the story of us
The best way for me to remember the details is to go back through old photos. I have quite enjoyed writing this post you are about to read since I got to dig through thousands of pictures and reminisce about some of the best times of my life.
Stephanie came first. I met her in 2006 after she moved next door to one of my best friends. She and her husband (boyfriend at the time) quickly became part of our normal crew. Birthday parties, panther games, cookouts, you name it- we were together all of the time. Seeing as our first encounter was 6 years ago, putting us in our twenties, we could party a little bit more than we can today. Fortunately this made for some hilarious photos. Unfortunately, very few can be dispensed on the world wide web!
Stephanie moved away to Phoenix for a couple of years, but we kept in touch. She made it back to North Carolina for a few visits and it felt as though she never left town. Good friends are like that….no matter how long you go without seeing them, you can pick up right where you left off.
I first heard of Stephanie getting into photography when she lived in Phoenix and quickly fell in love with her style. I was honored to have been at her wedding, and blessed that she was a photographer at mine. Sometimes the love between two people can only be captured by those who know and love them best…what a true blessing it was to have my most precious moments captured by a true friend. She turned those moments into photos I will treasure forever.
I met Jenn next. Ironically, even though we both lived in Charlotte we actually met at a mutual friend’s wedding in Indiana. At the reception, we were sat at the same table with all of the Charlotte crew and as the night went on this became the “party table”. Jenn whipped some funny nerd glasses out of her purse for photos and at that moment I knew we were destined to be friends.
Jenn is one of the wittiest people I know and I am constantly cracking up when we hang out. I am amazed at her style and everything she touches has a unique, creative flair. Her house is decorated with her beautiful artwork and her little boy, Dyce is always styling in a super cool outfit.
Jenn is an awesome storyteller and writer. It has been so amazing to watch her become a mom and read about her journey through motherhood on her blog. I look forward to a lifelong friendship with her and a lifetime of stories with her perspective on life.
I met Mandi about three years ago when some mutual friends of ours started a co-ed softball team. The season didn’t go that well for our team, Shh-Booms, but we sure did have fun. Mandi is a graphic designer like me so we hit it off immediately. Since we both left our office jobs within the past year to pursue our freelance design dreams, we have been a huge support system for each other. I am grateful to have such an amazing friend to call upon with design related questions. Besides being a talented designer, she is super crafty and always finding a treasure at a roadside junkyard…she really should be on one of those “picker” shows!
Mandi helped organize “Whine Night” where a bunch of our girlfriends get together to drink wine, catch up and talk about whatever is going on in our lives. It is a ton of fun and we normally end up laughing our butts off. This new tradition started about two years ago and is still going strong.
We all owe Mandi credit for sparking the idea for this Sunny Slide Up project. She sent an email to Steph, Jenn and I about 4 months ago asking if we wanted to do a group project of some sort. In our wildest dreams we never would have imagined what this project has taken us!
