When you are the middle of starting a business, you never really know where that business is going to take you. You never know the obstacles that you might face and the people you might meet and the direction you might go.

My goal at the time was to create art and be present for my young children and to create something that relational instead of transactional. I wanted the work that I did to mean something. And when I said that, I meant for my clients.

What I never could have anticipated was the countless ways in which it would mean something to me.

I live and work in Ottawa, but just two short years into my business, I ended up being adopted by a community an hour away. A community full of beautiful humans and kind hearts and supportive souls. A community who–time and time again–have not only trusted me to document the moments of their lives, but have rallied around my writing and cheered me on through every endeavor that has happened along the way.

The town of Brockville has almost become a second home to me during the summer months. The beautiful drive down the 416 and along the waterfront. It’s familiar and welcoming and a part of the journey I never expected.

The end off this season back in Brockville for Katie and Ryan’s wedding, surrounded by former brides and grooms and faces that I’ve seen for years, was an incredibly beautiful thing. The weather kept us on our toes, always bouncing between pouring rain and radiant sun. And yet, it always gave us what we needed exactly when we needed it.

It’s always a little bit hard for me because I never really know when my last wedding in Brockville might be. So each time I drive away, a part of me wonders. And I do my best to take it all in.

It’s entirely possible that this wasn’t only my last wedding of the season, but my last wedding in this beautiful town with these beautiful people. That awareness was very real for me as I pulled out of the parking lot beneath the clear fall sky. And as I drove away I also knew that–if it was–it was okay. Because just like the weather that day, this community has given me so much of what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

And if it this was going to be the last one…then it was the perfect one to end a part of my business journey that I never saw coming and a part of my business journey that I didn’t even know I wanted until I was blessed to be a part of it.

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