Juli & Mike

It's amazing how much your confidence in yourself can ebb and flow. One moment, you feel you're capable of almost anything, and the next you worry you've become so incompetent you can't even tie your shoes.

Sadly, photography has had many of those moments for me. When we were first getting started, there would be moments I felt skilled, creative, and professional, followed by others I felt stupid, clumsy and pathetic.

It happens. It's life. But I've learned--and continue to learn--not to listen to the fears in my head, to instead say a quick prayer and keep capturing. I actually do this with a lot of things in my life.

I've also learned to keep listening to the right voices.

For Pearl and I, Juli and her best friend Kelly have been two of those voices over the years, voices that inspire and instill confidence in us to keep going after this photography thing, writing thing, speaking thing, creative thing...Anyway, you get the point.

Juli is a graphic designer, and a good one at that. She can create amazing typography and layered images that communicate clearly and with conviction. I've worked alongside her on numerous projects and find myself still amazed at what she's able to create. Pearl and I became friends with Juli when she was just out of college and starting her first design job. She volunteered her skills for the LCBC Church gathering we worked with, and was so good at it that they hired her! We've been friends ever since.

Mike was one of those guys we always knew from a distance. His reputation of being creatively adventurous, business savvy, and big-hearted preceded him. He volunteered for years at LCBC with high school students, and when they opened a new campus in York, his energy and heart were huge assets to creating the culture of acceptance and love there.

It's funny how Juli and Mike were near each other for years, routinely crossing paths, but one day, one random crossing, one normal conversation, something clicked and they went from being casual friends to curious friends, to dating, to engaged.

Juli and Mike are great for each other. Their relationship is one that just makes you smile, and capturing their day, made us smile.

Here are a few images from their day, and I hope they make you smile as much as they did for me.