"It all started with a blind date", Andrea told me over the phone.

Most love stories for me are pretty straight forward, and all I usually have to do is to take a few key notes on my blackberry, so I can blog about it later. But Andrea's love story was complicated...in a good way. And I had given her a call to make sure I got her story correct.

Right out of high school, young and single, Andrea had agreed to be a blind date for a youthful bachelor-football-stud, Bill, who was dateless for a wedding. Not backing down from any adventure, Andrea agreed. After all, she had nothing to lose, and possibly to everything to gain. As you might imagine, magic happened that fateful day and these two star-crossed lovers fell for each other....head over heels.

"It was magic from the first day", Andrea recalled.

Bill and Andrea were passionately in love with each other, sharing laughs, conversations, and everything in between from day one. Days turned into months, and months turned into years. As time passed, Andrea decided to become an airline stewardess. As fate would it, her job took her away from California and to Minnesota. Bill couldn't follow her because he was in the middle of finishing up college at Fresno State. As you could imagine, maintaining a long distance relationship, even for this couple, proved to be very difficult.

They tried to make it work for six months, but the distance wore on them, and soon they went their separate ways.

As time passed, Andrea married and gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Nikki. And Bill also fell in love with another and got married. The two star-crossed lovers had crossed paths again a few more times in California, but their timing was never right as they were both never single at the right time. It would be twenty-six years until Andrea and Bill would see each other again.

So one fateful night, Andrea's daughter, Nikki, began looking through some of her mother's old photos. A picture caught her eye, it was a young picture of Bill. She asked her mother about him, and Andrea recounted her young love affair to her daughter. Andrea, now single, told her daughter that she was reluctantly content on the way her relationship with Bill had ended. They had something very special, and those memories were very dear to her. She wished for a happier ending, but didn't think it was possible.


But Nikki was not satisfied with the ending to her mother's love affair. She wanted, and knew, that there could be more. So Nikki got a hold of Bob, her God father, who was one Bill's best friends, and told him that her mother was single and still in love with Bill. Bob soon informed his best friend of the great news.

Bill too, was also now single. Bill, an honorable man, fulfilled his marriage vows to his wife who had passed away. He was now single, alone, and ready to fall in love again.

Then....it all began again...with a phone call. I'm not sure on the details of that call, but I could just imagine how it went. The happy tears of hearing from the one who you've had a crush on for most of your life, I'm sure it was good stuff. But reality soon set in, as distance would soon again prove to be their Achilles' heel. Andrea, lived in Northern California, owned a successful hair salon, and Bill had settled in a new house in Southern California.

This time around, Andrea made sure that distance would not be an excuse for them. They both visited each other as much as they could, emailed, and talked on the phone. Then, when Bill proposed last December, Andrea made it a point to retire, close up her shop, and live the rest of her life with the man of all of her dreams.

I'm not sure what else I can add here to make this love story anymore cinematic. Having the privilege to be trusted to deliver great photos, and video to document the new chapter of their love story, I have to say, was truly an honor. I wasn't nervous at all, given the surreal circumstances, as most would expect. Just truly honored.

So this is my winter-love-Christmas-story for you, my loyal future and current customers. I'll be blogging more, but this one, just makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over doesn't it. Geez, I'm looking here at my keyboard, and thinking..."WRITE SOMETHING INSPIRING OR FUNNY STEVE LIKE YOU USUALLY DO", but I can't. This love story has literally stolen my thunder, my brain juice, and probably my funny bone too.

Let me just end on this note.

Bill, Andrea, you love story was truly inspiring. It defines to me that love never fails, always hopes, and always trusts.


Steve Young
The Hawaii Wedding Report
http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com