A. René Photography: Jesse+Phil

I don't ever remember meeting Jesse. She was always my friend for as far back as I can remember. When I turned three, she took the liberty of blowing out the candles on my birthday cake [I cried]. When I was five, I carried around in my pocket a stick-figure scribble I had drawn with the name "Jesse" written above it. When I was sad, because we all know five-year-olds get sad, I would take it out and look at it.

Double family vacation 1996, Myrtle Beach SC - L to R Jamie, Jesse, my brother Nicholas, me, my sister Angela.

Best friends.

When we were still girls we would make beds for every.single.stuffed.animal we owned (Jesse owns a lot of stuffed animals). We would make dust of stick after stick of sidewalk chalk until her mom threatened to never buy any more. We made up our own Power Rangers adventures - she always got to be Kimberly (the pink one), and I got to be Jason. Lucky me. ;) We even once threw rocks wrapped in leaves at cars as they drove by. [gulp] That didn't last long. [To the lady in the white mustang - I'm sorry. Really, I am. I didn't even think my aim would actually hit your windshield.]

Family fun day at Mosquito Lake maybe 1998? - You can see Jesse's eyes were just as blue back then!

We hit the preteen years with as much giggly awkwardness as most, and made up dances to Backstreet Boys songs in our front yards. We spent 16 hours a week toning every muscle in our little bodies with our competitive gymnastics team, and talked non-stop the whole 45 minutes there, and then back again. God bless our mothers. We rocked it out to MmmBop, and had secret (and not so secret) crushes on Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Leonardo DiCapro, and then Orlando Bloom.

2008, fresh out of high school.

The fall that we were fifteen my family moved 45 minutes south and our visits and time together got less frequent. But to this day, whenever we get together it's like no time has been lost at all. Jesse, her older sister Jamie, my sister, and I are all still the best of friends. We've made memories in the last 5+ years sleeping in tents and scaring ourselves silly, eating whole half gallons of ice cream late at night, watching old "family" videos, and other more grown up adventures that make our bellies ache with laughter to think of.

My wedding June 2010

Summer of 2011 - triple breakfast date in Charlotte

Long introduction, I realize. When Jesse asked me to take pictures of her and Phil while I was up in Ohio earlier this month, I just busted with excitement. Together, these two will make you laugh out loud! Their love languages are sarcasm, tickling, pinching and mischievous antics. Then, there are those moments, in between the laughing, the eye rolling, and the smacking, where their love just glows. You can see Phil's tenderness, and just how happy he makes her.

I'll start off with my favorite, since I did so much talking: