The circle of love continues

We’re heading to NYC to celebrate my niece (and Goddaughter) Elise and her fiancée Ana as they step into their marriage on New Year’s Eve! I am so happy and excited for them!

This engagement photo was taken this past summer at my childhood home, where my mom still lives and where generations of memories live quietly in the walls. The rooms haven’t changed since the 70s. My mom doesn’t really use them anymore, so they’ve stayed almost frozen in time – the same light, the same furniture, the same feeling. It felt like the perfect place for something retro and timeless to reflect the style of Elise and Ana who appreciate timeless decor and they also love my mom- Elise’s Grandmother. “Nunna” couldn’t attend the wedding so it felt nice to include her in this part of the festivities.

Bringing balloons, laughter, and celebration back into that space was unexpectedly emotional. I felt tears well up more than once as I remembered being in that very house decades ago, dressed for my own school dances in the 80s, posing nervously and excitedly for photos, and for my wedding photos in 1998. Different chapters but time moving forward. Ready or not!

You can see my parents in framed photos behind them and one of my own wedding photos too – like a visual whisper – I’m part of something much bigger than this moment. The circle of love and life just keeps unfolding.

Taking these photos felt like honoring the past while celebrating the future – a reminder that joy doesn’t replace what came before it, it builds upon it. Watching Elise and Ana bring their own light into that space was incredibly meaningful, not just as a photographer, but as an aunt, a daughter, a mom of two daughters who might someday celebrate their weddings too.

The circle continues, and my heart is all in.