There were so many perfect moments that happened during Natalie & Jane’s elopement, and the more I captured their day, the more I realized how amazing these two were. How much love they had for each other. And it is crazy to think that there was a time when same-sex elopement was not legally allowed. But being there, all of the witnesses were filled with joy, and hope and courage and pride and everything that love allows us all to feel.

A favorite moment that stood out to me was right after I had finished photographing Jane’s immediate family portraits and I asked Natalie to join them in photos. While she walked towards them, Jane’s family cheered and laughed and welcomed the newest member of their family with arms wide open and eyes filled with so much love, that I celebrated even more!

Jane & Natalie asked their closest friends to read the passage below. A passage from the day that marriage equality was legalized.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were, as some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, exclude from one civilization’s oldest institution. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”