In our five years in business we’ve photographed countless weddings and families, and usually everyone is oohing and ahhing over the bride or especially the adorable smiling (or sometimes not smiling) children.  But when I look on through our images, there’s a group out there that is often overlooked in all the fanfare and fluff and I noticed some pretty sweet things going on with the often overlooked Dads.  Everyone jokes that they’re just an accessory, or they’re there to be photographed with empty pockets at the end of the night, but we see them a little differently.  We see you Dad, tenderly waiving at your little princess as she struts down the aisle and can barely contain her excitement when she sees you.  We see those tears in your eyes when you look at your little girl in that white gown for the first time and can’t believe what a beautiful woman she has grown to be.  We see you when you give your little girl a quick snuggle on her christening day.

We see you standing tall as the central figure in your beautiful family, and as you wait like a super-hero for the arrival of your son. We melt when we watch you in the final moments of getting dressed on your daughter’s wedding day and you can’t stop kissing her on the forehead, and cry a little tear when we learned of your passing and realized that this was one of the final images taken with her. We watch you joyfully greet your daughter moments after she descends down the aisle, and you greet the little girl you walked down the aisle just moments ago as a now married woman.

We see you, Dad, as you lift the veil from her beautiful face and give her away to the man she loves, and we can’t help but beam along with you when we see the look of pride on your face during your father/daughter dance at her wedding. Or better yet, when you’ve practiced a surprise dance with your little girl, and you bust out a whip-nae-nae with her … we’re watching. We laugh along with you when your family joyfully jokes that we need to photograph you with your cellphone, because its what you are always doing … but we know you aren’t ignoring them and that those phone calls are how you support your beautiful family.

We see you when your cheeks look like they are about to break because of the smile on your face when you are holding the love of your life. And we note when you, Dad, were so overjoyed that the adoption of your child was going through, you had your favorite words from his adoption papers tattooed on your arm. We’ve taken note of those moments when your children look up to you and you so tenderly and patiently answer their questions and we’re watching when you’re spinning your little girl around on the dance floor and the joy comes dripping from the corners of your eyes.

We see all of these Dad moments and we want to take a few moments to honor them this weekend. We know you don’t always want to dress up and sit in a scratchy shirt and sit for photos Dad, but when you do, and we capture these moments for your family forever, you have given the gift of memory, the gift of your legacy to your family and for that, Dad, you are AWESOME!