Adam and I were one of the couples in the middle of the whole Celebration Studios debacle. We were married a year and a half ago but never received our wedding photos. The photography studio went bust, and we’ve spent more than a year filing complaints with Consumer Affairs, talking to our photographer, and just trying to get our photos. With more than 3,000 couples affected, the case was in the media and made it all the way to the NJ Attorney General’s office.

At the beginning of the month the judge ordered the photos begin being distributed to couples by November 22nd. So yesterday we got our call and I drove up to the state building in Newark. There are just so many clients involved in this case. All the materials seized from Celebration Studios and the photographers are cataloged in one room, and they call people who have filed complaints to come in at a scheduled time and wait while someone searches for a box with your name on it. All the boxes are sealed as evidence, so they have no idea what’s in your box until they open it. I was lucky that the discs with my wedding photos were there, and I cried as soon as the lady helping me handed them over. It was all I could do not to tackle her with hugs. We never got to create an album or pick portraits to print, so now we get to start that process ourselves. But we have our wedding photos and can finally enjoy them.

So it was a good Thanksgiving, and we had a lot to be thankful for. This photo is our wedding cake. We didn’t do a traditional cake, instead we had a tower of cupcakes from our favorite bakery, Sugar Sweet Sunshine.