#affordable wedding photographer Los Angeles

[lightofraye]

All About E

More self-torture. I don’t know why I do this.

Oh wait.

Yes I do.

It’s because the person I’m writing about is being praised and supported when she shouldn’t be. Shall we begin?

-

Elta Danneel Graul was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and raised in the small town of Eunice. Her father, Edward, is a practicing ophthalmologist, and her mother, Deborah, is an interior designer. She was named after her great-grandmother. Legally her name is still Elta, but she professionally and personally goes by Danneel. Supposedly she was given the middle name, Danneel, after a street in New Orleans.

She moved to Los Angeles because, according to her, she knew she wanted to live in California. She moved there and lucked out with modeling. How did she luck out? Her now-ex-boyfriend, Riley Smith. His mother was a modeling agent in Chicago. She flew home with him for Thanksgiving and his mother made the phone call with the agency.

(How did Elta afford to live in Los Angeles without much work? Her parents paid her way, so she basically lived in an apartment on her own, didn’t share with anyone, and got to be lazy.)

Supposedly Riley’s mother also helped Elta with a nose job and breast implants (the first time around).

Elta liked to claim she worked and supported herself, but her beginning modeling jobs didn’t pay very well. She also didn’t get nearly as much work, so her parents supported her.

Elta proceeded to segue into television with the help of Riley to do auditions. She had a few guest spots on MadTV, Amanda Bynes’ What I Like About You. Then she had the audition with One Life To Live.

Because One Life To Live was filmed in New York, Elta had to move there. Again… her parents helped, because a starting actress on a soap did not pay well. She also had bit parts in Love House.

Eventually One Life To Live ended and Elta got guest spots on One Tree Hill, Joey, JAG, Charmed. Supposedly it was because she did well in auditions, but those rumors of her doing the casting couch with Mark Schwan persist.

After One Tree Hill, she had more guest spots on How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, and other shows.

She appeared in a few small roles in movies as well.

Supposedly, Elta is skilled in gymnastics, can sing and play piano.

Given how badly she moved as Rachel in One Tree Hill, I call false in the gymnastics claim. We’ve heard her sing—she can’t sing, period. Never seen her play the piano.

There have been claims that she has a degree in beat-poetry from University of Louisiana. She is not listed as an alumni and the timing does not work. I also call false that.

Elta has tried to create a jewelry line with Limbo Jewelry to create a line called Link. Near as I can tell, that jewelry line has never sold out and has not sold well. Supposedly it was meant as a benefit for Creative Action, an Austin-based charity aimed at foster youth-development projects. It has barely raised much, only $30,000.

Elta has four tattoos. A matching tattoo with Hilarie, which says “Mischief”, that she got at Hilarie’s wedding. A shark tattoo on her butt. An arrow on her left arm in honor of her children, and some kind of “robe-woman” who resembles a muse on her right arm.

She photographed for Maxim’s “Hot 100” list several times.

Supposedly, she is still friends with Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bevin Price.

She claimed she fell in love with Jensen during filming of Ten Inch Hero. They apparently drove back and forth, car pooled, really, to and from set and struck up a deeper conversation. Jensen once claimed he gave her a note that said “Not now, someday” as by that time, Elta was engaged to Riley Smith, Jensen’s friend.

Evidently, she didn’t even tell Riley what happened. She just packed up her things and moved out from their shared apartment, no break-up talk, nothing. Riley is now very happy she did that, given the crappy way she broke up with him. The best thing he got out of that relationship, he once claimed, was the guitar he was gifted with.

Jensen kept mum on the relationship for a long while. He had dated Joanna Krupa at one point, and Tania Saulnier. He was rumored, at one point, to have been with LeAnn Rimes (she herself said that was false) and Jessica Simpson (never been mentioned).

His revelation that he was dating came as a surprise—and almost no one knew who she was. When his engagement was announced on JustJared, no one knew he was dating or still dating her. The timing of said engagement had always been suspicious, given it was practically a week after Jared proposed to Genevieve.

Jensen claimed later that Elta gave him an ultimatum and that she hadn’t known he was going to propose.

I believe it was because seeing Jared get engaged meant the gay rumors would focus solely on him and he didn’t want to deal with that. Plus, suspected he had to “settle down”, so Elta was his “Okay, I guess she’ll do” girl. Not the girl of his dreams.

She likely tailored herself to what he wanted as she knew him for years prior to that.

Not to mention a rather quick engagement to wedding (six months; most usually do a year! Perhaps because Jared’s was set and they wanted to compete—or rather, Elta did).

Oh, Elta’s career kept puttering along. Some attempts were made, and all failed. No, I don’t think it’s because she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom either. Her career just didn’t take off; she’s a horrible actress with a childish voice that is clearly faked.

Her most recent role was a ‘gift’ from Hilarie. A pity gift.

And honestly, she’s not even a stay-at-home mom. She has nannies, a housekeepr, a gardener, possibly more help than most single parents or stay-at-home parents have. She’s unrelatable. She’s achieved nothing beyond being Jensen Ackles’ wife.

I’d pity her, if it weren’t obvious Jensen is scared of her. (He’s said: “I’m not suicidal, I’m getting out of her way”; called her “Scary Spice”; has stated more than once that he defers to her because he has to; said their marriage works better when they’re apart.)

[alesolcno]

❝ no story i could weave would have ended like this, no way ❞

Age: 31

Gender & Pronouns: cis female & she/her

Neighborhood: downtown

Occupation: professional photographer

Two positive traits: Innovative & resilient

Two negative traits: Faithless & guarded

Length of time in Providence Peak: 1 year

Faceclaim: Melissa Barrera

string pinning connections to a wall in her apartment, jeans and boots, empty coke zero cans scattered about, the tenacity of a noveled hero detective, a calendar full of booked weekends, camera equipment covering the dinning room table

trigger warnings: drug use mentions, homophobia, disappearance/missing person

Growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona should have and would have been a peaceful life if it hadn't been for Alejandra and Mariana’s parents' chaotic and sometimes toxic relationship. The Solano’s had emigrated from Monterrey, Mexico in their early twenties with the hopes of making it big in The Land of Opportunities but had subsequently fallen short in every possible way. They’d gotten in their own way with their mutual obsession for one another leading to too many squabbles and jealousies that had stolen them from progression. Stuck in their ways, then having not one but eventually two daughters left them little time for education and programs that would give them the leg up that they’d needed. Instead they were each stuck working multiple jobs to support a small family.

Although Scottsdale was a relatively large city it had always felt stuffy, perhaps even a little close minded for the youngest Solano. Alejandra was adventurous and took the freedoms being born first generation American had offered her. The first time she looked at other girls in a way the Catholic upbringing and most of Scottsdale wouldn’t really approve of, Ale learned a hard lesson about being herself and staying true to that. But also that ideals didn’t often equate to how society operated. So, as a teenager her struggles with who she was and how she was expected to be had put drugs in her system as a means to cope. She’d take off with her older sister, Mariana, and friends to Las Vegas where they’d party and get up to no good. Like plenty of teenagers just trying to figure life out.

It was the love affair with another girl that eventually sent Alejandra running from her hometown and to the much more liberal Southern California. Nothing hurt more than finding love for the first time but also being forced to keep it a secret and act as though the one you love was only just a friend in the gaze of others. The move and rush away from Arizona was also in pursuit of a dream. Since Ale was little she’d been drawn to photography and took every class she could that public schools offered and even entered competitions, sometimes even winning a few local ones. At 18, the nighttime gig of working as a stripper afforded Ale to attend film school so that she was able to learn filmography on top of the work she’d done to become a professional photographer. The dream was to do both, to be behind the camera in movies and television while also featuring on the glossy pages of important print. If she could have her photos framed on walls of galleries or people’s homes then she would believe she’d made it.

Life as a young adult in Los Angeles was wild. It was thrilling and heartbreaking. Mostly, it was everything Ale needed because not only did she get to soar and find her dream in a career but the mistakes along the way taught her a lot. No matter how many times she got burned by love it only seemed to free the young woman further. After film school Ale was able to pick up work on a few shows meant for the silver screen or streaming. Her career as a professional photographer filled out a beautiful portfolio and both were abled her to step away from her nighttime dancing gig. One of her favorite things to shoot were weddings, not only because of the money she was able to make but being a part of them even as a background piece gave Ale hope that she’d one day be that happy in-love.

As it normally went, when life was going too good and the high was at its biggest peak, that was when the most dramatic drop took place. Just over eighteen months ago, Mariana seemed to disappear. Texts and calls went unanswered and unreturned, not just for hours or days, which was unusual for the sisters, but for weeks. When it continued on for months, Ale really began to dive into the whereabouts of her sister and became determined to find her and figure out what went wrong. The last location that Ale had been aware of Mari being was Providence Peak, Colorado, so she packed up her life and made the move after dropping everything in Southern California. Most of her initial search and poking around town led to nothing, no answers, but something eerie was in its place. The realization that she would be in town for some time, at least until she was pointed in another direction, Ale found herself an apartment downtown. She found a wedding planner with a brilliant booming business and took on a job as a wedding photographer. In the year that followed, she’d grown closer to her boss and made some connections through town but hadn’t gotten anywhere near a resolution when it came to Mariana Solano.

[classicphotographe]

Capture Your Special Day with Professional Photographers

When planning your wedding, one of the most important aspects to consider is capturing the memories of your special day. This is where Professional Photographers come into play. They have the expertise, creativity, and equipment to ensure your wedding photos are nothing short of breathtaking. With so many options available, finding Affordable Photographers Near Me who also provide high-quality work can feel like a daunting task. But worry not, as companies like Classic Photographers make the process seamless and stress-free.

Why Hire Professional Photographers for Your Wedding?

Weddings are once-in-a-lifetime events, and you deserve to have those moments preserved perfectly. Here are a few reasons why hiring Professional Photographers is essential:

Expertise in Capturing Emotions: Wedding photography is about more than just taking pictures; it’s about capturing the essence of love, joy, and celebration. Professional Photographers know how to frame these emotions in every shot.

Use of High-Quality Equipment: From advanced cameras to specialized lighting, Professional Photographers use the best tools to ensure your photos are crisp and vibrant.

Experience with Wedding Events: Weddings can be unpredictable, and experienced photographers know how to handle any situation with grace and efficiency.

Customized Wedding Photography Packages: You can find options tailored to your specific needs, whether you’re looking for comprehensive coverage or a focused photoshoot.

Tips for Finding Affo

rdable Photographers Near Me

While quality is crucial, staying within your budget is equally important. Here are some tips for finding Affordable Photographers Near Me without compromising on quality:

Research Online: Start by searching for "Photographers near Me for Wedding" or "Affordable Photographers Near Me" on search engines. Read reviews, view portfolios, and compare prices.

Ask for Recommendations: Friends, family, and even your wedding planner can provide valuable referrals to trusted photographers.

Check Social Media: Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are great for finding talented Professional Photographers who might fit your budget.

Inquire About Packages: Many photographers offer competitive Wedding Photography Packages that include extras like engagement shoots, prints, or albums.

What to Look for in Wedding Photography Packages

Selecting the right Wedding Photography Packages is crucial to ensure you get the best value for your money. When reviewing options, consider the following:

Coverage Duration: Determine how many hours you need a photographer on-site. Typical packages range from 4 to 12 hours.

Number of Photographers: Some packages include a second shooter to cover multiple angles and candid moments.

