Hi Friend!
I’m Sarah Lin, a couples and wedding photographer born and raised in Virginia and based in Chesapeake. I’m a Jesus-loving, ESFJ, thrift shopping, ice-cream-obsessed chocoholic. I’m also mama to Lydia Joy (Sept 2020) and Miriam Grace (Nov 2021) and Abigail Hope (February 2024). I’ve had a camera in my hand since middle school, and have been running this girl boss business for 10 years! I’m still claiming to be newlywed (my husband Alvin and I celebrated five years this July!), and love the simplicity and joy of building a life together that is uniquely ours. Before getting married we rocked long-distance for what felt like forever and commuted Missouri-Virginia and Missouri-Asia. Now we are more than thrilled to call Virginia home and simply commute between opposite sides of the bed. Our favorite show right now is Brooklyn Nine-Nine. We love our church, board games, and swapping travel stories with friends over good food.
Here’s why I do what I do: I believe epic love stories emerge from the most mundane moments. Let me show you what I mean through snippets of our own story…
It was snowing. And not just pretty little flakes on a Christmas morning kind of snow…I mean coming in sideways and strong, your-car-will-be-covered-in-15-minutes kind of snow. Virginia sees snow pretty often, but rarely snow like that. So of course it came the weekend he was supposed to fly in for our first date.
I burnt my arm. It was a Thursday evening and the pot handle snapped off and boiling water spilled all over, drenching the kitchen floor. My best friend drove me to the ER as I called him and asked for prayer. Saturday morning, while I was still slightly drugged on Vicodin, I sat in my room with unwashed hair when he marched in fresh off the runway. My favorite ice cream hung from a grocery bag on his arm and some fresh lilies sprung from a bouquet in his hand.
What started with an epic snowstorm and get-well flowers (the kind of stories you can’t help but share) has now transitioned to hard ciders and board games at the kitchen table-the daily stuff of life. The epic fades to the mundane, and yet the mundane is just as sweet, just as real and honest, just as important. Because those epic, magical moments show who we are, but the mundane moments prove it. And that’s why you’re getting married- because somewhere along the lines of your epic story you decided you could be just as happy with the mundane moments too, as long as they were with him.
Want to get to know me better and see more of my life and work? Follow me on Instagram!