Now there are people in your life who may come and go, and there are people in your life who just continue to press on and stay. Thankfully, I have a few dear girlfriends whom I’ve been blessed with, that I know can always turn to and count on for love and support–They’ve been the kind who continue to press on and stay present in my life. My oldest dear friends include the group of girls I’m about to share with you today: Abi, Abby, Imari, Gail & Sam. We’ve known each other since high school, though our friendships all started and grew at different times, we all have come to this place where we are just always constants in each others’ lives. :)
The actual purpose of this photoshoot was actually to distract our dearest friend Imari, from her boyfriend (*spoiler alert: now fiancé*) who was getting ready to propose that same day during a church event we were all going to! Of course we really were excited to be able to take photos with one another, since it had been quite some time since we had done a friend photoshoot, but the proposal gave us even more reason to!
Gail, Sam and I devised a plan to get Imari dolled up and ready for her special surprise day! We were SO excited to find out that Abby was also going to be in town to celebrate this special day! :)
**TO VIEW LUCAS’S SWEET PROPOSAL TO IMARI & THEIR BEAUTIFUL LOVE STORY, VIEW IT HERE**
Let me introduce you to Imari, Abby, Sam and Gail!
Now let me pause & interject and say that we were missing a very special part of our group of friends, as you may have noticed from the start! Our dearest best friend Abi is currently in East Asia serving faithfully on missions for a year! We wanted to make sure that she was still with us physically, though she’s of course with us in spirit! So we decided to print her out and bring her along! You may recognize her photo from her mini portraits session from earlier this year!! :) I’m so thankful John was free to take these group photos of us!
Our best photos were the candid shots of laughter that we took. We were definitely laughing in different accents and intonations during these!
It’s such a blessing being able to keep best friends for so long! We’ve all been friends since my high school days and we’ve stayed such great friends over the years! :) Even though this was a ploy to keep Imari busy during the day, it was such a beautiful way to spend the afternoon!
Of course we then asked to have individuals for Imari! Sounds fishy right? Good thing she’s going to Kauai to be the Dean of Women at the Bible College there for a semester in January! Perfect reasoning! ;)
Abby and Imari don’t take “normal” photos together! So here’s a preview of what’s to come at the end of this post! :)
My friends are really good at doing serious faces (whereas I am not). So of course they insisted on taking some! Trust me when I say we had to take nearly a hundred photos trying to do the serious poses because I couldn’t keep my face still. HAHA This is the best I could do! You’ll see some hilarious attempts in the bloopers!
Anyone recognize this pose?
If you guessed it’s from the movie, Bridesmaids, you are correct! :) It’s quite a popular trend right now! (You might have seen it before on my blog from Brian & Kaman’s San Pedro Wedding!) We told Imari she could be the bride since she was wearing white… how perfect. ;)
As we headed out of the park, Gail insisted on taking a couple of me and John because we were matching (I’ll admit that it was intentional haha!) Then I took one of Gail and her chauffeur, Daniel! ;)
To end the shoot part of this proposal story, the guys who waited patiently for us to finish the shoot (and also filmed some of it for Lucas to see) wanted a photo of their own:
& Of course, if you know any of us individually, you will know that we are DEFINITELY a group that would have ridiculous bloopers and funnies! :)
They tried to tame me into a normal shot… but failed… ;)
I think this was taken while they were trying to get me to keep a straight face… and I kept failing… HAHA
This is where I ran away because I kept failing. Hahaha “I GIVE UP!”
And then it naturally evolved into this:
And this:
Things like this happen when we have GMTA moments…
Oh these two… It’s crazy to see how much they’ve grown… yet still stayed the same… HAHA
More loving on little Abi! :)
You can tell John and I take pictures all the time. HAHA ;)
Oh the things they do… haha!
And to end the night, this is what happens when you wear heels in foliage, just in case you wanted to know…
So blessed by great friends! I pray that everyone is able to find a group of friends they can truly be themselves with.. fully transparent and truly loving towards one another! :)
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE! :)
P.S. Don’t forget to check out THE PROPOSAL (Click here)!!