Vintage Christmas

I'm sure like most girls, I have an obsession with chick flicks and tragic love stories, which makes me a sucker for any and all things Nicholas Sparks. If you're not familiar, how about A Walk to Remember, or Message in a Bottle, Nights in Rodanthe, The Last Song, or...wait for it...The Notebook. Ah, yeah, now you know who I'm talking about. I absolutely adore The Notebook. I prefer the novel to the film, but it still makes me feel so many emotions. It's one of those movies, no matter how long it's been on, if I happen across it, all things else in life cease so I can escape into it. To make matters that much more personal, my grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's, so it especially hits home.

Anyway, I had looked up photos of the making of the movie for whatever reason, or accidentally came upon someone who had done engagement photos inspired by the movie, and fell in love! They had found this vintage pick up truck, and they were wearing the attire. Oh, just, oh. Loved it! Made me wish I was Allie and he was Noah...and we were mad crazy about each other. So I set on the quest with my great friend/photographer to make our own Notebook inspired family photo session a reality.

The hardest part of all was finding the truck. You'd think with car clubs and vintage car enthusiasts there would be one somewhere, but no. And I knew, since my husband was already being more than reluctant to go along with me on this one, that there was NO WAY the truck could be a Chevy...he's a Ford tough man! Thankfully for my brother who had spotted one, and for my friend who works for the man who owns it! We were able to use the 1947 Ford with pull choke (which is apparently some cool car thing)...my husband even drove it! (man, was he in heaven!) I think someday, many years from now, my goal will be to surprise him with a truck like this on, although it won't be red (his most loathed color).

It was very cold, and windy, and toward the end, rainy that day. The boys did very well, especially considering they were freezing their tails off! My photographer is amazing and I love how she gave us three photo finishes for each photo...true color, retro, or b&w. My favorite for this particular shoot was the retro because it just worked so perfectly for the feel I wanted. Visit her website at http://www.tracynicolephotography.com/

And a special thanks for my friends Brent & Tori for tracking down this truck, driving with us out to the location...and especially for Brent acting as the photographer's assistant...holding the umbrella, dancing, yelling, singing to make children focus in the right direction! So much fun!

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day."

"That's my sweetheart in there. Wherever she is, that's where my home is."

"It was real, wasn't it? You and me. Such a long time ago, we were just a couple of kids. But we really loved each other, didn't we?"