Deliverables: Understand what you’ll receive post-wedding—digital files, prints, albums, or online galleries.

Additional Services: Ask about extras like pre-wedding shoots, drone photography, or photo editing.

Companies like Classic Photographers specialize in offering customizable Wedding Photography Packages, ensuring you get exactly what you need without overspending.

Why Location Matters: Choosing Photographers in Los Angeles

If your wedding is in Los Angeles, you’re in luck. The city is home to some of the most talented Photographers in Los Angeles who have experience with diverse cultures, venues, and aesthetics. Here’s why choosing local photographers is advantageous:

Familiarity with Venues: Los Angeles offers iconic wedding locations like beaches, gardens, and luxury hotels. Local photographers know how to utilize these settings to their fullest potential.

Understanding Local Trends: From Hollywood glamour to bohemian chic, Photographers in Los Angeles are well-versed in capturing the latest wedding trends.

Convenience: Choosing a local photographer means easy communication, faster delivery times, and potential cost savings on travel fees.

Making the Right Choice for Your Wedding

Your wedding photos will be cherished for generations, so it’s essential to choose the right photographer. Start by narrowing your search with keywords like "Photographers near Me for Wedding" or "Affordable Photographers Near Me" to find professionals who align with your vision and budget. Remember, the best photographers are not just vendors but partners who work with you to create lasting memories.

With companies like Classic Photographers, you’re not just hiring a service; you’re investing in peace of mind. Their team of Professional Photographers is dedicated to delivering exceptional quality and personalized service, ensuring your special day is captured flawlessly.

Conclusion

Your wedding day is a story that deserves to be told beautifully, and hiring Professional Photographers is the first step in making that happen. By exploring options for Affordable Photographers Near Me, evaluating Wedding Photography Packages, and considering Photographers in Los Angeles, you can find the perfect fit for your big day.

Let trusted names like Classic Photographers handle your wedding photography, so you can focus on celebrating your love story. With the right photographer by your side, every moment of your wedding will be captured in stunning detail, creating memories you’ll treasure forever.

[chetnakashyap]

Affordable California Wedding Photographers: Beautiful Photos Without the High Cost

Your wedding day is one of the most significant moments of your life, and it’s only natural to want to capture every precious detail. However, with the high costs of planning a wedding, it can be a challenge to find a photographer who offers high-quality work without exceeding your budget. Luckily, California offers a wide range of affordable wedding photographers who can capture your day beautifully without breaking the bank. In this article, we’ll guide you on how to find affordable wedding photographers in California, what factors affect pricing, and tips for maximizing your wedding photography budget.

Why Choose Affordable Wedding Photographers?

Many couples are finding that affordable wedding photographers can offer the same quality and professionalism as their higher-priced counterparts. Affordable wedding photographers are skilled in capturing timeless moments while providing cost-effective services. Here’s why choosing an affordable photographer might be the best decision for your wedding:

High-Quality Photos at a Lower Cost Affordable wedding photographers in California are skilled professionals who use the same high-end equipment as luxury photographers. They are experienced in capturing important moments, and many of them have developed unique photography styles, from traditional and posed shots to more candid, documentary-style images. By hiring an affordable photographer, you get exceptional photos at a fraction of the cost.

Customized Packages to Fit Your Needs Many affordable photographers offer flexible packages that can be tailored to fit your specific wedding needs and budget. Whether you’re planning a large celebration or a small, intimate gathering, they can create a package that fits your vision and covers the key moments, from the ceremony to the reception.

Fresh, Creative Styles Many affordable wedding photographers are relatively new to the industry, which means they bring fresh perspectives and creativity to their work. They’re passionate about photography and are often eager to develop their portfolios, so they are motivated to produce high-quality, artistic images for your wedding.

No Need to Sacrifice Quality Choosing an affordable photographer doesn’t mean you have to settle for subpar work. Many photographers, though affordable, have an exceptional eye for detail, composition, and lighting, ensuring your wedding photos are both beautiful and professional.

How to Find Affordable Wedding Photographers in California

Finding an affordable photographer in California is easier than you might think. With the right research and planning, you can discover talented photographers who will work within your budget. Here are some steps to help you on your search:

Determine Your Photography Budget The first step in finding an affordable photographer is to set a realistic budget. Wedding photography costs can vary greatly depending on the photographer’s experience, package inclusions, and the wedding location. Decide how much you’re comfortable spending on photography and use that as a guideline when you start researching photographers.

Do Your Research California is a large state, and there are thousands of wedding photographers to choose from. Start by narrowing your search to photographers who work in the area where your wedding is taking place, whether it's in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or a more rural area. Utilize wedding websites, Instagram, and photography directories to explore different photographers' portfolios and gather a list of those you like.

Review Their Portfolios and Client Reviews Once you’ve compiled a list of potential photographers, carefully review their portfolios to get a sense of their style and work. Look for consistency in their photos—are their shots well-composed? Do they capture emotions and special moments? Also, read client reviews to learn more about their experiences with the photographer, including their professionalism, responsiveness, and overall satisfaction.

Ask About Package Options and Pricing Most photographers offer a variety of packages that differ in terms of coverage hours, additional services, and pricing. Be sure to inquire about their packages and what’s included. For example, some photographers offer a second shooter or engagement sessions, while others may provide discounts for off-season weddings. Make sure to ask for a detailed breakdown of pricing to ensure the package fits your budget.

Consider New or Emerging Photographers Newer photographers, though less experienced, may offer lower rates as they build their portfolios. Many of them are passionate and dedicated to producing stunning work, and they bring fresh creative ideas to the table. If you're open to working with a less established photographer, this can be a cost-effective way to get high-quality wedding photos.

Factors That Affect Wedding Photography Prices

Understanding the factors that contribute to wedding photography pricing can help you make an informed decision while staying within your budget. Here are some key factors to consider:

Experience Level of the Photographer More experienced photographers, especially those with established reputations, often charge higher rates. However, many talented photographers who are just starting out or looking to build their portfolios may charge more affordable prices without sacrificing quality.

Duration of Coverage Photographers typically offer full-day or half-day coverage options. Full-day coverage usually costs more, but if you’re planning a smaller wedding or only need photos for the ceremony and reception, a half-day package might be more affordable. Review your schedule and prioritize the most important moments to help determine the ideal coverage time.

Location and Travel Costs Depending on where your wedding takes place, a photographer may charge additional travel fees if the venue is far from their base of operations. However, many photographers offer travel packages that cover a wide area, or they may be based in your wedding location, eliminating any extra fees.

Add-Ons and Extras Wedding photographers often offer add-ons, such as engagement sessions, second shooters, prints, or wedding albums. While these extras can enhance your experience, they can also add to the cost. If you’re on a tight budget, consider opting for a digital-only package or forgoing extras like albums or prints.

Wedding Season The time of year you get married can affect pricing. Peak wedding season—typically spring and summer—tends to have higher prices due to increased demand. Consider booking your wedding in the off-season (fall or winter) when photographers may offer discounts or lower rates.

Tips for Maximizing Your Wedding Photography Budget

Limit the Hours of Coverage If you’re trying to keep costs low, consider limiting the hours of photography coverage. Focus on the most important moments of the day, such as the ceremony, family portraits, and first dance. Reducing coverage hours can help cut down on costs.

Skip Extra Services Many photographers offer add-ons like albums, prints, or engagement sessions, but these can add up quickly. Consider skipping these extras if they aren’t essential to you and opt for digital-only files instead.

Negotiate Some photographers may be willing to negotiate on pricing or adjust their packages to better suit your budget. Don’t hesitate to discuss your financial constraints and see if they can offer any discounts or options that will lower the overall cost.

Book Early Booking your photographer early can often result in a lower price. Many photographers offer early-bird discounts or package deals for couples who secure their services well in advance. Plus, booking early ensures you have your preferred photographer on your wedding day.

Conclusion

Affordable wedding photographers in California offer incredible value for couples looking to capture their special day without overspending. By doing thorough research, reviewing portfolios, and being mindful of your wedding budget, you can find a talented photographer who will deliver beautiful, high-quality photos at a price that works for you. With so many skilled photographers across the state, you can trust that your wedding memories will be captured beautifully, no matter your budget. Whether you’re looking for a traditional photographer or something more artistic, affordable wedding photographers are out there to make your dream wedding a reality.

[luisgalvezphotography]

Affordable Wedding Photography Packages in Pasadena

Finding the perfect wedding photographer in Pasadena, California, shouldn't mean sacrificing quality for affordability. At Luis Galvez Photography, we understand that every couple deserves stunning wedding photos without breaking the bank. That's why we offer a range of affordable wedding photography packages designed to fit various budgets and preferences.

Tailored Packages to Fit Your Needs

Our wedding photography packages at Luis Galvez Photography are carefully crafted to meet the diverse needs of couples in Pasadena. Whether you're planning an intimate ceremony or a grand celebration, we have packages that include comprehensive coverage from preparations to reception. Each package can be customized to include engagement sessions, bridal portraits, and additional hours of coverage, ensuring that your special day is captured exactly as you envision it.

Quality Without Compromise

Choosing an affordable package with Luis Galvez Photography doesn't mean compromising on quality. We pride ourselves on delivering high-quality images that capture the essence of your wedding day with clarity and creativity. Our photographers are skilled in both traditional and documentary styles, ensuring a mix of posed portraits and candid moments that tell your unique love story.

Transparent Pricing and No Hidden Fees

We believe in transparency when it comes to pricing. Our affordable wedding photography packages in Pasadena clearly outline what is included, from the number of photographers present to the hours of coverage and the delivery of edited digital images. There are no hidden fees or surprises—just straightforward pricing that helps you plan your wedding photography budget with confidence.

Local Expertise and Personalized Service

Based in Pasadena, Luis Galvez Photography has extensive knowledge of the local wedding scene and the best locations for capturing stunning photos. We provide personalized service from start to finish, ensuring that we understand your vision and preferences. Our goal is to exceed your expectations and create a stress-free photography experience on your wedding day.

Book Your Affordable Wedding Photography Package Today

Whether you're getting married in Pasadena's scenic parks, historic venues, or modern event spaces, Luis Galvez Photography is here to capture every moment beautifully. Explore our affordable wedding photography packages and contact us to schedule a consultation. Let us be part of your special day, preserving memories that you'll cherish for a lifetime with our affordable and exceptional photography services in Pasadena.

Author: Luis Galvez  

Who We Are

Based in Santa Clarita, Luis Galvez Photography offers specialized wedding and quinceañera photography services that extend throughout Pasadena, Manhattan Beach, and across Los Angeles. Our mission is to ensure a seamless and enjoyable photography experience for you, crafting timeless memories that will be cherished for generations to come.

Contact Us

Luis Galvez Photography

Pasadena, california, 91107, United States

(661) 270-6663

info@luisgalvezphotography.com 

https://www.luisgalvezphotography.com/

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[sinkingbeneaththewaves]

Work in Progress Character - Oriana Álvarez

Name: Oriana María Thais Alejandra Álvarez

Age: 32

Blood status: Halfblood

Occupation: Model and actress

Relationship status: Divorced

About:

Early life:

Oriana was born in Havana, Cuba, on the 27th October to Alejandra Yadira Maite Zaida Álvarez. Oriana never knew who her father was and her mother refused to talk about it. When Oriana was still just a baby, Alejandra travelled to the United States in the hopes of finding a better life for them both.

