If you are reading this, it means that we did it. We finally rolled up our sleeves and said “yes” to an idea that came to us while we were driving in the car one wintry Wisconsin afternoon.

If you’re reading this, it means that we stepped outside of our fears and doubts, and entered into a place where we can be present. A place where we can be vulnerable with others and share our imperfections in the hope that it will impact even one marriage.

If you’ve followed along on our photography journey for any amount of time, you’ve hopefully gathered that we really value marriage.

While we really value marriage and we really believe in it, we’ve also battled to believe that we had anything to offer. We’ve faced seasons where we’ve struggled (like seriously struggled and I admit left me feeling like we really had nothing to offer). If I couldn’t even help my own marriage, how was I supposed to help others?

If you’ve followed along on our photography journey for any amount of time, you’ve hopefully gathered that we really value marriage.

These seasons of challenges caused us to take proactive steps to not only pull ourselves out from the struggle but to help us prepare for when we find ourselves in those seasons again. It has been investing in micro changes on a daily basis that we’ve found the most success in the betterment and deepening of our marriage. Honestly though, where do you begin?

Maybe you’ve finally gotten to a place where you want to invest in your marriage but you find yourself facing the stigmas that come along with marriage counseling or the judgment you fear you’ll encounter if you open up to a friend or (God-forbid) a family member about the issues you are having in your marriage. Maybe you’ve read a book or two about marriage, but you just couldn’t connect with them or they are just too unrealistic of a time commitment for you in the season of life you are in. So what do you do?

We believe these common realities are ultimately detrimental to marriages and actually play a huge factor in the increasing divorce rate. While, of course, sometimes “big” and “obvious” things happen that can lead to failed marriages, it seems (to us) that more often than not, it’s an accumulation of years and years and years of “little” things … that no one ever talks about or addresses because they just don’t know where to turn.

A lot of, mostly painful, soul searching has led us to a place in our lives and marriage where we’ve realized that life is too damn short to worry about failure. Our hope for all of this is to come along side uniquely beautiful, often times messy, marriages from a place of humility and honesty. In a world where all we often see is everybody’s highlight reel, that we would be able to bravely share our outtakes together, because for every highlight there is a mountain of outtakes supporting its weight. Wouldn’t it be great if our outtakes could come together to support the weight for others?

Today we launch our monthly marriage newsletter — the first “yes” in our journey of empowering both ourselves and others to pursue a marriage that doesn’t just last but one that we’re excited about.

Today we launch our monthly marriage newsletter.

The newsletter will be sent out once a month and is designed to help alleviate some of the pressure or anxiety surrounding communication in a marriage (how to have deep conversations, what to talk about when you’re “unplugging on date night, how to discuss points of conflict, etc). Each month we will be providing two discussion prompts along with tips for how to communicate better with your spouse. We are extremely excited to see how this newsletter grows and changes over time as we continuously assess your needs and feedback (so please send it!).

Lastly, you can sign up for the newsletter here — for signing up, we will send 5 date night ideas right to your inbox! We cannot wait to walk this journey beside you.

With love,

The Engels