MUNDELEIN LIFESTYLE NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER: MELISSA MARIE PHOTOGRAPHY: STELLA

It was a little over a year ago that they stood in front of the same bedroom windows too cool off for a moment during their summer Covid backyard wedding. They had just bought their home weeks prior. Fast forward a year, and now they stand in front of those same windows. Cooling off from a hot summers day. This time holding their sweet baby girl, Stella.

When I walked into the familiar bedroom, I saw even more familiar photos lining their wall. Moments from their beautiful wedding. Not the one they thought it'd be, but equally filled with lots of love, and lots of tears. (wonderful ones) I love seeing my images being used to make people's house's homes, but something struck me a little different this time. There's a small group of people that can say they planned (and replanned) and had a wedding during a pandemic. There's a small group that can say they had a baby during such a time. I can only imagine there's a very small group that can say they did both in the same year, and can stand in the very same spot to remember it. Your wedding day goes by "too fast." The little years of raising babies, is a blur! So to be standing in the spot that's rooted in memories of lifetime moments, it was really really cool. It's not overlooked that this time has been hard. And Jonathan & Kyle, you've done some of the harder milestones amidst the more challenging of circumstances. And yet you stand. You stand together. And you have to look no further than Stella to know it was all worth it!