You're probably here because you agree with me that Olivia and Francis are one of the most adorable couples ever. Right? RIGHT??
They are both from Hong Kong, and both moved to Vancouver in the same year with their families - but they didn't know each other at that point. Years passed, they met and fell in love and got married. BUT - and here is where this session comes in - they have been doing long-distance for nearly all of that time.
When Olivia contacted me, she said she wanted a styled shoot (I love styled shoots) and she also said that the theme was to be "long-distance". Having done long-distance myself for a year and a half, I got very excited. I started tossing out idea after idea of how we could make this session amazing, and each one made me more excited than the last. So, when we pulled up to Spanish Banks Beach, I knew this session was going to be fun.
Olivia walked up to me holding a seeded dandelion and wearing yellow, and Francis looked at her with so much love in his eyes, and the way they held hands and the way he watched her laugh, and the way she threw her whole self into her laugh, and the joy they had in each other - simply beautiful. They would be together for just a few days more before he had to leave, and I could see that they were reluctant to let go of each other.
One of my ideas was to pin memories of their long-distance relationship onto a string held between them, symbolizing the ways they showed their love even when not present. So they brought along a plastic bag filled with cards they had sent each other, and little notes they had written each other; they laughed rememberingly as they pulled them out of the bag. Carefully, we attached them to the string, along with daisies and paper airplanes, and they stood in the golden sunset light, connected in spite of the distance.
And here it is: their long-distance love story.
