I woke up really slowly this morning…just laying there for a long time before rolling over and opening my eyes.  Our cat was asleep at the end of the bed and Steve was just starting to stir next to me.  I could hear the birds chirping outside but otherwise, it was silent.  I vowed this morning that I would make an effort to start feeling “normal” {whatever that means} again.  After the past week of complete darkness, I vowed to start seeing the light again.  And that’s when I noticed that it wasn’t raining anymore.

I generally love the rain.  I love how it gives you permission to stay in bed a little bit longer and to move a bit slower.  I love running in the rain and falling asleep to the sound of the rain.  The rain is a nice change of pace in the summer…except when it’s not!  For anyone reading this from Eastern Ontario, you’ll know all too well that it’s been raining constantly for months now.  So much so that I was starting to wonder if we were supposed to be building an ark anytime soon!  And it’s been cold…depressingly cold.  More or less, we’ve been living the past few months in November…and it’s been very hard on the psyche.

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to South Western Ontario to do four out-of-town shoots and much to my chagrin, the weather wasn’t looking any better for that part of the province either.  Rain can be stressful at the best of times when it comes to pictures; but it can be especially stressful when you don’t have the benefit of a rain date, any knowledge of the local rain locations and a beautiful bride-to-be waiting on the other end with her hair and make-up done!

As I drove to Kitchener to meet up with Ileana and Ryan, I couldn’t even see the vehicle in front of me…that’s how hard the rain was coming down!  The two and a half hour drive was mostly spent wondering what our back-up plan should be and did I have a life jacket on hand in the event that we suddenly floated away.  To say that the weather was unpleasant is so beyond an understatement…and to say that my couple rocked it out anyways is also a ridiculous understatement.

The moment that I drove up to their house, the rain just…stopped!  The tornado like winds kept blowing and the freezing cold still pierced our bones…but the rain stopped.  When Ileana answered the door, she gave me this adorable “what do we do now?!?” type of look and within minutes {and almost military fashion!}, we were rounding everything up, heading out the door and desperately aiming to shoot within the small rainless window of opportunity that we had.  As it turns out, that window ended up being about an hour and a half before the giant rain drops pummeled down again and continued to do so for basically another week!  Amen!

Ileana and Ryan, you guys were such amazing troopers!!!  You didn’t just take a miserable day and make it tolerable…but you took a miserable day and made it a blast!  I had such a great time trucking through the mud with you…getting kicked out of various places with you {!!!}…and most of all, capturing you!  October just can’t get here soon enough!!  Let’s hope that it doesn’t rain!