Katie & Terrance | Seven Springs Wedding

It’s one of those incredible, inspiring love stories that I nearly missed. 

My season was already completely booked when Katie contacted me about covering her wedding day. I wasn’t sure if, from a personal commitment standpoint, I could take on another wedding. But there was something in the way she wrote—something in the way she talked about Terrance, that I knew what I had in front of me was incredibly special. I had to be a part of telling their love story.

And I am eternally thankful she and T trusted me to.

It starts out as a will-they won’t-they that belongs more on a movie set than in real life. Instant attraction, but dating other people. Years in between, falling in and out of touch, a chance meeting on a local college campus. Playing hooky and talking in the car for hours. Love. Totally, consuming. The chance for T to get his MFA in writing at Purdue University, seven hours away. Katie, with an offer to stay and grow her client base at her new hair salon in Murrysville. Long distance, enduring support. Finally together, finally engaged, finally a ring and an “I do.”

Finally, this day.

To quote the reverend on September 12, after Katie and T exchanged their vows, we had all witnessed one of the most tender and beautiful commitments of love we may ever see. It would certainly have seemed that way, with everyone in the room, including this photographer, wiping tears from their eyes.

Finally, this day. Misting rain, frigid temperatures, and fog that settled defiantly on the mountainside all afternoon. Not the setting Katie and T had imagined for the day they would become husband and wife, but beautiful because it was their story.

A story that is still just beginning. Here is the first day of the rest of their lives.