They eventually settled in Los Angeles, with Alejandra taking on every job that she could including waitressing and cleaning. She would work long days and nights, with Oriana learning to fend for herself at a young age. When she was a little older, she would take on cleaning jobs alongside her mother to help out.

The lack of income meant that Alejandra couldn't afford healthcare, resulting in a short illness that unfortunately killed her. Now on her own, Oriana struggled for a year before a professor from Ilvermorny approached her, telling her about the world of magic and inviting her to school.

School life:

She was sorted into Thunderbird at Ilvermorny, but she was not a particularly skilled witch. She could manage, but the lack of money available to her meant that she did not have the funds to buy her own wand. Instead, a professor gifted her an old wand and she struggled through her education.

Despite the fact that she was on her own, she never stayed at school during the holidays. She was seen as too independent by her peers, struggling to make friends, and preferred to be away from school so that she could take on jobs and save up some money.

The start of her career:

It was during one Christmas holiday when she had turned 17 that she was 'discovered'. A photographer by the name of Césaire Germain Bouchard was dining with his family and saw her. He immediately saw her potential as a model and offered to help her. While it wasn't ideal, it was better than the work or education she was getting, and so Oriana never returned to Ilvermorny.

Her modelling career was extremely slow to start with, but then a chance encounter with a representative from a well-known wizarding fashion brand meant that suddenly she was the centre of attention. Oriana became known in the world of fashion, with many brands wanting to work with her.

The beginning and end of romance:

During a shoot, she met Ben Geißler, a German model. The two formed a strange friendship of few words, but it began to evolve into something more. After a year of dating, they got engaged and were married just six months later in a very splashy event. The wedding was the centre of attention for many within the entertainment and fashion industries.

Before the two had even returned back from their honeymoon, the cracks had begun to show. Ben was far more controlling than Oriana had realised, his seemingly caring nature transforming into something darker. He hired a personal assistant for them both, keeping track of her schedule and questioning her if she was ever late home.

He began to try and dictate the work that she would take on, especially if it involved showing off her body or travelling abroad. Oriana didn't do well with this kind of attention and the two would often argue. The media began to speculate on their relationship, and the attention was getting to be too much to Oriana. She ended up taking a small break in her career in a doomed-to-fail attempt to save her marriage.

It all came to a head one night when Oriana had gone out for a drink on her own just to get out of the house. She returned home to find Ben furious and drunk. The altercation that ensued was violent, leaving Oriana scared for her life. Ben left the next morning for a shoot before their cleaner arrived. The cleaner, Juana Lolita Gonzales, immediately began to pack a bag for Oriana after seeing what had happened.

For two weeks, Oriana stayed with Juana, who pretended to Ben that Oriana had been gone when she'd arrived to clean that morning. She did not leave the house at all during that time, recovering and trying to work out what to do. Oriana's disappearance made the news with Ben beginning to play the sad husband who had suddenly been left. After two weeks away, Oriana filed for divorce and got herself a house as far away from Ben as possible, with Juana coming with her as her new personal assistant.

Despite everything that had happened between them, Oriana didn't want to tell anyone what had happened. She didn't want to be seen as a victim and so the reason for the divorce was kept quiet. It took a lot of work, but Oriana's lawyers were able to get Ben to agree to a no fault divorce.

The comeback

The break from her career and the world meant that Oriana had to work her way back up again. Her comeback took a while but she made it, becoming a household name again and expanding her work into acting roles. She prefers modelling but acting gives her longer term projects to focus on.

The problem is that she doesn't always feel safe. Some of her fans can be intense and even obsessive at times, plus the fact that Ben continues to try to contact her. The messages are getting more persistent, and so she and Juana are working on hiring security for her place and perhaps even a personal bodyguard.

[gasparianfotos-blog]

Gasparian FOTO is a Affordable Wedding Photographer Los Angeles and Orange County. My style of wedding photography is deeply rooted in wedding photojournalism, influenced by fine-art and fashion photography. The result is creative, clean and crisp wedding photography that is romantic, fun, and emotional. I take pride on not just being photographer, but rather an artists creating unique and expressive imagery.

Gasparian FOTO

739 E Walnut St. Pasadena, CA 91101 323-638-7260

My Official Website:- https://gasparianfoto.com/

Google Plus Listing:- https://www.google.com/maps?cid=15289035269849815442

Services We offer

wedding photography Family Portraits Graduation Photoshoot Aerial Photography Drone Photography Maternity Photoshoot

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[capturedpb-blog]

Cheap Wedding Photographer Chicago

[processproductionsophielindsay]

CHRISTO AND JEANNE CLAUDE

Wall of Oil Barrels - Rideau de Fer (The Iron Curtain) (1961-62)

https://doyle.com/auctions/13dd02-n-a/catalogue/133-christo-iron-curtain-wall-of-oil-barrels-color-offset-lithograph

Christo and Jeanne-Claude's first collaborations involved wrapping dozens of oil barrels with cloth and rope, and stacking them in layers across public spaces to partially or completely block access. Earlier iterations of this site-specific work on Rue Visconti in Paris included a version in the courtyard of Christo's studio, as well as 1961's Stacked Oil Barrels and Dockside Packages, both of which were installed for two weeks on the harbor in Cologne, Germany. Particularly in Wall of Oil Barrels, the artists expanded the scope and scale of the previous works, creating a larger and more impenetrable wall of both wrapped and unwrapped barrels that blockaded a section of a city street. Christo was propelled by the idea of spatially reconfiguring a specific outdoor location with a common, contextually misplaced object, a notion that would play a role in many of his future creations and collaborations with Jeanne-Claude. The piece used 89 barrels, and measured 13.2 feet wide, 2.7 feet deep, and 13.7 feet tall. It took eight hours to assemble. An expression of the artists' views on the disruptive nature of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall, which was then being built, Wall of Oil Barrels commented on the politics of space, freedom, and mobility under increasingly conservative and divisive governmental policies throughout Europe. Since they installed it without permission, Parisian authorities demanded that the piece be dismantled, but Jeanne-Claude could persuade them to allow the work to remain in place for several hours. This monumental work and its brief celebrity as a public nuisance helped Christo and Jeanne-Claude gain early notoriety in Paris. Oil barrels became an important medium for Christo in 1958. He had been using smaller, every day, affordable objects like beer cans, but the barrels started a significant shift towards larger works, while still adhering to a distinct type of sculptural form. Wall of Oil Barrels was Christo's first large-scale work, and marked the beginning of the collaborative, massively scaled, site-specific works for which he and Jeanne-Claude would become famous.

Wrapped Coast (1968-69)

http://www.panthalassa.org/wrapped-coast-by-christo-jeanne-claude/

Using one million square feet of erosion-control synthetic fabric, 35 miles of polypropylene rope, 25,000 fasteners, threaded studs, and clips, Jeanne-Claude and Christo wrapped 1.5 miles of rocky coast off Little Bay in Sydney, Australia to create Wrapped Coast in the late 1960s. This method of wrapping was something that Christo had experimented with previously, using smaller objects, but this monumental effort became the largest single artwork ever created surpassing Mount Rushmore. It remained wrapped for ten weeks, beginning October 28, 1969. The draping of the fabric over the coast helped to re-contextualize and de-familiarize a well-known natural setting, and revealed the essential form and shape of the coast as a discrete object. Passersby experienced a shift in their commonplace perspective of the landscape by having limitations - both visual and physical - imposed upon the viewing process. This selective imposition also brought about new and unexpected revelations about the coastline, particularly its formal and structural qualities as a cohesive object with a distinct shape, substance, and volume.

Valley Curtain (1975)

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/christo/artworks/

In the Spring of 1970, Christo and Jeanne-Claude began work on Valley, a 200,200 square foot section of orange, woven nylon fabric that stretched across an entire Colorado valley. The gigantic, crescent-shaped fabric was suspended on a steel cable and anchored to two mountain tops, between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs in the Hogback Mountain Range. They tied it down with 27 ropes and spread across the valley at a maximum measurement of 1,250 feet wide and 365 feet high. Valley Curtain was a tremendous feat of engineering and coordination that experienced significant and expensive setbacks. Christo and his team first attempted to install the curtain on October 9, 1971, but a gust of wind caught the fabric and it flew away, ripping on the surrounding rocks and construction equipment. On August 19, 1972, it was at last erected successfully, but it remained intact for only 28 hours, until a wind at over 60 miles per hour threatened to tear through it once more. Workers dismantled the piece shortly thereafter. For the brief time that it was in place, the bright orange drape slung between the craggy mountains reinvigorated the valley's contours, highlighting its natural flow, rhythm, and volume. Like many of the duo's large-scale environmental works, it brought new perspective to a familiar landscape, and encouraged a refreshed appreciation of the natural world. The bold color of the fabric popped against the bright sky, the muted blue mountains in the distance, and the greenery covering the nearby hills. Few viewers could see it live in its short, 28-hour existence, which added to the work's sense of fragility, vulnerability, and urgency, while also stimulating an awareness of the emptiness that accompanied its eventual dismantling. The work was documented extensively in photographs: ultimately, the most prolific medium of earthworks, these types of works which are purposely subjected to environmental change, impermanence, and decay.

The Umbrellas (1984-91)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Umbrellas_(Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude)

This piece took place simultaneously in two different rural locations, one in Japan outside the city of Tokyo, and the other in California north of Los Angeles. The umbrellas were assembled in California and composed of fabric, aluminum, steel, wooden supports, bags, and molded base covers. Each umbrella was 19 feet high and 28 feet wide. 1,340 blue umbrellas were installed in Japan, a color chosen to evoke the rich vegetation and water resources of the area, and 1,760 yellow umbrellas were placed in California, reflecting the golden grass that covers the nearby grazing hills. In Japan, the umbrellas were placed closer together following the geometry of the rice fields, and they were spread further out in California, where vast expanses of agricultural land dominate much of the Central Valley. The usage of umbrellas in each location symbolizes the similarities, and the differences associated with the ways of life and the land usage in each area. They represented the varied availability and character of the land, and the temporary cycles of cultivation wrought by human industry. After years of preparation and planning, environmental studies, wind tests, and negotiations, the first steel bases went down December 1990. The exhibit was finally unveiled on October 9, 1991, and received about 3 million visitors. It became a huge tourist attraction and a popular site for picnics and weddings. The work quickly turned controversial, however, when one umbrella caught a strong wind and pinned a woman against a rock, ultimately killing her and injuring three others. The project was cited for removal and during the dismantling process, a Japanese worker was electrocuted when an umbrella he was holding hit an electrical wire. Some critics responded to these tragic accidents by taking umbrage with the egocentrism of Christo's spectacle-oriented, massively scaled visual productions, and subsequent projects became more difficult for the artists to find financial and governmental backing.

 Christo's early education in Soviet Socialist Realism, and his experience fleeing his home as a refugee of political revolution, informed his career's many forays into real-world politics as a primary subject and source of his art making. His 35-year collaboration with the artist Jeanne-Claude, and the large-scale site-specific works they co-authored, stand out as his career's greatest achievements. Together, the duo created monumentally scaled sculptures and installations which often used the technique of draping or wrapping large portions of existent landscapes, buildings, and industrial objects with specially engineered fabric. Christo and Jeanne-Claude made works that stand out as some of the most grandiose, site-specific artworks ever. While they often insisted that the aesthetic properties of their art made up its primary value, reactions from audiences and critics worldwide have long recognized a broader commentary operating across their work, and themes ranging from environmental degradation, to the vexed history of the 20th century and the Cold War, to the perseverance of democratic and humanist ideals.

