Welcome back to this (not-so-Weekly) Wednesday’s blog post-! This week we’re back with little doggo Wrigley and her pet parents Branden & Bridget. You may recognize pet parents Bridget & Branden as they’ve hired us to capture 5 Sessions of them in two states/ 3 cities over the past 3.5 years and we’re always excited to see them again and get to pet (& give a few treats to) little Wrigley! We’ve captured their Christmas Family Portrait Sessions (and home Chicago Engagement Session) for the past 4 years/ Autumns (as well as their rescheduled Notre Dame Basilica & Morris Inn wedding) and had the honor of making their Holiday Cards for them as well!
Let’s get into their Christmas Family Portrait Session and the story of this sweet family-!
This little family has undergone so many changes over the past 3.5 years of us capturing them across 2 states & 3 cities-! We all met in person in mid-Summer in Chicago, Illinois during a week workday to get to know them and chat about their wedding. Just 3.5 months later we were photographing their Engagement Session for them in downtown Chicago that autumn (after back-to-back photographing a wedding at a villa in Siena, Italy & another at a Resort in Central Indiana). We captured these two at many beautiful Chicago locations that autumn 2019 a few years ago and Branden graciously drove us back to our car while recommending to us a fantastic place for us to enjoy a quick dinner (which we did immediately after).
These two were then set to marry at The University of Notre Dame’s Basilica & Morris Inn in the summer of 2020, but they immediately wisely pushed their wedding back a full year to the summer of 2021 because of the unknown of the brand new spring Pandemic (Covid-19). Because of the Pandemic situation where they lived (Chicago- the 3rd biggest city in the United States) in 2020, these two worked remotely from out-of-state for a couple months on a beach on the east coast down south for a couple months until things in Chicago got a bit safer.
In Summer 2020 these two also adopted little puppy Wrigley who was actually born in the first half of 2020 (proving that not all of 2020 was awful). Wrigley was named after Chicago’s Wrigley Field- home of the Chicago Cubs! She has a sweet personality, LOVES crunchy leaves, and is such a great girl all-around (especially for putting up with us photographing her 3 years in a row).
Last year in the height of Summer 2021 we photographed their full big wedding (Pandemic delayed by a full year) at Notre Dame’s Basilica + Morris Inn’s Smith Ballroom + the stadium football field. This little family has since (about a year & a half ago) purchased a house here in Indiana and moved just across the state border to The Safest City in Indiana right after their wedding-!
We’ve been so excited every single year (for the past 3.5 years) to photograph this sweet family. Not only have they adopted pup Wrigley, but over the past 4 years they’ve: gotten engaged, made it through a Pandemic together, re-planned a full wedding, had a gorgeous huge wedding day fully at Notre Dame, bought a house, settled into their home, started new traditions together, bought a couple new vehicles, AND hosted Thanksgiving for their extended families (a feat not all of us can pull off)-! We are so proud of the hard work, grit, love, wisdom, intelligence, kindness, strength, and perseverance that this little family has shown in the face of all adversity and we’re constantly in awe of & inspired by them-! We can genuinely say that they’ve made quite the impact on us (as has Wrigley)-!
Each Session with this little family has gotten better & better as we all continue to ease into the more stable life of our 30s. The past 2 Christmas Sessions have been particularly wonderful because they’ve been here in Indiana at & around their new house/ home. These two have gotten to know their neighbors (with one sweetly always wanting to watch Wrigley if they go out of town), have gotten involved in their neighborhood, have hosted family, and have really grown into life beautifully.
Thank you so much B&B for including us in bits of your life story. We truly appreciate you & your family and are so honored to have gotten to meet/ know your little family, extended family at your wedding, and your fur kid Wrigley. Thank you for going through the Pandemic so gracefully, sharing life stories, and geeking out with us over so many fun interests (great food, fun lighting, training pets, decorating, growing, figuring things out, and all of the fun street smarts along the way).
To All:
HAPPY DECEMBER/ HOLIDAY SEASON, all! We’ll be back to weekly blogging hopefully for the next 4 Weekly Wednesdays straight (though we have 4 Portrait Sessions to capture before next Wednesday), so keep an eye out for that-!