You know that I L-O-V-E shooting anniversary sessions. But even MORE, I love shooting anniversary sessions for past clients!! Josh and Allie are celebrating their first year of marriage and it was SO good to get these two in front of my camera again!! Their smiles are the kind that you can’t look at without smiling from ear to ear yourself!

We met at the Retzer Nature Center in Waukesha, Wisconsin. It was my first time shooting in this location but Allie remembers going to the Nature Center as a child since she grew up in Waukesha! We didn’t explore the grounds a ton (the place is HUGE!!!) but from what we did explore, I was in heaven! There were SO many spots to choose from and I especially loved all the wildflowers that were blooming this time of year! The perfect background for an anniversary session : )

At the end of our time together, a HUGE storm rolled in and boy, did it roll in quickly! We went from glowy, golden hour skies to dark clouds and strong winds within MINUTES! It was crazy! I love the energy that the storm added to the session and the lighting for Josh and Allie’s second outfit is SO unique! Something you can only get when one half of the sky is dark blue and the other a sunset! Enjoy some of our favorites and seeing these two on the blog again : ) Happy Wednesday!

Where do you two live & what is one of your favorite things about your city?

We live in Jackson, WI and one of our favorite things about our city is that it is surrounded by/near some of our other favorite cities such as Cedarburg, Grafton and it is a good location for both of our jobs.

How did you two meet & how long have you been married?

We met on Facebook. We had a mutual friend and I (Allie) added Josh thinking I knew him, but later found out that we did not know each other at all. We have been married for 1 year.

Josh, what is one of your favorite things about Allie? Allie, what is what of your favorite things about Josh?

J: One of my favorite things about Allie is that she is very motivated when it comes to achieving her goals and life in general.

A: One of my favorite things about Josh is that he is very hard working—not just when it comes to his job/career but outside of his job as well.

What has been a day-to-day challenge of marriage that you weren’t necessarily expecting? How do you battle that challenge?

One of the day-to-day challenges that we face is communication when it comes to events in life. We are both very busy and we don’t have a set schedule, so it is hard to remember everything that we have going on in our lives. We battle that challenge by trying to keep a calendar, but sometimes we forget to put things on the calendar due to how busy we get (but we are trying to figure out a system for us that works!).

What is one of your favorite things about marriage? What do you love about it?!

One of our favorite things about marriage is always having someone there who supports you in your life and goals. We love that you can count on someone to be there when life gets tough, who will love you through thick and thin.

What is the hardest thing (or one of) that you have experienced in your marriage? How did you overcome this trial & how has it helped you grow/flourish as a couple?

One of the hardest things that we have experienced in our marriage would be finances. Due to Allie not having a steady income/consistent hours at her job, we have had to really budget and take a step back and see what we can and cannot afford. Initially, it wasn’t very hard because we didn’t have other expenses, but now that we have other expenses (such as a dog and the fact that we are redoing our whole house!), we really need to budget and see what we can do and how we can do it. We try to sit down each week, or every time we have to make a payment on something, to see how much we can afford (while still putting money into savings) and then look at what we are additionally able to do on the house or how much we can spend that week on something fun to do without going overboard. It’s a process that has been one of the hardest things we have encountered, but budgeting has been one of our best friends!

LOVE <3

The awesome “storm” lighting!!!