· Christo and Jeanne-Claude's interventions in the natural world and the built environment altered both the physical form and the visual experience of the sites, allowing viewers to perceive and understand the locations with a new appreciation of their formal, energetic, and volumetric qualities.

· The artists' choice to remain intermittently inside and outside the frameworks of legality lends much of their work a built-in aspect of dissent and resistance. It also expands upon and emboldens a long legacy of quasi-legality in art, where art exists in a realm somewhere between the "real" world and fantasy, and affords the art world with distinct privileges and restrictions.

· Christo and Jeanne-Claude often worked outside the gallery system, refusing to negotiate sales of drawings and commissions through an art dealer. In this respect, they took a definitive stance on the political and economic infrastructure of the global art market, and set a precedent for artists working outside the system who still cultivated an international level of success.

· Whereas Land Artists usually made a point of blurring the lines of distinction between the artwork itself and its natural setting and/or materials, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's art relied on developing a high contrast between the engineered, man-made elements and the site's organic characteristics. Their work therefore pushes the envelope of what makes up site-specific, large-scale installation art, and expands the genre discourse to incorporate controversial themes of industrialization, bureaucratization, and late capitalism.

[silent-era-of-cinema]

Bessie Love (born Juanita Horton; September 10, 1898 – April 26, 1986) was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned eight decades—from silent film to sound film, including theatre, radio, and television—and her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Love was born Juanita Horton in Midland, Texas, to John Cross Horton and Emma Jane Horton ( Savage). Her father was a cowboy and bartender, while her mother worked in and managed restaurants. She attended school in Midland until she was in the eighth grade, when her family moved to Arizona, New Mexico, and then to California, where they settled in Hollywood. When in Hollywood, her father became a chiropractor, and her mother worked at the Jantzen's Knitwear and Bathing Suits factory.

In June 1915, while a student at Los Angeles High School, Horton went to the set of a film to meet with actor Tom Mix, who had recommended that she visit him if she wanted to "get into pictures". However, when Mix was unavailable, she was advised to meet with pioneering film director D. W. Griffith, who put her under personal contract. When it was decided that her given name was too long for theater marquees and too difficult to pronounce, Griffith's associate Frank Woods gave Horton the stage name Bessie Love: "Bessie, because any child can pronounce it. And Love, because we want everyone to love her!" Love dropped out of high school to pursue her film career, but she completed her diploma in 1919.

Griffith gave her a small role in his Intolerance (1916). Although Intolerance was her first performance to be filmed, it was her ninth film to be released. The first films Love made were with Griffith's Fine Arts company, yet Intolerance was the only film that he formally directed.

Her "first role of importance" —in the second of her films to be released—was in The Flying Torpedo (1916). She later appeared opposite William S. Hart in The Aryan and with Douglas Fairbanks in The Good Bad-Man, Reggie Mixes In, and The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (all 1916). This string of appearances and supporting roles led to her first starring role, in A Sister of Six (1916). In her early career, she was likened to Mary Pickford, and was called "Our Mary" by Griffith.

As her roles got larger, her popularity gradually grew. In early 1918, Love left Fine Arts for a better contract with Pathé.[ After the Pathé films were unsuccessful, she signed a nine-film contract with Vitagraph later that year, all of which were directed by David Smith. Her performances often received positive reviews, but her films often were shown at smaller movie theaters, which impacted the growth of her career.

Upon the completion of her Vitagraph contract, Love became a free agent. She took an active role in the management of her career, and was represented by Gerald C. Duffy, the former editor of Picture-Play Magazine.

Love sought roles that were different from the little girls she had portrayed earlier in her career when under contract to studios. She played Asian women in The Vermilion Pencil (1922) and The Purple Dawn (1923); a drug-addicted mother in Human Wreckage (1923); a woman accused of murder in The Woman on the Jury (1924); an underworld flapper in Those Who Dance (1924); and versions of her real-life self in Night Life in Hollywood (1922), Souls for Sale (1923), and Mary of the Movies (1923).

As a film star, she was expected to entertain studio executives at parties, so she learned to sing, dance, and play the ukulele. She gradually honed these skills and later performed them onscreen and on the stage. Because of her performance in The King on Main Street (1925), Love is credited with being the first person to dance the Charleston on film, popularizing it in the United States. Her technique was documented in instructional guides, including a series of photographs by Edward Steichen. She subsequently performed the dance the following year in The Song and Dance Man.

In 1925, she starred in The Lost World, a science fiction adventure based on the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1927, she appeared in the successful Dress Parade, and was so impressed by her experiences on location that she wrote the unpublished novel Military Mary. A year later, she starred in The Matinee Idol, a romantic comedy directed by a young Frank Capra. Despite these successes, Love's career was on the decline. She lived frugally so that she could afford lessons in singing and dancing.

Love toured with a musical revue for sixteen weeks, which was so physically demanding that she broke a rib. The experience she gained on the vaudeville stage singing and dancing in three performances a day prepared her for the introduction of sound films. She appeared in the successful sound musical short film The Swell Head in early 1928, and was signed to MGM later that year.

In 1929, she appeared in her first feature-length sound film, the musical The Broadway Melody. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and the success of the film resulted in a five-year contract with MGM and an increase in her weekly salary from US$500 to $3,000 (equivalent to $45,000 in 2019)—$1,000 more than her male co-star Charles King.

She appeared in several other early musicals, including 1929's The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and 1930's Chasing Rainbows, Good News, and They Learned About Women. Her success in these musicals earned her the title "the screen's first musical comedy star."

However, the popularity of musical films waned, again putting her career in decline. Love is quoted as saying of her career: "I guess I'm through. They don't seem to want me any more." She shifted focus to her personal life, marrying in December 1929.

She semi-retired from films, and traveled with a musical revue that included clips from her films The Broadway Melody, The Hollywood Revue, and Chasing Rainbows. While on tour, she learned she was pregnant with her daughter, who was born in 1932. Love stopped her stage work to raise her daughter. In 1935, Love moved to England, briefly returning to the United States in 1936 to obtain a divorce.

During World War II in Britain, when it was difficult to find employment as an actress, Love worked as the script supervisor on the film drama San Demetrio London (1943). She also worked for the American Red Cross.

After the war, Love began acting again, this time primarily in the theater and on BBC Radio as a member of their Drama Repertory Company; she also played small roles in British films, often as an American tourist. Stage work included such productions as Love in Idleness (1944) and Born Yesterday (1947). She wrote and performed in The Homecoming, a semiautobiographical play, which opened in Perth, Scotland in 1958. Film work included The Barefoot Contessa (1954) with Humphrey Bogart, and Ealing Studios' Nowhere to Go (1958), and she had supporting roles in The Greengage Summer (1961) starring Kenneth More, the James Bond thriller On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), and John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). In addition to playing the mother of Vanessa Redgrave's titular character in Isadora (1968), Love also served as dialect coach to the actress.

When television became popular, Love appeared in dozens of episodes of British television shows in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. In October 1963, she became the subject of This Is Your Life when host Eamonn Andrews surprised her at the stage door of Never Too Late after its London opening. Guests included London Scrapbook director Derrick De Marney, her Forget Me Not (1922) co-star Gareth Hughes, actor Percy Marmont, her friend and Those Who Dance (1924) co-star Blanche Sweet, and her daughter Patricia.

Love appeared in John Osborne's play West of Suez (1971), and as "Aunt Pittypat" in a large-scale musical version of Gone with the Wind (1972). She also played Maud Cunard in the TV miniseries Edward & Mrs. Simpson in 1978. Her film work continued in the 1980s with roles in Ragtime (1981), Reds (1981), Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981), and—her final film—The Hunger (1983).

Love married agent William Hawks at St. James' Episcopal Church in South Pasadena, California on December 27, 1929. Mary Astor (Hawks's sister-in-law), Carmel Myers, and Norma Shearer were among her bridesmaids, with Irving Thalberg and Hawks's brother Howard serving as ushers. Following their wedding, the couple lived at the Havenhurst Apartments in Hollywood, and their only child, Patricia, was born in 1932. Four years later, the couple divorced.

Love moved to England with her daughter in 1935, a year before her divorce was final. Her life in England kept her out of the eye of her American fans, which resulted in the American press erroneously reporting her as dead multiple times. Love became a British subject in the late 1960s.

Love was a Christian Scientist.

After several years of declining health, Love died at the Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, London from natural causes on April 26, 1986. Her ashes are interred at Breakspear Crematorium in Ruislip, Hillingdon, England.

Cartoonist Alex Gard created a caricature of Love for Sardi's, the famed restaurant in Manhattan's Theater District. It is now part of the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Portraits of Love are also in the collections of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Love periodically was interviewed by film historians, and was featured in the television documentary series The Hollywood Greats (1978) and Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film (1980), both about early filmmaking in Hollywood. She also loaned materials from her personal collection to museums. In 1962, she began contributing articles about her experiences to The Christian Science Monitor. In 1977, she published an autobiography entitled From Hollywood with Love.

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Love was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 at 6777 Hollywood Boulevard.

[lifelastingcouples]

Iman and David Bowie

Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid (Iman) was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, on the 25ᵗʰ of July 1955. Her father was a diplomat and a former Somali ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and her mother was a gynecologist. While she was studying at the University of Nairobi, Iman was discovered by American photographer Peter Beard, and she subsequently moved to the United States to begin a modeling career. Her first modeling assignment was for Vogue in 1976. She became a muse for many prominent designers: Halston, Versace, Calvin Klein, Issey Miyake, Donna Karan, Yves Saint-Laurent. She also worked with plenty of notable photographers: Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Annie Leibovitz. Iman married her first husband Hassan in 1973 and divorced in 1975, and then married American pro basketballer Spencer Haywood in 1977. The union produced a daughter, Zulekha Haywood born in 1978. Iman and Haywood divorced a decade later. After almost two decades of modeling, Iman started her own cosmetics firm in 1994. Iman was approached in 2007 by the CEO of the Home Shopping Network (HSN) to create the clothing design line Global Chic. Today, her Global Chic collection is one of four best-selling items among more than 200 fashion and jewelry brands on HSN, having evolved into a line of affordable accessories.

David Robert Jones was born on the 8ᵗʰ of January 1947 in London. His mother was worked as a waitress at a cinema in Royal Tunbridge Wells and his father worked as a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. In 1953, Bowie moved with his family to Bromley. Two years later, he started attending Burnt Ash Junior School. His voice was considered "adequate" by the school choir, and he demonstrated above-average abilities in playing the recorder. At the age of nine, his dancing during the newly-introduced music and movement classes was strikingly imaginative: teachers called his interpretations "vividly artistic" and his poise "astonishing" for a child. Bowie formed his first band, the Konrads, in 1962 at the age of 15. Playing guitar-based rock and roll at local youth gatherings and weddings, but frustrated by his bandmates' limited aspirations, Bowie left the Konrads and joined another band, the King Bees. But again Bowie quit the band less than a month later to join the Manish Boys. Bowie met dancer Lindsay Kemp in 1967 and enrolled in his dance class at the London Dance Centre. In January 1968, Kemp choreographed a dance scene for a BBC play, The Pistol Shot, in the Theatre 625 series, and used Bowie with a dancer, Hermione Farthingale; the pair began dating, and moved into a London flat together. Bowie and Farthingale broke up in early 1969 when she went to Norway to take part in a film, Song of Norway. On the 11 ᵗʰ of  July 1969, Bowie's first album "Space Oddity" was released five days ahead of the Apollo 11 launch, and reached the top five in the UK. Bowie's second album followed in November. In April 1969 Bowie met Angela Barnett, they married within a year. They had an open marriage. Angela described their union as a marriage of convenience so that she could get a permit to work. Their son Duncan, was born on the 30 of May 1971. Bowie moved to the US in 1974, initially staying in New York City before settling in Los Angeles. Bowie and Angela divorced on 8 February 1980 in Switzerland.

