Posts in marriage

Annika & Ray

Life in the city seems to speed by faster than normal, maybe it's because the city never sleeps. Stories formed here thrive by the glow of the skyline at night. Stories you point to and say "this changed us for the better".

I love to tell these stories - of couples and the closing of a chapter of their life kindled by a sacred connection with the city they love. So when Annika texted me to share the news about their upcoming move to New York (RIGHT when we were moving closer to Chicago!) I knew I had to tell their story.

We started in Lake Shore Park, where they got engaged, taxied to museum campus, where they'd run after work, and ended in their empty apartment.

Chicago Skyline Goodbye Story - Annika & Ray | Alicia Sturdy, #hitherandhold | www.aliciasturdy.com

Chicago Skyline Goodbye Story - Annika & Ray | Alicia Sturdy, Hither & Hold | www.aliciasturdy.com

As their moving boxes were packed waiting to be put on the truck, I asked them to take a few minutes to breath in the last moments here. To answer the question, "Without you, this city would have felt ___" and "Before you, this city felt ___". They whispered each other secrets kept only in their heart and now between just two.

To view the rest of the gallery, click here (http://printshop.aliciasturdy.com/gallery/annika-ray-goodbye-session/) and don't miss the special 10 second video preview of Annika & Ray's session ONLY on my Instagram (@aliciasturdy)!

marriageAliciaNovember 6, 2015Chicago, City Story, Connecticut Photography, Goodbye, Love, Moving, Seasons, SkylineComment

Annika & Ray - Grant Park City Story

I walked a little bit faster to make my way down Michigan Avenue towards Annika & Ray's apartment as storm clouds loomed over the skyline behind me. Chicago is infamous for it's craaaazy storms, and I was hoping that I wouldn't be caught in the middle of yet another one. It made me think of all the times getting stuck on the bus or in traffic when a storm was brewing. Hot, humid, with nowhere to go. As I stopped at an intersection to wait for traffic to pass, I saw little dots gathering at my feet, clueing me in to what was about to come. I ducked under the bus stop waiting for the storm to pass - and it was from there I could see Annika & Ray across the street in the bus shelter there on Randolph. Once the storm passed, I hip hopped my way around the puddles to where they were. You know that part of the relationship when you're so happy the smile can't seem to disappear from you face? This, is where Annika & Ray are. And I hope it never goes away. Their connection and deep sense of home in each others arms is something you can't fake.

This weekend they're getting married, and their new home is an apartment high above Grant Park with a view of the city they love. Annika & Ray, I'm praying (like you asked!) that it doesn't rain this weekend, but know that if it does - it'll just be like the day we did your City Session together, and it'll close out with you wrapped up in each others arms like everyday should.

marriageAliciaSeptember 19, 2014Comment

Michael & Christina

Michael & Christina are two very special people to me, as in they were friends turned clients! Christina is a youth pastor in Boston, and also was at North Park around the same time Andrew & I were. The first time we really 'hung out' was one rainy April night when Andrew and I got a flat tire in Cambridge on our way home from vacation. Sitting on Harvards campus, I was racking my brain for people I knew in Boston that we could possibly shack up with for the night so our car could go to the shop in the morning (figures that on a rainy Sunday night there are no tire shops open!). Andrew texted Christina, got her address and after we got the spare on we zoomed to her cute little studio where we ended the night on her futon. Seriously - it felt like the best of college sleepovers! Right before we went to sleep, she was telling us about this guy she had gone on a date with - Michael. We chit chatted about him before falling asleep - and 6 months later we saw on Facebook she was in a relationship...with Michael!

We met up in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston where both of them live and love their neighborhood - on the last of the warm evenings in October we grabbed an early dinner (at seriously one of the places I dream about eating almost daily - Ula Cafe) and headed to the park to capture a few moments of these two together a month before the big day.

View More: http://aliciasturdy.pass.us/christina-michael

marriageAliciaNovember 10, 2013Comment

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