I’m a sucker for a good love story. In fact… I’m a sucker for love in general.
I’ve been “home” (where I grew up, in Florida) editing this sun-soaked Spokane love story. I tend to edit at the desk in my studio with old episodes of Friends, The Office, HIMYM, or SVU playing in the background. (Dane calls me Olivia whenever I solve a mystery around the house- which is often.) It has to be something dialogue-heavy that I’ve seen enough not to ever have to look up. This week, though, I’m in my old house, my parents have a comfy couch, and I’m feeling nostalgic. So I’ve decided to re-watch Grey’s Anatomy in the background as I edit.
The other night, I was finishing the final edits to Anna & Bailey’s couple’s session and a song stopped me in my tracks. It took me back in time to when I first fell in love with this show in college, in large part because of the soundtrack.
Instead of continuing to edit, I just went back and let myself scroll through this sun-soaked, love-fest of a couple’s session, listening to the unbelievably simple yet uncomparably moving lyrics of Rosie Thomas’ “I Let Myself Fall”. When I asked them to send me the details of the “moment” they “knew”, I went back and played the song for myself again. How simple. How perfect. How life-changing. That moment when you let yourself fall and everything else just falls into place.
Here’s how they describe falling in love.
Anna: “I was fresh out of a relationship and not looking to get into anything serious when Bailey and I first started talking (via instagram). She asked me to hang out quite a few times and I kept telling her it was just bad timing. At one point I woke up and remember thinking it was silly of me not to just hang out with her at the very least. So I came to my senses and asked her if we could meet up in downtown Spokane during her lunch break. I honestly think from the moment that I saw her in person I knew she was different. She has a presence unlike anyone I have ever known and I knew at that moment I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity. We’ve been pretty much inseparable since that day.”
Bailey: “A couple months after Anna and I started dating, I took a weekend trip to Mexico with one of my best friends. We had one wild night filled with dancing, tacos and lots of tequila. I remember calling Anna to tell her I loved her. I wanted her to know because life is short and on the very rare chance something would happen to me, I wanted her to know how much she meant to me. I’m sure the liquid courage played a small part, BUT I had been wanting to say it for quite some time. I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders because I had felt that way since the very beginning. I knew from the moment I met her that I was going to fall in love with her. And I allowed myself to.”
When I met them Bailey told me, “It’s still new-ish. But I’m going to marry her.”
My favorite line of the song, (and the one the I will think of every time I look at these pictures) is:
“Now I picture things
Wedding gowns and wedding rings
Since I let myself fall in love with you.”
If you don’t know the song– you should. I Let Myself Fall
Mindy Arnholt is a Spokane-based photographer specializing in maternity, birth, newborn and family photography.
