Memorial Park | Jacksonville, Florida

Twenty-six years of marriage is something to be celebrated. Kimberly and Phil wanted to capture that love with a anniversary session. We meet at St. Paul’s Catholic Church where they originally exchanged vows. Then headed to Memorial Park to make some new memories. They met in 1990. Phil was a ballroom dance instructor and was teaching a women Kim worked with. She was about 15 years older and was coming on to him when he told said she wasn’t his type. So, she asked what was his type. He replied, long red hair with ringlets, nice looking, smart and sassy. She said, I work with her. That same coworker told Kim about a party at the dance studio. It was there that they first meet, danced and fell in love.

Phil was going into the army to fly helicopters and Kim was going to college. They wrote to each other while he was away and on one visit home, he proposed at a park on their favorite bench. They were suppose to get married on February 9th – the anniversary of the day they met, but the Army and Desert Storm had another idea. That meant planning their wedding in less than two weeks. Because they were so young, Kim hadn’t finished paying for her dress, so she had to get married in a white suit instead. They had a simple wedding and moved to Alaska right after where Phil was stationed.

For years, Kim had dreamed about having professional pictures taken. One day, Phil said, why don’t we just do it and stop talking about it. Thats were I came in. I had just shot Kim’s niece Jessica’s wedding and they reached out to me about capturing this special anniversary session. It was hard not to get caught up in the emotion in the day. Kim finally got to wear the dress she bought 26 years ago. I was super impressed that it fit perfectly. I asked Kim what her favorite part was and she said, “It was a story book day with lots of sweet kisses, gentle nuzzles and little giggles. I am truly blessed that my husband was so willing to make my wedding picture dreams come true.”

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