Iman and Bowie met in 1990 at a dinner party. Iman had recently retired from modeling and her hairdresser introduced her to the British singer-songwriter. For Bowie, it was love at first meeting. “My attraction to her was immediate and all-encompassing”. Her effect on the usually unflappable and smooth Bowie was intense. “I found her intolerably sexy”. It took a further two weeks before Iman was as on board with the relationship as Bowie. “His actions spoke louder [than words]” she said to The Cut in 2011. owie proposed in Paris and they married on the 24ᵗʰ of April 1992.

Iman and Bowie approached their marriage as a relationship to be shared with each other, not a public eager to hear intimate details about the “Space Oddity” singer and Vogue cover star. Aside from rare occasions, the couple kept the press separate from their home life.

They were rarely photographed together, appearing as a couple only in one Vogue magazine shoot and for a Hello! interview in their New York apartment following the birth of their daughter Alexandria in 2000, which Iman described as one of “the happiest times in my life,” and an event that drew the couple closer than ever before.

Quizzed over the whereabouts of her husband while attending a New York Valentine’s Day event solo in 2011, Iman told The Cut that they never celebrated the annual lovefest in public. “We never do Valentine’s dinner, because everybody, they look,” she said. “On Valentine’s, imagine me and David going to a restaurant! Like everybody’s going to say, ‘Did they talk? Did they hold hands?’ Twenty years. We’ve been married 20 years!”

Home life in New York was routine. Iman revealed to Harper’s Bazaar in 2010 that like many couples with a young child, daily life involved early morning school runs and soccer and music classes. “I vowed to myself when I got married that I would cook every night,” she said. “I find it very therapeutic.” Bowie, who retired from touring in 2004, told ET that “first for me is our marriage and second is career. If there was a choice between one or the other, there’s no question.”

So intense was their desire for privacy, the world was left shocked when Bowie died on the 10 ᵗʰ of January 2016, at age 69 from liver cancer. Even his close musical collaborators had no idea the prolific singer had been sick.

Two years later, Iman opened up about her feelings during an interview with Porter magazine. “Sometimes, I don’t want people to know how sad I am. People say to me, ‘Oh, you’re so strong.’ I’m not strong — I am just trying to keep it together”.

When questioned about whether she would consider entering into a new romantic relationship, the model-turned-entrepreneur was firm in her response: “I will never remarry. I mentioned my husband the other day with someone, and they said to me, ‘You mean your late husband?’ I said, no, he is always going to be my husband.

[fortheloveoffanfic]

You (pt.2)

Keanu Reeves x Reader (A/n- A continuation of this fic-.> You. Also, it’s veryyy long, but I really couldn’t help myself)

Spring, Napa Valley, 2000 In the walled off backyard of a large winery, Keanu stood, that day, dressed in formal cloths that fit perfectly. White-tie grade suit that reflected the vintage theme that they had chosen. The freshly cut, green grass felt soft under his shining black shoes and the smell of flowers, coming from hedges against the vine adorned walls intermingled with the ever-lingering smell of oak and wine. A quiet chatter ran through the gathered crowd; his family and friends on the right and hers on the left, though, as the heavy doors creaked open, it stopped and everyone stood.

Keanu’s back straightened at the sight of her and he inhaled deeply. She looked better and more beautiful that anything he could have ever dreamed of. Y/n wore cap-sleeved, lace adorned, mermaid cut, ivory dress. An old fashioned veil hung over her forehead and eyes, skewing her vison as her father walked with her towards Keanu. In her hands, Y/n held a bouquet dominated by colorful wild flowers in blatant homage to all those pretend wedding they’d have when they were just children. Neither of them could believe it. Who would have thought that summers spent in her backyard would turn out to be practice for their real wedding decades later?

When they reached the alter, Y/n’s father pulled Keanu into a short hug, whispering in his ear, “Of all the men that I could have handed my baby girl over to, I’m glad it’s you son.”

Keanu smiled proudly in thanks. Her parents, like his mother, had been welcoming to their relationship and when they announced their engagement two years after that memorable night in her bedroom, her mother had exclaimed, in an exact quote, “Finally! I thought I’d die before we got this news!” His mother had been just as excited, murmuring something about finally getting grandchildren. 

As they faced each other, Keanu's sister standing as the officiant before them, Y/n beamed brightly and Keanu couldn’t help but return her glee. The ceremony went on without flaw and eventually, it was time for the vows. Like years of practice had preached, Y/n went first, “Keanu, three years ago, if someone had told me that I had known the love of my life since I was three, I’d have laughed in their face and called them crazy. But today, as I stand before you, more ready to become your wife than I’ve ever been to be anything else, I think I’d be the crazy one for not believing them. We’ve grown together, you’ve loved me when I felt un-loveable, taken care of me when I didn’t what to be taken care of. You’ve made me laugh and you’ve dried my tears. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that our love has been over thirty years in the making, that it’s taken us so long to get here, but I don’t regret it. If anything, it’s taught me that the best things are right there if you choose to look for it. Thank you, for loving me, and for helping me find it. Thank for thirty two years of unconditional love and I hope that in our next thirty, fifty, or how much ever it ends at, that I could, at the very least, show you a fraction of the love you’ve made me feel.”

With the bouquet having been handed of to her sister and maid of honor as she took her place at the alter, it was easy for Keanu to clasp her smaller hands in his as he recited his vows, “Y/n,” he began, trying to suppress the nerves, “You’d think after all those years I’d know exactly what I was going to say. But the truth is, I don’t. All I can say, is what I know. And what I know is that thirty-two years ago, I didn’t just meet a girl who lived a couple houses away, or my best friend, I met the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. My soulmate. My home. And even though we’ve known each other for this long, it’s still hard to believe that I’m the man you chose, which is why I promise to make every day for the rest of our lives, worth it. I can’t always promise a walk in the park, but I can promise that even when things don’t seem that great, I’ll be right there with you, through it all. I love you Y/n, my love, my soulmate, my home and very soon, my wife.”

By the time he was through, Y/n’s eyes had begun to shine with tears. They exchanged rings, a thin gold band with diamonds on it for her and a slightly thicker one for him, both with the word ‘forever’ engraved on the inside. Afterwards, they ended with their first kiss as a married couple, the photographer stepping in front of them just in time to capture the moment.

Early 2001 The move had been tough, changing jobs had been tougher and with three movies being released that year, Keanu had been gone a lot. Which is why when she found out, Y/n was a little more worried than excited. 

A baby?

In the midst of their crazy lives?

By the time Y/n had found out, Keanu had been gone for a couple weeks and, unable to keep the news to herself for any longer that a few hours, Y/n hopped on the red eye to New York. On the plane ride, all the way through the cab ride to his hotel and even as she walked to the conference room on the first floor, Y/n’s stomach made a habit of twisting in and out of knots. 

On one hand, they were a stable couple. Married for just about a year, happy, in love. With both their pay checks, they could easily afford about three babies, though Y/n was glad it was going to just be the one.

However, on the other hand, while they were certainly finically able and mentally stable, Y/n wondered if they even had time for a child. Keanu was travelling a lot lately and she would often spend hours past midnight at her office. Then, there was the fact that they had never talked about children. They had known each other, for what felt like forever and still, they hadn’t talked about it. Sure, jokes had been made, little hints been dropped by their families and even the tabloids had seemed smitten with the idea. Since they had married, entertainment journalists had banded together to scrutinize her. If she drank water or wine, what she had at the sushi bar, the possibility that her doctor’s visit might not have been for an ear infection, but an ultra-sound. The question had even come up in Keanu’s interviews, with prying minds being bold enough to ask, “When are you going to take the leap and knock her up? She’s gorgeous, you’re a heart throb, the world needs more of your genes.”

And still the topic hadn't come up between them.

Of course, it was about to. On wobbly legs, Y/n stood at the back of the small crowd, watching as Keanu and his co-star got interviewed. She was a beautiful, tall, blonde who looked amazing in anything, but the despite it all, Y/n knew that she could trust her husband around the woman and thought very little of their light hearted banter for the cameras. 

Next to her, was Keanu’s publicist, who was more than surprised at her impromptu appearance, “Y/n, what are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

“What? Huh? Yeah!” Y/n waved her off nervously, going to toy with the visitor's badge that hung around her neck.

“Are you sure? Yesterday Keanu was thinking of flying back home, he said you were sick,” the older woman said, concern written on her matronly features. 

“Oh, yeah,” Y/n nodded, weakly, “I was. I am, but I felt a little better so I flew out to surprise him.” 

Thankfully, before Y/n could suffer through anymore nervous attempts to hide the truth, the interview was over, and having spotted her through the crowd, Keanu was headed their way, “Y/n?” he said, a note of worry etching his tone as he immediately pulled her into a hug. His co-star and publicist quickly excused themselves and when Y/n requested that they speak in private, he took them straight to his room. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here? You’ve been sick for the past couple weeks and you’re looking a little pale. You should be home, resting.”

Y/n smiled at his concern. He was always more worried about her than she was about herself. “I know,” she nodded "I went to the doctor a couple days ago. He ran a couple tests, I got the results back on Tuesday." It was Thursday. She had kept it to herself for almost two days and she was itching to tell him.

"Oh?" Keanu's frown deepened, worry lines creasing his brows. As he sat on the bed next to her, Keanu took Y/n's hand, lightly squeezing, trying to contain his worry. Swallowing thickly, he asked, "What did he say? Y/n, babe whatever it is, we'll get through it, together."

His words serves as warm comfort a d Y/n offered him a meek smile as she said; “He said that I’m pregnant.”

Keanu sighed in audible relief and it took a minute before a wide grin brightened his handsome features, “Y/n,” he breathed, pulling her into a crushing hug as he pressed a passionate, love-filled kiss to her lips, “I’m going to be a dad! We’re going to be parents!”

“You want to keep it?” Y/n laughed, relived that he was excited.

“Keep it?” Keanu scoffed, “I can’t wait to meet this little guy,” he pulled away to lay his hand on her still-flat stomach, “Or girl. A girl would be great too. Like a little you,” he wondered out loud.

“Or a little you,” Y/n mused, taking his hand, “I’m so glad you’re okay with this. We’re gong to be a family.”

“We are,” Keanu declared, pulling Y/n in for another kiss.

2003 Just let him be okay. Just let him be okay. Just let him be okay.

Those were the words that formed a mantra in Y/n mind as she weaved through Los Angeles traffic. Her hands maintained a tight grip on the wheel as she ignored blaring horns of those she had cut off in her panicked frenzy. The girls were home with the housekeeper, Nelly, who had essentially pushed her out the door when she got the worrying news, assuring Y/n that her kids would be fine and that she should focus on Keanu. 

