introducing katie + michael

what a whimsical, wonderful, MEANINGFUL celebration!

stay tuned ~ slideshow and images coming soon!!

happy new year!!!!!

~amy

not that they've all been mailed yet . . .

but from our house to yours:

front:

back:

jana + barry = WOW

so i dropped in to say goodmorning to jana and the girls

(they'd had a slumber party at her parents' house the night before)

and what did i find but MONKEY BREAD on the counter. (!)

oh that takes me back!

and MORE good news!!

it wasn't long after i showed up that a present from barry showed up, too.

ooooooooh my:

and jana had found (and created!) something INCREDIBLE for barry as well:

(that's a signed and framed jersey ~ and beside it, one HAPPY barry and a few envious friends.)

beautiful, thoughtful and kind.

oh jana!

what joy!!!

december in missouri is generally less-than-lovely,

so we'd brainstormed about special locations for their "first look" and wedding party picture.

see what we found:

when we create "first look" pictures like these:

it's hard to believe any couple would opt for the "not see each other before the ceremony" route.

you just don't get these expressions at the top of the aisle. (nor the just-the-two-of-you moments.....)

[OK, that came out stronger than intended....see caviat (*) below]

but . . . . mmmm . . . . . . WOW:

sometimes portraits get made:

sometimes they just seem to happen!

seeing HOW people FEEL about each other in pictures . . . whew nothing makes us happier.

the first of these below . . . jana + barry's first dance. the second, much later in the night.

i HEART them both!

and speaking of FIRST DANCES.

oh THIS is love!

teeeee-heee.

that's barry's brother and cousin back there (yep DURING the first dance, those crazy kids):

[LOVE IT - LOVE IT - LOVE IT!! and destined to be come a family --and SilverBox-- classic!]

cousins. gotta love 'em!

when i was little girl i thought my older cousin cherri walked on water.

she was beautiful and smart and sooo grown up!

and she always wore the coolest clothes.

and her hair seemed to always look PERFECT (she was like 17, i was probably 8 or 9)

me: awkward, clueless and hating it. cherri: grace, charm + style.

and she loved LOVED the bee-gees, so of COURSE i did, too!

the result: even today i can "sing" nearly every bee-gees song.

not sing well, but you know.

looking for the reason this "cousin" chatter is included? ~ it's more than slideshow foreshadowing and a walk down memory lane i tell ya:

the MUSICIAN you'll hear while you look at even more pictures of BARRY + JANA's WEDDING is the "kid-cousin"

to one of our "founding" SilverBox brides.

she was actually called "little cousin mary" and these days she's all grown up but lives and works on a little island ~

WAIT!-sounding familiar? scroll on down and you'll read all about her and her recent engagement session.

but at THIS moment in time, mary day is in a supporting role and oh we love her (even more) for it.

CLICK here if you've yet to see the whole show!

and barry, jana, mary day (for the music), annika miller (for some amazing photographs and your wonderful assistance)

thank you so very much for inviting me into your lives.

life is good!

~amy

my caveat afterthought:

*there are at least two other great options if your day or ideals don't lean toward incorporating a "first look" --

one is what kristen graham and adam brown did: when they walked out of the church, they spent some "just the two of them" time before their friends and family joined them. they'd "Seen Each Other" only during the ceremony, but hadn't really had a chance to "Be Together" -- we got some stuff!! the other is what jodi + scott and natalie + ryan did: they left time after group pictures with everyone else had been created for time just for the two of them. their ceremony had been early in the day, so their couple pictures were the last thing they did before joining their reception and thus we created pictures of the two of them in the best outdoor light of all.

ok, and now and embedded view of the unfolding of barry + jana's day. ENJOY!

sneak peak :: jana + barry . . .

. . . or at least jana!

i'm in love with this image:

ohh-la-la

i've added several layers of texture. (including a replica of the wrought-iron detail)

not suuure that's the right call, so i'll show jana both versions.

i'm seeing this one as big canvas. oh i LOVE it!

~amy

mike + mary :: faith, hope + love in hope town

the word for the day: dramedy.

that's my life.

i just saw it on wikipedia.

not my life; "dramedy" ~ surely i'd heard it before, but guess i'd forgotten about ol' dramedy.

the word was almost FLEISCHMAN because tycho (our 8 year old who now wears glasses!) says "fleischman" so darn cute.

why does he say fleischman? well . . .

[THIS is going to take some background, i can tell.]

so my ULTIMATE GOAL is for you to meet mike + mary.

i led with their slideshow in case you just couldn't wait.

