Good morning and happy Thursday!  The weekend is allllmost here and we have a fantastic engagement session to help pass the time.

Melissa and Chuckie are our 2012 Free Wedding Giveaway winners!  We met up this past weekend for what was the coldest day of May, at least so far!  I think it was in the mid 40s when we did these images.   Though covered in goosebumps, these two didn’t hide their hearts. Melissa and Chuckie are both warm and open about their lives, their work, and their Skate Church ministry.  I can’t wait for their Steamboat Springs wedding in June!  It’s going to be tricked out with hubcaps and tools, as these two LOVE working on cars together!  More of that below. :-)

Until then, here’s a brief excerpt of Melissa and Chuckie’s story from the Giveaway contest submission:

My [Melissa’s] parents have made to commitment to pay for our wedding.  That seems simple and straight forward enough, but I have a little, really quite frankly, a lot of a different story than most girls.  My parents, my mom and dad, have only been my family for the last five years.  They adopted and took me in when I was 17 years old.  Being young themselves with three very young children of their own, they went against everything and even though they were not in an opportune spot to take in a teenager, they decided to raise me up as best as they could.  They quite honestly saved my life.  My parents are missionaries and my dad is a pastor of a crisis youth ministry, they have always done the best they can with what they have, but I know that it is hard.  They have taken it in full stride and have decided to pay for a wedding, that before I came into the picture, they were not planning on taking on for a very long time for my young sisters.  But life was put on the fast track for them when I came along with proms, graduations, cars, college, boys, and now a wedding, and I would love to help them with that. My dad not only giving me away but also officiating our wedding is a wonderful picture of the family I am now apart of.  Winning the photography for our wedding would be a blessing beyond what you would know, both for Chuckie and I, but also my family.

Winning this photography package would be a dream come true because it would not only be having the opportunity to have beautiful wedding photos, but be able to help my family with covering our wedding.  Having these pictures of our wedding is a testament of how far not only myself, but Chuckie and I have come and grown.  Life has dealt an interesting hand of cards and we are so excited to start this new chapter of our lives and we would love to have and blessed with amazing photos to remember and not forget where we started!

M+C, I adore you.  I know Jesie will adore you.  Thank for your transparency, easy going attitudes, and friendship.

xoxo,
René