Keanu. Her husband of three years, a man she had known for thirty-five years. The same one who drove well below the speed limit on he both times his newborns slept peacefully in the backseat. The man who usually pressured them to leave their house an hour earlier so he wouldn’t have to speed with his kids and wife in the car. Keanu was a careful man, the kind that thought things through, the only one she had ever fallen in love with. And now he was in the hospital. 

Just a couple hours after he had phoned home to tell her hat he’d be leaving set in a few minutes, Y/n had gotten a call. It was the kind she never wanted to receive.

“Y/n Reeves?”

“Yes? Who is this?”

“Ma’am, I’m calling from Los Angeles General, you’re husband has been in an accident.”

Without waiting to hear the rest, Y/n had hung up, already telling Nelly as she shrugged on her coat over the old band tee she was wearing and grabbed her keys. Her daughters, who had gotten more from her than they had from Keanu looked on at their mother with a kind of naivety that told her that they didn’t quiet understand the seriousness of the call. Not that anyone could blame them, they were still so, so young. Their oldest, Rosie was barely three and Taylor had joined their family in a flurry of cries only seven months before. As young as they were though, they both adored their father, maybe, just maybe, a tad more than she did.

With barely a beat to shut off the engine and grab her purse, Y/n was stumbling out of the car, almost losing a shoe or both in the process. With heaving breaths and barely contained sobs, she ran through the glass sliding doors.

Almost everyone’s head raised at her entrance. Probably because she was the widely adored wife of a block-buster movie star. Probably because her hair was a mess and there was spit up on her shirt. Or probably just because of the manner of her entrance. Y/n didn’t care about their reasoning, she only had one goal. Find her husband. “Where’s my husband?” 

After the grueling process of filling out insurance forms and hearing the occasional, “He’s going to be just fine Mrs. Reeves,” a nurse led Y/n to a private room.

On the bed, Keanu laid propped on some pillows, a few cuts and bruises on his face. The worst of it was his left leg, casted up to the knee, “What the hell Ke?” Were the first words that left her lips, tears finally falling as she rushed to his bedside. 

Taking her arm, Keanu pulled her down into a hug, shushing her like he usually did their girls when they cried, “All this for me?” He chuckled.

Pulling away from him, Y/n swatted at his arms, “Don’t make fun of me! I was worried out of my mind.”

“I know,” his chuckles died into a soft smile and he held on to her hands, “One of the nurses said that you hung up on her.”

“Well, obviously! She said you had been in an accident!” Y/n’s shoulders dropped, defeated, “We could have lost you, this isn’t a joke!” She explained, Y/n’s voice breaking with emotion, “If this were more serious, I don’t know what I’d do. Rosie and Taylor, they need a father, they need you. I need you! If I lost you, god,” she breathed, hot tears spilling down her already stained cheeks, “I just can’t okay? So be careful when you’re out there, if not for yourself, for the three of us.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Keanu cooed, shifting awkwardly so he could pull her down next to him, “Don’t cry baby,” kissing her forehead, he mulled on his next words. Just the thought of his family being without him was upsetting, missing the birthdays, the anniversaries, graduations, not seeing his girls grow up and his wife achieve everything she dreamed of, “Listen, if I have anything to do with it, you three are going to be stuck with me for a very long time. I’m going to be right here, at your side while they grow up and we grow old, okay?” He kissed her hair again.

“Promise?” She turned to meet his dark gaze.

“Promise.”

2005 Fuming. That’s what she was. Y/n was surprised that there wasn’t smoke coming from her ears yet. How dare he? After everything! Acting like he didn’t know her at all. It was enough to make Y/n want to just turn around and walk out the front door, slamming it in his face. She might have, if Keanu didn’t beat her to it. 

As Y/n plopped onto the sofa, not really paying any mind to the clutter of children’s toys around her, she tried to take a calming breath and not scream in a way that would wake their sleeping children. 

Lately, it had become almost routine. Bouts of giving each other the cold shoulder and then, when Taylor and Rosie were finally tucked in bed, they’d engage in a shouting match. Taking turns at spatting accusations and insults that they didn’t even mean. Neither of them was sure when it really started. Maybe it was when he had temporarily moved their family to Portland at heel of Christmas, and then, when the girls had gotten sick, Y/n was left alone in their rental taking care of them without an ounce of help. Instead of offering to clear his schedule a little, Keanu had offered the aid of a nanny. Or, it could have been when Y/n had hired a new assistant, nearly twenty years their junior, though he had taken a keen liking to his boss. Offering to bring dry cleaning to their house, buying her coffee every morning and staying late with her when everyone else had left. The advances were subtle, but Keanu had noticed and when he brought it to his wife, she had waved him off, saying that Jack was just a gentleman.

Their latest fight had been more explosive than the others.

Y/n had gotten home just after Nelly had left and dinner had already been put away. From the minute she entered the kitchen, she had noticed the tension in the air. The girls were playing in their playroom and Keanu was just reentering after having a smoke. “I told you not to smoke around them,” were the first words she huffed as she dropped her bags to the counter, “Who was watching them while you were out there?” She pointed, anger growing.

“God, they’re fine Y/n. It wasn’t even in front of them,” he whispered angrily, “They’re playing, I was out there. Didn’t even see the fucking cigarette.”

“So now you’re cursing in front of them?” She fumed, trying to contain her tone. as mad as they were, the last thing they wanted was for the kids to see them like that.

“They’re not here,” he hissed, clenching the pack of cigarettes and lighter in his fist, “You know, if you don’t trust me with them, you should have come home instead of staying at your office to fuck your boy toy!”

“Boy toy?” She quoted. Before Y/n could get another word out, their eldest, Rosie ran in.

“Mommy!” She squealed, hugging Y/n’s legs, “You’re back. We missed you.”

Opting to ignore Keanu right then, Y/n scooped Rosie up in her arms, “I missed you too bunny! Come on, it’s late, lets get ready for bed.”

(2 hours later) With the girls fast asleep in their rooms, loud whispers had turned to shouts, “What do you want me to do?” Y/n yelled, “The firm is just getting off the ground and I’m supposed to be here at your beck and call? I have a life too you know?”

“Oh, I know!” Keanu accused, “How’s it been, living it with Jack? He seems to see more of you anyway, kind of makes me wonder why.”

“God!” Y/n groaned, hitting her fists against the marble counter, “For the last time, I’m not fucking him! He’s my assistant, and he’s been more help in a few months than you’ve been this past year!”

“So this is my fault now?” He tone incredulous, strong arms folded across his broad chest.

“Congratulations! Get the man a fucking trophy!” She mocked angrily, “You say I’m never here, but you leave for months, filming and doing god knows what else. News flash Keanu, if anyone’s cheating, it’s you!”

“Me?” He chuckled, rage evident, “You know what Y/n? I don’t need this bullshit tonight,” he began, walking through the house, collecting his coat and keys.

“Where the hell are you going?” She probed, annoyed.

“Out.” Was all Keanu offered, slamming the door behind him.

September, 2005 Things hadn’t gotten better, but they hadn't gotten worse either. After a night away, Keanu had returned home, wordlessly, moving some of his things to the guest room. They carried on like that for months, fights, teary nights apart and tension filled silence. Whispers had started going around, that one of Hollywood’s favorite couples was on the brink of divorce. Y/n didn’t want to leave him, Keanu didn’t want her to go, but it really didn’t seem like there was anything else left to do.

Until Y/n had spent an hour on the phone with her mother, the first draft of divorce papers opened on her computer, “This isn’t what you want Y/n,” her mother declared plainly.

“You don’t know that,” she huffed in return, “Things haven’t been great lately. All these fights, the accusations. We’re barely holding it together for the girls, I don’t want them to grow up in a home with this much anger.”

“Do you want them to grow up in a home without their father?” She asked and Y/n could swear that she saw her mother siting right there in her office, arms folded, eyebrows raised in question.

“They would still see him. We’d-”

“Share custody? Mhm. It starts with trading them every week. Then he gets a new girlfriend that you don’t like, probably because you’re jealous and you still love him, and then it turns to the weekends. Then, he moves on some more, and it’s every other weekend and you keep going like that until its once a month and, finally a few times a year. That’s not how you’re raising my grandbabies.” Her mother paused for a minute then cutting her off before she spoke again, “And don’t say that it’s what’s best for them. It’s not. I know you. Both of you. That boy is like a second son to me! Are you really going to throw away thirty-seven years over a fight?”

“It wasn’t just one fight mom, it’s been like this for months,” Y/n tried not to sound like she was whining, but she was sure she failed miserably.

“Doesn’t matter dear. Can you really sit in you office on this beautiful Thursday evening and tell me that you don’t love that man anymore? And I know you lawyers lie a lot, but I also know you like the back of my hand and anything but ‘no’ would be a lie.” Y/n was quiet for a while, lost in thought, worrying on her bottom lip, “Well?”

“Well what?” Y/n sighed.

“Can you say you don’t love him?”

Y/n leaned back in her chair, eyes falling on a picture near the end of her desk. One of the first ones taken after they had brought Taylor home from the hospital. She had looked a tired mess, but Keanu had kept saying that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. Sighing as thirty-seven years worth of memories washed over her, Y/n realized that her mother was right, “No, I can’t,” she concluded, “I still love him. I always will. But it’s not that easy mom.”

“It is. Just talk to him. And listen too.”

“I tried,” Y/n argued weakly, “But it didn’t work.”

“You didn’t,” her mother objected, “You yelled, you argued and you accused. But you didn’t communicate and you didn’t listen. So get divorce out of your mind, open your ears and get your ass home .”

“Fine,” Y/n grumbled. 

That night, Y/n had gone home and after putting the children to bed, she had flopped down on the sofa next to Keanu, “I fired Jack today.”

“What?” He turned to her.

“You don’t trust him and I shouldn’t have kept him around that long if it was making you uncomfortable,” she explained quietly.

“I’m sorry,” Keanu sighed, “I shouldn’t have accused you of those things and I should have put you in a position that would make you think I’d do that.”

“I’m sorry too,” Y/n laid her hand over his, squeezing reassuringly, “I should have understood that you’re just trying to provide for us, and you’re not gone by choice,” Keanu smiled sadly at her as she declared, “I still love you.���

“I still love you too.”

Winter 2006 Y/n huffed as she stood at the entrance of the cleared out guest room, hands bracing her strained back as she declared, “I’m too old for this.”

Keanu’s eyes widened at the sight of her, scurrying of the ladder, dropping the paint brush as he hurried to her side, “Honey, what are you doing?”

“Checking on you. The last time I left you alone on a ladder we had to go to the emergency room,” she giggled, not acting on his concern.

Keanu placed a hand on the small of her back, guiding her out of the unfinished nursery, “I was fine,” he argued.

“You threw your back out,” Y/n reminded lightly, “It looks nice by the way. I’m actually surprised that you chose that color on your own,” she teased leaning into his side, her hands going to rest on her swollen stomach.

“Thank you. I think,” Keanu shook his head, unsure on whether or not it was a compliment, “You shouldn’t have been in there though, the fumes aren’t safe.”

Y/n sighed, rolling her eyes, “Ke, I love you, but this worry is unnecessary, I’ve been around this block twice.”

