Luke's Big Day

Tomorrow is the big day. My brother, Luke, is getting married. 

Luke is 5 years younger than me and for our entire childhood he was my "baby" brother. I remember attentively watching my mom change his diaper and later reading him book after book before bed. Luke and I are a lot alike. We had our own special ball game that the two of us played on our front lawn and spent hours in the winter on our outdoor rink (mostly playing hockey, as Luke would refuse to play ringette). We listened to the same music and were a united front when our sister, Jessica, went on a tear*. Even as we got older I still felt this mama bear protection for him. I would race home from University on a Friday to get Luke from school and pick him up in the wee hours of the morning when he needed a safe ride home.

I think I may have been (and still are) a tiny bit overprotective of Luke - although in more recent years he has been known to be equally protective of me (an incident at the Warman Rodeo involving a cowboy hat comes to mind, not to mention the times he has defended teachers and stood up for us with those who don't understand how grief works).

I always wondered about the kind of girl Luke would marry and the control freak that I am can honestly say that I couldn't have picked out a more perfect wife for him myself. Brittany is kind, compassionate, loving and stands up for what she believes. She is fun to be around, easy to talk to and always exudes a positive aura. She eased her way into our family so smoothly that I almost can't remember what it was like without her in it. And the best part about Brittany, she loves Luke just as much as we do.  The following images were taken by photos by sarah. 

I can't wait to be part of their beautiful life.

*Jes was the toughest and meanest of the three of us growing up.  Now, that's not to say that we didn't have fun with Jes. It just meant that when she was looking for a specific gymnastics suit before practice you dropped whatever you were doing to look for it. Or else.