Happy Tuesday, friends! Welcome to our brand new blog!! Ah! We can’t believe this day is finally here! It’s finally time to cue the confetti! And that marching band! Or, you know, at least a trumpet. Somebody find a trumpet! This is still so surreal!
We’re so glad you’re here and hope you love your experience in our new online home as much as we do, because we designed every pixel of it with you in mind. We don’t know if it’s the sleep deprivation or the caffeine talking, but we’re feeling all kinds of emotional today. There are so many things we could say today, but there are only two words that seem to make sense: thank you.
Thank you, first, to you, our readers. For letting us share our stories with you. The good ones, the sad ones and everything in between. We wouldn’t be here without you. For us, the goal for this blog from the start has been simple: share our life with you. From our very first post back in 2011, to the one we wrote yesterday, we’ve all been able to grow, together.
And for the past four years, you read in your cubicles at work and introduced us to your co-workers. You read with newborn babies in your arms and toddlers screaming in the background. You sipped coffee with us in the morning and took lunch breaks with us in the afternoon. We spent late nights and long weekends together, too. You brought us with you on airplanes and the doctor’s office waiting room. You laughed with us. And you cried with us. You checked in however you could, whenever you could — but you checked in all the same, and you’ll never know how grateful we are for every time you did.
Thank you for stopping us at the grocery store to tell us you’re reading. Thank you for all the comments, clicks, messages, and emails. Thank you for running into us around town, at church, at the movies, at restaurants, at conferences and even in parking lots, to tell us what impacted you. We had no idea this blog would mean as much to you as it does to us. That’s the most humbling feeling in the world. Because this blog is our heart and soul on our sleeve our heart and soul on a screen. It’s a place to share our passion for photography, the stories of our couples and our own adventures along the way. And It’s a place to get real and connect with you — because this blog really wouldn’t be what it is or mean what it means without you. So thank you. From the bottom of our hearts.
And today, on the day of new beginnings, our heart is full of thanks for the people who made this huge project come to life.
First and foremost, to Jen Olmstead, our designer, whose second-to-none talent is matched only by her one-of-a-kind sense of humor. (Come for the design, stay for the jokes.) She’s as beautiful inside and out as the brands she designs, a serious wonder woman of websites, and the only person we’ve ever met — and probably ever will meet — with the uncanny ability to cook a gourmet meal. With a baby in one hand. A glass of wine in the other. And draft a full website composite. WHILE LOOKING FABULOUS. Today is a day of celebration, but also kind of bittersweet, because there is so much we’re going to miss about this experience. We’ll miss our visits to her cozy Virginia home where we drank copious cups of Nespresso and always said Nespresso in our best Penelope Cruz whisper voices. We’ll miss our group iMessage threads and late-night FaceTime calls. The ones that sometimes happened while we were all still in bed (although usually not together!) because we hadn’t gone to bed on the West Coast yet and she’d just gotten up in the East. We’ll miss joking about thin blush lines being “dirty talk” to Amy’s ears and how bad we want to get her one-year-old daughter, Serena, a pony for Christmas. Or at least a Nespresso burro. But most of all, we’ll just miss our daily dose of her. The stranger who became an acquaintance who quickly became the woman we can’t imagine our life without. How does that even happen?! Jen, we’ll never be able to thank you enough for all you’ve done for us, but we’ll spend the rest of our lives using Bette Midler ballads to try. Thank you for giving EVERYTHING you had to this. It’s in those behind-the-scenes moments that nobody ever sees that say the most about who you are. Thank you for helping us tell the next chapter in our story, and understanding us more beautifully than we ever could’ve on our own. The site may be finished, but this friendship is just getting started. And we’re bringing our own tambourine.
We also have to say a huge thank you to all the guys at Showit, our beloved website company, for not only providing us with an incredible, dynamic online platform, but partnering with us on another common mission: changing lives. Nate, Todd, and everyone who went to the moon with us to make this happen, thank you. Thank you for the all-nighters and the missed showers and the time away from the people you love most. Thank you for pushing as hard as you could to make this thing happen. We did it. Thank you for believing we could.
Thank you, also, to the incredible team at Flosites, for the hours upon hours of building this blog and paying attention to every last detail until it was just right. This is the first time in our business where we feel as proud of the blog’s design as the content inside of it, and that is such a gift.
Thank you to one of our most cherished friends and crazy-talented-photographer, Annamarie Akins, for our new photos and for enduring the insane traffic, weather and timing on the other side of the country to make them happen! We love them (and you) more than we can ever say! Please sign us up for ANNA-versary sessions FOR LIFE.
Thank you to Dave Altizer Films for shooting some and editing all of the videos on our new website, and for enduring a lot of late nights to make it happen. You’re a creative genius through and through — and you made us look way cooler than we really are. We love you. Also, thank you to the generous filmmakers who donated footage of us shooting and speaking for all of the videos you see on the new site. Here they are in alphabetical order. A big hug and huge thanks to our friends Amore Films, Dave Altizer Films, Everly Films, Matthew Altizer, Michael Alsop, and Serendipity Cinema.
Alisa, our faithful and fearless assistant, our ballast, thank you for being the wind beneath our proverbial wings. Without you doing everything you do behind the scenes, we’d’ve never made it to the stage and this project would’ve never made it to anyone’s screen. You are one of the greatest blessings in our life, and we still don’t know what we did to deserve you.
And, lastly, we’re thankful — so thankful — for our family and friends for their unwavering support and encouragement. For the pastors who keep us focused and the mentors and coaches who’ve guided us along the way. For the new people we’ve met in just the last few years, and the way they’ve enriched our life, for the people who have been with us long before we picked up a camera (you all know who you are) and for the people we haven’t met in-person yet, but who join us here every day. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of our heart. We don’t know what the next year will bring. Heck! Most days we don’t even know what the afternoon will bring! But we’re excited, because if it’s anything like the last one, we’re in for one amazingly wild ride…
All our love,