CLICK HERE to go straight to their abaco island slideshow in separate window.

but i'm thinking of taking you to hope town via cicely, alaska . . .

ready for this?!

so years ago, paul + i chose to not have cable tv in our house.

at the time, it was probably a combination budget decision with us wanting to limit TV content (and thus limit TV time in general) for our kids.

our goal was to have the kinds of kids who don't sit around and watch cartoons 24-7 but would play outside or play with each other, or build legos or read or pretty much anything instead.

BUT we didn't want TV in general to get some sort of sacred fruit appeal.

so that was the compromise: no cable. thus the cartoons you can see in our house air through PBS -- except for saturday morning. seems good.

THIS you may know:

there are times when there is NOTHING on network tv.

and though avery, zoe, and tycho do read and build blocks (tycho) -- and crafting is avery's big thing, sometimes they're in the mood for tv...

...yet nothing's on.

the result: they've each amassed some quirky dvd favorites. the first time tycho saw an episode of northern exposure he was 6 years old and he LOVED it.

(btw: he called it northern explosion instead.)

what a funny show for a little boy to love. no battles. no action. just stories.

mike + mary . . . never seen it.

neither one of them. (!)

paul + i found ourselves trying to explain it: could seinfield or friends have come to be without northern exposure?

it was like sex and the city without sex or the city.

realizing you (fictional blog reader) might have more in common with mike + mary than paul and i, here's a bit of background:

cicely, alaska was the setting and fleischman a young jewish doctor who had just finished med school in NY + was brought to town by the mayor, a former astronaut: maurice.

the town needed a doctor. some sort of deal was made to forgive joel fleischman's med school loans for serving this under-served population.

most people and packages got to cicily via bush plane. maggie was the pilot. LOVE maggie!

she sometimes loved, sometimes was driven crazy by joel fleischman.

the mayor, (remember, maurice) also happened to own the local radio station, the newspaper and most of the land.

he was kind of a development/entrepreneur guy ~ rich, semi-famous; sort of materialistic; sort of dumb.

the monetarily poor (but amazingly rich in life's important ways) heart-throb of a guy was the resident philosopher who also happened to be an ex-felon, the minister i believe, and the local DJ ~ chris (who later played aidan on sex and the city, yum!) his on-air ramblings often tied the story together.... generally profound yet very down-to-earth ideas built upon chris' interpretation of plato or freud or dr. suess on his morning show.

there was one restaurant/bar and no matter where they went, newcomers and town residents alike would cross paths, interact and reconnect with the same small group of folks again and again.

ruth ann. ed. maggie. holling + shelley (they own the bar) . . .

story arcs. lots of history.

funny clashes between native ways and how things might be done on the "outside" ~ lots of "fish out of water" stuff.

but lots of cohesion.

lots of love.

cicely, alaksa -- it's isolated. colorful. filled with characters. but ultimately, not REAL.

but HOPE TOWN the 500-person settlement on the abaco islands ~ real and better!

warm. BEAUTIFUL! and outrageously colorful in so many fabulous ways.

mary actually said,

"i've never felt more welcomed anywhere i've ever been. this is like a caribbean mayberry"

-- and she's right, but in part because she doesn't have the cicely, alaska analogy to draw upon. :D

and paul and i were lucky enough to spend a week there, staying in the mission house with mary.

you'll see IT in the slideshow. found it yet??

mary + mike hadn't seen each other for a few months AND NOTE: the slideshow opens at the marsh harbour airport. it might not LOOK like an airport at first. all the seating is OUTSIDE. and when you land and walk in from the tarmac, there's a sign above the door that says "Welcome to Marsh Harbour. Rotary Meetings Thursdays at 7" -- i so wanted a picture of that sign, but there was a "no-pictures-because-of-security rule" so i said "yes sir" and tried to commit it to memory.

and then we took a FERRY to get to hope town.

know what else hope town reminds me of?

iselsborough, maine. (think: gina + jolly from this summer!)

wow, what a year 2008 has been.

lots of hope town residents don't own a car. it's a little island ~ there's no need for one.

though most have bicycles and a boat ~ there IS a need for a boat! lots of golf carts, too.

someday (hopefully very soon) i'm going to post EVEN MORE images ~ a people and places of hope town thing.

mary came to hope town to accept a youth director position for the island little church. little but active.

incredibly alive!

the oldest of the youth group raise money for a mission trip.

and mary and mike have both been heavily and heartfully (if that's not a word, it SHOULD be) involved in a program called TEAMeffort.

the thought in my head: perhaps, much like hold that hug! we can post pictures of hope town and have print proceed sales being directed to the good works of mary's youth group. more on that to come.

