Sean,

Standing next to you on this day is one of the single greatest joys of my life. It’s a celebration and I think marriages deserve that. We deserve that. Ten years is a long time, especially when it’s the space where we’ve grown up. We’ve had the privilege and responsibility to help one another discover the space we want to occupy in the world. We’ve been able to form our identities and shape the trajectory of our lives together. It’s been an honor to watch you grow into the man I know you’ve been striving to be. I feel a lot of things today, but mostly just accomplished and proud.

Proud of work and the time we’ve put in.

Proud of the intentional decisions we’ve made about how we raise our son and what kind of parents we will be, what kind of person we hope he will be.

Proud of the fights because they pushed us. They begged us to examine an area of our lives and get on the same page, process hurt, and forge a way forward.

Proud that after every storm, we find our way to the shore once more.

Proud that although we’re no where near perfect, we keep showing up each day.

Marriage has humbled me and made me better. It asks me to give first and sacrifice my own desires for the betterment of our relationship, home, and family. It’s still a challenge and I still regularly fail at this, but I’m thankful that you’re there to give me the safety and space to try again.

Thank you for the late nights you’ve held me in your arms while I sobbed after feeling victimized by my own inadequacies. You’ve given me exactly what I need.

Thank you for your unwavering confidence. With you I know that no idea is too big and you’ll always support my ideas no matter how crazy or unlikely they seem. You’re happy to see me succeed and you’re my biggest confidant.

Thank you for balancing my intensity and bringing me peace.

Thank you for reminding me that there’s life to live and my checklist will always be there.

Thank you for helping me craft a family culture that includes creativity. I’m so grateful that you’re always up for a photoshoot in the name of art or that our favorite conversations are dreaming up our next big project. No creative venture is off limits and I know in 50 years, we’ll have a lifetime of art to show for it.I love building that legacy with you.

Thank you for the way you love me and the way you love Harvey. You’re everything to us.

I’m honored to spend my life with you and I’m so excited to see what’s to come in our next decade. I love you with all I am. More, more-er, and more-est. Happy anniversary.

– Your Wife

These amazing photos are courtesy of Jay and Jess Photography.

Makeup by the talented SN Makeup 

The winds have welcomed you with softness,
The sun has greeted you with it’s warm hands,
You have flown so high and so well,
That God has joined you in laughter,
And set you back gently into
The loving arms of Mother Earth.

— Anon, known as ‘The Baloonists Prayer,’ believed to have been adapted from an old Irish sailors’ prayer

The Mister and I opted for a hot air balloon ride this year instead of a staycation, which is how we typically celebrate our anniversary. I enjoy capturing moments in time through monuments and celebration. They help to solidify time periods and separate the years. For me it keeps the days and years from blending into one another. I can identify them easier and I love knowing I’ll be able to look back and remember this very specific day without any trouble. That’s comforting to me for some reason.

We set our alarm clocks for 3:30am and arrived at met up with Rainbow Ryders who then took us by bus to our launch site. The whole process was mystifying and magical, peaceful and calm. It was something special and I’m so happy we enacted our sense of adventure and celebrated this way.

This past Wednesday was my 9th wedding anniversary! I’m kinda a sentimental person and I really appreciate making memories and finding grand ways to celebrate. We don’t have enough of that, celebration that is. I think it’s easy to get caught up and forget how special it really is to have fought for your marriage and how special it is to really celebrate your time together and allow yourself to marvel at that gift. Pictures are my favorite way to celebrate anything. For obvious reasons of course. I love commemorating a certain moment in time with a few snaps to look back on for the rest of our lives. I imagine I’ll be a little old lady surrounded by photos of a life well lived. I love that idea.

So… we opted to get in front of the camera for a few short minutes and we walked away with some photos that I couldn’t love any more.

A special thank you to our friends at Denson Creative for capturing these special snaps for us. I’ve always wanted friends to trade photo shoots with and I’m so happy to have found that!