sitting along shore the puget sound, a cottage dressed in black and white waited patiently for guests to arrive. it was july, after the pandemic, and everything felt like the turn of a new leaf. there was no doubt gabriella would marry her soulmate at the same cottage she grew up escaping to. her grandparents had lived many different seasons of life within these walls, and alongside this sliver of the sound. it’s where gabriella knew love to be true, where she had seen it from the start. their love for this island, this soil, this view, this lifetime, only grew stronger with each visit. as their loved ones arrived, we settled down below where the water hit stone, they wed under a weepy cedar tree, and we cried as the wake splashed. they danced all night, and tucked away to their own cottage just down the street where they shared their very first home together.

as seasons change, and they revisit the cottage, it’s almost as if you can still hear the clinking of the champagne flutes, or see the glimmer of sparklers as they drove off. it’s the same sunset, same soil, same love, it only gets sweeter from here.