We've always put it out there that we're a husband-wife team...

Neither of us could imagine photographing a wedding without the other.

But not everyone knows exactly how WE met.. and why we do what we do.

It's a fun story to tell.

And sometimes it's tempting to say, "Oh, it's a long story," and leave it at that.

But we're working on a project that will hopefully communicate our love story a little better, and why it is we love what we do and do what we do.

We want to get to know YOU for your wedding day... so we want you to know us, too.

Why do we love photographing couples so much anyway?

Why not also explain it a little more in a blog post...

We met as penpals in 2003. We were teenagers.. no exact numbers but we weren't close to finishing high school, we'll put it that way. 🙂

We wrote each other for 6 months and somehow became infatuated with one another...

And I mean write-a-letter-everyday-sometimes-twice-or-three-times-a-day infatuated!

To be fair, this infatuation was from the get-go... somewhat... impractical.

Carina was raised in a suburb of Munich, Germany, about 20 minutes from the center of the city but still "enough in the country" to be able to see the sun shining on the Alps from her house in the morning. She attended a prestigious German grammar school and was proficient in 4 languages by the time we started writing each other. I know, impressive, right? Throw in the fact that she traveled to a different country with her family what seemed like every other month...

Me on the other hand...

I was raised in a very tiny house in rural Virginia with my single mother who worked three jobs and my younger, disabled brother. My mom worked really hard to make ends meet but there were times... a lot of times... where we went without normal stuff other people take for granted. I was also "homeschooled" after the 7th grade but because my mom worked, I was kind of forced to teach myself.

Even if we lived a mere 4 miles apart, we'd probably not be voted the most likely of couples... now adjust the distance to roughly 4,000 miles and throw in a few different countries, continents and an ocean.

Maybe it's obvious why I found her so interesting. She tells me she was always interested in America and wanted an American friend - still doesn't explain how she ended up with me. Anywho..

Still, on December 16th 2003 I called up my penpal and with all the confidence of a teenager I asked her if she wanted to try a long distance relationship. She said yes.

I had not thought about how this would or could work out, I knew somehow it would if she just agreed to try it.

That night I asked my mother if I could go to Germany to visit my penpal...

Kudos to my mom. Really.

She could have laughed at me, or worse yet checked me into an institution.

She didn't.

She said: "You can if you earn your own way." As I remember it, she didn't even pause before answering.

We wrote each other almost everyday the next year. And I mowed a lot of lawns and tilled a lot of gardens... did just about everything I could do...

And in December 2004, I boarded a flight in Philadelphia alone to fly to Munich.

Some photos from our first adventure

Looking back now, I did what a lot of teenagers do. A lot of teens get jobs, work hard, earn their right to a first car or something similar.

With me, instead of a first car it was just plane tickets to another country to see my crush.

But something about the experience did something for both of us, I think... it made us really aware, early on, that love isn't just an emotion... it's something active, a verb, and something that takes a lot of work.

I spent 12 days with her. They were the best, craziest, most wonderful days I'd ever lived in my life.

I asked Carina's father if she could visit me the next summer (summer 2005), and he said, "I'm afraid I don't know you well enough after 12 days to send my daughter to America." (Understandable!) "If you love her, you'll come again."

I knew when I left that I'd met the girl I would marry and was already working out ways in my mind to earn my way back to Germany.

This continued over the next several years... working for months to save up enough money to spend two weeks together...

And throughout the times we spent apart, we wrote to each other. Almost every. single. day.

Before everything else, she was my friend.

My best friend.

These are just a small selection from a small box from the corner of my mother's attic, where several other boxes still sit (we plan to get them when we have a place with a bit more room).

I wrote her once that if I could have her and be hers, I'd be content. And even if we didn't do what we do now, working together telling other people's love stories in photographs, I'd be happy.

But our relationship has taught us, especially in a very cynical world, that finding your true love is still something special.

It's taught us not to concentrate on things that divide us... politics... religion... language...

But to be thankful for each other, to love one another, and not only "say it," but to work at it.

The couples we work with... they each have their own love story. The proposal in the best friend's basement due to bad weather... the high school sweethearts... the fireman who fell in love with the nurse. We know each love story is special.

And that's why, I guess you could say, we are who we are and we do what we do.

Watch out for more in the next month or so...

Photo by Annamarie Akins