Crystal + Sam | Southern Oregon Couples Photographer

I woke up when it was still dark (which isn’t saying too much, these days), and I hit the road to pick up this adorable duo, Sam and his bride, Crystal. She so very kindly brought a coffee just for me, and off we went. I had a vision of a moody, horses-and-fog scene, with these two right in the middle. I truly cannot say enough kind things about them; they put up with every pose, change, and idea, and did so with huge smiles on their faces.It had been about three years since they’ve had their professional portraits done (I know, right? They’re way too gorgeous to let that time pass again!), and Crystal adds, “We have also changed so much in that three years, physically and emotionally. We wanted to capture our love and laughter in the raw, and Allie was the right person for that. She had an amazing vision.” I know it’s a bit of a crazy tale, but these two actually met on Instagram! Crystal posted a photo on Instagram of a man giving his shoes to an orphan child. "I added a few hashtags (including #jesus). One day, over in Australia, Sammy was searching #jesus and browsing the photos. He stumbled upon my photo, liked, then commented "Amazing! Powerful" on it. I saw this and thought, "who is this random bloke commenting on my photo?" I went to his page, liked a couple of his random photographs, then he came back to one of my photos of a guitar”, explains Crystal.  "He commented, "so you play guitar?" We started chatting about how we are both musicians and bonded so quickly. 53 comments later, we took our conversation to a texting app. We fell in love super quick and never looked back. #Jesus being at the center of everything!” The day they began talking was in January of 2012, and they were married in October of 2013. Although their love story was so beautiful and sounds like a fairy tale, they had major changes ahead after their wedding. "Sam being from Australia has been so hard on us. It's such a unique matrimony of two different cultures. Don't get me wrong, we are BLESSED, and we are PERFECT for one another, but Sam gave up a lot to move to America to marry me”, continues Crystal, "He gave up not only his country, but his continent, band, family, friends, church, and job. Americans have a different way about them and Australian jokes and culture don't really fit in as easily here. He misses the ease of life over there. But we both know that we were meant to be here in Southern Oregon (at least for the time being), and Sam was planted in the right place for him to grow more quickly than he would have anywhere else. God is gracious and we know that firsthand."As they’ve learned more about each other, they both say the values that have held their marriage together are keeping Christ at the center of their lives, extending grace towards one another, and keeping their sense of humor! I adore these two, and am so grateful they helped bring this session’s vision to life. Thank you both for sharing your story and allowing me to capture it on camera!