Catch up on Part One of our story right here!
2015
After we started dating, we very quickly fell in love with each other’s families, we went on lots of dates, we traveled, and we became best friends. We were truly inseparable! We navigated college, seeing each other while I still lived at home and he lived about a half hour away, and learned so much about each other during those first several months. In May of 2015, I moved into the campus house for the college ministry we’d met through, and we were so excited to be living only five minutes away from each other! (Finally!)
That May, we also shot our first engagement session together for a couple we’re now in a small group with, and we shot our first wedding together on my 20th birthday! Our first wedding together was a total learning experience, and while we loved it, we left that night knowing we had so much to learn about working together on wedding days if we ever chose to go down that road. Throughout the rest of 2015, we shot man more weddings together and we discovered how much we adored it. It just made sense to start working together and even to begin sharing some of my business’ responsibilities. We even began to dream a little bit about running a business together after college and what that would look like with Luke as a nurse. I’d always dreamed of teaching my future husband to second-shoot with me one day, but God took that little dream and blessed it beyond my wildest expectations… instead, we began talking about being equal parts in a new business together.
Later that summer, I went on vacation for almost two weeks and returned to a newly redecorated room on campus… while I was gone, Luke had hung twinkly lights from my ceilings since my room had no overhead light. (Those lights may or may not have been hanging in our home for our first married Christmas, too!) Little did I know that just before our vacation, Luke had taken my dad out to breakfast and asked for his blessing because he was planning to propose. He picked out the perfect ring with my sweet mom’s help, and from then on, he says he was terrified I’d find the ring at his apartment accidentally!
Just a few weeks after I returned from my vacation, I would unknowingly ruin his extravagant proposal plan (which is a funny story that we’ll have to share another time!). Since he already had my ring and simply could not wait any longer, the day he found out his plan would have to change, he rescheduled our proposal for THAT WEEKEND. That Sunday, August 2nd, Luke got down on one knee at the spot he took me to for that picnic first date and had visited so many times since. On the windiest summer day I can ever remember, he recreated that first date. The sweetness of being at “our spot” for our proposal made me thankful I ruined our first plan… ha! I barely remember anything either of us said, but I do remember blinking back tears because my best friend and the love of my life was down on one knee asking me to be his forever. I, of course, managed to say “yes!” and didn’t stop shaking for the rest of the night! That evening, we celebrated at my parents’ home with our families, since he’d surprised me and had everyone waiting for us. I’d never been so happy in my life. ???? (You can read our entire proposal story right here!)
Later that month, Luke went back to nursing school for his last full year. The fall was a challenge for us, but we got through it… plus, my time was filled with a whole lot of wedding planning, including our own engagement session, and a lot of homework as I started my junior year of college. We celebrated one year together in November! The next month, on Christmas morning, we were driving from Luke’s family’s home to my parents’ home when Luke looked at me in the car and told me he wanted to quit nursing school. (Yes, it was that out of the blue!) Long story short, after a lot of prayer and conversations with people we trust, he did… and we were thrown into a new season of rebranding our business and trying it out full time.
2016
We’ve never looked back.
In 2016, Luke and I rebranded Caitlin Alexander Photography as Caitlin & Luke Photography and officially relaunched with a brand new website and absolutely no clue what we were doing. Luke decided to finish his degree online and switched his major to Business, and we balanced classes with writing blog posts and booking weddings and scheduling engagement sessions. Oh, and wedding planning… because our big day was sneaking up on us really quickly!
We worked ridiculously hard to grow our business during those first few months of 2016, and it started to pay off. We eventually decided on our first little home together and picked up the keys on the way to shoot a wedding in May. Before we knew it, over the course of that spring we’d had three bridal showers, a bachelor party and a bachelorette party and we were on our way to our rehearsal dinner! That night was a blur, but my clearest memories were sitting on the roof of Luke’s car in the driveway at the end of that night as we soaked up the fact that this was the last night we’d be apart and the last night before we were husband and wife. Watching Luke drive away that night was the most surreal thing ever… the next time I’d see him, I’d be in the prettiest white dress I’d ever seen.
On June 18th, 2016 at 3:00 pm, we said “I do” to forever together in front of Jesus and the people we love most in this world! God gave us so much more than we deserve when He gave us each other… He gave us each a teammate, a business partner, a fellow dreamer, an encourager, and most of all a best friend. There is nothing like shooting a first look next to your husband knowing you’re both remembering your own, and nothing compares to sharing the most intimate moments of a wedding day with our precious couples and each other.
Before Luke, I was blessed to work with brides who became dear friends, photographed first looks and teared up along with the grooms, and witnessed ceremonies that were beyond breathtaking. My job was a JOY, and I was convinced it couldn’t get any better!! But it did. Being engaged at the same time as our brides offered incomparable insight into the wedding planning process that now allows us to run our business in a unique way. Plus, we now TOTALLY understand the excitement being married brings!
WE BELIEVE THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN DOING WHAT YOU LOVE MOST, WITH THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST.
The best part? This is only the beginning of our story. We can’t wait for the next 50 years of adventures. ????
