Casey and My Five Year Anniversary

Today is a super special day for me because today is my anniversary of five years!!! I shoot so many weddings and share so many love stories through my job that I figured I would share mine and Casey’s story with you. It is definitely a story that was orchestrated by God. Casey and I actually met in high school. I didn’t date a lot of people, and I had kept the same boyfriend most of high school and into the first part of college. After that I was set up on a few blind dates. Casey was not the guy that I dated in high school. He was a guy that I knew through a mutual friend. The mutual friend attended the same church as me. Casey would sometimes come with him and my previous boyfriend and I would see him at different hunting activities that we would go to. I always thought Casey was a good guy. He was funny, nice, and would bend over backwards to help you. At that point in my life I didn’t think he was “the one”. I just saw him as a friend. A few years after college I worked some odd jobs. I was actually a lifeguard at one point in time. Then I worked in the school district and was a teacher’s assistant and a sub just so that I could have insurance and I didn’t have the money to start my business fully yet. Sissy McAlister, but Sissy Duke at the time, was the teacher I was working with in her 4K class, and little did I know that she was getting married to Casey’s best friend, Cody. Sissy asked me if I would be her wedding photographer I was really resistant about doing this because I just wanted to attend the wedding as a guest. We had agreed that I would bring somebody with me so I would still be able to dance and have a good time and also shoot her wedding. At the time I wasn’t confident in my photography skills and didn’t feel like I was good enough to shoot her wedding either but I look at some of her pictures today, especially the one that I printed out with her and Cody on the haystack and I was good enough. I just needed more experience. The day that they got married, I pulled up at Sissy‘s mom and dad‘s house. They were having the wedding in the field behind their house underneath a beautiful oak tree and Casey was walking to the mailbox to put balloons on it. He says to this day it was a bow, but regardless, I knew immediately that was the man I was going to marry. He didn’t say anything to me, he didn’t even know it was me that was pulling up. I had always prayed that God would make it very evident to me about the person I was going to marry. Sometimes I didn’t believe God would honor that hope of mine but he did. Now God didn’t answer me the way I thought he would, Casey wasn’t my ideal “checklist” man, he wasn’t who I was thinking it was gonna be, but God knew just what I needed. Casey loves me and puts up with me. My favorite thing right now about our marriage is watching him with our children. It makes me fall deeper in love with him every day. So to go on with the story, I ended up getting out and started to photograph things for the wedding starting with the girls first and then I went over to photograph the guys. It started to rain, and they were getting dressed in Sissy’s mom’s house and everybody was putting their boutonnieres on. On our walk over I said “Hey Casey” and started talking to him like we’d always been best of friends. The rest of the night he stood right beside me talking to me and asking me if I wanted to dance. I still remember the first song we danced to. You guys are gonna laugh… I was trying to show Casey how to do the “Cotton Eyed Joe”. And I remember him dancing like a crazy person, and I was just laughing away. I still have a picture from Cody and Sissy’s wedding of us dancing together. Now Casey says he doesn’t dance anymore, he just did that to get me. That night I went to leave the wedding and I was putting my stuff in the car. My second shooter, Leah, which was a college friend of mine, was with me too. Casey came up to the car after he first made a beeline to his truck and then he walked over like he just walked out there to put something in his truck. He started picking on me and asked me if he could help and then out of the blue he said would you mind if I get your number and before I could even respond, Leah started spouting off the number. From that night on Casey and I have hardly spent three days apart. He got my number, texted me that night, called me the next day and a few days later and pretty much the rest is history. Casey and I re-connected in September, got engaged in February, and were married by August. It was not a slow process. My mom had always told me that the person would come out of the blue and that everything would just work. I had prayed for years that I would find the right person. I just didn’t date anybody. I didn’t want to waste my time or anyone else’s time. Now let me stop here and tell you we have had our ups and downs, we argue, and life is never perfect, but we know we’re in it for the long-haul. I love Casey Carsten with all my heart. He is the half that makes me whole. The day that Casey proposed to me I kind of had an idea but I just didn’t think it was going to happen then. He went with me on a bridal photo shoot in Charleston and he said afterwards we will go to dinner together. It was the weekend before Valentine’s Day so I just thought maybe he wants to do something special. The bride was a friend from college. Her and her mom knew but not when it was going to happen. I was hoping but also oblivious at this point because I was like no we haven’t dated that long this isn’t going to happen today. We got to the beautiful plantation and Casey went his way and I started shooting. Again I didn’t think anything about it. He had never been there and our plan was we were going to dinner when everything was said and done. Toward the end of the shoot Casey came over and started carrying my bag, again I didn’t think anything of it because I knew we were almost done. He did act kind of funny at several points. Casey is not a talker when he really doesn’t know you; he has to warm-up and he was talking to the girl and her mom I was shooting like he knew them his entire life. I thought it was a little strange, but I was just like oh maybe he’s opening up to them. At one point we were standing there shooting the bride and I noticed he walked over into the woods but I just thought maybe he’s looking at something. When the shoot was almost done we were walking to the car and I was putting things in the trunk. We we’re going to get one more spot before we all kind of parted ways. Casey looked at me at one point and said I want to show you a picture on my cell phone. He had always told me that he’s a better cell phone photographer than me. So I looked at his phone and there was a picture of a piece of cotton and I said oh that’s a nice picture. He said well go to the next one. I went to the next one, it is the same picture, I went to the next one and finally on the third one I saw the ring and it was clear in front of my face. I don’t know I didn’t see it on the first picture, and he dropped down to one knee in the parking lot of the plantation and proposed to me. Our story is full of ups and downs like everyone’s but man it’s been a wonderful ride and I have loved every minute of it. He’s my life line, and these two babies have made it even more fun. We know after they’re grown that we’re going to get to spend our lives together growing old. I love you Casey Carsten. Thank you for five years. I still remember our cute southern wedding, with burlap, wildflowers, antique plates, the whole nine yards. It was the hottest day of the year. We got married in a little wooden church, had an ice cream truck at the reception which was a hit, barbecue and chicken bog that was delicious. Me and my girls all wore boots cause Casey is a huge fan of cowboy boots and him and his boys all blew duck calls at the end of the ceremony. It was the perfect day that represented us. We went on our honeymoon in Jamaica and I always said for five years we were going back, but Benjamin kinda threw that off, but one of these years we’ll make it back there. I’m so glad we are together through all of this Casey! I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side. I love you more!