Chocolate, Difficulty, and the Wings of Happiness {Building Marriage}

My Facebook feed has been overflowing with flower, chocolate, jewelry, and even coffee advertisements. (Now why would Facebook’s algorithm decide to give me coffee ads? Hmmm…) Valentine’s Day is definitely upon us!

Living in the world of wedding photography, we naturally love Valentine’s Day. It’s a celebration of love, after all! And isn’t love what we specialize in?

But in the midst of a sea of red-foil covered chocolate hearts and a dozen roses, there’s so much more.

Love is so much deeper and so much bigger than pretty gifts and whispered words! It touches us to our very souls. As humans, we crave that connection in our lives. To be understood in the very depths of our heart of hearts – and to be loved because of it! – is one of the most sought-after experiences of our existence.

The term “love” has been watered down in our culture to describe anything that we’re particularly fond of. We “love” pretty much everything in our lives that have pleasant connotations to us.

But real, abiding, deep, honest, love between two people is something worth fighting for. It’s worth grasping onto when you find it and working every. single. day. to make sure it’s always going to be something worth fighting for.

Real love is hard. Marriage is hard. Relationships are hard! It takes commitment when you don’t feel like it. It takes work. And usually when you need to work the hardest is when you don’t feel like it at all.

It is worth it. It is so worth it.

It always makes me think of Anne of Green Gables. How flying high on the wings of happiness and anticipation are worth the moments of being in the depths of despair. She knows that working through the difficult parts of life (and she definitely found her fair share of them!) was worth the beauty and joy that came alongside them.

Real people and real relationships are so important to us. As wedding photographers, we have an amazing opportunity to impact couples who are at such an important point in their relationships. We come alongside them in a deeper way than taking pretty pictures on their wedding day. Which is super fun and we love it, but we love them even more.

If you haven’t checked out our Tuesday Mochas on the J&A blog, we encourage you to take a few minutes to read a couple of them! They’re short and powerful, and we write them because we know that the wedding is only the beginning of their story. Our dream with everything we do is to make an impact in the things that really matter.

And that is something worth fighting for.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

*hugs*

Amber