“I know,” he agreed, “But this little guy hasn’t,” Keanu rubbed her stomach affectionately. Everyone had been worried when Y/n had conceived over forty, even he had had his doubts. What if they were too old? What if this one was too much younger than the girls? But from the minute he saw the first ultrasound, Keanu knew, it didn’t matter that they had slowly started to go grey, that the doctor had said that there were risks, not of it mattered as long as they thought they could do it. And do it they did. 

“Fine,” she huffed as they descended the stairs.

“I can’t believe that this is the last time I’m going to see you like this,” he leaned his head against hers.

“I thought the last time would be with Taylor but you just had make us go to Prague for our anniversary.”

“Me?” He shot back, hand going to his chest in defense, “You’re the one who was hot for it in the airplane bathroom!”

“What?” Y/n playfully slapped his arm, “Our son was not conceived in an airplane bathroom!”

“I think he might have been,” Keanu carried on nonchalantly, “Don’t worry, it’s a cool story.”

“No, it’s not. And it’s not true either. I refuse to believe that,” she plopped onto the couch, getting to work on folding some clothes from a laundry basket on the coffee table.

“Refuse if you like, but I think it’s true,” he laughed.

“It’s not. Now go get cleaned up or something, you’ll get paint everywhere,” she shooed him. “Bye!” She laughed as he walked off, back in the direction of stairs, waving dramatically.

2007 Y/n stood in the doorway of Rosie’s bedroom, admiring the sight before her. Keanu sat on the bed, Rosie and Taylor on either side of him already dressed in their colorful, printed pajamas, their dark hair falling in their faces and their little hands fought to brush it away. Their son, Henry, barely a year old by then sat against his father’s chest, cubby fingers trying to grab at the excitable pages of the story book. Already, he looked so much like Keanu and the little bits of his father that he had taken on showed up more and more everyday. 

Bed time rituals usually ended in Rosie’s room. Keanu would read them whatever story they pleased, sometimes he’d even make one up if they asked. And then, when they were falling asleep, He’d scoop Taylor up in his arms and hand Henry over to Y/n, tucking their eldest in before they took the other two of to their rooms. 

“Daddy?” Taylor spoke up as he closed the book.

“Humm?” He hummed, preoccupied with Henry trying to put the corner of the book in his mouth. Their youngest babbled in frustrated discontent when Keanu finally got the book, placing it on the near by night stand, far out of his reach. For a minute or two, he fussed but when Keanu started bouncing him in his lap, all signs of sorrow were replaced with tiny giggles. “What’s up princess?” He finally turned to her.

“Can you tell us another story?” She looked up at him, wide eyes pleading in a way that he couldn’t reject, “Please....”

“Yeah,” Rosie clapped her hands, jumping up a little, “Tell us another story daddy! Please! Henry wants to hear one too!”

“Does he now?” Keanu raised his eyebrows, amusement softening to adoration when Taylor started playing with Henry’s fingers, “I guess we can do another story. It is Friday,” he chewed on his lip for a minute and then his face lit up again, “Tell you what; we can have another story, if mommy helps me tell it.”

In the doorway, Y/n folded her arms, giggling and they all started up at her, the girls with anticipation in their eyes, “I guess that can be arranged,” she obliged, stepping further into the room. Taylor crawled out from her father’s side and when Y/n was sat next to him, she shifted into the space between Y/n’s legs. Feeling a little left out, Rosie hopped onto Keanu's free thigh, curling against him, giggling when Henry tried to get on top of her. “What story are we telling?”

“The one about how you met! Nana says it's really romantic!” Rosie sang and Taylor offered her own excited noise of agreement.

“Okay,” Keanu agreed and then he began, “Well, it was thirty-nine years ago and-”

“Thirty-nine years!” Taylor exclaimed, pressing her little hands to her opened mouth, “You guys are old!”

Chuckling quietly, Y/n lightly pressed her pointer to Taylor’s button nose, “Listen to the story monkey.”

“As I was saying,” Keanu laughed, “It was a long time ago, and I had just moved to a new place and my mom, your Nana, took me and your aunt to the park. We hadn’t lived there for very long, so I didn’t have any friends yet.” At that, the girls made a quiet coo of sympathy and not really caring about the whole thing, Henry started playing with the end of his sister’s hair. Smiling, Keanu continued, “I didn’t have any friends, but on that day, I met your mommy at the swings, she had come with her brother and sister.”

“Was she pretty?” Rosie interjected.

“She looked just like you two. So very, very pretty. And I didn’t know it yet, but she’d grow up to be the most beautiful woman I’d ever meet.”

The girls smiled and then Taylor turned to her, “Your turn mommy, did you think daddy was handsome?”

“I thought he was adorable. And a little weird,” she added at the end, “He never liked to cut his hair.”

“You said you liked it,” he scoffed defensively.

“I did! I do!” Y/n laughed, pecking him quickly on his lips, “Anyway,” she continued, “Your dad, came to play on the swing next to mine, and we played together for the entire evening. And as it turned out, he lived just down the street, a few houses away from where Gammy and Papa still do and after that day, he’d come over all the time, and we’d play together for hours.”

“Until it was past dark,” Keanu chimed in, stroking Henry’s hair, “Sometimes Gammy would even let me sleep over.”

“When did you know you loved her?” Rosie looked between them with hopeful eyes.

Smiling softly, Keanu turned to Y/n, meeting her eyes, seeing the same thing he always saw, that still, he could never grow tired of, the sparkle of love, staring right back at him, “I always loved her.” Laughing softly, Y/n blushed for a reason she couldn’t quite understand and Keanu draped his arm over her shoulders, “I just had to grow up to realize how much. And you know what?” he looked between their daughters, “She’s a saint for waiting for me.”

“Oh,” Y/n lightly slapped his thigh, “Your daddy was worth the wait, he’s worth everything. Just like you three,” she laughed and the children giggled when Y/n pulled them into a hug, with Keanu quickly joining in.

“Nana was right,” Rosie began after they finished the story, “It is romantic!”

“It is!” Keanu declared, handing Henry over to Y/n, “But it’s also way past bedtime.” After noises of protest and the ‘I’m not tired’ argument, Y/n and Keanu finally got all three of them into bed. When that was over, they resigned to their own room where Keanu fell face first into bed, patting Y/n’s usual spot next to him.

Smiling, she crawled up next to him, getting under the covers, turning on her side so she could caress his cheek, “You look beat,” her thumb glided over the apple of his cheek while the tips of her fingers brushed against his recently shortened hair; he had cut it for a part.

Keanu chortled quietly, “Well you look lovely as always.” Slowly, Keanu shifted until his face was inches from hers, drinking her in before he pressed a kiss to her lips, his hand skimming her side clad in a silk nightgown. One of her legs hooked over his and soon his hand was slipping under her nightie, groping her.

“I’m guessing you’re not that tired,” Y/n giggled against Keanu’s lips.

“I’m not,” he smiled before moving on to pay attention to the soft, warm skin at her neck. Eventually, with hurried hands, Keanu turned off the bedside lamp, right before he pushed Y/n’s nightgown over her head, tossing it to a place that could be the next day’s problem.

2019 She looked beautiful, she always did. Much like the same woman he married almost twenty years prior, though, by then little strands of grey had started to show up in her hair and there were the slightest hints of laugh lines on her face. It was like she was caught between youth and maturity, aging slowly and gracefully, like the finest of wines. Most of the world had started to consider her a beauty icon, marveling on how, after three children and fifty-four years on earth, Y/n could still mange to barely look her age. Keanu often found himself in awe of her too, and sometimes, it was hard to remember that they had been married for almost twenty years.

One of those times was the night of the premier of his latest action movie, an expected hit in the box office even before it’s release. Y/n strolled arm in arm with him along the carpet, donning gorgeous deep red dress that boasted a high slit on the right side. He couldn’t even blame the photographers for wanting her attention, she looked amazing. 

When they stopped, it was for him to be interviewed by a popular media outlet and the young woman looked as about excited as they both felt, “Hi! How are you feeling tonight? Hope you’re feeling as fabulous as you look,” she gestured to their outfits.

Keanu laughed quietly before; “Well I came with the most beautiful woman here, so I’m feeling pretty great.”

The interviewer laughed and Y/n swatted at his arm playfully, “You did, didn’t you? I must say, Y/n you look absolutely stunning and I’m sure our viewers will agree.”

“Thank you,” Y/n nodded, “But I’m just trying to keep up with all of this,” she gestured to Keanu, who bent his head, chuckling quietly.

The young woman laughed loudly and then continued with her questions, “So, I know tonight is about the movie, but I just have to ask; how do you make it work?”

Keanu’s brows knitted, “What do you mean?”

“Well, you two have been married for almost twenty years, and you’ve known each other for over fifty. It’s been a long time and you still seem every bit in love”

Keanu scoffed a laugh and suddenly the microphone was near Y/n’s face. Smiling, she easily handled they question, “You know, sometimes, its not always easy. We’ve been at each other’s throats a couple times,” Keanu nodded in agreement and they both reflected on a time that seemed so distant, when they thought that their marriage was over. “But when it gets like that, I try to remind myself that it’s us against the problem, that we want the same thing, it’s just that sometimes, we have different ways of getting it. But that doesn’t mean that one of us is wrong, or right, it just that means that we still care.”

“Yeah,” Keanu agreed, “It’s what Y/n said, and you know, I think if it starts feeling like work, like we have to make it work, then we’re doing something wrong. Because this isn’t a job and at the end of the day, all we want is what’s best for out kids, our marriage and each other.”

The interview went on for about another half hour, and for the briefest moment, they talked about their children with proud smiles and eventually, things steered back towards the topic of the movie. At the end of it, the woman offered them a couple more compliments and praises and finally, when it was over, Keanu looked down at Y/n, smiling as he asked; “Ready?”

In response, Y/n nodded eagerly, reaching up to give him a quick peck on the lips. With his arm secured around her waist, Keanu and Y/n continued down the carpet, occasionally stopping for pictures until they disappeared through the double doors, ready to spend the rest of the night, and the next fifty years and whatever came after, not only as an internationally adored couple, but also as two people who loved each other dearly.

[viggwigg]

Pretty Faces |   Prologue

Pairings: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: You are a rising makeup artist whose talent is quickly taking off.  When one of your closest friends happens to be a big-shot director, you get the gig of a lifetime working next to him and his crew. No one could ask for a better workspace when surrounded by people you already love. Just what happens when the biggest crush of your life walks onto the set, ready for his close up?

A/N: Yo I really really hope this doesn’t suck too much lol. I know this prologue will seem kinda slow but the Holland snack will appear soon, I swear 😉

--------

To say your job was easy would be a lie. Sure, many would kill to have your job. You got to spend time with some of the best media influencers of your time. Of course that was an honor. Not to mention that you get to do what you love for a living, a luxury not everyone could enjoy.

But what they don’t tell you about the glories of being a makeup artist were the long hours and competitive field. Sadly you weren’t the only one pursuing dreams in the sunny city of Los Angeles. Finding a set or individual job proved harder than you had initially thought while practicing to join the industry. 

However, you did have an unfair advantage over the other candidates in the area. It turned out that “practice, practice, practice” was the best cheesy advice you had ever been given. With skills a cut above the rest, the countless hours you poured into a single person's face caught the eyes of not just one employer.

The most notable success of yours is when you had done the hair and makeup for an Instagram model getting married. You were proud to say that she strolled down the aisle looking like a glam princess, as she should. You made sure the makeup accentuated her best features, and that her hair framed her face perfectly.

