As a wedding and maternity photographer Amie Akers has been present in many families special moments.
One such couple was Cassie Coaster and Ryan Lohrey in June 2017. Photographing their wedding on a sunny June day, no one had any idea what would happen next.
"The wedding went off without a hitch," Akers told Love What Matters. "It was a warm, sunny day and beautiful evening even though rain had originally been forecasted. The ceremony was full of such love and joy as they celebrated with friends and family long into the night."
But then tragedy struck. Just a month into wedded bliss, Ryan was killed in a military plane accident.
The news came as a shock to Akers, who had spent the days leading up to the wedding with the couple.
"Though we had only known each other throughout the planning of their wedding, spending the day focused totally on their love for each other and working intensely to capture all of it in their images, I obviously felt very close with them in having shared with them the happiest day of their life. Trying to stomach and even come to understand why this had happened was impossible."
However, the shocks weren't over yet. Just a week after Ryan's funeral, Cassie found out that she was pregnant.
"The week after the funeral was when we found out we were having a baby," she said. "I knew Ryan wouldn't leave me alone. He wanted me to have a piece of him forever."
Returning to her family in Micihgan, Cassie prepared for the new arrival- a little girl.
Offering to do the shoot for Cassie, Akers said that even the weather was in their favour.
"In Michigan, the weather had been wretched cold, rainy, snowy, really honestly like Michigan in February. But the day we finalised for her shoot we got the blessing of a short warm spell and on that particular night, and incredibly warm sunset."
When Akers began to superimpose Ryan onto her pregnancy shoot, she discovered that one picture fit perfectly.
"Unbelievably, the very first image I chose fit perfectly on one of the images we had just taken. It was magical. I wept. I remembered thinking I couldn't wait to send her the image of him by her side again with his arm wrapped around their daughter."
As Cassie looks forward to the arrival of her baby girl, to be named Ryan Jo after her father, Akers says that she will happily keep photographing the family.
"I promised Cassie, Ryan Jo, and myself that I will do my best to honour Ryan well in all that I do for them and I can’t wait to fulfil that promise no matter how many times/chapters they want me for… I will be so happy to keep telling their story.”
We're not crying, you are!
