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Every year we take family photos to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It began the first summer Graham and I moved to Chicago, in 2015, when we contacted Abigail Joyce Photography to take photos of us with the Chicago skyline in the background. Since then we continued the tradition as our family has grown.
I loved the location at a park in Oak Brook (a Chicago suburb) for our fifth anniversary session. It was gorgeous with lots of yellow flowers and a barn, especially in the evening light.
Buy the dress from Carter’s.
A’s dress was from Children’s Place. Her shoes were from Old Navy.
This year I chose a dark teal lace dress from Bella Ella Boutique for the photos. I bought white and gold dresses for the girls, which they wore with gold shoes. Graham matched the girls with his long-sleeve polo that he wore with jeans. I tried to get Addi to wear a bow, but she refused. V looked adorable in a gold-sequin headband to match her gold sequin tulle dress.
We matched the barn!
In this photo we were laughing because I could not take direction to spin with Graham well. Oops!
I will cherish these photos forever.
But I have to admit something: I left the session thinking it didn’t go well. Addi would not sit still for a photo. It was almost bedtime, so I think I should have chosen a slightly earlier session time. I also wasn’t sure if she was even smiling or looking at the camera. At some points she ran away or toward the camera. I was also frazzled because we were late after there was more traffic than we anticipated. In short: I felt like we’d be lucky to get a good family photo out of the session. But as usual Abbey showed us that you should always trust your photographer! She wouldn’t have moved on to a different pose if she didn’t think we got the shot. She did an amazing job as usual and I love our photos. I highly recommend Abigail Joyce Photography if you live in the Chicago area! She’s great with kids and shoots at beautiful locations.
