Yesterday's political festivities has me thinking about our military couples today. Planning a wedding has it's difficulties, but sometimes, military couples face obsticles that are particularly challenging.
This summer, Wes and I shot a wedding for Melanie and Nate. Nate is an Army Captain and Melanie is a teacher. I first met Melanie and Nate during a consultation about a year ago. At that time, Nate was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq a couple of days following our meeting. It was not the first time he had been deployed and they shared with me that their wedding date had been already altered a couple of times due to his military service.
Nate indeed left for Iraq and Melanie remained in the US. I received several e-mails from Melanie during the time he was in Iraq and although her notes were always upbeat and excited about her wedding plans, there was always an underlying concern as of course, she missed him terribly. I was truly elated for both of them when I finally received the note that Nate was scheduled to come home.
Melanie and Nate had an amazing June wedding and they exchanged vows at John Carroll University, where Melanie is an alumni. Here they are taking their photos on the campus. They are now planning a move from an Oklahoma Army base, to one in Texas. It meant so much to me when Melanie e-mailed me at Thanksgiving looking for receipes; the portrait of a real army wife!
