we are going to be “5 years and 7 months married” when we do it. I do not need a big milestone to renew my vows. I want to do it at the change of a new season and we feel ourselves entering one now. We want to say our vows and work to build the foundation of our marriage once again to prepare us for what lies ahead. We couldn’t be more excited. We will probably continue to renew our vows every couple of years or every time we feel as if we are in a new season or when we feel we have “lost each other” in the chaos of life. And yes, every time we do, I plan on buying a new wedding gown, getting dolled up, and captivating my husband once again. 😉

Enjoy these images from Gage + Jordyn’s anniversary session… and lets celebrate THEIR marriage! We couldn’t love these two any more! Enjoy!