Let me just start out by saying how excited I am to share these pictures with you!!
My sister, Sarah, and I met Ricky and Jessica last fall, and it wasn't long before Jessica and I happily discovered we were both starting photography businesses. (You can see her beautiful work here and here!) So I was absolutely elated when she asked me if I would shoot hers and Ricky's engagement pictures! I knew we would have a ball- they are so much fun to be around. She couldn't have picked a more beautiful location: their wedding venue, the Oak Crest Mansion Inn in Pass Christian.
So one beautiful early summer evening, I had the incredible blessing of taking pictures of Ricky and Jessica, hoping I could somehow capture their wonderful personalities and their love for one another. Jessica and I had plenty of ideas between the two of us, so it was never a dull moment. I think they forever spoiled me by being the most amazing couple ever! I completely fell in love with every single shot I took- you'll see why!- and I had the hardest time narrowing it down to a few dozen to share with you here on the blog.
So grab your coffee or tea (you might need iced, in this summer heat!) and enjoy the beautiful story that is Ricky and Jessica's...
Like a river flows, surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life, too
For I can't help falling in love with you
Can't Help Falling in Love | Elvis Presley
They met at a young adults’ Bible study through their church. He was from the local area; she was an Army brat who had lived in several different places. Her first impression of him was that he was cute, but he didn’t seem like her type; so serious and quiet.
His first impression of her? Well, she drove a Volvo station wagon, and everybody he ever met who drove a Volvo station wagon was smart…so he figured she must be smart, too.
They didn’t talk much at the Bible study, but six months later he decided to change that and asked someone else at the study for her number. So he called her. Recalling that first conversation, she wrote, “…he told me about how he came to faith in Christ and how he had been walking with the Lord for ten years. I couldn't help but be moved by the fact that he first thing he wanted to tell me about himself was how he became a Christian.”
Over the next year and a half, Ricky became Jessica’s best friend. Impressions changed; she found out he wasn’t always serious and had a very fun-loving and silly side to him after all.
She watched as he cared for his mother, who was very sick and needed daily care. He faithfully attended to her needs until she passed away late last summer. She realized the prayer she’d long prayed for a good-hearted man was answered.
He liked how she and his mother got along, and, before she passed away, she told him, “I think Jessica is going to be your wife.”
She wrote, “Ricky has always put
God before our relationship, and my heart has always been to marry the kind of
man who will put God before me, because only then can he truly love me.”
So, last December, he decided it
was time to ask her a certain special question…
But his carefully-laid plans to
sit under a beautiful, lit-up tree in a park in downtown New Orleans weren’t
going too well. The place was a zoo with people everywhere; not the quiet,
magical moment he’d pictured.
It was a rough night for her as
well. She’d just come back from a trip to California and was battling the flu.
She was suspicious that he’d propose, though, and really wanted him to. After
all, her dad had let the cat out of the bag…he sent her a text while she was in
California saying that some guy had just asked him if it would be okay to ask
for her hand!
{Favorite!}
But the night wore on…they kept
walking and kept walking for probably close to two hours. He got frustrated.
They left the park. She wondered…either he really took Christmas lights
seriously, or he was really stressed out because he was about to propose!
So they went to Café du Monde.
She was feeling horrible by this time, so they decided to leave there, too...
But
he asked if they could walk up a little hill overlooking the Mississippi River.
He read a poem to her that he had
written, followed by that question he’d been wanting to ask her all evening.
She was so sick that the poem and proposal were a blur, but she said yes! “I
probably hugged him awkwardly…as I tried to keep my face far away from his so
he wouldn’t catch the flu, too!”
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Never mind the flu, the crowds in
the park, or the rest of the plans that weren't going too well that December
evening.
Ricky and Jessica were united as one in an absolutely beautiful
ceremony on the grounds of the Oak Crest on April 28th...and if you head over
to the fabulously talented Lateisha Plascencia's website you can see a bit
of the gorgeousness that was their wedding!
Ricky and Jessica, you two are
just the best and it has been such a joy to get to know you a little bit over
the past few months! May the LORD richly bless you as you seek to follow Him
together!
Because of Jesus,
Rebekah
