some of you may remember when i held a contest called, "share the love" - where me and two of my amazing friends (bunch collective, go check them out) teamed up to offer an awesome couple a free video session alongside a free mini-session! all said couple had to do was share their love story and a picture of themselves and then we'd pick a winner (or so we thought - you may have seen on instagram but we ended up picking out of a hat)!
enter maggie and jake.
maggie is actually best friends with one of my bridefriends (this is a new term i've coined.. because i've become close friends with so many of my brides, i don't like calling them just "bride" or "friend".. so there you go!) - so when erica mentioned maggie may enter, i was so excited.
maggie is gorgeous, spunky but so gentle-hearted, and has this incredibly beautiful red hair. her fiancee jake is just as adorable as she is, really genuine and honestly just an all around awesome guy. they were both totally willing to climb onto a log over a lake within the first 10 minutes of our shoot, just because i asked them to... even though jake must have thought i was crazy. i knew they were recently engaged and had been together awhile. when i heard their really sweet and simple story, i felt something click into place. i knew whether we picked them as our couple or not, i wanted to make some pictures with them one day. and it worked out that we were able to do so!
from maggie: "our story isn't very interesting but it's certainly special to us. we first met when I went with a friend of mine to volunteer for Crisis Assistance Ministry to sort through clothing and then feed the homeless at the men's shelter. We got there and a gal in our small group at church had driven two of her friends and introduced us, one of her friends was Jake. I kid you not my first comment to him was that he looked like a cartoon (I meant it in the sense of a disney character, but that's not the way he took it, ha!) His hair was so long it went down to his shoulders and he was this tall teenager with a killer smile. Lord only knows what my first impression to him was...my guess was that I was an odd redheaded girl, ha! Anyways not much happened after that, I remember working with him to scoop out ice-cream for the men's shelter and thinking how funny he was and man oh man, I still couldn't get over that smile. The one Ironic thing we both think is hilarious, is that we were volunteering for what our church liked to call "LOVE WEEK" so we actually met during love week. After that point, Jake facebooked me, yep totally still make fun of him for that to this day....but nonetheless we started chatting and really hit it off. He had just moved to Charlotte from Connecticut and then before that from Canada and here I am a small town country girl (never lived anywhere else in my life) who was just learning how to drive in Charlotte and then I fall in love with a Canadian? Seriously? Now that was something I never could have predicted. but that's just us in a nut shell, we love our story because it's ours and we love to represent an example of a young couple who proves that a healthy and Christ-like relationship can last through the early years and that it is possible to set the example in love at such a young age for our peers."
now, hopefully you're still with me after reading that because i have some awesome links that you 100% need to check out!
+bunch collective's website (if you're in charlotte or the surrounding areas and need a kick-ass videographer team, check these guys out. not only are they good friends of mine but they're down to earth and incredibly talented. love these two and love working with them!): http://bunch-collective.com/
+maggie's blog: http://belivelyblog.com/
+jakes vimeo (he is *ALSO* a fantastic videographer!): http://vimeo.com/jakecolletta
+maggie's family's venue (so beautiful and local!): http://www.morninggloryfarmnc.com/
instagram (because i'm a creeper and would totally go find this crew to follow)!
bunch: @bunchcollective // nicci: @iccidesign // sol: @solhorner //
maggie: @maggiebranson // jake: @jakecolletta // me: @emilychidester
"i love you with every piece of me. i will love and love and love until i have nothing left and
then i will make more out of the nothing that lives where everything once did.
i would dismantle me to put you back together again."
