Couples | Bicentennial State Park + John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge

Grant and Allie celebrated their first year of marriage with a beautiful downtown Nashville shoot. It was sweet, sentimental, fun, and hilarious to say the least.

We started the shoot at Bicentennial State Park, where the two of them first sat down to eat some wedding cake. There’s a tradition where you save your wedding cake topper, freeze it, and then one year later, enjoy it together as a couple as you reminisce about the past year. So that’s exactly what we did! As Grant and Allie were sitting down to eat the cake, a family nearby asked if we wanted bubbles in the background of the photos. We said yes, and so they ate wedding cake together with bubbles in the background.

Fun and romantic right?

After that, we ran around a little bit, and then the two of them read letters to each other. At their wedding a year ago, they weren’t able to write their vows (I mean, there’s a LOT of writing just for grad school, ya know) and so having this time, a year later, to remember why they said “I do” was sweet and so lovingly intentional. After that, we headed over to the classic, yet always perfectly stunning, Nashville Pedestrian Bridge and watched the sun set over this fabulous evening. They wore corona masks, and we even remade a scene from the Lion King .

But guys. The best part of this evening was just hanging out with these two. Allie and I had overlapped for one year back at Vanderbilt and we were in the same sorority, but this evening was just fun to hang out with her and meet her husband! The way they interacted with each other just really reminded me of how marriage is not about superficial attractiveness and just finding the other person hilarious. It’s about being intentional and finding joy in the hard things. It’s about going on walks just to be with the other person. It’s about being okay with being quarantined 24/7 with the other person and loving it. It’s about dinners on the balcony. It’s about being semi-okay with not going on a trip to Scotland because of quarantine, and instead finding adventure in Nashville, because adventure is with the other person. These two showed me how sweet marriage can be, when Christ is the foundation of the marriage and forgiveness, love, and joy abound.

These two are just so perfect for each other. If you want to see what joy looks like, take a scroll through these photos. I promise they won’t disappoint!