Looking at these images below, it blows my mind how much can change in such a short time. Back in 2016, I moved into a townhouse in Charlottesville with my first ever roommates. Obviously, as the years pass by, people get new jobs and move on to new places so my first roommates left after a couple years and that’s when I welcomed McKenna and Autumn as my new roommates. I was always so nervous about finding people to live with because I had big dreams of living with girls who loved the Lord and who I could be close friends with. Well, God couldn’t have answered my prayer better. McKenna and Autumn quickly became my best friends. We did just about everything together as single women in our little townhouse for the 3 or so years we lived together. We spent our days laughing together, crying together, sharing our faith with each other, and growing as people.

The three of us were single the majority of the time we lived together and while we talked often about dating/marriage when and if God would have that for us, it didn’t happen immediately. Our friendship continued to grow as we shared in singleness together but as life often does, it eventually threw a couple of men in the mix. Haha! Aaron popped into the picture with Autumn and Bobby popped into the picture with McKenna around the same time. I got to know the two of these guys better as time went on and knew as the months passed that it wouldn’t be long before they were both engaged.

I’m not going to lie — I struggled being the only single girl in the house. Things obviously change when both your best friends start dating but I leaned into Jesus a lot during that time. I was so excited for them and continued to pray that God would give me peace in my situation, regardless of what that looked like. But I definitely desired marriage and seeing how happy both Autumn and McKenna were, I knew I would be so grateful if that day ever came for me.

I don’t remember how long McKenna and Autumn were dating before Sam came into my life but it was probably only about six to eight months. Sam and I started dating not too long before both McKenna and Autumn got engaged and it was so fun to share in that season with them with Sam by my side. I was honestly in shock that all of us were dating at the same time and felt like God couldn’t have written a cooler story.

So fast forward about six months and they both ended up getting married in the summer of 2019. Then in September, Sam and I got engaged and in November we got married. It all happened pretty fast for all of us but it seriously is the craziest God-thing that we all ended up in that season around the same time.

Walking into marriage at the same time as two of your best friends is the coolest, most special thing. While McKenna and Autumn had a little head-start on me, we shared so many things together over the last year and I truly feel so blessed. And not only did we get to share our first year of marriage with each other, but the guys did too! And what’s even more fun for me than walking through marriage at the same time as my best friends has been seeing all our couple friendships grow.

Back in the winter, right after Sam and I got married, Autumn and I got together to plan a beach trip for all of us! We wanted to do something with the six of us so we ended up doing an Outer Banks trip in early June this year and it was one of my highlights of this year. With all the Covid-19 stuff and the stress of 2020, we were able to relax and just enjoy being together. It was such a blast and we’ve made a pact that this has to happen every year from now on. Haha.

I’m so thankful I got to take a few couples shots of these sweet friends to remember our trip! So for those of you who don’t know McKenna, Bobby, Autumn, and Aaron, here you go! Hope you love scrolling through some of my favorite beach shots from Jockeys Ridge!

Outer Banks Photographer | Jockeys Ridge Beach Couples Shoot