Last week until the day after the Fourth of July holiday Cory and I visited his family in Fernandina Beach, Florida. We went for a little vacation and also to witness, celebrate and photograph Cory’s sister, Katie marry Ryan! It was the perfect brunch wedding on the island where we got to walk around the old town for some portraits. There will be so much more on the blog about their wedding day and how I was a guest and a photographer for the occasion at a later date! Today, I wanted to share just a few photographs of their wedding day as well as some from our trip on the other days that we were there.

We left on the first flight out of the airport when our trip came to an end. Let’s just say we were up at 3am and at the airport by 3:30am, with no coffee to help! We left with full hearts knowing that now it will only be a few more weeks until Cory’s parents come up here to visit us! It was a lot of fun seeing more of Cory’s hometown, visiting for the second time and I loved it! It reminds me of a more tropical Outer Banks and I LOVE the Outer Banks! Our trip was packed with quality time with his parents and quality time for the two of us. This included biking half the length of the entire island one day where Cory took me to part of the island where wild peacocks live. I like to say wild peacocks because the only ones I had seen before this were the ones at the Norfolk Zoo, that usually are on top of the red barns. I approached these peacocks and Cory warned me that they can be aggressive. Aggressive peacocks??? They are so pretty, I just do not believe him! I have a video of one walking right up to me to prove that they aren’t shy! Another day we took a morning river cruise with Katie and Ryan to see Cumberland Island where only a few homes exist, the rest is a natural wildlife preserve and is home to wild horses. I am telling you this place is more and more like the Outer Banks! Except it has palm trees, alligators and wild peacocks! On July 4th, Cory and I biked our way to the beach, which below is the beach access only a mile from his parents home. We swam in the ocean a little bit, talked about our trip and how much fun it had been and then biked home to grill out with his parents!    Katie and Ryan’s wedding day was the highlight of our trip of course! I will be blogging all about their wedding at a later date but I wanted to share some of my favorites so far and also some photographs that don’t usually make it to the blog! For example, a family portrait that I am in 🙂 and the sweetest brother and sister formal portrait that turned into a candid moment between Cory and Katie!    I made it into the family portrait! Below is one of my favorite pictures because I am so honored to become a part of Cory’s family next year! I got to spend more quality time with Katie on this trip and we talked about how we are excited to become sisters which I could have easily gotten emotional about. This photograph below of a brother and sister, who happen to be my fiancé and soon to be sister-in-law, is something I love so much! One of the things I love most about Cory, and there are countless things that I love about him, is his relationship with his family. It is bittersweet that this amazing family does not get to meet my brother Richard but I know I will be in good hands, and that hopefully, somehow, my brother had a little something to do with my fate when they came into my life.