Well hello again! A few years ago we “came out” to our R2 family as same sex wedding photographers. As silly as it sounds we would take our rings off before every wedding we would go shoot just because we didn’t want our couples, or their families, to know about us. Many figured it out, and some didn’t but we decided we had to be US! If people didn’t like it, then they had the option not to hire us. We quickly found out how much support we truly had. It made us wish we had done it even sooner! Since then we have been openly out….made a ton of new friends….shot several same-sex weddings and booked some amazing & supportive couples. If you have not read our coming out story here you go…it’s worth a read.
Image above by our official wedding photog & coolest guy ever Dan Dalstra
The other day our associate photog and friend, Liz, posted a picture of her and her hubby on Facebook. It was a cute shot of the day they got engaged. They were young, happy & in love. While this post was so fun to see, it also made me sad that we were never able to share our story. We hid it, and only kept the pictures to ourselves. That was then and this is now! SO here’s our exchanging rings story…. In the same-sex world things aren’t as “traditional” as the hetero world. We basically just had a conversation one night where Rob asked me to marry her and I said “sure.” It was as simple as that, but it never felt solidified. So when we were planning a trip to Maui the summer of 2008 we knew this would be a good time to make the engagement “official.” So we went for the purpose of exchanging rings BUT never told anyone the reason we were going. We actually had only told our families that we were even together at this point, so telling the world was just not an option then. Before we left for the island, we ordered our rings & bought this book. We were instantly drawn to this one particular place the book told us we should go. I was so excited to show her around the island. It was my 2nd time to the island and her 1st time. When we arrived there was this weird silence. I think we were nervous, excited and slightly scared about what our families would think when we came home and told them what we did. But this was us, and who we were, and we loved each other, dangit! So while the rest of the world kept going, we took our rings to this private beach on Maui at sunset where we privately vowed to spend the rest of our lives together. This is where you go….aaaaawwwwwwww. We spent the rest of our week excited about what we had just done but couldn’t tell anyone UNTIL NOW! On a random side note, after wearing our rings for the week, we decided we hated them. So we were determined to find new ones on the island, which we finally did in Lahaina the morning we were flying out.
The pictures below were shot from our phones (don’t judge!) They were all taken on the same trip in 2008 to Maui. We rented a condo on the beach…amazing! Went to see a luau, drank a lot, hiked, Robin got eaten alive by mosquitoes and we drove the Road to Hana.
Since 2008, we have been back to Hawaii 2 more times. Once in 2010 for vacation before Austin was born (Look at Robin pregnant belly) and in 2012 for this amazing wedding! It is just our place-and just to throw it out into the universe, once our kids are grown we WILL be buying a house on the beach in Kauai. Yes, for reals!
Many of you know our exciting wedding news. If you don’t, make sure and catch up on it here! And since that post we have changed it up a bit so make sure and read this too! Kauai 2014 here we come with some of our favorite people in the universe!
Image above by Jenna @ Creatrix Photography
Dreaming that we are on Kauai now,
XOXO R2
P.S. Yes we are doing surfing lessons in Hanalei! It is Robins dream come true.
P.S.S. This wedding planning stuff is hard!
P.S.S.S. I think after seeing these older pics I am chopping off my hair….the end!