Sarah & Polk celebrated 20 years of marriage at their Wissahickon Valley Park Wedding Anniversary session, as a part of my Philadelphia anniversary series. Choosing the best photo location was chosen from meaningful locations to each couple. Sarah & Polk love riding their bikes down the trails through Wissahickon Valley Park and along Forbidden Drive. Polk teaches at University of Pennsylvania and they’ve been known to park his car there and bike from Chestnut Hill to the school! True city living. They lived in Chestnut Hill, when they first moved to Philadelphia together. Sarah and Polk live in Philadelphia during the school year and in Northern Michigan during the summer, sailing and spending time with their families.
Polk and Sarah met on the sailing team at the College of Charleston. They both transferred to the University of Michigan, dating on and off all through college. Polk went to study in London and Sarah went to teach in Japan after graduation. They hated being apart so they returned from their adventures and got married a year later. They have lived in Palo Alto CA, Alexandria VA, and came to Philadelphia 15 years ago, just before their oldest was born, when Polk became a professor at Penn. They’ve been in Philadelphia ever since and love it, except that there is not enough water here! Thus part of the reason they return to Michigan each summer for sailing and watching Michigan football. Sarah & Polks answer to what do you love most about one another over the years was classic, “And we still hate being apart. I asked him last night to discuss ‘one thing we love most about one another’ and he groaned, saying ‘it’s late! I’m tired!’ That’s 20 years for ya. We’ll have to get back to you on that one!” That is reality and so real for us all. Life gets tired, there isn’t always an explanation for why or how. Social media and our online world often makes us emphasize the description so much that we forget about the actual experience. It just is 🙂
This anniversary session at Wissahickon Valley Park is so sweet. The combination of scenery with this sweet couple is great! Beautiful work!