hagerstown, md wedding photographer | crystal + michael.

Sometimes, when I ask a couple how they met, it's an easy story. Sometimes just one or two lines - we had a class together in college, he's friends with my brother, we used to work together. Or in the case of Michael and Crystal, a meeting across the pew at church. But you have to back up, you have to go across the world to Kenya where Michael was born to two missionary parents far, far away from tiny Hagerstown, MD where Crystal lived.

I talked to Crystal about him before they were engaged, I asked how things were going and if there might maybe be a ring in the future? She shrugged a little and said his parents lived in Africa and they only came home every few years, so if they didn't get married the next summer, who knows when it might happen? Well, happen it did. On June 28 it happened and people came from all over to see it - from Africa, from Texas, from what I think was England based on his accent but I can't really be sure.

Crystal + Mike played a slideshow before their ceremony began and I took a mental note to ask him later how exactly he ended up in Maryland. (He wanted to go to an American high school, so he moved back to Texas where his Dad has some family. After graduation, he took a job in Hagerstown because he had some family a few hours away. Next, he found a church and a pretty girl, they shared a cup from the Keurig in the Sunday School room and now they're together forever. Surely there is not one for the other than these two.) But somewhere through the dozens of photos there was one that made me stop - they were at the beach, the wind is making her bangs look crazy, Michael has his arm slung tight around her shoulder and she's looking straight at the camera with a smile. But he's not. He's looking at her with a smile splitting across his tanned face and there it is. You can't miss true love.

I'm so happy for you guys! Enjoy the sneaky peaky. :)