Not too long ago, I found myself walking through an old neighborhood that I had grown up in. It had been close to a decade since I had last visited and as I strolled along the sidewalk, each of my kids by my side, it felt like opening up a storybook and reading the pages of a childhood memory.

We saw the corner store where I used to buy candy, the restaurant where we would order pizza, the video store where I would rent movies, the playground where I would spend so many summer days.

It was so different, yet so much the same.

We had both changed.

I think there’s so much to be said for circling back to the places that have left a mark on our hearts. As time passes, it’s often comforting to have anchors that remind us of where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. While we may not be able to ask time to move at our preferred pace, we can hold onto the moments that unfolded while we were lost in it for a while.

In a few short months, Angelica and Devin are getting married. They’ve waited their entire lives for each other and pretty soon, those lives will come together in a way that will create a new path forward. Step by step, they are merging their individual histories in order to build a collective future. But already, they have anchors of their own. And before they walk down the aisle before family and friends, we decided to visit one of those anchors together and mark their engagement session at one of the places that holds so much meaning for them as a couple.

From one of their earliest dates to the moment when he asked the big question, these rocks and this water carry the very first chapters of their story together.

We all need places that tether us to lives we’ve lived.

Here’s to Angelica and Devin, and the place that will always remind them of where it all started.

xo