“Before Lauren and I started dating, I was walking the hallways of our high school between classes, and I turned a corner and ended up right behind Lauren. I had such a huge crush on her for… oh I don’t know… two years. But she was always unavailable and I was always an awkward shy teenager (also unavailable). During my senior year we started talking quite a bit in our creative writing class and we were bouncing around the idea of me going over to her parent’s house to work on a project for our class. Which was exciting. Still, I wasn’t sure if she was interested in me. So when I turned the corner and saw her and yelled out “Hey Lauren” I didn’t expect her recognize my voice, turn on her heel, and gave me this look.

And that was the first time I knew for sure that she liked me too.

I haven’t seen the look since that day but it’s been etched into my mind ever since. I’ve tried to explain it for Lauren to mimic, but the details are so subtle and I find it very hard to explain. We never seem to get it just right. So I was pretty excited when I saw this photo Emily Weis shot just a week or two ago. I don’t know what she said or did to bring this out of Lauren but I’m happy I got to see this face again.

So thank you to Emily for capturing this photo and for giving me a print. Now I get to see this face everyday.”

-Michael Parker (Lauren’s husband)

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Michael & Lauren, you have no idea how much this story and photograph mean to me.  Thank you, Lauren, for your help in the making of this image and thank you for sharing this story, Michael.  The words and sweet stories you often share about Lauren show the immense amount of love you have for Lauren and your marriage.  I’m so grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to get to know both of you.

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*Michael and Lauren were married last May, but Lauren stepped into her dress to help me with a special task (more on that later) a couple of weeks ago.