so many highlights:

-finding sea glass on the shores;

-seeing mary's face just LIGHT UP when mike finally walked through those airport gates;

-hearing hip-high kids call out "miss mary, miss mary" around every bend;

-munchie's hamburgers (and visiting with munchie's owner, morris, each day on our way in + out of the mission house)

-bingo at captain jacks,

-that MOST DELICIOUS chicken curry quiche at the incredibly charming hope town coffee house;

-playing KNOCK card game with mike + mary

- paul reading in the yellow chair;

-going to thanksgiving dinner via boat and hearing those local stories OMG! the funniest stuff EVER!;

-the homemade bread and coconut pie made by the grocery store owner (vernon, who also happens to be the minister)

-and YES! being there for the town's annual box car derby celebration [there's one big hill aptly named Big Hill] . . .

. . . and most of ALL having paul there while he and i:

........got to know, admire and fall in love with mary + mike.

what a week!!

fyi: mary also happens to be an amazing vocalist (and teaches piano, voice and guitar on the side)

and has told SilverBox that she'll record a few re-makes of bee gees tracks for future slideshows.

who are the bee gees you ask?

clearly THIS is as good a place to wrap things up as any.

with love + happiness,

amy

as seen in the knot . . .

looking good, jenny + daniel!

click HERE for their online story. . .

jessica + andrew :: lotsa love in palmyra

palmyra, missouri: from what i've seen, palmyra is chock-a-block full of great folks, and it's gotten to be like a SilverBox second home. we've documented several AMAZING weddings there in the past couple of years . . .

the most recent of which was:
jessica + andrew's wedding!!!



check out these beautiful details:



and jessica + andrew before the ceremony:



amy and i get a kick out of tracing that word-of-mouth process that leads us from one wonderful couple to the next . . . my palmyra trips started with lacy + brian (that was before we'd switched to canon's top-of-the-line digital cameras and before the silver lining blog)

followed by jenny + adam, married in the same church as lacy + brian, located just across the street from adam's family car dealership (click on each couple's name for a walk down silver lining lane)

and jenny's cousin, katie, was married to alphonse in her folks' backyard . . . dressed in cowboy boots and surrounded by boot-clad flower-bubble girls

and then there was amy + mark, married on the front porch of the meyer farmhouse in bowling green; their wedding included a stop to feed their cows in wedding attire

and that brings us back to jessica + andrew: mark is andrew's brother and was best man at jessica + andrew's wedding:





and sister-in-law amy was jessica's attendant (here she is helping andrew and mark's sister get ready):



so much more to share about the wedding . . . cold cold (did I say COLD) day? and yet, bridesmaids stepped outside for these pics:



and jessica gets the silverbox award for "bride braving the coldest weather for outdoor pics":





and here are two GREAT shots by abbie brown, who did an incredible job of assisting that day:





here are a few more of my favorites from the ceremony:







and afterwards:



and you've got to see details from the groom's cake:





and this shot of jessica dancing with her dad is one of my favorite father-daughter shots ever:



lots more to see . . . click here for jessica + andrew's wedding slideshow . . . and thanks you all for having SilverBox at TWO lehenbauer weddings!

~kim

sneak peak from Hope Town

it's never easy leaving paradise.

[--sigh--]

this morning paul and i say goodbye to heavenly weather

(and our wonderful host! and her Beloved)

and fly north toward that freshly fallen midwestern snow . . .

if i'm productive on the plane, i may have a slideshow to upload soon,

but just in case we're a few days from that point, i couldn't resist sharing.

scroll on: a few early favorites from mike + mary's bahamian engagement session:

above: just in front of mary's place, the mission house at hope town

and she has the CUTEST little phone booth at the front edge of her sidewalk:

here mike + mary are next to st johns methodist church (and the ocean in her backyard):

wanna meet a few of the kids from her youth group?

LOVE THIS!

and they LOVE LOVE LOVE "miss mary"

it's easy to see why:

THIS little island (abaco) is the "real deal bahamas".

oh we're so glad we came!

what joy it is to soak in the colors!!!!

hope town redefines picturesque!

(or maybe it's THESE TWO who make the magic)

mary + mike: thank you is no where near enough.

what a wonderful time we've had!!!

we'll never forget taking the boat to thanksgiving dinner and

can't wait to share that sea glass with our kids.

and speaking of kids, the other big BIG thanks goes to paul's parents (and my mom!!)

and "aunt debbie + uncle parker" (shameless Sometimes 3 plug, here) too ~

there's nooooo way we could have pulled off this trip with you.

hugs to all! see you soon!!!

amy