You might remember reading a bit about my brother-in-law, Tom, and his wife, Katie, a couple weeks ago on Memorial Day here. Well, Rob and I spent the weekend visiting them in North Carolina and I thought, being a Washington, DC anniversary photographer, that some new photos might be a wonderful gift to thank them for being such thoughtful hosts and celebrate their second year of marriage!

Tom and Katie were married in December 2012, but their story starts way before then. They both grew up in Stafford, VA, less than 10 minutes from where the other lived. By the chance of zoning, they ended up attending different high schools. It’s a relatively small area where schools tend to mix, so they knew each other by name, but hadn’t ever really had the chance to talk. Luckily that changed when Tom went to visit JMU in 2009, where Katie attended college, the same weekend she was having a birthday party. (Fun fact: Rob and I also met at my birthday party at JMU — weird!) They hit it off immediately and spent the summer getting to know one another.

To say “the rest is history” would be unfair to how much dedication they each put in to making the relationship last. For the next year, Tom was at GMU while Katie finished up at JMU — a solid 3 hours apart. Tom then graduated college and had to start spending months away from home on various Marine training courses. Meanwhile, Katie immediately started grad school, requiring an additional 2 years at JMU. There were countless hours spent by both of them driving to and from, just to see each other for a day or two at most.

After all that, they are finally able to live their lives together now in NC. They have such a beautiful house that’s only minutes away from the beach, which is where we decided to do their shoot. I hope you enjoy their beach session as much as I do!