Before my husband and I got engaged, we used to talk a lot about all of the places that we wanted to travel to throughout our life.  We wanted to fly, we wanted to explore, we wanted to see the world.  Most of all though, we wanted to learn how to surf!  So when Steve finally popped the question and our wedding plans began, our first order of business was our honeymoon!  “Oh, the places we’ll go…” we thought to ourselves!  And the place we ended up going was straight to a surf school on the Hawaiian shore of Waikiki Beach!

For months leading up to our honeymoon I was nearly crazy with excitement!  And I nearly drove Steve crazy in the meantime!  “Only sixty-seven more sleeps to go”, I would whisper in his ear each night!  I could hardly contain myself!  But Steve’s excitement never seemed to climb off the Richter scale quite the same way as mine did and thank heavens for his patience because looking back, I interrogated him relentlessly about it!  Finally though, come the morning of our flight – two days after our wedding – my brand new husband bounced out of bed and practically skipped around our apartment gathering last minute things to pack.  It was official, he was excited!

During our eleven hour flight to Hawaii {I think that it’s worth mentioning here that you never really know someone until you’ve spent eleven hours on a flight with them!!!}, we ended up chatting about our varying degrees of excitement over the trip that we had been planning for so long.  And that’s when it was brought to my attention that I live in a world of anticipation while my husband, well…doesn’t!  That’s right…I live in anticipation and my husband lives in the realism of the moment – two very different places!

After further discussion, we came to the following conclusion; my husband doesn’t like to be disappointed hence, prefers to limit his expectations.  I, on the other hand, could live solely off of the wonder that thrives within excitement.  Even if the anticipated moment doesn’t turn out as expected…I still feel that it was worth the days, weeks or months of looking forward to what may have been!  Steve faces reality as it is {which – please allow me to be the first to say – is a very precious perspective to have a lot of the time!!!}…I live in the potential of what something could be.  Am I setting myself up for disappointment?  Possibly!  Is it a tad bit ‘rose-coloured’ in nature?  Likely!  Would I have it any other way?  Not in a million years!

Because here’s the thing…

Anticipation means seeing the beauty and possibility in something that has yet to exist.  It means finding hopefulness and joy in what is yet to come.  It means expecting the best.  It means standing before a bare tree, all alone in a winter field…and seeing magic.  It means putting on your warm clothes, curling up under a blanket…and finding romance in even the coldest of days.  It means taking one of the most amazing couples you know, finding the essence of who they are…and expressing the anticipation that is their union.  And that is a pretty wonderful place to be!

Kristen and Aaron…there are no words!  There are no words for how excited I am about your engagement.  There are no words for how incredibly beautiful your relationship is.  There are no words for how much you both mean to me.  And there are certainly no words for how stunning the two of you look in front of my camera!

But brace yourself…because I can assure you that there is nothing disappointing about it…