I had a lot of different homes growing up.  Seven of them, actually.

Looking back, I don’t remember being overly affected by it.  I went to the same school…was always near close family…and had lots of traditions to keep me grounded.  But when I moved to Ottawa, those things become something that couldn’t come with me.  I had to watch them slowly disappear in the rear view mirror of the bus that was taking me to my new home.  After my first year of University, any home that I had ever shared in London was occupied by new people…new memories…new lives.

Now that I’m older – with my own children – I often catch myself wondering what it would have been like to have a single home that contained all of our stories.  There isn’t a basement out there with boxes of my childhood toys.  There isn’t a wall filled with years of school portraits.  There isn’t a backyard where tears were shed over a beloved pet.  In a lot of ways, there aren’t any traces of my life as a child.

One of my most favourite parts of shooting a wedding is the moments in which I get to walk into a bride’s childhood home.  The only home that she’s ever known.  I love looking around and seeing drawings that she once made still posted on the fridge.  I love seeing a bedroom that has grown with her over the years.  I love running my fingers along the dining room table where her family has had countless conversations.  I love seeing what that experience looks like.  Even my brief encounters has shown me what a beautiful thing it is.

And of all the homes I’ve seen…I couldn’t imagine a more wonderful place to grow up than Nicole’s family home.  The land…the barns…the animals.  We spent a lot of time at Nicole’s house throughout the course of her wedding day.  Getting ready…joining with family after the ceremony…doing formal portraits.  And the more time I spent there…the more I could feel the decades of memories around every corner.  It was an amazingly comforting place to be.

By the end of the night, Nicole not only had a new husband by her side…but she also gained three more brothers [on top of the three brothers and one sister that she already had!!!].  And seeing all of them together made it very evident to me that while this home already had tons of family history under its belt already…there was clearly many, many more to come…