Three Sisters and Three Sisters at Three Sisters
When my stepdaughter asked if I would sew her grad dress, I was over the moon. Colour: red. Materials: tulle over satin. Style: similar to a white dress worn by Jennifer Lawrence, but with a small train, and pockets...
My stepdaughter has two biological sisters - one on her Dad's side (my daughter), the other on her Mom's side, and two sisters from different misters (her BFFs) with whom she has grown up with since elementary. They are members of what my husband and I call the "spare" kids because for over a decade they have had us cheering them on from the side of the soccer field, have shown up at meals unannounced, and have called us at 2am when they have missed the last bus and were too scared to call their own moms.
I made my stepdaughter's dress by making a fake version before cutting into the $30/m satin she chose. Once it was fitted, I hand-basted layers and layers of tulle over the bodice and decided that at grad she needed to be able to say, "Here, hold my cape..." if someone asked her to do something sketchy. One of the spare kids sewed her pastel pink satin dress (with pockets) with her Gramma's help. The other spare kid texted me in mid-May that she had found a forest-green dress that she loved and it was 2 sizes too big but it had pockets and if she bought it RIGHT NOW it was 20% off!!! I told her to go ahead, and I'd make it work for her.
Months were spent sewing, clipping, sizing, pinning, and (in general) freaking out about these dresses. As the date drew near and plans for our photo shoot started firming up, the assumption was always that we would just find a few picturesque spots in Canmore to shoot the dresses. But then, I was sitting at my computer reading drafts of an essay for a class a few weeks ago, and one paper mentioned the Three Sisters in Canmore. I thought, How Perfect... Which is how these two sets of pictures came to be:
Of course, no good deed goes unpunished - we were late leaving Edmonton, accidentally reserved (and paid for) two hotels, brought fruit that one kid was allergic to, and forgot things like hairbrushes and shoes...
But it really does take an entire village (or tribe, as my stepdaughter's Mom likes to say) to raise children. Enter my stepdaughter's Gramma C, who lives in Cochrane, but happened to be in Canmore shopping for pretty things to go in her planters while we were in Canmore. Not only did Gramma C bring snacks that wouldn't cause an anaphylactic reaction and hairbrushes do we could make the girls purty, but she went to a florist and grabbed some carnations and baby's breath to put in the girls' hair then rode along to help us find a meadow and the best vantage for shooting the three sisters from other misters and three bio-sisters with (of course) the Three Sisters in the background.
The bulk of the day was spent frolicking in the wilderness, me with camera in hand, my husband and Gramma C carrying umbrellas and extra shoes, the gaggle of girls with oysters at their feet accepting compliments and congratulations from hikers.
My stepdaughter has two biological sisters - one on her Dad's side (my daughter), the other on her Mom's side, and two sisters from different misters (her BFFs) with whom she has grown up with since elementary. They are members of what my husband and I call the "spare" kids because for over a decade they have had us cheering them on from the side of the soccer field, have shown up at meals unannounced, and have called us at 2am when they have missed the last bus and were too scared to call their own moms.
I made my stepdaughter's dress by making a fake version before cutting into the $30/m satin she chose. Once it was fitted, I hand-basted layers and layers of tulle over the bodice and decided that at grad she needed to be able to say, "Here, hold my cape..." if someone asked her to do something sketchy. One of the spare kids sewed her pastel pink satin dress (with pockets) with her Gramma's help. The other spare kid texted me in mid-May that she had found a forest-green dress that she loved and it was 2 sizes too big but it had pockets and if she bought it RIGHT NOW it was 20% off!!! I told her to go ahead, and I'd make it work for her. 
Months were spent sewing, clipping, sizing, pinning, and (in general) freaking out about these dresses. As the date drew near and plans for our photo shoot started firming up, the assumption was always that we would just find a few picturesque spots in Canmore to shoot the dresses. But then, I was sitting at my computer reading drafts of an essay for a class a few weeks ago, and one paper mentioned the Three Sisters in Canmore. I thought, How Perfect... Which is how these two sets of pictures came to be:
Of course, no good deed goes unpunished - we were late leaving Edmonton, accidentally reserved (and paid for) two hotels, brought fruit that one kid was allergic to, and forgot things like hairbrushes and shoes...
But it really does take an entire village (or tribe, as my stepdaughter's Mom likes to say) to raise children. Enter my stepdaughter's Gramma C, who lives in Cochrane, but happened to be in Canmore shopping for pretty things to go in her planters while we were in Canmore. Not only did Gramma C bring snacks that wouldn't cause an anaphylactic reaction and hairbrushes do we could make the girls purty, but she went to a florist and grabbed some carnations and baby's breath to put in the girls' hair then rode along to help us find a meadow and the best vantage for shooting the three sisters from other misters and three bio-sisters with (of course) the Three Sisters in the background.
The bulk of the day was spent frolicking in the wilderness, me with camera in hand, my husband and Gramma C carrying umbrellas and extra shoes, the gaggle of girls with oysters at their feet accepting compliments and congratulations from hikers.
Ellen Cantarow is credited with saying: “Making the decision to have a child – it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." A truer quote has never been written. Even if I did not give birth to 80% of them, these girls are everything (everything) to me. I am so excited to see what the future holds for them.
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