And with the vast guests at her wedding came the big shot icons, invited for a pretty picture. Impressed photographers sneaked inquiries about the bride’s makeup artist throughout the celebration.

Luckily for you, she was a kind soul and gave you credit as well as praise on her most special day. From then on your business would take off and dinner could afford to be something other than a cup-o-noodle. 

Now, although still finding a groove in the industry, you had made a name for yourself as well. You became a shiny coin in the pocket of many directors as you were swept up into various movies and show productions. 

It’s just a coincidence that your all-time favorite superhero would be a prominent cast figure at your next gig. 

...Or was it fate?

---------

A/N: Lamest ending ever ik. Makes me barf just reading it but I can’t think of anything else. Sue me 😜

[capturedpb-blog]

Affordable Photobooth Rental

[princessgracekelly1956]

Philadelphia Daily News, 29 May 1981 

By Larry Fields

Gracing the wedding

The first team was there last night when they married 54-year-old former City Councilman Jack Kelly off at the swank Wharton Sinkler Estate in Wynd-moor. There was his sister. Princess Grace of Monaco; her husband. Prince Rainier and two of their Serene Highnesses' three children Princess Caroline and Prince Albert, who graduates Sunday from Amherst College in Massachusetts. Princess Stephanie, who just turned 16, remained at home. 'Someone had to stay behind and protect the throne in case the new French Socialist government decides to go crazy and take over the smaller-than-Fairmount Park principality that Rainier and Grace rule, courtesy of the benevolent former French government. 

There were four of the groom's six children from his former marriage. There was Eagles' owner Leonard Tose and his wife, Caroline; former Secretary of the Treasury William Simon; Mayor William Green and his wife, Pat; City Representative Dick Doran; Rolls-Royce dealer Marty Keenan and his gorgeous wife, Joanne; champion skier Suzy "Chapstick" Chaffee a doll Kell used to date; John Lehman, U.S. secretary of the Navy and Kell's cousin; and of course, Stanley Green and his wife, Agnes - because what party would be complete without them? 

OH, YES, THERE WAS ALSO THE BRIDE - Sandra Lee Worley, 34 years old and a vision in white for her first time at the altar. The wedding was performed officially by Common Pleas Court Judge James J. McDermott, a candidate for justice of the Supreme Court. McDermott, who officiated in his usual magnificent manner, was perfect for the part he's sent many a man to his doom. 

Although it must be acknowledged that life with Sandi Worley can only be considered a delight and the groom was convicted of nothing more than good taste.

McDermott, a widower - and this columnist's candidate for any office he seeks, including emperor of the United States - did not seem too lonely for lovely female companionship himself. His date at the affair was a wonderful-looking woman named Deirdre Mecke, a divorcee whose former brother-in-law was Theodore H. Mecke Jr., a Philadelphia native who served as a vice president of the Ford Motor Co. before his death. 

Prince Albert, heir to the Monaco throne, was handsome and charming and one of the few men at the wedding not wearing a tuxedo. 

"I hope you'll be getting married soon," I said to Albert, who recently was linked romantically to TV actress Kathy Lee Crosby. 

"Why do you say that?" he asked me. 

"I love your country," I explained. "But it's too expensive for me. The only way I’ll be able to visit it again is if you get married and my paper pays for me to go to Monaco and report on the event" 

"Well" he said. “I would not plan on visiting Monaco then for at least three years - minimum, I’m not planning to marry soon." 

PRINCE ALBERT SAID that after his Sunday graduation from Amherst he intended to spend a few days in New York, then some time in Paris, and then in Monaco. "Marriage for me is quite a long way off," he said. 

His older sister, Princess Caroline, wearing a short black dress, cut low enough to almost see Heaven, did not appear to be recuperating too well from her recent divorce from Parisian playboy Philippe Junot She was there at the wedding, but the expression on her pretty face was sad and sullen. She resembled, slightly, a spoiled doll from Bustleton who was trying to get over a broken heart. 

Her dad. Prince Rainier, just seemed bored. He was there at the wedding, it seemed, because his wife dragged him there. It appeared that he was in the United States to attend the graduation ceremonies for his son and there just was no way to avoid mingling with his in-laws. 

Basking in the spotlight was nothing new to the groom, of course, and he as usual was cordial and friendly to the pushy press and photographers. The bride was another story. She seemed genuinely upset by an the commotion. 

BUT SHE LOOKED lovely dressed in virginal white, wearing a veil, and seemingly proud to be the second Mrs. John B. Kelly. Jr. 

The bride, who had announced that her parents would be at the wedding, caused a minor stir when they did not appear and she was “given away" by the groom's brother-in-law, Donald LeVine, a horse trainer. 

Pleasant Colony - winner of this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness - should look so good. 

Princess Grace, no stranger to public and press attention, seemed to be the most composed at the affair. After Judge McDermott pronounced Jack and Sandra "husband and wife," she directed the line of traffic waiting to wish them well. 

"You're in the wrong line," she snapped at me. 

"It's the story of my life, your Serene Highness," I admitted. "Please don’t have my head cut off." 

HER SERENE HIGHNESS did not seem amused. 

Because I do not discuss my wife Andrea, I will state that the prettiest lady present, in my opinion, was Caroline Tose, a vision in gold and diamonds and emeralds. 

Mrs. Tose was not too kind to me. 

"You," she said, "are a louse. Where is Andrea?" I have written in the past that Leonard had given Caroline a $1 ring from Woolworth at their wedding a few months ago. Now she waved a wedding ring in front of me made up of the Eagles colors green and white. Three separate rings, one of emeralds surrounded by two strands of diamonds. "I want to show Andrea this because I know how much she likes emeralds and diamonds," Caroline said

"I want to show her this and ask her what kind of dum-dum she married that didn't buy her a ring like this," Caroline said. 

"SHE MARRIED A DUM DUM who cant afford doo-dads like you've got on your finger," I told Caroline. "But" I made up for it - sort of. I bought her Saudi Arabia."

Jack Kelly and Sandra Worley got married last night. It was a lovely wedding, and I must confess that I didn't notice the bride's ring because scotch got in my eyes. I only hope that they are as happy as Andrea and I - and Leonard and Caroline Tose. 

What do they say about misery loving company?

Click! Paparazzi Put Philadelphia on the Map

By FRANK DOUGHERTY 

You cannot have a social event without some social outcasts. And the social outcasts roles last night at the wedding of Philadelphia man-about-town Jack Kelly were filled by the paparazzi. 

In New York or Los Angeles, it would have been just another media event. But Philadelphia last night got into the Big Leagues with a visit from Europe's legendary and colorful media photographers.

THE PHILADELPHIA PRESS photographers covering the wedding last night were augmented with teams of lensmen from France, Germany and the United Kingdom, along with a couple of European free-lancers who operate out of New York. 

A photographic session was arranged after last night's nuptials by bridegroom Kelly and his top security chief, a guy named Mike Carroll, who said he used to be a Philadelphia cop. 

Carroll's real job began when the photographers were admitted to the grounds of the Wharton Sinkler Estate in Wyndmoor, about 15 minutes after Kelly and his bride, Sandra Worley, tied the knot. 

The Kelly family posed in the foyer of the gorgeous English Tudor mansion while photographers stood in the rain atop a cobblestone driveway and made their photographs as guests watched the show from the 100-year-old hand-leaded windows on the second floor. 

AS SOON AS KELLY and his wife appeared, strobe lights began going off like shore batteries and the pushing and shoving quickly followed. 

Carroll kept control until Princess Grace arrived in the foyer to pose with brother Jack. The photographers, festooned in Nikons and looking like a pack of lemmings about to plunge over a Norwegian cliff, immediately surged ahead. 

"The rain is good for your complexion," Her Serene Highness told the photographers. "It will make your complexions beautiful." 

At this point, Prince Rainier appeared in the foyer. And the photographers, with the Frenchmen in the lead, all pressed forward. 

The French and American photographers began calling each other names as two United Kingdom free lancers had taken positions standing atop potted chrysanthemums. 

The press crowd broke up as the Kelly family ducked out of the foyer back into the reception area. The photographers packed their gear and left - leaving behind small mounds of empty film boxes and canisters, a few broken umbrellas and six destroyed potted chrysanthemums.

[affairesasuivre]

People Helping People / No Age (Drag City, 2022)

No Age’s breakthrough release, Weirdo Rippers, came out 15 years ago, when Billie Eilish was five years old and people could still afford to live in Los Angeles. The compilation of early lo-fi singles shifted guitarist Randy Randall and drummer-singer Dean Spunt into indie rock’s low-watt spotlight; stories tended to focus on their deep involvement in L.A. performance art venue and community space The Smell, a hub for the city’s burgeoning bohemia. The Smell is still kicking. And so are No Age, thankfully, even though their hazy, propulsive, and blissful skate-punk hasn’t changed substantially since 2007.

Between 2008’s universally acclaimed Nouns and 2020’s Goons Be Gone, Randall and Spunt have remained committed to their foundational sound—wielding whirls of guitar effects to smear three- or four-chord punk songs—but tend to differentiate each release through mixing and tweaking. They’ll lower the levels of distortion or accentuate Spunt’s slurred, slacker vocals; they’ll cut out the drums, or anything resembling a song, entirely; they’ll thrash away or chill out. But on People Helping People, No Age’s sixth album, Randall and Spunt break from their template with music that’s more abstract and eccentric. For the first time since their early releases, they’re playing with a renewed sense of possibility.

Of all No Age’s LPs, People Helping People has the most in common with the jagged arrangements of 2013’s An Object. Yet that album was still primarily song-based, whereas People Helping People emphasizes sound and texture. It’s bookended by two ambient pieces, and the first track resembling classic No Age—the squelchy, nervy, and unexpectedly poignant “Plastic (You Want It)”—doesn’t arrive until nearly a third of the way in. Seven of the 13 cuts have no vocals; five have no drums. The most straightforward songs are an unusual hybrid of IDM and post-punk. No Age draw lots of comparisons to Hüsker Dü, but People Helping People is more like Mouse on Mars trying to make The Flowers of Romance.

The kitchen-sink sound design is likely a byproduct of the recording process. People Helping People is the first No Age album created without an outside producer, in their own studio in Randall’s garage. Some songs feel like experiments with new tools. A motorik-paced synth-drum beat is the sole backing on “Compact Flashes,” with clipped guitar scrapes and drum hits entering at random. “Interdependence” is a phased-out passage of psychedelic guitar shredding that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Six Organs of Admittance LP. The ceremonial and downright dreamy “Blueberry Barefoot,” backed by orchestral synth chords, could be a Disintegration demo, a punk church wedding, or hold music for androids.

Spanning just over half an hour, People Helping People requires a few listens before its logic begins to click, but eventually the fractured music overlaps with their catalog, even suggesting new directions for their work to come. No Age’s music always felt like it was equally at home in a gallery or a basement show, but now they seem to be inching further toward the art world. That holds true for Spunt’s lyrics, which are still too cryptic to be sloganeering (“I don’t like the obvious, I made you my man,” he sings on the single “Tripped Out Before Scott”). The video for closing track “Andy Helping Andy,” directed by noted L.A. photographer and experimental filmmaker Kersti Jan Werdal, shares a similar sensibility, with a montage of found footage of Andy Warhol. None of these gestures are pretentious or off-putting. In fact, they’re in line with No Age’s persistent virtue: to inspire and energize through ambiguity and without resorting to cheap sentiment.