42 Year Anniversary Photoshoot – Lake Orion, Michigan

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to do a couple’s shoot for my parents. But as it goes, life and work got in the way. There was always another session, another consultation, or someone else’s photos waiting in my editing queue. Thanks to 2020….I had quite a few more openings in my calendar this year! With the extra wiggle room on my schedule, I called them up one weekend and said “dress cute, I’m taking you on an adventure!”. We had the best time together and I know that I’m going to treasure these photos just as much (or possibly more!) as they will.

Granted, it was a little bit meta to be photographing my own parents professionally, haha! As a wedding + engagement photographer for going on five years, I have a whole arsenal of poses, leading actions, jokes, and cues to get the perfect shot. For example, I always tell my clients to “walk forward really slowly and try to hip bump each other while kissing at the same time.” Whiiiiich is basically impossible and feels so ridiculous to try that it always makes my clients actually laugh, which makes for adorable photos. Well, I told my parents to do that and my dad looked at me and asked if I “really get people to do this”! The answer is yes. And I got them to do it, too and the photo turned out way too cute!!

 

42 years.

 

This anniversary was a big one for my parents because they’re celebrating 42 years of marriage! Their love story goes like this…

Met in the 8th grade when my dad was the new kid having just immigrated from Germany to a rural Michigan farm town.

They started dating at 16…one of their first dates was a movie theatre drive in to see the first ever Star Wars movie!

Said “I do.” right out of high school at 18 and 19.

They ran a huge dairy farm throughout the 80s and had 3 kids before their 5th year of marriage.

In the 90s they lived in Frankenmuth, my dad worked a full time job, went to college at night, and my mom ran the roost while homeschooling me and my 5 sisters.

Now, they’re still living happily ever after.

 

When asked what the secret behind 42 years of marriage they said…

 

“Compromise. Don’t stop talking. Don’t loose your love. Some times it can be tough, but you have to keep communicating, keep trying to understand each other… and making out is always fun hahaha”

Whats your favorite thing about each other?

Dad – “She loves me.” (ummm, AWWWW much???!!!)

Mom – “He’s very steady. He’s even keeled, while I can be really spontaneous….he always seems to be able to see the okay part….and he’s never way up or way down…he’s always holding us in the middle.”

What is something you wish someone had told you when you got married?

Mom – “I dunno…I think we did alright. We learned from our parents mistakes and other people mistakes and we tried to not do those things. We just determined we were always committed to each other. There were moments when we thought ‘Okay, I’m done. I’ve had enough’, but we take our commitment and our covenant that it was ‘Death till we part’ very seriously and we kept that promise to each other. We had the same goals. My goal was to make your dad successful and his goal was always to make me happy.”

 

Well, time for me to keep ooh-ing and ahh-ing over this anniversary shoot. <3 Happy 42 and a big cheers to many, many more.

 

Liv