Sandra & Daniel

Nobody expected snow. It started just as Sandra stepped into the backyard of their home in a white faux-fur wrap, flakes drifting past the bare trees while Daniel waited with his back turned. It was quick and light and gone almost as soon as they'd seen each other, which made those few frames feel lucky. Their original plan had been a New Year's celebration, and when the world made that complicated, they kept the spirit and changed the shape.

Before anyone left the house, an older man in a blue suit held a brass crucifix over the two of them in the living room, framed family photos lined up on the shelf behind them. Their Polish traditions ran through the whole day, and the Catholic ceremony took place in a church with a towering carved altar, stained glass and white tulle bows on every pew. Bridesmaids in silver sequins and white wraps sat together in the front rows, bouquets resting on the pew backs.

Then it was on to Cascade, where string lights woven through the hedges were already glowing against the winter dusk. Sandra and Daniel stood on the brick path between the stones and the evergreens, and I had just enough light left for one quiet portrait before the doors opened. After that, the plan inside was to party like it was New Year's Eve, with every friend and relative they'd been waiting to celebrate with.